Hymn #123: Mary, Woman of the Promise | First Congregational Church

Mary Frances Fleischaker (b. 1945) submitted this text, written in 1988, to a competition that was seeking new hymns about Mary, the mother of Jesus. The hymn reflects on the role of Mary in the Gospel stories and offers new and creative understandings of this woman of faith.

Mary Frances Fleischaker is a member of the Adrian Dominican order of the Roman Catholic Church. Her knowledge of “Marialogy” is reflected in this hymn. The text aids in understanding Mary’s significance even though she has not been venerated within Protestant traditions.

This German carol from the fourteenth century first appeared in print in Valentinum Triller’s Ein Schlesich Singebüchlein (1555). It was later used with other texts, including QUEN PASTORES LAUDAVERE, translated as “He Whom Shepherds Once Came Praising.”

The word “quem” in the tune’s name has an interesting history. It is a shortened form of “quempas,” which by the sixteenth century had come to mean Christmas carols. Martin Luther even participated in “quempas singen” (Christmas carol singing) with his Latin School students.