The post-conciliar revisers, in their first draft of hymns for the new Office Book, proposed the following 16th(?) century hymn, present in the Benedictine Breviary, which goes to the tune of Ave maris Stella.
I think it didn't make it through to the cut in the Liturgia Horarum because they decided they needed a more 'Joachim' hymn to counterbalance all those 'Anna' hymns which the Tradition offers.
Gaude, mater Anna,
gaude mater sancta,
cum sis Dei facta
genetrix avia.
Plaude tali natae
virgini Mariae;
eius genitore
Ioachim congaude.
In hac nostra terra
primo benedicta,
quae fuit in Eva
quondam maledicta.
Ergo sume laudes
quas damus ovantes;
nos ab omni sorde
tua prece terge.
Sit laus Deo Patri,
summo Christo decus,
Spiritui Sancto
honor, tribus unus.
The notes in Te decet hymnus do seem to point at a desire to let S. Joachim share the limelight. But perhaps Dom Lentini also took umbrage at the rhythmical anomaly in line 4 (avía, [sic])?
ReplyDeleteThere's a translation of "Gaude, mater Anna" which preserves the metre in "The Prayer Book Office - Anglican Divine Service" published in 1967 by Morehouse-Barlow, New York:
ReplyDeleteMother Anne, be joyful:
Sing, O mother holy,
Since thou art the parent
Of God's Mother lowly:
Praise thy wondrous daughter:
Joachim, too, raises
To the Virgin Mary
His paternal praises.
For in her our planet
First hath benediction,
Which in hapless Eva
Suffered malediction.
Therefore take the praises
Joyous hearts are paying;
And from all defilement
Cleanse us by thy praying.
Father, Son eternal,
Holy Ghost supernal,
With one praise we bless thee,
Three in one confess thee. Amen.
Here's one in honour of St Yves, a patron of lawyers, I wish were included, if only for the first verse, with its gentle dig at my profession:
ReplyDeleteSanctus Ivo erat Brito
Advocatus et non latro
Res miranda populo!
AvB.