Common of Saints: On Feasts of Several Martyrs (or Confessors)

From Hymn melodies for the whole year from the Sarum service-books (and in honor of the Martyrs of Japan, whose feast day is today):

    On Feasts of Several Martyrs (or Confessors):

        1st Ev. & Matt.  Sanctorum meritis  
       
            At 1st Ev.. ........51
            At Matt.. ........52
            At First Ev. & M. ad libitum. ........53
            On Simple Feasts of the lowest class throughout the year (1st Ev. & M.) ...54

            [Matt. (York) Eterna Christi munera, Et (Martyrs only) ......61]

        L. & 2nd Ev.  Rex gloriose martyrum
            At L. (except in Xmas and Paschal-tides) ....25
            At 2nd Ev. (& L. when no 2nd Ev.) ......49
            During Xmas-tide (L. & 2nd Ev.)  ....27
            On Simple Feasts of the lowest class throughout the year (L.) ...6 or 55

Follow along with the Offices for"Feasts of Many Martyrs Throughout the Year" at Breviary Offices, from Lauds to Compline Inclusive (Society of St. Margaret, Boston) (published in 1885). You'll find  all the Psalms, the collect, Chapter, antiphons, etc., for each of the offices of the day at that link, although no music is provided; also check the iFrame look-in at the bottom of this post.

So, at first Evensong (the Vespers on the eve of the feast), sing Sanctorum meritis to melody #51:

This hymn is called "The Triumph of the Saints" at Cyberhymnal.  LLPB sings it as "The Noble Deeds of Saints" (MP3) to this tune.

Here are the words from the former (translated by J.M. Neale), which are definitely close enough to the latter:

The triumphs of the saints,
The toils they bravely bore,
The love that never faints,
Their glory evermore—
For these the Church today
Pours forth her joyous lay;
What victors wear so rich a bay?

This clinging world of ill
Them and their works abhorred;
Its withering flowers still
They spurned with one accord;
They knew them short lived all,
How soon they fade and fall,
And followed, Jesu, at Thy call.

What tongue may here declare,
Fancy or thought descry,
The joys Thou dost prepare
For these Thy saints on high?
Empurpled in the flood
Of their victorious blood,
They won the laurel from their God.

O Lord most high, we pray,
Stretch forth Thy mighty arm
To put our sins away
And shelter us from harm;
O give Thy servants peace;
From guilt and pain release;
Our praise to Thee shall never cease.

Cyberhymnal offers another English translation of the hymn as well.


Sanctorum meritis is to be sung at Mattins to melody #52: 

I haven't found a recording of this tune anywhere so far.

Or, ad libitum, sing Sanctum Meritis at 1st Evensong and Matins to melody #53 instead:

No audio file for this one, either.

Finally, "on Simple Feasts of the lowest class throughout the year," use melody #54 to sing this hymn at at 1st Evensong and Matins:

That is this hymn tune, more or less, sung here by Giovanni Vianini:



The chant score definitely has the general shape of the tune, but there are some differences between the two versions.

I did find another melody used for this hymn; only the first couple of verses here, though.  Perhaps this is the melody used in the Roman  Breviary?




This, from CPDL, is the Latin text of Sanctorum Meritis.  That entry's referring to another sacred song of unknown origin (for "SSTT" voices), probably based on the Gregorian chant and its text:

Sanctorum meritis inclita gaudia
pangamus socii gestaque fortia
nam gliscit animus promere cantibus
victorum genus optimum.

Hi sunt quo retines mundis inhorruit
Ipsum nam sterile flore per aridum
Sprevere penitus teque secuti sunt,
Rex, Christe, bone cælitum.

Hi pro te furias sævaque sustinent;
non murmur resonat, non querimonia,
sed corde tacito mens bene conscia
conservat patientiam.

Quæ vox, quæ poterit lingua retexere
Quæ tu martyribus munera præparas?
Rubri nam fluido sanguine laureis
Ditantur bene fulgidis.

Te, Trina Deitas unaque, poscimus,
ut culpas abluas, noxia quoque gloriam
per cuncta tibi sæcula.
Amen!

A note at the CPDL page says that this is "A Martyrs' hymn transcribed from the Trent manuscript tr89."  Various sources give the author as "unknown" - or else Rabanus Maurus, the 8th-Century monk and archbishop of Mainz.

