"Your Word is a lamp to my feet, and a light for my path." Psalm 119:105
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Words: John Henry Newman, 1833 (verses 1-3); Edward Henry Bickersteth, Jr., Hymnal Companion (verse 4).
Music: "Lux Benigna" (Kindly Light), John Bacchus Dykes, 1865
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While traveling in Italy as a young priest, John Newman fell ill and stayed at Castle Giovanni almost three weeks. Finally, he was well enough continue his journey to Palermo:
Before starting from my inn, I sat down on my bed and began to sob bitterly. My servant, who had acted as my nurse, asked what ailed me. I could only answer, "I have a work to do in England." I was aching to get home, yet for want of a vessel I was kept at Palermo for three weeks. I began to visit the churches, and they calmed my impatience, though I did not attend any services. At last I got off in an orange boat, bound for Marseilles. We were becalmed for whole week in the Straits of Bonifacio, and it was there that I wrote the lines, "Lead, Kindly Light," which have since become so well known.