Hymn in honour of *Iusta and Rufina (martyrs of Seville, Spain, S02099), composed in Latin in Hispania possibly in the 7th c.
Evidence ID
E06846
Type of Evidence
Liturgical texts - Hymns
Literary - Poems
Hymnodia Hispanica, Hymn 147
IN SANCTARVM IVSTAE ET RVFINAE
'In honour of saints Iusta and Rufina'
In the first three strophes Iusta and Rufina, compared to red flowers, are praised as virgins who desired to go to heaven and fulfilled their desire in martyrdom. In strophes 4 and 5 they are compared to the earthen vessels that contain the Lord's treasure (cf. 2 Cor. 4:7); the earthen vessel is a figure of the female body whose weakness is overcome in martyrdom.
(6) 25 Ob hoc, uita, salus et uia, ueritas,
te summis precibus, Xriste rex, poscimus,
harum suffragio nos tibi consecres,
quarum tu fidei uoce placatus es.
(7) Mentis nos facito lampade uirgines,
30 fluxu corporeo effice liberas,
ut uotis rigidis corda calentia
gestantes habeant regna perennia.
'(6) On that account, we ask you King Christ - Life, Salvation, Way, and Truth – with lofty prayers to sanctify us for You through help of those by whose faithful voices You have been placated.
(7) Make us virgins by the light of your mind, free us from bodily desire so that we can, with our hearts burning with firm vows, obtain perpetual kingdom.'
Here follows the strophe with doxology.
Text: Sánchez 2010, 543-545.
Translation and summary: M. Szada.
Liturgical ActivitiesService for the saint
FestivalsComposing and translating saint-related texts
Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Service for the saint
Chant and religious singing
FestivalsSaint’s feast
Non Liturgical ActivityComposing and translating saint-related texts
Prayer/supplication/invocation
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesWomen
Source
The hymn is written in rhytmic and quantitative asclepiadeic verse. It has been attributed to Isidore of Seville or someone of his circle (Castro Sanchez 2010, 840; Pérez de Urbel 1926, 215). The 7th century dating is accepted by Diaz y Diaz 1983, 340, and Szövérffy 1998, 35.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 in London, ms. 30845 (11th c.); and Psalmi Cantica et Hymni, British Library in London, ms. 30851 (11th c.), with the lacuna in vv. 1–23.
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 comparison to the earthen vessels is not only Biblical but also hagiographical. The Passio Iustae et Rufinae (see $E###), included in the Spanish Passionary, relates that the virgins's occupation was trade in ceramics (chapter 2).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 | S02099 | Iusta and Rufina, martyrs of Seville | Iusta et Rufina | Certain |
|---|
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