Hymnary.org says this:

Sanctorum meritis inclita gaudia. [Common of Martyrs.] This hymn is frequently referred to by Hinemar in his "De una et non trina Deitate," 857; but he distinctly says he could not discover its author. It is found in four manuscripts of the 11th century in the British Museum; and in the Latin Hymns of the Anglo Saxon Church, 1851, is printed from an 11th century manuscript at Durham. Also in a manuscript of the 10th century at Bern, No. 455; in a manuscript of the 11th century at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (No. 391, p. 272); in the St. Gall manuscript 413 and 414, of the 11th century. It is in the Roman, Sarum, York, Aberdeen, Paris of 1643, and other Breviaries—-the Sarum use being at 1st Vespers and at Matins in the common of many martyrs… [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]

Here's the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913 on Sanctorum Meritis:

The hymn at First and Second Vespers in the Common of the Martyrs in the Roman Breviary. Its authorship is often attributed to Rabanus Maurus (d. 856), Archbishop of Mainz — e.g. by Blume (cf. HYMNODY, V, 2), who thinks his hymns show originality and "no small poetic power". Dreves also (Analecta hymnica, XL, 204) favours the ascription. The stanza, in classical prosody, comprises three Asclepiadic lines and one Glyconic. In Horace such a stanza indicates a grave and thoughtful frame of mind; but the breviary hymns using the stanza are usually suggestive of triumphant joy — e.g. the "Festivis resonent compita vocibus" (Most Precious Blood), the "Te Joseph celebrent agmina coelitum", and the "Sacris solemniis" in rhythmic imitation. Dom Johner ("A New School of Gregorian Chant", New York, 1906, p. 89) places hymns in this measure among those "in which the verbal accent preponderates and the metrical accent only makes itself noticeable in certain places (particularly in the fourth line and when a line closes with a word accentuated on the penultimate)". He illustrates the rhythmical stress by italics. Applying his scheme to the Asclepiadic lines we should have: Sa-ncto-rum me-ri-tis in-cly-ta gau-di-a. His illustration of the fourth line (Glyconic) is: Vi-cto-rum ge-nus o-pti-mum. The "Grammar of Plainsong" by the Benedictines of Stanbrook (London, 1905, p. 61) remarks that the long verses have the accents on the third, seventh, and tenth syllables; and the short verse, on the third and sixth syllables; and illustrates this scheme by the last two lines of the stanza (the acute accent marking the rhythmical stress):

Gliscens fért animus prómere cántibus
Victorúm genus óptimum.

In the following illustration (Holly, "Elementary Grammar of Gregorian Chant", New York, 1904, p. 44) the acute accent indicates the tonic accent of the word; the grave accent, the place where the rhythmical or metrical accent falls; the circumflex, the concurrence on a syllable of both metrical and tonic accents:

Sanctôrum mêritìs ínclyta gâudiâ
Pangâmus sôciì, gestâque fôrtiâ;
Glíscens fert ânimus prómere cântibus
Victôrum gênus ôptimùm.

Obviously, the metre is refractory for singing or public recitation. Dreves (loc. cit., pp. 180-1) notes that several references are made to the hymn by Hincmar of Reims, one of the most interesting being his objection to the theology of the last stanza ("Te trina Deitas", subsequently changed into the present form: "Te summa O Deitas"). Hincmar admits that he knew not the author of the hymn which "some people end with the chant or rather blasphemy [a quibusdam cantatur vel potius blasphematur] 'Te trina deitas'." The phrase objected to was nevertheless sung in the doxology of the hymn down to the revision of Urban VIII, and the Church still sings it in the doxology of the "Sacris solemniis" of the Angelic Doctor. The Paris Breviary kept the metre but entirely recast the hymn, writing the first stanza thus:

Christi martyribus debita nos decet,
Virtutis memores, promere cantica;
Quos nec blanditiis, nec potuit minis
Fallax vincere sæculum.

