Lucis Creator Optime

 

Lucis Creator Optime is a 5th-century Latin Christian hymn variously attributed to St Gregory the Great or Saint Ambrose. It takes its title from its incipit.

In modern usage, it is commonly known in English translation as "O Blest Creator of the Light", and may be sung to a number of different settings.

History

[edit]

The authorship of Lucis Creator Optime is uncertain; the hymn has been attributed to St Gregory the Great or Saint Ambrose. Historian Franz Mone identified it in 8th-century manuscripts from Darmstadt and Trier and considered it to be an early 5th-century work, while other scholars have dated it as a much later work.^[1]

The hymn is found in 11th-century English hymnaries held at the British Museum and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and in an 11th C Spanish breviary.^[1]

Lucis Creator Optime was sung as the first hymn for Sunday Vespers in monasteries.^[2]

In the Roman Breviary, Lucis Creator Optime is set for Vespers on Sundays after Epiphany and Sundays after Pentecost. In the Liturgy of the Hours the hymn is set for Sunday evening Vespers for the first and third weeks in Ordinary time.^[3]

Text and translations

[edit]

Latin text

Lucis creator optime,
lucem dierum proferens,
primordiis lucis novae,
mundi parans originem.

Qui mane junctum vesperi,
diem vocari praecipis,
illabitur tetrum chaos,
audi preces cum fletibus.

Ne mens gravata crimine,
vitae sit exsul munere,
dum nil perenne cogitat,
seseque culpis illigat.

Caeleste pulset ostium,
vitale tollat praemium,
vitemus omne noxium,
purgemus omne pessimum.

Praesta Pater piissime,
Patrique compar unice,
cum Spiritu paraclito,
regnans per omne saeculum.

English translation by John Henry Newman

Father of Lights, by whom each day
Is kindled out of night,
Who, when the heavens were made, didst lay
Their rudiments in light;

Thou, who didst bind and blend in one
The glistening morn and evening pale,
Hear Thou our plaint, when light is gone,
And lawlessness and strife prevail.

Hear, lest the whelming weight of crime
Wreck us with life in view;
Lest thoughts and schemes of sense and time
Earn us a sinner's due.

So may we knock at Heaven's door,
And strive the immortal prize to win,
Continually and evermore
Guarded without and pure within.

Grant this, O Father, Only Son,
And Spirit, God of grace,
To whom all worship shall be done
In every time and place.