For over 65 years, Christmas with Wartburg has been a traditional celebration that provides a fitting opportunity for Wartburg, as a college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, to proclaim the Good News of Christ’s birth in word and song. Wondrous Love, Illumine our Hearts is a musical journey of traditional Christmas music intermixed with new compositions that explore themes of wonder, love and illumination found in the Christmas story. The theme was inspired by the Saint John's Bible, which was on display at Wartburg in 2014. Seven volumes in total, it is the first handwritten and illuminated Bible commissioned by a Benedictine abbey in more than 500 years. The four-concert series of Christmas with Wartburg includes on- and off-campus performances attended by nearly 7,000 people each year. The program features the talents of the Wartburg Choir, Castle Singers, and Wind Ensemble, Ritterchor, St. Elizabeth Chorale, Kantorei, and Handbell Choir.