Did You Know Aquinas Wrote These Verses?
Excerpts from his Eucharistic hymns.
Roman Catholics who attend Eucharistic Adoration are probably familiar with two short hymns, often called by their opening lines: “O Salutaris Hostia” and “Tantum Ergo Sacramentum,” respectively.
“O Salutaris Hostia” is typically chanted at the beginning of Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, while “Tantum Ergo Sacramentum” is typically chanted near the end, as part of the ritual known as Benediction.
Both of these hymns aren’t really hymns themselves, strictly speaking; rather, they are excerpts from longer hymns. Oh, and did I mention they were written by St. Thomas Aquinas?!
Aquinas assembled the Mass and Office for the Feast of Corpus Christi, at the request of Pope Urban IV (whose pontificate lasted from 1261 to 1264). That means, among other things, that St. Thomas Aquinas picked the readings and wrote several hymns for the official liturgy of the day. There are three hymns by Aquinas that are part of the Divine Office (also called the Liturgy of the Hours) of Corpus Christi. Aquinas also wrote for this day a Sequence, a hymn chanted at Mass before the Gospel.1
(Also worth noting is he wrote a fifth Eucharistic hymn, “Adoro Te Devote,” which isn’t connected to today’s feast.)
The words of “O Salutaris Hostia” are taken from the last two verses of the hymn “Verbum Supernum,” which is assigned to Lauds (a.k.a. “Morning Prayer”) on the day of Corpus Christi.
In a similar way, the words of “Tantum Ergo Sacramentum” are taken from the last two verses of the hymn “Pange Lingua,” which is assigned to Vespers (a.k.a. “Evening Prayer”) of Corpus Christi. The hymn is also often used in Eucharistic processions, including the procession to the Altar of Repose on Holy Thursday.
In his hymn “Pange Lingua,” St. Thomas echoes the words of an earlier hymn written many centuries prior and attributed to St. Venantius Fortunatus. So, don’t be confused: there are two different hymns (at least) that feature the phrase “Pange Lingua Gloriosi”! The one that St. Venantius Fortunatus wrote is included in the Divine Office during Holy Week and on feasts related to the Holy Cross. A somewhat modified form of it is also chanted during the veneration of the cross on Good Friday.2 The hymn I’m talking about today, however, was written by St. Thomas Aquinas for the Feast of Corpus Christi.
With all of that background info out of the way, let’s take a look at these two snippets of liturgical poetry: “O Salutaris Hostia” and “Tantum Ergo Sacramentum.” As I typically do, I’ll be providing my own, highly literal, translation into English.
“O Salutaris Hostia”
I’ve decided I’ll be taking it one stanza at a time. So, first things first, let’s look at the stanza that begins with the words “O Salutaris Hostia.”
O Salutaris Hostia,
quae caeli pandis ostium,
bella premunt hostilia;
da robur, fer auxilium.
O saving victim,
You who open Heaven’s gateway,
Hostile wars press on;
give strength, bring help!
Notice what St. Thomas Aquinas does in this verse (or stanza, if you prefer).3
Firstly, he address Christ as the “saving Victim.” Then, in the next line, he addresses Christ as the one who opens for us the way to Paradise.
Aquinas then alludes to spiritual warfare, noting that “hostile wars press on,” meaning we’re facing conflict against the enemy. Since it’s spiritual warfare, the enemy in this case would be the devil, temptation, sin, et cetera.
He then asks Christ to “give [us] strength” and “bring [us] help” amid the spiritual battle we all must face.
Now let’s look at the final stanza:
Uni trinoque Domino
sit sempiterna gloria:
qui vitam sine termino
nobis donet in patria. Amen.To the one and triune Lord
Be everlasting glory:
To Him who would give to us
Life without end in our true homeland. Amen.
Like with so many Catholic hymns, the final verse gives honor to the Triune God. What makes this perhaps somewhat unique is it simply says “the one and Triune Lord,” whereas many hymns make a point of naming all three Persons of the Holy Trinity — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
For lines three and four of this stanza, the word order in the Latin is quite different from conversation English, so I switched around the word order quite a bit to make it readable. I also added the words “our” and “true” to the final line, to better express what’s implied in the Latin — viz., that Heaven is out true home, our true fatherland.
Now, onto the next one!
“Tantum Ergo Sacramentum”
I’ll use the same approach for this one — taking it one stanza at a time.
Tantum ergo Sacramentum
veneremur cernui:
et antiquum documentum
novo cedat ritui:
præstet fides supplementum
sensuum defectui.Behold, so great a Sacrament,
Therefore, let us venerate:
And may the covenant of old
Yield to the new ritual:
May faith provide reinforcement
For the insufficiency of the senses.
The word “ergo” or “therefore” is referring to the rest of the longer hymn that these lines originally come from — Aquinas’ “Pange Lingua,” as noted above. That hymn speaks much about the glory of the Holy Eucharist, establishing It originated with Christ and is truly His Flesh and Blood. With the word “ergo,” it’s as though St. Thomas is saying, “Now that we’ve established how great the Blessed Sacrament is, let us honor It!”
Aquinas alludes to the Old Testament, and heralds the arrival of the New Testament — and, in particular, this “new ritual” of the Holy Eucharist.
When the priest says the words of Consecration, the bread and wine are literally and substantially changed into the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ. In other words, Christ becomes truly and fully present under what only appears to be bread and wine.
This doctrine of the Real Presence is what St. Thomas Aquinas is referring to when he talks about Faith making up for the shortcoming of the senses. The bodily senses don’t perceive a change at the moment of Consecration (except in the case of a Eucharistic miracle, of course), but by Faith we as Catholics know the profound miracle that happens.
Now let’s take a look at my literal translation of the final stanza:
Genitori, Genitoque
laus et jubilatio,
salus, honor, virtus quoque
sit et benedictio:
Procedenti ab utroque
compar sit laudatio. Amen.To the Begetter and the Begotten One,
be praise and jubilation,
greetings, honor, strength also
and blessing:
to the One who proceeds from them both
may there be equal praise. Amen.
This verse is a song of praise to the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity. As I noted above, this is a common thing to do in the final verse of a Catholic hymn.
So, to clarify: the “Begetter” is the Father; the “Begotten One” is the Son; and the “One who proceeds from them both” is the Holy Spirit.
In Conclusion
I hope all of this was helpful or interesting to you in some way. If you’re curious to learn more about the origins of the Feast of Corpus Christi, I suggest checking out this link here.
May you have a blessed feast-day!
In the Middle Ages, there was a rich variety of Sequences. Often a particular region or religious order would have its own set of readings, antiphons, chants, et cetera for certain feast days. And so some regions had many Sequences throughout the liturgical year. There were also many subtle variations in liturgical praxis, such that in some places the Sequence may have been chanted at a different point during the Mass. In the Traditional Latin Mass as we know it today, there are only a handful of occasions on which the Missal includes a Sequence; alongside Corpus Christi, there are also Sequences assigned to Easter, Pentecost, the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows (in September), and Masses for the Dead (including All Souls’ Day).
I am referring here to the “Crux Fidelis” of Good Friday. This chant is derived from St. Venantius Fortunatus’ work, but the lines are rearranged to create a kind of alternating refrain.
You’ll notice I use the words “verse” and “stanza” interchangeably here, since we’re looking at the hymn as a text, and in that sense as a poem. Generally speaking, songs have verses while poems have stanzas — that’s how we tend to use those words in modern English, at least. I’m in the habit of using the two loosely when talking about the words of a song, particularly when those words are in poetic meter, as is the case here.