In the older breviaries the Fifth Sunday of Lent
was Passion Sunday or First Passion Sunday. A practical result of this was that
the Church spent this week singing the great Passion hymns of Holy Week before
Holy Week. The Liturgica Horarum does not continue this tradition. But those who are not canonically bound to saying
the current office might want to begin using the Passion hymns this coming
Sunday. These are so rich in theological insight, so beautiful, and also in
some ways rather difficult in Latin. It is good to get a head start on them and
also to have two rather than one week to spend in the company of these powerful
hymns.
W
= A.S. Walpole, Early Latin Hymns
C
= Joseph Connelly, Hymns of the Roman
Liturgy
WH
= Peter G. Walsh and Christopher Husch, One
Hundred Latin Hymns
M
= Inge B. Milfull, The Hymns of the
Anglo-Saxon Church
Hymns of Holy Week:
Vespers
Ad Vesperas I & II:
Fortunatus
Both this
hymn and the hymn for the Officium lectionis, Pange, lingua, gloriósi, were written to mark the arrival in Poitiers
of a relic of the true cross from Constantinople. The Thuringian princess and
Frankish queen, who founded the Abbey of the Holy Cross at Poitiers, Radegundis, had received the relic from the Emperor Justin II and Fortunatus was
asked to compose an ode to celebrate the arrival of the relic. Stanzas 1, 3,
5-6, & 8 of the original are used at Vespers during Holy Week. Cf. M for a different selection of stanzas and
arrangement.
Vexílla
regis pródeunt, (1)
fulget
crucis mystérium,
quo
carne carnis cónditor (2)
suspénsus
est patíbulo; (3)
Quo,
vulnerátus ínsuper (4)
mucróne
diro lánceæ, (5)
ut
nos laváret crímine, (6)
manávit
unda et sánguine.
Arbor
decóra et fúlgida, (7)
ornáta
regis púrpura, (8)
elécta
digno stípite
tam
sancta membra tángere!
Beáta,
cuius brácchiis (9)
sæcli
pepéndit prétium; (10)
statéra
facta est córporis (11)
prædam
tulítque tártari. (12)
Salve,
ara, salve, víctima,
de
passiónis glória,
qua
Vita mortem pértulit
et
morte vitam réddidit!
O
crux, ave, spes única! (13)
hoc
passiónis témpore
piis
adáuge grátiam
reísque
dele crímina.
Te,
fons salútis, Trínitas, (14)
colláudet
omnis spíritus;
quos
per crucis mystérium
salvas,
fove per sæcula. Amen.
1. W & WH: vexilla = the military standards of the Roman army, which are
seen accompanying the relic;
pródeunt/fulget: the procession advances with the relic in a shining
reliquary, shining physically and spiritually; 2. “virtue of the flesh the Creator of flesh,
i.e., by virtue of the Incarnation the Creator can be hung on the Cross. 3. C:
patíbulo = literally a ‘yoke’ used here for the Cross; W: a yoke shaped
somewhat like the letter ‘Y’ placed on the back of criminals, to the arms of
which their arms were tied to carry it to the place of execution; 4. W & C: quo = ‘whereon’ and refers to patíbulo; 5. mucróne
= sharp point; 6. W: ‘to cleanse us from guilt He shed forth water and
blood’-John 19:34: sed unus militum
lancea latus ejus aperuit, et continuo exivit sanguis et aqua; 7. W: ‘The
Creator grieving at the harm wrought to (or ' by ') the first man, when by the
bite of the fatal apple he fell in death. Himself even then marked a tree, in
order to undo the damage caused by a tree.' “A legend, … told how that the cross came from
the tree in the Garden of Eden, a shoot of which was brought out by Adam and
planted by Seth. The tree which grew from this was destroyed in the deluge, but
a twig of it was saved by Noah”; 8. WH: “the purple of the king is the blood of
Christ”; W: The purple is that of the blood which consecrated the tree as a
throne ; It is not of the purple hangings of the processional cross (as Kayser
suggests) that the poet is thinking” ; Cf. Paulinus of Nola: Poem 27: 89: “He renews
all things under the guidance of the Word, who mounting aloft from the
gleaming cross with the purple
of His precious blood reached the heights’; 9. W: ' O blessed tree, on whose arms
hung the ransom of the world ! It was
made a balance for His body and bore away the prey of hell.' 10. WH: “the
Crucifixion as the ransom paid for freeing the world from sin”; 11. C: statéra facta est córporis: “The Cross
was the scales on which the weight of human sin was counterbalanced by the
weight of Christ’s body on the other side, i.e. the Passion of Christ restored
the balance between God and man”; 12. Tártari:
W: “Fortunatus
freely uses the
nomenclature of classical mythology’; 13. This stanza was added in the 10th
Century and then revised in the Liturgica Horarum. 14. Doxology: novus
The banners of the King advance, the mystery of
the Cross shines forth, wherein the Creator of flesh in the flesh is suspended
from the gibbet. Where, also wounded he hangs
pierced by the harsh spear, that he might wash us from sin by the flow of water and his
blood. O beautiful and glimmering tree adorned with the purple of the King,
tree trunk worthily chosen to bear such holy limbs. Blessed tree from whose
branches hung the price of the world; His body weighed upon the scale took away
the booty of hell. Hail, O altar, hail, O sacrifice, from the glory of the
passion, by which life is carried away from death and by death returned us to
life. O Cross, hail, our only hope, in this Passiontide, grant to us holy
grace and wash away sins of the guilty.
