Pange lingua (Venantius fortunatus)

The pange lingua "Besinge, tongue" of Venantius Fortunatus is a Latin hymn ; it bears the title In Honorem sanctae Crucis "In honor of the holy cross". At feasts of the cross and during Holy Week , it is part of the Church's Liturgy of the Hours . It is solemnly sung at the veneration of the cross during the liturgy on Good Friday .

The full-sounding, gripping opening words Pange lingua recur in about 100 later hymns, including in the Eucharistic hymn Pange lingua by Thomas Aquinas . This was also inspired by the Pange lingua of Venantius Fortunatus with regard to the form of the stanzas and the structure of the content .

The pange lingua des Venantius Fortunatus has ten stanzas consisting of three trochaic tetrameters . Today these are often divided into two lines, so that six-line stanzas arise.

The eighth stanza is particularly well known. It contains the poem Crux fidelis , which as the hymn of the Karmette was often set to music independently, for example by Anton Bruckner , by Franz Liszt in his symphonic poem " Hunnenschlacht " and in the St. Luke Passion by Krzysztof Penderecki . In the Good Friday liturgy it is sung as a refrain alternating with the dulce lignum , the third verse of the eighth stanza.

history

Venantius Fortunatus wrote the hymn Pange lingua around 569 or 570 AD on the occasion of the donation of a cross particle by the Eastern Roman Emperor Justin II to St. Queen Radegundis in Poitiers for their monastery.

From 9./10. From the 19th century onwards, the hymn gradually became a permanent gem in the Benedictine and Roman Liturgy of the Hours of the Passion , the two feasts of the cross and especially in the liturgical veneration of the cross on Good Friday; this is also attested to in the Lateran Rite around 1140. It was also used in the Mozarabic Good Friday service.

The real old text was changed considerably under Pope Urban VIII , but under Pius X with only a few changes, some of which violate the meter, it was regained for the Roman gradual. Under Paul VI. the text in the Graduale Romanum of 1973/1979 was continued, but not yet completely adapted to the original text, in which pictorial thoughts and a tender mood predominate.

Original Latin text with literal translation

This is followed by the original text of the Pange lingua by Venantius Fortunatus, as reproduced by the source researchers Dreves and Blume. A literal translation is attached. A rhyming transmission ( From the laurel-winning dispute ) is available for example. B. in the Latin-German edition of the Roman Missal from 1962 published in 1963.

Original Latin text by Venantius Fortunatus

In honore Sanctae Crucis

Literal translation

In honor of the Holy Cross

Pange, lingua, gloriosi proelium certaminis
Et super crucis tropaeo dic triumphum nobilem,
Qualiter redemptor orbis immolatus vicerit.

De parentis protoplasti fraude factor condolens,
Quando pomi noxialis morte morsu corruit,
Ipse lignum tunc notavit, damna lign [i] ut solveret.

Hoc opus nostrae salutis ordo depoposcerat,
Multiformis perditoris art [e] ut artem falleret
Et medelam ferret inde, hostis unde laeserat.

Quando venit ergo sacri plenitudo temporis,
Missus est ab arce patris natus orbis conditor
Atque ventre virginali carne factus prodiit.

Vagit infans inter arta conditus praesaepia,
Membra pannis involuta virgo mater adligat,
Et pedes manusque, crura stricta pingit fascia.

Lustra sex qui iam peracta tempus implens corporis,
Se volente, natus ad hoc, passioni deditus,
Agnus in crucis levatur immolandus stipite.

Hic acetum, fel, arundo, sputa, clavi, lancea;
With corpus perforation; sanguis, unda profluit,
Terra, pontus, astra, mundus quo lavantur flumine.

Crux fidelis, inter omnes arbor una nobilis,
Nulla talem silva profert flore, fronde, germine,
Dulce lignum dulce clavo dulce pondus sustinens.

Flecte ramos, arbor alta, tensa laxa viscera,
Et rigor lentescatili, quem dedit nativitas,
Ut superni membra regis mite tendas stipite.

Sola digna tu fuisti ferre pretium saeculi
Atque portum praeparare nauta mundo naufrago,
Quem sacer cruor perunxit fusus agni corpore.

