It's amazing what's online - a 1717 Carthusian Breviary for example (courtesy of Google Books). As I am scouting out hymns with which to honour St Anne, for use when the Latin Mass community here in Perth finally moves into its new church whose patron she is, I was pleased to locate in the aforementioned Breviary this Latin hymn to St Anne, which is providentially, and very conveniently, in the same metre as the well-known Ave maris stella:
Lucis hujus festaColat plebs honésta,Deum cælo dignisConfrequéntans Hymnis.Mater matris ChristiEx hoc mundo tristiMigrans fide bona,Sumpsit vitæ dona.Ex hac carnis plantaSurgit Virgo sancta:Ex hoc fluit fonteLapis cæsus monte.Cælo jam sublátaMúlier beata,Suo nos precátuPurget a reátu.Trino laus et uniSit Deo commúni,In quo vivit AnnaSimul cum María. Amen.
Here also is my translation into verse, just whipped up earlier - excuse any infelicities; yes, I deliberately wrote it in an older style, since that's how we like it at the Pro.:
Anne's feast shineth brightly:May good folk devoutlyWorship God arightly,In hymns heaven-worthy.Christ's Grandmother passingFrom this world of weepingBy her firm believingGained life everlasting.From this heel firm plantèdRose the Virgin saintèd:Flowed from out this fountainTh' Stone hewn from the mountain.Now to Heav'n upraisèdIs that Woman blessèd;By her prayer acceptèdBe we from sin purgèd.To the Thrine and OnlyGod be praise communelyIn Whom liveth AnnaAlways with Maria. Amen.
The line Ex hac carnis planta is more literally rendered as "From this sole of flesh", but that sounds bizarre in English, so I indulged in a bit of wordplay instead; the stanza from which this comes is of course alluding to Genesis iii,15 and Daniel ii, 34f, considering these texts as prophecies of the coming of Christ, God-made-man, from the line descended from Eve down through St Anne and finally the Blessed Virgin.
Lucky for some! I can never access Google Books... :(
ReplyDeleteWhy not?
ReplyDeleteI don't know; it just never lets me in. Must be where I live.
ReplyDelete