author
John Brownlie
1857–1925
Best known for bringing early Greek and Latin hymns into graceful English verse, this Scottish minister helped older church song feel vivid and singable again. His work joined scholarship, devotion, and a pastor’s ear for language.
4 Audiobooks
Hymns from the East Being Centos and Suggestions from the Office Books of the Holy Eastern Church
by John Brownlie
Hymns of the Early Church being translations from the poetry of the Latin church, arranged in the order of the Christian year
by John Brownlie
Hymns of the Greek Church Translated with Introduction and Notes
by John Brownlie
About the author
Born in Glasgow in 1857, John Brownlie was a Scottish Presbyterian minister, hymn writer, and translator. Sources agree that he studied at the University of Glasgow and the Free Church College, and that he became especially known for translating early Christian hymns from Greek and Latin into English.
Brownlie served in ministry in Portpatrick, where he worked first as an assistant minister and later took full charge of the congregation. Alongside parish life, he built a reputation as a hymnologist whose translations opened up ancient church poetry for English-speaking worshippers.
He died in 1925. He is remembered less as a literary celebrity than as a careful and devoted interpreter of older sacred song, someone who helped preserve the feeling and beauty of early hymns for new generations.