(Elide square bracketed vowels. To Str. 10:
"pretium" is to be spoken in two syllables: "pret-jum". )

Sing, tongue, the fight of glorious competition
and proclaim the noble triumphant chant on the victory sign of the cross,
how the redeemer of the world, sacrificed himself, achieved victory.

Out of compassion for the deception of the first-formed father, the Creator
even then referred
to the wood that was once supposed to make the atonement for the wood when he fell to his death by biting into the perishable fruit .

The divine plan had demanded this work of our salvation
that it should deceive the arts of the multiform spoiler with art
and bring from there a cure from where the enemy had inflicted the injury.

So when the fulness of the holy time came,
the father was sent from the castle, the founder of the world,
and made flesh he went out of the body of the virgin.

He squawks as a child, safe in the crib,
his limbs wrapped in diapers, ties the virgin mother together,
and the taut bandage draws his feet, hands, legs.

When he was now, thirty years old, fulfilling the time of his physical life, he
was born to this, according to his own will, consecrated to suffering
as a sacrificial lamb raised on the trunk of the cross.

Here he found vinegar, bile, stick, spit, nails, the lance;
his gentle body is pierced, blood and water flow out,
a river with which land, sea, stars, the whole world are purified.

Faithful cross, you the only nobler among all trees,
no forest produces one who is of this kind in terms of blossoms, leaves, and sprouts,
you lovely wood, hold the lovely burden with lovely nails.

Bend your branches, high tree, loosen your outstretched limbs,
and the rigidity that your origins gave you should subside,
so that you can relax the limbs of the highest king with a mild trunk.

You alone were worthy to bear the redemption of the world
and to set up a port for the shipwrecked world as a sailor,
you, whom the holy blood soaked, shed from the body of the Lamb.

(To Str. 6: a "lustrum" corresponds to a period of 5 years; 6 lustra = 30 years.)

Meter of the hymn

The hymn Pange lingua by Venantius Fortunatus has a rapid and powerful pacing rhythm that is made possible by the meter. It is a catalectic trochaic tetrameter , catalectic because the last of the four meters is no longer complete; he is missing a syllable. After two meters (i.e. after four feet of verse or eight syllables), trochaic tetrameter verses have a fixed caesura at which a word always ends, which is why they are often written in two lines today. In metric notation :

—◡ — ◡ˌ — ◡—— ‖ —◡ —— ˌ — ◡—

Following the example of Virgil for caesuras in hexameters , for example in the third verse of the first stanza ( Qualiter redemptor orbis immolatus vicerit ) the syllable bis from orbis long was measured. It is at the end of the caesura and therefore remains closed with a consonant. Only if there was no pause in speaking after orbis would one say ...- re-demp-to-ror-bi-sim-mo-la-tus -... , whereby the syllable would then be bi and would be short. Because of the caesura after orbis one speaks: ...- re-demp-to-ror-bis || im-mo-la-tus -... ; the syllable bis remains closed and therefore long.

The stanzas, which consist of three verses or six lines, do not differ outwardly from the stanzas of the Eucharistic hymn Pange lingua by Thomas Aquinas . However, Thomas Aquinas wrote his trochaic verses in accentuating metrics , as this was predominant in the high and late Middle Ages , while Venantius Fortunatus, who lived in the second half of the sixth century, was still associated with the quantitative poetry customary in antiquity and the early Middle Ages .

Liturgical use

Text editing

For a long time, the original text was not only subject to minor, but also to some extent major liturgical changes, which were found in the Liber Usualis , in older editions of the Graduale Romanum and in older missals. The latter also includes the Missale Romanum from 1962, which came into public use again through the Motu proprio Summorum pontificum . In the Liber Usualis as well as in older missals, the replacement of the proelium (battle, battle) with lauream ( the laurel tree ) catches the eye, since it is only the fourth word of the hymn.

The current edition of the Graduale Romanum has returned to the original text of Venantius Fortunatus on many points. The remaining changes are hardly noticeable. Some of them only refer to spelling or grammar, often ignoring the meter. In some cases, however, the meaning of what poetry suffers from changes ( e.g. with cingit ( he / she / it strings around ) instead of the poetic pingit ( he / she / it draws ), which means that the tight bandage in the form of a cover feet, arms and legs of the child in the manger; the poem venerates the bandage as a kind of Jesus sculpture).

