Hymn in honour of *Iustus and Pastor (schoolboys and martyrs of Complutum, Spain S00504) composed in Latin in Spain possibly in the 7th century.
E06845
Liturgical texts - Hymns
Literary - Poems
Hymnodia Hispanica, Hymn 146
The first two strophes are an invocation to God to inspire believers to sing praise to the saint. In the third the saints, Iustus and Pastor, are presented as brothers joined in martyrdom. The following strophes tell how Iustus and Pastor learn about persecutions and about the arrival of the emperor Datianus to the city. They leave the school and denounce themselves to the authorities (strophes 4–5). Datianus orders them to be beaten with clubs but the resolve of the two boys is not shaken (strophes 6-8). Enraged Datianus passes the death sentence on them (strophe 9) and they are martyred in the place called 'campus laudabilis' (the Praiseworthy Field) which is later a place where miracles occur (strophes 10–12). The story is consistent with the Martyrdom of Justus and Pastor ($E###).
(13) Iam tuorum passione freta gaude ciuitas
iure Complutensis, almo quo laueris sanguine,
et gemellis mox camenas redde uoto deuitas.
(14) 40 Hinc, Deus, te postulamus, ut precantes audias,
pelle morbos, solue uincla et relaxa crimina
atque inlesi futuram adpetamus patriam.
(15) Nominis tui amorem da tuis in seruulis,
temporale nil amemus, diligamus inuicem,
45 te sequamur, te canamus, te fruamur perpetim.
Gloria patri.
'(13) Rejoice now justly the city of Compludo leaning on the martyrdom of your [citizens] in whose nourishing blood may you be washed, offer due songs to these twin-born [saints].
(14) Hence, o God, we ask you to hear those who beg you, repel illnesses, loose bonds and free us from crimes and let us reach unscathed the future homeland.
(15) Give your servants love of Your Name so that we do not love anything temporal but rather love each other, follow You, sing praise to You and find delight in you for ever.
Glory to the Father.'
Text: Sánchez 2010, 539-542.
Translation and summary: M. Szada.
Service for the saint
Chant and religious singing
FestivalsSaint’s feast
Cult PlacesPlace of martyrdom of a saint
Non Liturgical ActivityPrayer/supplication/invocation
Composing and translating saint-related texts
Saint as patron - of a community
MiraclesMiracle after death
Healing diseases and disabilities
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesChildren
Source
The hymn, written in quantitative trochaic septenarii, was dated to the 7th century by Pérez de Urbell (1926, 219) on the basis of style (he notes the similarity to the poetry of Eugenius of Toledo). This dating is accepted by Castro Sanchez 2010, 840.The hymn is transmitted in the following manuscripts: Psalmi Cantica et Hymni, Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid, ms. 10001 (9th–11th c.); Officia et Missae, Archivo Catedral in Toledo, ms. 35.6 (9th–10th c.); Alia Officia Toletana, British Library, ms. 30845 (11th c.); and Psalmi Cantica et Hymni, 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.
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).
Marta Szada
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00504 | Iustus and Pastor, schoolboys and martyrs of Alcala, Spain | Iustus et Pastor | Certain |
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