Saturday, September 12, 2020

IN EXALTATIONE SANCTÆ CRUCIS




Ad Officium lectionis: Heribertus de Rothenburg

 

Salve, crux sancta, salve mundi glória, (1), (2)

vera spes nostra, vera ferens gáudia, (3)

signum salútis, salus in perículis, (4)

vitále lignum vitam portans ómnium. (5)

 

Te adorándam, te crucem vivíficam,

in te redémpti, dulce decus sæculi,

semper laudámus, semper tibi cánimus,

per lignum servi, per te, lignum, líberi. (6)

 

Laus Deo Patri sit in cruce Fílii,

laus coæquáli sit Sancto Spirítui;

cívibus summis gáudium et ángelis,

honor sit mundo crucis exaltátio. Amen.

 

1.       The cross is holy because Christ died upon it. 2. Galatians 6:14: “God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 3. Spes: the cross not a source of despair, but of hope. 4, Signum: military banner, carried in the combat of the Cross. 5. Vitale lignum: The Cross is the key to open the gates of eternal life. 6. Per lignum: the tree of Eden.

 

Hail, O Holy Cross, Hail, O Glory of the world, our true hope, bearing true joys, the Sign of salvation, Safety in dangers, living Wood bearing the life of all. Redeemed upon you, we ever praise you, worship you, life-giving Cross,  sweet beauty of the ages, to you we, your servants through the wood, set free through you, through you, ever sing. Praise to God the Father in the Cross of his Son, equal praise to the Holy Spirit; to the citizens of heaven and the angels, to the world honor and exaltation of the Cross. Amen.

 

Ad Laudes matutinas: saec. X

 

Signum crucis mirábile (1)

totum per orbem prænitet,

in qua pepéndit ínnocens

Christus, redémptor ómnium.

 

Hæc arbor est sublímior

cedris, habet quas Líbanus, (2)

quæ poma nescit nóxia,

sed ferre vitæ præmia.

 

Te, Christe, rex piíssime,

huius crucis signáculo

horis, moméntis ómnibus

muníre nos non ábnuas,

 

Ut ore tibi cónsono

et corde devotíssimo

possímus omni témpore

laudes reférre débitas.

 

Patri, tibi, Paráclito

sit æqua, Iesu, glória,

qui nos crucis victória

concédis usque pérfrui. Amen.

 

1.       signum: (Medieval Latin) signum (medieval tower bell used particularly for ringing the 8 canonical hours): signum draws our attention, so the signum crucis; as with signaculo in the third stanza. 2. The cedars of Lebanon cannot compete with the supernatural tree of the Cross.

 

O wondrous sign of the Cross shining throughout the world, upon whom hung the innocent Christ, the Redeemer of all. This is the tree taller than the cedars of Lebanon, which knows not dangerous fruit but bears the reward of life. By the sign of this Cross, O most holy King, do not refuse to protect us every hour, at all times. That with the harmony of our voices and devoted hearts we may always offer to you due praises. To the Father, to you, O Jesus, to the Comforter, be equal glory, who grants that we ever enjoy the victory of the Cross. Amen.

 

Ad Vesperas: 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, wounded he hangs pierced by the harsh spear, that he might wash us from sin by the shedding of 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 the 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.

 

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