You, O Trinity, source of salvation, may every spirit praise, whom
through the mystery of the Cross, may you save and cherish through the ages.
Amen.
Holy Week: ad
Officium lectionis: Fortunatus: notanda
The meter, trochaic tetrameter, was used for by
the Roman legions celebrating triumphs in Rome.
' The hymn very early came into extensive use and
is found in most mediaeval Breviaries and Missals. In the older Roman (Venice
1478), Paris of 1643, Sarum, York, Aberdeen, and other Breviaries, it is
appointed for use from Passion Sunday to Maundy Thursday’ (Julian, A Dictionary
of Hymnology: reflecting earlier use).
In the Liturgica Horarum stanzas 1-4 and 6 are used at the Office of
Readings from Sunday to Friday in Holy
Week; stanzas 7-10 at Lauds during the same period.
Pange,
lingua, gloriósi (1)
prœlium
certáminis, (2)
et
super crucis tropæo
dic
triúmphum nóbilem,
quáliter
redémptor orbis (3)
immolátus
vícerit. (4)
De
paréntis protoplásti
fraude
factor cóndolens, (5)
quando
pomi noxiális
morte
morsu córruit,
ipse
lignum tunc notávit,
damna
ligni ut sólveret.
Hoc
opus nostræ salútis (6)
ordo
depopóscerat, (7)
multifórmis
perditóris
arte
ut artem fálleret, (8)
et
medélam ferret inde, (9)
hostis
unde læserat.
Quando
venit ergo sacri
plenitúdo
témporis, (10)
missus
est ab arce Patris
Natus,
orbis cónditor,
atque
ventre virgináli
carne
factus pródiit.
Lustra
sex qui iam perácta (11)
tempus
implens córporis, (12)
se
volénte, natus ad hoc,
passióni
déditus,
agnus
in crucis levátur
immolándus
stípite. (13)
Æqua
Patri Filióque,
ínclito
Paráclito,
sempitérna
sit beátæ
Trinitáti
glória,
cuius
alma nos redémit
atque
servat grátia. Amen.
W
= A.S. Walpole, Early Latin Hymns
C
= Joseph Connelly, Hymns of the Roman Liturgy
WH
= Peter G. Walsh and Christopher Husch, One Hundred Latin Hymns
M
= Inge B. Milfull, The Hymns of the Anglo-Saxon Church
1. C: Pange:
tell, relate, sing; 2. W,C: commenting on the Urban VIII text substituting laurem certaminis for proelium certaminis: the poet was
thinking of the struggle, not its result; W: quotes John Mason Neale: ‘it is
not to the glory of the termination of our Lord’s conflict with the devil that
the pet would have us look but to the glory of the struggle itself.” 3. Super = de, ‘about’ with the ablative tropæo; 3. C: quáliter = ‘how, in what way’; W: ‘one
of Fortunatus’s favorite words; 4. W: immolátus vícerit: ‘placed side by side
form a sharp contrast. The victim was the conqueror’; WH: cite Augustine,
Confessions 10: 43-69: ideo victor quia
victim; also WH: protoplásti fraude:
the reference is to Satan’s hoodwinking of [the first formed] Adam; m 6. W: hoc opus: the
reparation by means of the cross of the bane wrought by the tree of
knowledge; 7. ordo = plan; depopóscerat
= had demanded in the everlasting counsel of the Father; 8. Arte
= craft: ‘that by craft He might foil the craft of the many-shaped destroyer.'
Satan appeared to Eve as a serpent, and ' fashioneth himself into an angel of
light,' 2 Cor. xi. 14: ipse enim Satanas
transfigurat se in angelum lucis; 9. inde…unde:
C: cf. Preface of the Cross: ut unde
mors oriebatur, inde resurgeret; et qui in lingo vincebat, in lingo quoque
vinceretur; 10. plenitúdo témporis: Galatian
4.4; Ephesians 1.10; 11. W: ‘when thirty years were now accomplished’; 12. W: tempus corpus = ‘his life on earth’; 13.
W: the altar being the Cross, where the Lamb is offered.
Sing, O tongue, of the glorious battle strife, and
tell of the noble triumph upon the trophy of the Cross, how the Redeemer of the
world was sacrificed and conquered. Because of our first parent’s deceit the
Creator mourned, when Adam bit that
baneful apple and fell to death, then he chose the wood that would restore the
wood’s harm. The plan of our salvation demanded this work that by craftiness
the craftiness of the multiform destroyer be stopped and to healing from where
the enemy had struck. When therefore the
fullness of sacred time had come, the Son, the Creator of the world, was sent from the Father’s fortress and from
a virginal womb he, made flesh, went forth. When he had completed thirty years,
finishing the time of his body, by his own will, born for this, given to the
passion, the Lamb raised up and sacrificed on the tree of the cross. Equal and
eternal glory to the Father and the Son, the glorious Paraclete , to the
blessed Trinity, whose nourishing grace redeems and preserves us. Amen.
