author

Ruth Ellis Messenger

1884–1964

A scholar of medieval hymnody, she spent decades teaching history at Hunter College before turning her deep knowledge into books and editorial work on church music. Her career joined careful academic research with a lasting love of hymns and their history.

2 Audiobooks

Christian Hymns of the First Three Centuries

Christian Hymns of the First Three Centuries

by Ruth Ellis Messenger

The Medieval Latin Hymn

The Medieval Latin Hymn

by Ruth Ellis Messenger

About the author

Born in New York City in 1884, Ruth Ellis Messenger studied at the Normal College of the City of New York, earned a master's degree from the University of Illinois, and later completed a Ph.D. at Columbia University. She began her career as an instructor at Hunter College High School and went on to teach history at Hunter College, eventually retiring in 1950 as a full professor.

Messenger is best remembered for her work on medieval hymns. After retiring from Hunter College, she taught hymnology at Union Theological Seminary in New York and published The Medieval Hymn in 1953, a work that helped establish her reputation as a historian of hymnody.

She also served as associate editor and then editor of The Hymn, the journal of the Hymn Society of America, continuing that work until her death in 1964. Her life linked the worlds of history, music, and religious scholarship in a way that still makes her an interesting figure for readers drawn to the background of hymn traditions.