Great hymn writer’s works are revived by Fermanagh doctor

Dr William Holmes, of St Macartin’s Cathedral, Enniskillen, used modern technology to interpret the text from poor quality photocopies of Lyte’s original book, ‘The Spirit of the Psalms’ as this book had been out of print for 150 years.

Henry Francis Lyte worshipped in the cathedral when it was St Anne’s Church while a pupil at Portora Royal School, Enniskillen in the early 1800s. He became an Anglican cleric in Devon.

Dr Holmes undertook an exhaustive internet search which uncovered some very poor-quality photocopies. He used the technology of optical character recognition (OCR) to generate electronic text. This then had to be carefully edited to ensure faithfulness to the original text. In time, he finally produced an electronic book running to 40,000 words.

Henry Francis Lyte wrote great hymns including ‘Abide with Me’. He penned many publications including poems and spiritual songs. One work was ‘The Spirit of the Psalms’, Lyte’s paraphrases of all 150 of the Psalms of David. He intended these to be used in worship, particularly in his Devon church.

Dr William Holmes said the book was produced as a tribute to a “truly mighty man of God”.