Holy Week: Ad Laudes
matutinas: Fortunatus
En
acétum, fel, arúndo, (1)
sputa,
clavi, láncea;
mite
corpus perforátur,
sanguis,
unda prófluit; (2)
terra,
pontus, astra, mundus (3)
quo
lavántur flúmine!
Crux
fidélis, inter omnes (4)
arbor
una nóbilis!
Nulla
talem silva profert (5)
flore,
fronde, gérmine.
Dulce
lignum, dulci clavo
dulce
pondus sústinens!
Flecte
ramos, arbor alta, (6)
tensa
laxa víscera,
et
rigor lentéscat ille
quem
dedit natívitas,
ut
supérni membra regis
miti
tendas stípite.
Sola
digna tu fuísti
ferre
sæcli prétium, (7)
atque
portum præparáre (8)
nauta
mundo náufrago, (9)
quem
sacer cruor perúnxit
fusus
Agni córpore.
Æqua
Patri Filióque,
ínclito
Paráclito,
sempitérna
sit beátæ
Trinitáti
glória,
cuius
alma nos redémit
atque
servat grátia. Amen.
1.WH: ‘the catalogue of
indignities’ is assembled from Matt:
27.30, arúndo; Matt: 27:34, fel; Matt: 27.48, acetum; and John 19:34: láncea;
John 19:34: clavi; 2. W: sanguis, unda: In this Fortunatus is thinking of the consecration of baptism by
the cross; 3. W: terra, pontus, astra: the
threefold division of the universe; mundus:
' the universe ' ; the whole, of which the three preceding words are the
component parts ; all things, whether with or without life, ar included, as by
St Paul, Col. 1. 20; 4. W: fidelis:
'faithful,' in that this tree did its duty, accomplished what was
expected of it. Or it may mean that it was faithful as opposed to the tree of
knowledge in Eden, which was treacherous; WH: perhaps also implying “on which
our faith depends”; 5. W:nulla silva: i.e.
no ordinary forest : this tree came from Paradise; The thought works backwards from
blossom to leaf and from leaf to bud ; and the fruit comes in the next line (pondus); 6. W: flecte ramos: 'bend,' that the ascent may be the easier; WH: ‘the
personification of the cross reaches its noble climax; 7. W: pretilum saeculi: the ransom of the world ' was the death of Christ
; here by an easy transition it is applied to the body which suffered death; 8.
WH: portum praepare: ‘to pave the way
for the harbor of heaven, which the shipwrecked world attains through Christ’s
death on the cross. 9. W: nauta: the
cross itself floating over the waves of this troublesome world The metaphor is
mixed, but Fortunatus is given to combining incongruous notions, of set purpose;
WH: the sailor in the barque of the Church under the mast that is the cross.
Behold the vinegar, the gall, the reed, the spit,
the nails, and the lance; his tender body pierced through, blood, water flow.
Earth, sea, stars and the world washed clean by this river. Faithful Cross,
only noble tree above all others, such as no other forest produces, in fruit,
leaf or seed; sweet the wood, sweet the nails, sweet the weight it holds. Bend your branches, lofty tree, relax your
inward tension, may your hardness become soft, which nature gives, that your
gentle trunk may bear the limbs of the King of heaven. You alone were worthy to
bear the ransom of the world and provide a safe port for the sailor in a
shipwrecked world, you whom the sacred blood anointed, poured forth from the
body of the Lamb. Equal and eternal
glory to the Father and the Son, the glorious Paraclete , to the blessed
Trinity, whose nourishing grace redeems and preserves us. Amen.
Ad Horam mediam: saec. X
Celsæ
salútis gáudia
mundus
fidélis iúbilet:
Iesus,
redémptor ómnium,
mortis
perémit príncipem.
Palmæ
et olívæ súrculos
cœtus
viándo déferens,
«Hosánna
David fílio»
claris
frequéntat vócibus.
Nos
ergo summo príncipi
currámus
omnes óbviam;
melos
canéntes glóriæ,
palmas
gerámus gáudii.
Cursúsque
nostros lúbricos
donis
beátis súblevet,
grates
ut omni témpore
ipsi
ferámus débitas.
Deo
Patri sit glória
eiúsque
soli Fílio
cum
Spíritu Paráclito
in
sempitérna sæcula. Amen.
Let the faithful of the world sing the joys of
heavenly salvation; Jesus, the redeemer of all, has overcome the prince of death.
The crowd on the road carrying palms and olive branches repeat with loud
voices: “Hosanna to the Son of David.” Let us all therefore run to meet the
highest King, singing sweet songs of glory, bearing palms of gladness. May he
with gifts of grace keep us from straying on dangerous paths, that we may give
him due thanks at all times. Glory to God the Father and to us only Son with
the Spirit Paraclete for eternal ages. Amen.
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