Hymn in honour of *Hippolytus (martyr of Rome, S00509) composed in Latin in Spain possibly by Eugenius II, bishop of Toledo (647-657).
Evidence ID
E06107
Type of Evidence
Liturgical texts - Hymns
Literary - Poems
Hymnodia Hispanica, Hymn 127
IN SANCTI HIPPOLYTI
'In honour of saint Hippolytus'
The first two strophes encourage people to give praise to God and declare that the present day is the anniversary of Hippolytus' death. In the next strophes it is said that Hippolytus was an officer in the imperial army and received the emperor's order to guard a martyr (Laurence, not named in the hymn). The martyr makes a miracle of healing a blind person. Hippolytus witnesses it and converts (strophes 3–4). The emperor (called Caesar in the hymn) orders that Hippolytus' face be beaten with stones (strophe 5). Then he is tortured with a sharp-pointed instrument of torture which harms his intestines (strophe 6). Eventually he is dragged by wild horses and dies (strophe 7).
(8) Ob hoc suppliciter, rex Deus omnium,
30 rogantes petimus, ut martir inclitus
adsistat miseris fauctor et impetret
confessis ueniam corde piaculis.
(9) Sit uita locuplex, frugibus affluis,
rerum prosperitas congrua polleat,
35 bellum dispereat, pax bona profluat,
uirtutes uigeant, crimina transeant.
'(8) For this reason we suppliantly ask you Lord, God of all, let the great martyr help us in our miseries and obtain for us forgiveness for the sins confessed in heart.
(9) Let us have a wealthy life, abundant in fruits, let harmonious prosperity of things thrive, let wars be undone and good peace flow, let virtues flourish and crimes go away.'
Here follows a strophe with the doxology.
Text: Sánchez 2010, 471-73.
Translation and summary: M. Szada.
Liturgical ActivitiesService for the saint
FestivalsPrayer/supplication/invocation
MiraclesMiracle during lifetime
Service for the saint
Chant and religious singing
FestivalsSaint’s feast
Non Liturgical ActivityPrayer/supplication/invocation
Composing and translating saint-related texts
MiraclesMiracle during lifetime
Healing diseases and disabilities
Source
The hymn, written in rhythmic and quantitative Asclepiadean verses (Norberg 2004, 93), was tentatively dated on a stylistic basis to the 7th century. Pérez de Urbel (1926, 220) supposed that its author might have been Eugenius II, bishop of Toledo (647–657). The 7th century dating has been accepted by Díaz 1958, no. 339, and Szöverffy 1998, 35.It is preserved in one manuscript: Psalmi, Cantica et Hymni, London, British Library, ms. 30851 (11th c.).
Josef Pérez de Urbell’s method of dating hymns:
The method is based on two preliminary assumptions:
a) that the bulk of the Hispanic liturgy was composed in the seventh century, the ‘golden age’ of the Hispanic church, and that important intellectual figures of this period (Braulio of Zaragoza, Isidore of Seville, Eugenius of Toledo, and others) participated in its creation;
b) that the liturgy was, nevertheless, still developing and changing in the period after the Arab invasion, and therefore, many texts which we find in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries liturgical manuscripts might be of more recent date. Some hymns can be dated with some confidence to the period after 711, for instance if they mention ‘hagaric oppression’ or if they are in honour of saints whose cult appears to have been imported into Hispania after the seventh century (since they do not feature in earlier literary and epigraphic evidence, nor are attested in the oldest liturgical book from Hispania, the Orationale Visigothicum).
It is more difficult to identify the hymns which are certainly from before 711. Pérez de Urbell, firstly and reasonably, attributed to this group hymns with what appear to be reliable attributions to authors from the seventh century (like Braulio of Zaragoza or Quiricius of Barcelona), and those which are stylistically close to the poetry of Eugenius of Toledo from the seventh century.
Pérez de Urbell then compared the two groups of hymns – those probably earlier than 711, and those probably later – and noticed the following:
a) late hymns contain barbarisms and solecisms, while early ones are written in correct Latin;
b) late hymns are composed in rhythmic metres, while early ones are in correct classical quantitative metres; authors of the eighth and ninth century who attempted to write in quantitative metres always made mistakes; also from the eighth century onwards we have no more poetic inscriptions in quantitative metres;
c) some rhythmical poetry could nevertheless be early;
d) although both early and late hymns sometimes have rhymes, perfect rhymes occur only in late hymns.
In the absence of any certain indications for dating, Pérez de Urbell assumed that a hymn is early if at least two requirements were met: the Latin is ‘correct’ and there are no perfect rhymes. He also considered early every hymn composed in a quantitative metre.
Discussion
The hymn gives account of the martyrdom of Hippolytus in accord with the Martyrdom of Sixtus/Xystus, Laurence and Hippolytus (E02513; the recension known from Spanish manuscripts is BHL 7812) and is unrelated to Hippolytus's story as told in Poem 10 by Prudentius (E04190). It is uncertain when the Martyrdom arrived in the Iberian Peninsula – its earliest Spanish manuscript is from the 10th century (the Spanish Passionary: Fábrega Grau 1953, 181–82). Moreover, in the 9th century sacramentary of Toledo, Sixtus/Xystus, Laurence and Hippolytus are celebrated on the same day, 10 August, the development probably provoked by the Martyrdom. In the earlier Spanish liturgy, as witnessed by the Orationale Visigothicum from the 7th century, Laurence and Hippolytus are venerated on different days – 10 and 11 August (E05652). The hymn here is offered only to Hippolytus which suggests that it is closer to the liturgy of the 7th century than to that of the 9th century. Also the wording of prayers in the Orationale corresponds to some extent with the hymn (e.g. v. 18: os sanctum lapide scindere precipit; cf. Orationale Visigothicum, prayer 1155: qui os Ippoliti tui cesum lapide; v. 25–26: Hinc ad cornipedum terga ferocium innexum religant Orationale Visigothicum, prayer 1156: more cornipedum per noxarum aculeos distrahendo dilacerat etc.).Bibliography
Edition:Castro Sánchez, J., Hymnodia hispanica (Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 167; Turnhout: Brepols, 2010).
Castro Sánchez, J., Hymnodia hispánica (Corpus Christianorum in Translation 19; Turnhout: Brepols, 2014). Spanish translation.
Further reading:
Blume, C., Die Mozarabischen Hymnen des alt-spanischen Ritus (Leipzig, 1897).
Diaz y Diaz, M.C., Códices visigóticos en la monarquía leonesa (León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación "San Isidoro", 1983).
Fábrega Grau, Á., Pasionario hispánico (Madrid, Barcelona: Atenas A.G., 1953).
Férotin, M., Le Liber Mozarabicus sacramentorum et les manuscrits mozarabes (Paris: Firmin-Didot, 1912).
Norberg, D., An Introduction to the Study of Medieval Latin Versification (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2004).
Pérez de Urbel, J., "Origen de los himnos mozárabes," Bulletin Hispanique 28 (1926), 5-21, 113-139, 209-245, 305-320.
Pinell, J. M., "Fragmentos de códices del antiguo Rito hispánico," Hispania Sacra 17 (1964), 195-229.
Szövérffy, J., Iberian Latin Hymnody: Survey and Problems (Turnhout: Brepols, 1998).
Record Created By
Marta Szada
Date of Entry
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00037 | Laurence/Laurentius, deacon and martyr of Rome | Certain | S00509 | Hippolytus, martyr of Rome | Hippolytus | Certain |
|---|
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