Bring a torch, Jeanette, Isabella
Bring a torch, come swiftly and run.
Christ is born, tell the folk of the village,
Jesus is sleeping in His cradle,
Ah, ah, beautiful is the mother,
Ah, ah, beautiful is her Son.
Hasten now, good folk of the village,
Hasten now, the Christ Child to see.
You will find Him asleep in a manger,
Quietly come and whisper softly,
Hush, hush, peacefully now He slumbers,
Hush, hush, peacefully now He sleeps.
(meant to post this last night, but here it is anyway.) Sufjan does a cover of this song, and while listening to it, I wondered who this Jeannette Isabella girl was - perhaps an obscure saint whom the songwriter imagines to be present at Jesus' birth? - so I thought I'd look into it. It is a French carol dating back to the Renaissance. Jeannette and Isabella are apparently two girls and are not of any notoriety. According to Robert Morgan (link below), the best guess is that this song references a fable in which a couple of milkmaids show up to milk the cows early in the morning after Jesus' birth and discover the Holy Family in the stable. The voice in the song urges them to run and tell the others in their village about the birth of Christ and bring a lantern so that everyone can see the baby Jesus.
At first, I don't think of this song as a theological heavyweight; its main theme is about the peaceful sleep of the baby Jesus, which is an overdone and sentimental theme. However, upon thinking about it more, I think this theme is more substantial than that. The angels tell the shepherds, "Peace on earth"; what more fitting way for that peace to be embodied than in the peaceful rest of the baby whose birth inaugurates this peace? Also this song emphasizes sharing the news with others as the right response to Christ's birth, reminding us that there is a missional dimension not just after Christ's death and resurrection but at the time of his birth as well.
George Le Tours was inspired by this song in his painting (above) of the nativity called "The Newborn" which features a young woman (is it Jeannette or Isabella?) holding a lantern up to cast a dramatic light upon Mary and Jesus. Very Caravaggio.
Robert Morgan has written a wonderful piece about this song at the Donelson Papers:
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