Here is the text of the Hymn which Lentini and the other Liturgia Horarum hymn-wallahs originally intended for Lauds and Vespers and gave in their first draft. It is particularly useful within the Ebbsfleet Apostolic District, in which S Augustine, who sanctified our sacred sandbank by walking across it, is a Festum. (OOps: I should have supplicated the Apostolic Administrator to authorise it. By next year ...)
Fecunda sanctis insula,/ tuum canas apostolum,/et filium Gregorii/ laudes piis concentibus.//Eius labore fertilis,/ messem dedisti plurimam,/ quae sanctitatis floribus/ diu refulges inclita.// Turma quadragenaria/ stipatus intrat Angliam:/ vexilla Christi proferens,/ dux pacis affert pignora.// Crucis tropaeum promicat,/ verbum salutis spargitur,/ fidem quin ipse barbarus/ rex corde prompto suscipit.// Mores feros gens exuit,/ undisque lota fluminis/ ipsa die renascitur/ qua Sol salutis ortus est.// O Pastor, alme, filios/ a sede pascas siderum;/ in matris ulnas anxiae/ gregem reducas deviam.// Praesta, beata Trinitas,/ quae rore iugi gratiae/ vitem rigas, ut pristina/ fides resurgens floreat.
It's in Gueranger, and the old Benedictine Breviary (the author was Benedictine). Lentini and co wanted to make the obvious bits more ecumenical, but I give you Francois Le Bannier's (d 1867) unexpurgated unbowdlerised original.
Sorry, I'm no good at metrical translations of hymns. Perhaps somebody ...
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3 comments:
I should have supplicated the Apostolic Administrator to authorise it."The only right to 'make and use' such 'variations' is that of the 'minister who is to conduct the service'"
Now where did I find that?
Oh dear. Caught out. I must have been thinking in terms of popish liturgical law. Though, come to think of it, in the Roman system local propers need to be authorised by Rome. Oh dear dear ... BUT I think ordinaries can authorise local propers for experimental periods. I must have had that in mind.
According to Anglican liturgical law, of course, hymns are a complete freedom-zone, so one could use anything anywhere.
Did you ever come across a metrical translation of "Fecunda sanctis insula"?
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