Praise to the Holiest in the height

Praise to the Holiest in the height. John Henry Newman* (1801-1890). From ‘The Dream of Gerontius’, written in January and February 1865. It was first published in two issues of a new Roman Catholic periodical, The Month (May and June 1865), and separately in October 1865. The poem beginning ‘Praise to the Holiest in the height’ is sung by ‘the Fifth Choir of Angelicals’ in Part II as the soul of Gerontius (‘old man’) crosses the threshold of death into Purgatory. ‘The Dream of Gerontius’ was then published in Newman’s Verses on Various Occasions (1868). ‘Praise to the Holiest in the height’ first appeared as a hymn in the same year in the Appendix to the First Edition of A&M, with...