Hymn for Vespers: St. Augustine of Canterbury

St. Gregory the Great and St. Augustine of Canterbury

Hymn for Vespers: St. Augustine of Canterbury

The following is a hymn to St Augustine which may have been composed in Winchester in the late tenth or early eleventh century, attributed to Wulfstan, precentor of Old Minster, Winchester (text and translation from Hymns of the Anglo-Saxon Church, ed. Inge B. Milfull (Cambridge, 1996), pp.320-1):

Caelestis aule nobiles

mundique recti principis

concorditer ferant deo

laudum trophea precluo,

qui maxima clementia

genus humanum tartara

terendo vite reddidit

&, ut hanc sciret, indidit.

Apostolos nam colligit,

Gregorius de quis venit,

qui filium dat Anglicis

Augustinum fanaticis,

non de carnali semine,

sed spiritali vimine,

emisit, ut Cristi decus

conferret acris plebibus.

Quod ut perægit omnibus

deo iuvante nisibus,

vocatur ex tholis poli,

ut colletetur angelis.

Hinc te precamur, artifex

opime rerum, supplices,

ut huius ore militis

tuis tuum des servulis.

Sit glorie nitor patri,

sit filio lux & iugis,

sit procedenti flamini

ab his venustas luminis.

I Let the nobles of the celestial court and of the true prince of the world offer unanimously praises in honor of his victory to the most glorious God,

II It who in surpassing mercy brought the human race back to life and taught it to know that life, when he crushed Hell.

III For he gathers apostles to himself. From these Gregory is descended, who gives his son Augustine to the idolatrous English;

IV He sent out his son, not by the seed of the flesh, but by spiritual growth, to bring the glory of Christ to fierce nations.

V As soon as he has carried that out with all effort and with the help of God, he is summoned from the vaults of heaven to share there the joy of the angels.

VI Therefore we suppliants pray to you, excellent maker of created things, to give your humble servants what is yours according to the speech of this your soldier.

VII Glory and splendor be to the Father and perpetual light be to the Son. Glowing beauty be to the Spirit that proceeds from them.