He was an illegitimate child--his mother's third. A child who might have been a casualty of abortion in today's world, grew up to have a name that will forever be associated with the Christmas season.

Students of history remember that in 1792, King Louis XVI of France went on trial for treason before the Revolutionary Convention that had replaced the French National Assembly. His head would roll the following January. But on this day, December 11, 1792, a few days before Christmas--the same day, in fact, that the French king faced his cruel judges--a much quieter event took place. Joseph Mohr was born in Salzburg. 

At the time of his birth, it appeared his name would be associated with nothing but disgrace. When Franz Joseph Mohr learned he'd gotten Ann Schoiber pregnant, he fled the home and deserted the army, leaving the mother