Sanctus

Hymn of praise, music by John Richards (Isalaw), words by Owen Griffith Owen (Alafon), arrangement Martin Hodson MBE.

John Richards (Isalaw) 1843-1901

Richards was born in Bangor in 1843. As a young man he set up Bangor’s first music class with a friend Thomas Williams, teaching people to sing using sol-fa notation. His hymns were popular and some are still sung in services and performed in concerts. Sanctus is probably his best known hymn tune. Isalaw is Welsh for “bass” (as in the music voice type, not the fish). He is buried at Glanadda Cemetery, Bangor. Maes Isalaw, a street near his former home, was named in his honour.

Owen Griffith Owen (Alafon) 1847-1916

Owen was born in Nov 1847 in Pant Glas, Eifionydd. I haven’t been able to find out where this is but there is a Pant Glas between Criccieth and Caernarfon so maybe it’s there.

When he was about 12 he started work in quarries, meanwhile writing verse from a young age, as did two of his brothers who became known as bards Llifon and Taliesin.

At the age of 29 he entered the Calvinistic Methodist ministry and went to Ysgoldy in the Lledr valley near Dolwyddelan, Caernarfonshire where he stayed all his life. He loved the countryside and was kind and sincere and well liked. He won chairs at local eisteddfodau and was twice runner-up at the National Eisteddfod. His englynion (short poems in traditional form) are also highly regarded. Owen’s best known hymn is Glan Geriwbiaid a Seraffiaid (Holy Cherubim and Seraphim) sung to Isalaw’s tune Sanctus. He died in 1916 and is buried at Brynrodyn, near Groeslon, Caernarfonshire.

Sources

Isalaw: https://historypoints.org/index.php?page=hymn-writer-isalaw-s-birthplace

Alafon: https://www.burg34.com/alafon.html
https://biography.wales/article/s-OWEN-GRI-1847

Translation source: https://www.angelfire.com/in/gillionhome/Worship/Emynau/glan.html (Richard B. Gillion)

Here is Isalaw’s arrangement sung by Burry Port Male Choir.

Cherubim and Seraphim

Cherub: An angelic creature of high rank having special duties, distinguished from the order of seraphs. The first of the 92 times they are mentioned in the Bible is at Genesis 3:24; after God drove Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden, cherubs (Heb., keru·vimʹ) were posted at the Entrance with a flaming blade of a sword “to guard the way to the tree of life.” Whether more than two were stationed there is not disclosed.

Seraph: Spirit creatures stationed about Jehovah’s throne in the heavens. 

Source: https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-Cherubim-and-Seraphim

Isaiah 6:1 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
6:2 Above it stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
6:3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.
6:4 And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
6:5 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
6:6 Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:
6:7 And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.
6:8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.