During the 19th century, an Episcopal priest at Trinity Church in New York City
enjoyed translating European hymns and carols into English. When an Austrian
carol, "Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!," caught his attention, "Silent Night" was
born and began its journey to become the world's best-loved Christmas carol.

John Freeman Young (1820-1885) translated many hymns into English but "Silent
Night" soared far beyond the Trinity Church choir repertoire. The English verses
are sung in great cathedrals in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and
the United States as well as tiny churches in South Africa, Sierra Leone, Guam,
and Jamaica. It may have begun its life as a carol in an Episcopal church but
today it's an integral part of the liturgical Christmas celebrations of
countless religious denominations.

Rev. Young became the Second Episcopal Bishop of Florida in 1867 but this was
not his first assignment in the state. In 1845 he was sent to his first post as
a deacon at St. John's Church in Jacksonville. The state was still a wilderness
and John Young was one of only two Episcopal churchmen in Florida at that time.
In January 1846, Deacon John Young traveled to Tallahassee where he was ordained
a priest at St. John's Episcopal Church.

During his time as Bishop of Florida, John Freeman Young did much of the work of
planting new Episcopal Florida missions himself. Traveling the length and
breadth of the state on horseback, in stagecoach and carts, by steamer and
sailboat and often on foot, he started missions wherever he found a few
Episcopal families. Today, you can still find "Carpenter Gothic" churches that
he founded. The wooden churches followed the plans of his friend Richard Upjohn,
the well-known architect who had designed New York's Trinity Church.

His biography "John Freeman Young – Second Bishop of Florida" was published in
1939 and is filled with tales of harrowing experiences as he traveled among the
wildcats, panthers, snakes, and alligators in the Florida wilderness.

During a visit to New York he was stricken with pneumonia and died in November
1885. The funeral service was held at St. John's, Jacksonville, the future
cathedral and he was laid to rest in the Old City Cemetery in that city. His
neighbors in the cemetery include Confederate soldiers, a Florida governor, and
Florida pioneers.

Bishop Young's grave monument, a huge granite cross, was blackened with a
century of grime and tilted forward when it was brought to public attention in
2002. His wife's white marble gravestone had fallen over and was half buried in
the earth. After seven years of coaxing, the Episcopal Diocese of Florida
finally paid to have the site restored in 2008. Every December, since 2002, a
Christmas wreath has been placed at the grave on behalf of Austria's Silent
Night Society.

John Freeman Young's name is barely known by residents of the city he loved; yet
millions throughout the English-speaking world sing his message of "heavenly
peace" on Christmas Eve.