1. 1. Queant; cf. quit. Laxis
fibris; (1) with loosened tongue and throats—Zachary's lips and tongue were loosened
to praise God after John's birth; (2) suggesting a good, pleasant voice; (3)
connected in thought with the next lines, for God's praise is better sounding
if it comes from one who is pleasing to God. The hymn is said to have been
written in gratitude for its author having been cured of a throat malady, and
from early times St John has been honored as the patron of singers and invoked
in case of throat ailments. Famuli, the choir and, in general, the Church.
2. solve, loosen, i.e.
remove, cleanse; polluti; cf. pollutus labiis, Is. 6,5. The Romanized syllables
of this verse suggested to Guido of Arezzo the (continental) names of the notes
of the musical scale, as each half-line of the melody begins on the next
ascending note of the scale. The name of the seventh note, si, is sometimes
said to be formed from the initial letters of Sancte Joannes in the fourth
line; but the note itself is not used in the melody.
3. cf. Luke
1, 13—17.
4. ille,
i.e. Zachary.
8. parens
. . . uterque, i.e. Zachary, lines 9—12, and Elizabeth, lines 13—14; nati
refers to the genitus of line 11; hinc indicates what happened to the parents because
of their son John. Both Elizabeth and Zachary were filled with the holy Ghost
and then spoke the hidden things of God; Lk. 1, 41—45 and 67—69. The hymn keeps
close to the life of John to the exclusion of all else and obviously has in
mind the gift and use of speech in relation to John. This must therefore rule
out the interpretation of parens uterque as referring to Mary and Elizabeth.
Moreover, uterque would scarcely refer to two ladies and nati has no
qualification which would refer it to someone other than John or to someone
with John. The confusion perhaps arises from referring hinc only to lines 13
and 14.
That your servants might sing with clear voices
the wonders of your deeds, O holy John, loosen their lips from the corruption
of guilt. A messenger came from heaven high and told your father that in due
course you would be born, your name and the course of your life. Your father doubting the heavenly promise,
lost the means of ready speech, but once you were born you restored his lost
means of speech. While placed in the hidden room of your mother’s womb, you
recognized the King abiding in the wedding chamber. Wherefore both parents by
virtue of their son’s merits revealed hidden mysteries. May the citizens of
heaven praise you, God simple and equally three; but we humbly pray pardon:
spare the redeemed. Amen.
Fleeing the teeming city dwellers, while still
young you sought to live in desert caves, that you could avoid even the
slightest stain of a sin of speech. A
camel provided you with rough clothing for your holy limbs, sheep your girdle.
water your drink, honey and locusts mixed your food. All the other prophets had foretold that
there would a light in the future; but you pointed out with your finger him,
who would take away the wickedness of the world. There was not anyone born in
the whole holier than John, who was worthy to baptize him who washes away
sin. May the citizens of heaven praise
you, God simple and equally three; but we humbly pray pardon: spare the
redeemed. Amen.
1. nimis, exceedingly; cf.
108, 5.
2. The hermits took St John's
way of life as their model.
3. nunc.
What John had once done by his preaching, may he now do by his intercession.
4. rite,
fitly, duly, rightly. Here it suggests something that becomes our Lord as God.
5. redemptis.
Visitavit et fecit redenlptionettg plebis suae, Lk. 1, 68.
O mighty martyr, cultivator of solitude, greatest
of the prophets, exceedingly blessed and worthy of heaven, knowing no fall from
your snow-white purity. Now powerful in your great merits, drive away the hard
stones of our hearts, making its way smooth and its crooked paths
straight. That when the holy Creator and
Redeemer of the world comes, souls polished and stain removed, he might make
his holy way rightly and worthily. May
the citizens of heaven praise you, God simple and equally three; but we humbly
pray pardon: spare the redeemed. Amen.
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