In the Roman tradition, the feast kept on February 2nd was always known as the Purification of the Virgin Mary. Of course, it also commemorates the presentation of the Lord in the temple, which is why liturgical commentators of the Middle Ages such as our dear friend William Durandus often referred to it as a “double feast”. The Roman Office for it was always a mixture of parts proper to the feast, and others drawn from the common Office of the Virgin Mary, with the three hymns taken from the latter. But there were other traditions which mixed these elements differently; for example, in the use of Liège, the hymn for Lauds of Christmas, A solis ortus cardine, was sung at both Vespers.
Many medieval Uses have a hymn for Vespers, Quod chorus vatum, which was written by the Blessed Rabanus Maurus (780 ca. - 856), whose feast day is today. Among them is the Use of Sarum, (along with those of the Carmelites and Premonstratensians), which is why we have this lovely setting in alternating chant and polyphony by the famous English composer Thomas Tallis (1505-85). In the post-Conciliar Liturgy of the Hours, it was by some miracle incorporated into the feast without any of the usual cack-handed mangling of the text. The English translation below is the Anglican priest Thomas Alexander Lacey (1853-1913), and very cleverly keeps the meter of the original. The individual lines are too long for the side-by-side tables which I normally use for hymns.Spiritu Sancto cecinit repletus,
In Dei factum genitrice constat
Esse Maria.
Hæc Deum cæli Dominumque terræ
Virgo concepit peperitque virgo,
Atque post partum meruit manere
Inviolata.
Quem senex Iustus Simeon in ulnis
In domo sumpsit Domini, gavisus:
Ob quod optatum meruit videre
Lumine Christum.
Tu libens votis, petimus, precantum
Regis æterni genitrix, faveto,
Clara quæ cæli renitens Olympi
Regna petisti.
Sit Deo nostro decus et potestas,
Sit salus perpes, sit honor perennis,
Qui poli summa residet in arce,
Trinus et Unus. Amen.
All prophets hail thee, from of old announcing,
By the inbreathèd Spirit of the Father,
God’s Mother, bringing prophecies to fullness,
Mary the maiden.
Thou the true Virgin Mother of the Highest,
Bearing incarnate God in awed obedience,
Meekly acceptest for a sinless offspring
Purification.
In the high temple Simeon receives thee,
Takes to his bent arms with a holy rapture
That promised Saviour, vision of redemption,
Christ long awaited.
Now the fair realm of Paradise attaining,
And to thy Son’s throne, Mother of the Eternal,
Raisèd all glorious, yet in earth’s devotion
Join with us always.
Glory and worship to the Lord of all things
Pay we unresting, who alone adorèd,
Father and Son and Spirit, in the highest
Reigneth eternal. Amen.
