How God Used Mice and a Water Leak to Give Us the Most Famous Christmas Carol of All Time – ‘Silent Night’

It’s one of the most identifiable songs of this or any modern Christmas. And, if it wasn’t for war, water, and mice, you’d likely never know it in the form it’s in.

It all began in 1816, a time of turmoil in Europe. The Napoleonic Wars had just ended, with Bonaparte himself being exiled to the distant Atlantic island of St. Helena. Any hope that Europe would return to normal was thwarted by an unusually dark summer, literally; as The Washington Post now points out, most blame the gloomy...