Lord, make me an instrument of your peace (1994)

The well-known text of this short anthem has been persistently but erroneously attributed to St Francis of Assisi (c. 1182–1226). Its first verifiable appearance was in 1912, when an anonymous French version was printed in an obscure Catholic publication entitled La Clochette. One theory is that it subsequently featured alongside an unrelated article on St Francis in a French newspaper, the two subjects thus becoming conflated in the public mind and memory. 

My setting of a popular English translation of these words dates from October 1994, when it was privately commissioned for a baptism. The music lends itself to use as an introit or an anthem for Holy Communion; and, where necessary, to intimate performance by a fairly small ensemble.

Francis Pott, 2024