The changes in detail:

Verse 1, verse 1: praelium instead of proelium (spelling)

Verse 3, verse 2: proditoris ( the traitor ) instead of perditoris ( the corruptor )

Verse 5, verse 1: arcta instead of arta (spelling)

Verse 5, verse 1: praesepia instead of praesaepia (spelling)

Verse 5, verse 2: alligate instead of adligate (spelling with or without consonant assimilation)

Verse 5, verse 3: et manus pedesqu [e] et crura ( both hands and feet and legs ) instead of et pedes manusque, crura ( both feet and hands, legs ); by adding et before crura , the syllable qu [e] et is lengthened and the meter is violated.

Verse 5, verse 3: cingit ( he / she / it surrounds, girds, laced ) instead of pingit ( he / she / it draws )

Verse 7, verse 1: en ( see ) instead of hic ( here )

Verse 7, verse 2: unde ( from which ) instead of unda ( wave, wave, water )

Verse 8, verse 2: fronde, flore ( on leaves, on flowers ) instead of flore, fronde ( on flowers, on leaves )

Verse 9, verse 3: miti instead of mite (classic ablative of mitis, -e ( mild ) disregarding the meter, since the syllable ti is long instead of like te , short)

Verse 10, verse 1: saecli pretium instead of pretium saeculi ( pretium ( price ) becomes three-syllable: pre-ti-um ; the meter is disregarded, because the first syllable, pre , is now short; on the other hand, the first syllable was positional, pret , the two-syllable word pret-ium = pret-jum )

Crux fidelis and Dulce lignum

In the veneration of the cross on Good Friday, the eighth stanza has an excellent meaning. It is divided into two parts, the crux fidelis and the dulce lignum , which are sung alternately as verses. The Crux fidelis only contains the first two verses (often also written in four lines) of the eighth stanza, the Dulce lignum the last verse of this stanza.

Liturgical text based on the Graduale Romanum (1973/79)	Literal translation
Crux fidelis , inter omnes arbor una nobilis, Nulla talem silva profert fronde, flore, germine, Dulce lignum , dulce clavo dulce pondus sustinens.	Faithful cross, you only nobler among all trees, no forest produces one that is of such a kind in terms of foliage, flowers, sprouts. You lovely wood, hold the lovely load with lovely nails.

Mostly, however, the title Crux fidelis is understood to mean the entire eighth stanza including the dulce lignum . As the hymn of the Karmette, it has often been set to music independently, for example by Anton Bruckner and in the St. Luke Passion (Penderecki) . The text for such settings comes from older liturgical versions. Best known is the one who under Pope Pius X in the Graduale Romanum has come. This was also included in the Liber Usualis , where it still stands today, because the Liber Usualis was last published in 1964, so it has the new version from 1973 under Pope Paul VI. no longer experienced.

While the current liturgical version of the Crux fidelis and Dulce lignum cited above only differs from the original version by the interchanging of the words flore and fronde , the liturgical text has been since Pius X., which appeared in the editions of the Graduale Romanum before 1973 and in Liber Usualis can be found, still covered by further deviations from the original text:

Nulla silva talem profert instead of Nulla talem silva profert : That made the verse easier to understand; Namely, nulla refers to silva ( nulla silva = no forest ). However, the quantitating-Trochaic meter was violated; the sixth syllable of the verse, lem from talem , is long, but as the second syllable in the second Trochaic meter it should be short.

dulces clavos ( lovely nails in the accusative) instead of dulce clavo ( with lovely nail ): This removed the ablative "dulce" from dulcis, -e , because it actually ends with the long -i , not the short -e as in the corresponding case Nouns that satisfy the consonant declension. The ending with the short -e ( dulce ), however, requires the meter, which was again disregarded by the replacement by the long -es ( dulces ) on the sixth syllable of the verse.

sustinet ( he / she / it endures, endures ) instead of sustinens ( enduring, enduring ): By using the verb instead of the participle, the dulce lignum, sung as a reversal, became a main clause.

Even if the earlier liturgical version of the crux fidelis and the dulce lignum violated the quantitating-trochaic meter, it nevertheless obeyed the trochaic meter in the sense of accentuating metrics that were common in the high and late Middle Ages. The eighth Pange-lingua stanza by Venantius Fortunatus, like the second, fourth and seventh, is trochaic in both respects, namely in terms of both quantifying and accentuating metrics.

