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