We’ve been meditating on the Victimae Paschali Laudes — an ancient chant that tells the story of death and life locked in a struggle, wherein Christ, the Paschal victim, victorious over death, reconciles us to the Father. It tells the story of Mary Magdalene, who upon finding the empty tomb of the risen Christ and of finding the clothes which once covered his head and limbs, proclaims “Christ my hope has arisen.”
Victimae Paschali Laudes is one of the medieval sequences that were preserved in the Missale Romanum published in 1570 after the Council of Trent (1545-1563), this poetic liturgical hymn continues to be sung at the Tridentine Mass on Easter Sunday and through its Octave. The Easter sequence, attributed to Wipo of Burgundy (✞ 1048).
Victimae Paschali Laudes
Latin & English (literal)
Victimae paschali laudes
immolent Christiani.
-Let Christians offer sacrificial
praises to the Passover victim.
Agnus redemit oves:
Christus innocens Patri
reconciliavit peccatores.
-The lamb has redeemed the sheep:
The Innocent Christ has reconciled
the sinners to the Father.
Mors et vita duello
conflixere mirando:
dux vitae mortuus,
regnat vivus.
-Death and life contended
in a spectacular battle:
the Prince of life, who died,
reigns alive.
Dic nobis Maria,
quid vidisti in via?
-Tell us, Mary, what did
you see on the road?
Sepulcrum Christi viventis,
et gloriam vidi resurgentis
-“I saw the tomb of the living Christ
and the glory of his rising,
Angelicos testes,
sudarium, et vestes.
-The angelic witnesses, the
clothes and the shroud.”
Surrexit Christus spes mea:
praecedet suos [vos] in Galilaeam.
-“Christ my hope is arisen;
into Galilee, he will go before his own.”
[Credendum est magis soli
Mariae veraci
Quam Judaeorum Turbae fallaci.] *
-[Happy they who bear the witness
Mary’s word believing
above the tales of Jewry deceiving.] *
Scimus Christum surrexisse
a mortuis vere:
tu nobis, victor Rex, miserere.
-We know Christ is truly risen from the dead!
To us, victorious King, have mercy!
[Amen.] [Alleluia.]
-Amen. [Alleluia.]
* The section beginning “Credendum est,” with its pejorative reference to the Jews, was deleted in the 1570 missal, which also replaced “praecedet suos (his own)” with “praecedet vos (you)”, and added “Amen” and “Alleluia” to the end.
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