The doxology as a final stanza

Both in the veneration of the cross on Good Friday and in the prayer of the hours (breviary) of Holy Week and the feasts of the cross, the hymn is concluded with an additional stanza on doxology ( honor be to the father ). In the Good Friday liturgy, it is followed by the dulce lignum reversal. In the Divine Office of Holy Week, it serves as the end of the first five stanzas, which are part of Matutin, as well as the end of stanzas 6 to 10, which are sung to the lauds.

The doxology stanza in the Graduale Romanum of 1973/79 is rather heavily modified compared to earlier liturgical versions. Like stanzas 2, 4, 7 and 8, it follows the trochaic meter in both quantifying and accentuating metrics.

Liturgical text based on the Graduale Romanum (1973/79)	Literal translation
Aequa Patri Filioque, inclito Paraclito, Sempiterna sit beatae Trinitati gloria; Cuius alma nos is talking to atque servat gratia.	To the father and the son, to the exalted supporter , be equal perpetual glory as the Blessed Trinity; their refreshing grace has redeemed us and also preserves us.

The liturgical sequence during the Good Friday liturgy

In the Graduale Romanum (in the current as well as in older editions) and in the Liber Usualis as well as in the missals, the following procedure is provided for cross veneration on Good Friday:

The choir sings the entire 8th stanza ( Crux fidelis and Dulce lignum ) as an antiphon .

In the alternate chant that follows, one side sings all the other verses. The other side responds to each of these stanzas alternately with the crux fidelis (without dulce lignum ) or the dulce lignum . In detail:

1st verse
Crux fidelis
2nd stanza
Dulce lignum
3rd stanza
Crux fidelis
4th stanza
Dulce lignum
5th stanza
Crux fidelis
6th stanza
Dulce lignum
7th stanza
Crux fidelis
9th verse
Dulce lignum
10th verse
Crux fidelis
Doxology stanza
Dulce lignum

The liturgical sequence in the Divine Office of Holy Week

In the Breviarium Romanum the Pange lingua des Venantius Fortunatus is prayed or sung in the following way on cross feasts and during Holy Week:

About Matutin:

1-5 verse
Doxology stanza

About the lauds:

6-10 verse
Doxology stanza

literature

Guido Maria Dreves, Clemens Blume: A millennium Latin hymn poem. A harvest of blossoms from the Analektika Hymnika with explanations of literary history. OR rice country; Leipzig, 1909; Part I, pp. 36-37, 355-377.
WJ Emmerig: Instructions for Latin verse art. Fourth much improved edition. JM Daisenberger; Regensburg, 1825.
Graduale Sacrosanctae Romanae Ecclesiae de tempore et de sanctis SS. DN Pii X. Pontificis Maximi jussu restitutum et editum. Cui addita sunt festa novissima. Editio altera Ratisbonensis juxta Vaticanam. Friedrich Pustet; Regensburg, Rome, New York, Cincinnati, 1911.
Graduale Triplex seu Graduale Romanum Pauli Pp.VI cura recognitum & rhythmicis signis a Solesmensibus Monachis ornatum neumis Laudunensibus (Cod. 239) et Sangallensibus (Codicum San Gallensis 359 et Einsidlensis 121) nunc auctum. Abbaye Saint Pierre de Solesmes (France) & Desclée, Paris-Tournai, 1979.
Lexicon for Theology and Church (LThK). Second edition, edited by Michael Buchberger. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1931.
Liber Usualis Missae et Officii pro Dominicis et Festis I. vel II. Classis cum cantu Gregoriano ex editione Vaticana adamussim excerpto et rhythmicis signis in subsidium cantorum a Solesmensibus Monachis diligenter ornato. Typis Societatis S. Joannis Evang. Desclée & Socii, Paris, Tournai, Rome, 1932.
The complete Roman missal. Latin and German with general and special introductions following the missal by Anselm Schott OSB. Published by the Benedictines of the Beuron Archabbey. Herder publishing house, Freiburg, Basel, Vienna, 1963.
Virgilio Masciadri: Pange lingua. Text and context considerations. In: Millennium . Yearbook on Culture and History of the First Millennium AD Volume 3 (2006), pp. 185–223.

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