Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Earth Has Many A Noble City
 Edward Caswall (1814-1878) | Words: Aurelius Prudentius (348-413) (O sola magnarum urbium); translated from Latin to English by Edward Caswall, Lyra Catholica, 1849. Music: Stuttgart, in Psalmodia Sacra, by Christian F. Witt (Gotha, Germany: 1715); adapted by Henry J. Gauntlett (1805-1876) (MIDI, score). If you have access to a picture of Aurelius Prudentius or Christian Witt that we could put online, please click here. |
Earth has many a noble city;
Bethlehem, thou dost all excel;
Out of thee the Lord from Heaven
Came to rule His Israel.
Fairer than the sun at morning
Was the star that told His birth,
To the world its God announcing
Seen in fleshly form on earth.
Eastern sages at His cradle
Make oblations rich and rare;
See them give, in deep devotion,
Gold and frankincense and myrrh.
Sacred gifts of mystic meaning:
Incense doth their God disclose,
Gold the King of kings proclaimeth,
Myrrh His sepulcher foreshows.
Jesu, whom the Gentiles worshipped
At Thy glad Epiphany,
Unto Thee, with God the Father
And the Spirit, glory be.
This hymn is composed of four verses from the Hymn for the Epiphany from Prudentius' (384-413) Cathemerinon, which is 52 stanzas long. In 1568, four short hymns were assembled from selected stanzas from Prudentius' hymn and introduced into the Breviary by Pope Pius V. This hymn is one of them and is used in the Roman Breviary at Lauds on Epiphany.
From the Roman Breviary. Translation by Fr. Edward Caswall (1814-1878).
Bethlehem, thou dost all excel;
Out of thee the Lord from Heaven
Came to rule His Israel.
Fairer than the sun at morning
Was the star that told His birth,
To the world its God announcing
Seen in fleshly form on earth.
Eastern sages at His cradle
Make oblations rich and rare;
See them give, in deep devotion,
Gold and frankincense and myrrh.
Sacred gifts of mystic meaning:
Incense doth their God disclose,
Gold the King of kings proclaimeth,
Myrrh His sepulcher foreshows.
Jesu, whom the Gentiles worshipped
At Thy glad Epiphany,
Unto Thee, with God the Father
And the Spirit, glory be.
This hymn is composed of four verses from the Hymn for the Epiphany from Prudentius' (384-413) Cathemerinon, which is 52 stanzas long. In 1568, four short hymns were assembled from selected stanzas from Prudentius' hymn and introduced into the Breviary by Pope Pius V. This hymn is one of them and is used in the Roman Breviary at Lauds on Epiphany.
| O SOLA magnarum urbium maior Bethlehem, cui contigit ducem salutis caelitus incorporatum gignere. | BETHLEHEM! of noblest cities none can once with thee compare; thou alone the Lord from heaven didst for us Incarnate bear. |
| Haec stella, quae solis rotam vincit decore ac lumine, venisse terris nuntiat cum carne terrestri Deum. | Fairer than the sun at morning was the star that told His birth; to the lands their God announcing, hid beneath a form of earth. |
| Videre postquam illum Magi, eoa promunt munera: stratique votis offerunt thus, myrrham, et aurum regium. | By its lambent beauty guided, see the eastern kings appear; see them bend, their gifts to offer- gifts of incense, gold, and myrrh. |
| Regem Deumque annuntiant thesaurus, et fragrans odor thuris Sabaei, ac myrrheus pulvis sepulchrum praedocet. | Solem things of mystic meaning!- Incense doth the God disclose; Gold a royal Child proclaimeth; Myrrh a future tomb foreshows. |
| Iesu, tibi sit gloria, qui apparuisti gentibus, cum Patre, et almo Spiritu, in sempiterna saecula. | Holy Jesu, in Thy brightness to the Gentile world displayed, with the Father and the Spirit, endless praise to Thee be paid. |
From the Roman Breviary. Translation by Fr. Edward Caswall (1814-1878).
Labels: 4th c., epiphany, marcus aurelius clemens prudentius
¶ Wednesday, January 17, 2007