It may be one of the most familiar songs of the Christmas season, and one you can\u2019t resist joining in to sing. Notably: it was written by an Episcopal deacon.<\/p>\n
About this hymn:\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWe Three Kings<\/b>\u201c, also known as \u201cWe Three Kings of Orient Are<\/b>\u201d or \u201cThe Quest of the Magi<\/b>\u201c, is a\u00a0Christmas carol\u00a0that was written by\u00a0John Henry Hopkins Jr.\u00a0in 1857. At the time of composing the carol, Hopkins served as the rector of\u00a0Christ Episcopal Church\u00a0in\u00a0Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and he wrote the carol for a\u00a0Christmas pageant\u00a0in\u00a0New York City. Many versions of this song have been composed and it remains a popular Christmas carol.<\/p>\n At the time he was writing \u201cWe Three Kings\u201d in 1857,\u00a0John Henry Hopkins Jr.\u00a0was serving as the rector of\u00a0Christ Episcopal Church\u00a0in\u00a0Williamsport, Pennsylvania.Although he originally worked as a\u00a0journalist\u00a0for a New York newspaper and studied to become a\u00a0lawyer,\u00a0he chose to join the\u00a0clergy\u00a0upon graduating from the\u00a0University of Vermont.\u00a0Hopkins studied at the\u00a0General Theological Seminary\u00a0in\u00a0New York City<\/a>\u00a0and after graduating and being ordained a\u00a0deacon<\/a>\u00a0in 1850, he became its first music teacher five years later, holding the post until 1857 alongside his ministry in the Episcopal Church.<\/sup><\/sup><\/p>\n During his final year of teaching at the seminary,<\/sup>Hopkins wrote \u201cWe Three Kings\u201d for a\u00a0Christmas pageant\u00a0held at the college.\u00a0<\/sup>It was extremely uncommon that Hopkins wrote both the lyrics and music; contemporary carol composers usually wrote either the lyrics or music but not both.\u00a0<\/sup><\/sup>Originally titled \u201cThree Kings of Orient\u201d, it was sung within his circle of family and friends. Because of the popularity it achieved among them, Hopkins decided to publish the carol in 1862\u00a0<\/sup>in his book\u00a0Carols, Hymns and Songs<\/i>.<\/sup>\u00a0It was the first Christmas carol originating from the\u00a0United States\u00a0to achieve widespread popularity,\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0as well as the first to be featured in\u00a0Christmas Carols Old and New<\/i>, a \u201cprestigious\u201d and \u201cinfluential\u201d\u00a0collection of carols that was published in the\u00a0United Kingdom.\u00a0In 1916, the carol was printed in the\u00a0hymnal for the Episcopal Church; that year\u2019s edition was the first to have a separate section for Christmas songs.\u00a0\u201cWe Three Kings\u201d was also included in the\u00a0Oxford Book of Carols<\/i>\u00a0published in 1928, which praised the song as \u201cone of the most successful of modern composed carols.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Here, it\u2019s performed by the choir at Kings College in Cambridge.<\/p>\n