L ' I N F E R N O

♫HYMN: VEXILLA REGIS * * * * * * * * * *
INF C34 84 from INF C34 1-2
From various sources:
Vexilla Regis was written by Venantius Fortunatus (530-609) and is considered one of the greatest hymns of the
liturgy. Fortunatus wrote it in honor of the arrival of a large relic of the True Cross which had been sent to
Queen Radegunda by the Emperor Justin II and his Empress Sophia. Queen Radegunda had retired to a convent
she had built near Poitiers and was seeking out relics for the church there. To help celebrate the arrival of the
relic, the Queen asked Fortunatus to write a hymn for the procession of the relic to the church.
http://Home.earthlink.net/~thesaurus/thesaurus/Hymni/Vexilla.html Michael Martin
This "world-famous hymn, one of the grandest in the treasury of the Latin Church" (Neale), and "surely one of
the most stirring strains in our hymnology" (Duffield)…
…Its original processional use is commemorated in the Roman Missal on Good Friday, when the Blessed
Sacrament is carried in procession from the Repository to the High Altar. Its principal use however, is in the
Divine Office, the Roman Breviary assigning it to Vespers from the Saturday before Passion Sunday daily to
Maundy Thursday, and to Vespers of feasts of the Holy Cross.
The correctors of the Breviary under Urban VIII [1632] revised Fortunatus’ hymn in the interest of classical
prosody…The correctors replaced the last two lines of the first stanza by those of the eighth, and changed
"reddidit" into "protulit", giving us the 1 st verse:
Vexilla regis prodeunt, Abroad the royal banners fly
Fulget crucis mysterium, And bear the gleaming Cross on high -
Qua vita mortem pertulit That Cross whereon Life suffered death
Et morta vitam protulit. And gave us life with dying breath.
One of about 40 translations
The splendour and triumph suggested by the first stanza can be appreciated fully only by recalling the occasion
when the hymn was first sung--the triumphant procession from the walls of Poitiers to the monastery with
bishops and princes in attendance and with all the pomp and pageantry of a great ecclesiastical function. "And
still, after thirteen centuries, how great is our emotion as these imperishable accents come to our ears!"
(Pimont). Gounod took a very plain melody based on the chant as the subject of his "March to Calvary" in the
"Redemption", in which the chorus sings the text at first very slowly and then, after an interval, fortissimo. H.T.
HENRY The Catholic Encyclopedia Online Edition © 2003 by K. Knight
IN THE DARK, THE FAMOUS HYMN HAS NEW WORDS.
Abroad [the] infernal banners fly
The King of Hell, himself, is nigh.
………………………………….
THE INFERNAL VERSION OF SATAN’S FALL IS A GLOSS.
Brilliant, beautiful and bold
Was Lucifer, and God was old.
The homeward Angel found the Gate
Barred and could [did] not stand or wait
To serve, but [or He] shook and fell, poor leaf,
Red with shame, then black with grief.
INF C34 85-93 / KLINE
Then he clambered into an opening in the rock, and set me down to sit on its edge, then turned his cautious step
towards me. I raised my eyes, thinking to see Lucifer as I had left him, but saw him with his legs projecting
upwards, and let those denser people, who do not see what point I had passed, judge if I was confused then, or not.
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