To the list of translators given by Julian ("Dict. of Hymnol.", 2nd ed., London, 1907, pp. 993, 1698) should be added Bagshawe ("Breviary Hymns and Missal Sequences", London, 1900, p. 164: "Let us sing, dear companions, the joys of the saints"). The (Baltimore) "Manual of Prayers" gives the translation of the Anglican hymnologist, Dr. Neale. There are twelve translations in English. The text is found in many manuscripts of the tenth century (cf. Dreves, "Analecta hymnica", L, 204-5); Hincmar, "De una et non trina Deitate" in P.L., CXXV, 478, 498, 500). For Latin text (omitting second and third stanzas) and English translation, plainsong, and modern musical setting, see "Hymns Ancient and Modern, Historical Edition" (London, 1909, pp. 289-90), which notes that Dreves assigns the hymn to Rabanus Maurus in his "Hymnologische Studien zu Venantius Fortunatus und Rabanus Maurus" (Munich, 1908, p. 135), "in spite of the fact that Raban wrote to Hincmar disapproving of the phrase 'Te trina Deitas'." The approved plainsong will appear in the forthcoming Vatican Antiphonary. Pothier ("Mélodies Grégoriennes" Tournai, 1880) illustrates the Asclepiadic metre by the "Sanctorum meritis", places the accents on the third, seventh, and tenth syllables of the Asclepiads and on the third and sixth of the Glyconic, and remarks that "in singing the Asclepiad and the Glyconic, the first three syllables should be gone over slowly, and the accents should be well marked, especially the last" (p.199). Egerton ("A Handbook of Church Music", New York, 1909, p. 180) places the principal accent on the tenth syllable, and secondary accents on the third and seventh, with a "mora vocis" after the sixth. Delaporte (Les Hymnes du bréviaire romain" in the "Rassegna Gregoriana", Nov.-Dec., 1907, col. 501) remarks that, when the edition of 1602 of the Roman Breviary was in preparation, Cardinal Gesualdo in 1588 wrote to various nuncios to get suggestions for emendations. The nuncio at Paris consulted "alcuni principali della Sorbona", with some curious results, one of which was the criticism demanding a change in the doxology of the "Sacris solemniis" from "Te trina Deitas" to "Te summa Deitas", for the reason that "it is impious to call the Deity, or the essence of God, threefold". As noted above, the Church still sings "Te Deitas" in the "Sacris solemniis" of the "Angel of the Schools", although it has changed the phrase in the doxology of the "Sanctorum meritis".

If, though, we were singing 1st Evensong or Matins at York on feasts of Martyrs, we'd go with Aeterna Christi Munera - in English, "The Eternal Gifts of Christ the King" (mp3).  That's LLPB's recording; here's the chant score of that melody:

Here's a set of words from Oremus, translation J.M. Neale; this translation, though, does not match up with the words used on the audio file:

The eternal gifts of Christ the King,
the apostles' glory, let us sing,
and all, with hearts of gladness, raise
due hymns of thankful love and praise.

For they the Church's princes are,
triumphant leaders in the war,
in heavenly courts a warrior band,
true lights to lighten every land.

Theirs is the steadfast faith of saints,
and hope that never yields nor faints;
and love of Christ in perfect glow
that lays the prince of this world low.

In them the Father's glory shone,
in them the will of God the Son,
in them exults the Holy Ghost,
through them rejoice the heavenly host.

To thee, Redeemer, now we cry,
that thou wouldst join to them on high
thy servants, who this grace implore,
for ever and for evermore.

There doesn't seem to be much online about Aeterna Christi munera - which is actually interesting; it may mean this is a local, Sarum hymn.  I'll keep searching for information, though, and will return to post what I find.


The other hymn on the day is Rex gloriose martyrum; we'd sing it at both Lauds (Morning Prayer) and 2nd Evensong (the Vespers of the feast day itself), to several different melodies, depending on time of year.

At 2nd Evensong (and at Lauds when there's no 2nd Evensong), we'd use  melody #49:

LLPB sings this 6th Century hymn as "O Glorious King of Martyr Hosts (MP3)," and uses melody #49, as given.   Here are the English words, from Oremus:

O glorious King of martyr hosts,
thou crown that each confessor boasts,
who leadest to celestial day
the saints who cast earth's joys away.

Thine ear in mercy, Savior, lend,
while unto thee our prayers ascend;
and as we count their triumphs won,
forgive the sins that we have done.

Martyrs in thee their triumphs gain,
confessors grace from thee obtain;
we sinners humbly seek to thee,
from sins offense to set us free.

All laud to God the Father be,
all praise, eternal Son, to thee;
all glory, as is ever meet,
to God the holy Paraclete.

