O happy band of pilgrims

O happy band of pilgrims. John Mason Neale* (1818-1866), based on a Greek text. First published in Neale’s Hymns of the Eastern Church (1862) as representative of the ‘Third Period’ of Greek hymnody (no dates given, but after 820). It was in a section ascribed to St Joseph of the Studium, but according to JJ (p. 606) this was an error. This hymn was entitled ‘The Pilgrims of Jesus’ and described as ‘merely a Cento from the Canon on SS. Chrysanthus and Daria (March 19.)’. In the Third Edition of Hymns of the Eastern Church (1866) Neale promised that this hymn and two others would be relegated to an appendix in future editions because they contained so little from the Greek (cf. ‘Art thou...