Hymn Story: They’ll Know We Are Christians

“They’ll Know We Are Christians” is a hymn written by Father Peter Scholtes in the 1960s for an Ecumenical event.

By the 1980s, Scholtes left the priesthood. He’d go on to become a business management consultant and author. He died in 2009.

The title of the song originates in a phrase that non-believers used to describe Christians believers of early Church: “Behold, how they love one another.”