Alpha es et O
The strange story behind the beloved Christmas carol “In Dulci Jubilo”
It’s the darkest time of a very dark year. I write to you all from the safety of my house and the snugness of my little office, greeting each with the very best wishes of the season. I want to tell a discursive story about one of my favorite Christmas carols; one which includes Christian mysticism and apocrypha, self-mortification, the extraordinary difference between form and spirit, and the everlasting power of music. It begins at the end of the 13th Century.
Heinrich von Berg was born in Swabia, Germany, around 1295. Early on, he adopted his mother’s family name Süss (usually written as “Suso” or “Seuse”), which is German for “sweet.” Henry entered the Dominican cloister at the age of 13, and there began a life of self-imposed suffering. Believing himself to be party to the sin of simony — the buying and selling of ecclesiastical privileges — as well as possessing a “pampered, rebellious body,” Henry began devising methods of torturing himself.
It started simply enough. Henry denied himself the creature comforts of food, drink, and warmth, but these privations weren’t sufficient…