At Lauds, except during Christmastide and Paschaltide, we'd sing Rex gloriose martyrum to melody #25:

Strangely (given that we're NOT singing this hymn at Christmastide), it's sung to the same tune as Veni, Redemptor Gentium, - "The first hymn for the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord"!  Here's LLPB's version of that one (mp3), just so you can have the tune.

During Christmastide, we sing Rex gloriose martyrum at Lauds and 2nd Vespers using melody #27; here's the chant score:

 
This is the same tune as the one used for A solis ortus cardine, the Lauds & 2nd Vespers hymn from the Christmas Office;  here's an mp3 of that hymn this hymn, so you can hear the melody.  Obviously use the words for Rex gloriose martyrum instead of what's on the recording.

Finally, at Lauds "On Simple Feasts of the lowest class throughout the year," melodies 6 or 55 are the choices:

I have no sound files for either of these tunes - but melody #55 was used at Christmastide at York, for all the Little Hours, to sing the hymns carved out of Agnoscat omne saeculum, the long Fortunatus poem.   Melody #6 seems only to be used for the office hymns at Terce and None, sung to this melody "On the Vigil of Epiphany & on all Sundays &  Simple Feasts throughout the year."

Again I find it interesting that the melodies used at the Christmas office show up so often on other occasions; I wonder if this is that famous Anglican emphasis on the Incarnation?


This may be the Latin text for Rex gloriose martyrum; it comes from a CPDL page about a Victoria motet of the same name:

Rex gloriose Martyrum
corona confitentium,
qui respuentes terrea
perducis ad coelestia.

Tu vincis in martyribus
parcisque Confessoribus:
Tu vince nostra crimina,
largitor indulgentiae.

Aurem benignam protinus
appone nostris vocibus
trophea sacra pangimus
ignosce quod deliquimus.

Gloria tibi Domine
qui surrexisti a mortuis
cum Patre et Sancto Spiritu
in sempiterna saecula.
Amen. 

Hymnary.org offers these manuscript notes:

Rex gloriose martyrum. [Common of Martyrs.] Probably of the 6th century. Included in the Bern manuscript 455 of the 10th century; in a manuscript of the 11th century, at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (391, p. 273); and in four manuscripts of the 11th century, in the British Museum (Vesp. D. xii. f. 106; Jul. A. vi. f. 64 b; Harl. 2961 f. 248; Add. 30851 f. 152 b); and in the Latin Hymns of the Anglo-Saxon Church, 1851, is printed from an 11th century manuscript at Durham (B. iii. 32 f. 38 h). Also in an 11th century manuscript at St. Gall, No. 414; and in the Roman, Sarum, York, Aberdeen, and other Breviaries. The printed text is also in Mone, No. 732 ; Daniel, i., No. 237, and iv. p. 139; Cardinal Newman's Hymni Ecclesiae, 1838 and 1865; G. M. Dreves's Hymnarius Moissiacensis, 1888, from a 10th century manuscript, &c. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]

And the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia says that:

The hymn is of uncertain date and unknown authorship, Mone (Lateinische Hymnen des Mittelalters, III, 143, no. 732) ascribing it to the sixth century and Daniel (Thesaurus Hymnologicus, IV, 139) to the ninth or tenth century. The Roman Breviary text is a revision, in the interest of Classical prosody, of an older form (given by Daniel, I, 248). The corrections are: terrea instead of terrena in the line "Qui respuentes terrena"; parcisque for parcendo in the line "Parcendo confessoribus"; inter Martyres for in Martyribus in the line "Tu vincis in Martyribus"; "Largitor indulgentiæ" for the line "Donando indulgentiam". A non-prosodic correction is intende for appone in the line "Appone nostris vocibus". Daniel (IV, 139) gives the Roman Breviary text, but mistakenly includes the uncorrected line "Parcendo confessoribus". lie places after the hymn an elaboration of it in thirty-two lines, found written on leaves added to a Nuremberg book and intended to accommodate the hymn to Protestant doctrine. This elaborated form uses only lines 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 of the original. Two of the added strophes may be quoted here to illustrate the possible reason (but also a curious misconception of Catholic doctrine in the apparent assumption of the lines) for the modification of the original hymn:

Velut infirma vascula Ictus inter lapideos Videntur sancti martyres, Sed fide durant fortiter. Non fidunt suis meritis, Sed sola tua gratia Agnoscunt se persistere In tantis cruciatibus.

Here's the peek-in to the SSM Breviary for Feasts of Several Martyrs: