Son of a Lu­ther­an pas­tor of Slo­vak de­scent, Vaj­da re­ceived mu­sic­al train­ing in child­hood. He be­gan trans­lat­ing class­ic­al Slo­vak po­etry at age eight­een, much of it cri­tic­al­ly ac­claimed and pub­lished in the U.S. and Eur­ope. How­ev­er, he did not write his first hymn un­til age 49. He went on to write au­thor 200 orig­in­al and trans­lat­ed hymns, which ap­peared world­wide in more than 65 hymn­als. He al­so pub­lished two col­lect­ions of hymn texts, num­er­ous books, trans­la­tions and ar­ti­cles, and served on hymn­al com­miss­ions for Hymn­al Supplement (1969) and Lu­ther­an Book of Wor­ship (1978). He is a Fel­low of The Hymn Society in the Unit­ed States and Ca­na­da, and re­ci­pi­ent of num­er­ous hon­or­ary doc­tor­ates rec­og­niz­ing hymn­ic con­tri­bu­tions. Af­ter 18 years in a most­ly bi­lin­gual min­is­try, he was called to ed­it This Day Magazine, then be­came book ed­it­or and de­vel­op­er at Con­cor­dia Pub­lish­ing House un­til his re­tire­ment in 1986.

Sources

Hymns

1. Go, My Child­ren, with My Bless­ing (1983)
2. God of the Spar­row, God of the Whale (1983)
3. Now the Si­lence
4. Up Through Endless Ranks of Angels (1973)

Translations

1. Come Rejoicing, Praises Voicing
2. Greet Now the Swiftly Changing Year (1968)
3. Make Songs of Joy (1976)
4. Rock-a-Bye, My Dear Little Boy
5. Your Heart, O God, Is Grieved