O Sacred Head, Now Wounded
Good Friday's hymn. The tune began its life as a secular love song.
The words
In church you’ll sing updated words from hymn 351 and 352. These are the older words, and most lines are the same.
O Sacred Head, now wounded, With grief and shame weighed down, Now scornfully surrounded With thorns, Thy only crown! O Sacred Head, what glory, What bliss, till now, was Thine! Yet, though despised and gory, I joy to call Thee mine.
How art Thou pale with anguish, With sore abuse and scorn! How does that visage languish, Which once was bright as morn! What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered, Was all for sinners' gain; Mine, mine was the transgression, But Thine the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Saviour! 'Tis I deserve Thy place! Look on me with Thy favor, Vouchsafe to me Thy grace. Receive me, my Redeemer; My Shepherd, make me Thine! Of every good the Fountain, Thou art the Spring of mine!
What language shall I borrow To thank Thee, dearest Friend, For this Thy dying sorrow, Thy pity without end! O make me Thine for ever, And should I fainting be, Lord, let me never, never, Outlive my love to Thee.
Be near when I am dying; O! show Thy Cross to me; Lord, on Thy help relying Come Thou and set me free; These eyes, new faith receiving, From Thee shall never move; For he who dies believing Dies safely in Thy love.
As printed in Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church (1917), no. 99. Public domain: free to print, copy and share.
Old words in this hymn
- Thee, Thou
- you (speaking to one person, often to God)
- Thy, Thine
- your, yours
- Hath, Hast
- has, have
- Art
- are, as in “Thou art”, you are
- ’Tis
- it is
- Lo
- look, see
- Vouchsafe
- to give, as a kindness
About this hymn
The text works its way up a body on a cross, and by the time it reaches the head it has stopped describing and started speaking directly to him.
The melody was a love song before it was this. Hassler wrote it about a girl. Within a few decades the church had taken it, slowed it down, and set it to the Passion, and Bach used it five times in the St Matthew Passion, dropping the pitch each time until it can barely stand.
Sing it slowly. It is one of the few hymns that genuinely gets worse when it is rushed.
For musicians and planners
| Words | Paul Gerhardt ('O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden'), from the Latin 'Salve caput cruentatum' attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux or Arnulf of Leuven, 1656 | Public domain |
|---|---|---|
| Translation | James Waddell Alexander (altered), 1830 | Public domain |
| Tune | HERZLICH TUT MICH VERLANGEN (PASSION CHORALE) · Hans Leo Hassler, 1601 | Public domain |
Checked 2026-09-27 against Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church (1917), no. 99, via hymnary.org page scan (p. 436) and transcription; cross-checked word for word against Church Book (General Council; 1890 printing), no. 176, hymnary.org transcription
Hymn numbers checked against Hymnary.org’s index of Evangelical Lutheran Worship. Full record: Hymnary.