Hymn in honour of *Stephen the First Martyr (S00030) composed in Latin in Spain possibly in the 7th century.
Evidence ID
E06850
Type of Evidence
Liturgical texts - Hymns
Literary - Poems
Hymnodia Hispanica, Hymn 171
First two strophes of this vesperal hymn are addressed to Christ who came to the world in order to defeat death by his death (it is an allusion to Christmas celebrated just the day before the feast of Stephen, see E05172). Stephen is presented as the first follower of Christ who offered his life, when sentenced to death because of false testimonies (strophes 3–4). His prayer for his persecutors is mentioned and his death by stoning assisted by *Paul, the Apostle (strophes 5–8).
(9) Quesumus flentes, benedicte prime
martyr et ciues sociate iustis,
35 celitus clare regionis heres,
inclite pollens,
(10) Promtus hic nostrum facinus remitte,
tolle langorem, tribue salutem,
confodi hostem, releua merorem
40 morte subacta.
'(9) We ask you crying, bless us, o First Martyr and fellowman of the just, heir of the shining country of heaven, famous and powerful,
(10) dismiss quickly our crime, take away pain, give us salvation, strike down the enemy, remove sorrow, as the death has been overcome.'
Here follows the strophe praising the Trinity (the doxology).
Text: Sánchez 2010, 626–629.
Translation and summary: M. Szada.
Liturgical ActivitiesService for the saint
FestivalsPrayer/supplication/invocation
Service for the saint
Chant and religious singing
FestivalsSaint’s feast
Non Liturgical ActivityPrayer/supplication/invocation
Composing and translating saint-related texts
Source
The hymn is written in rhythmic, quantitative sapphic stanzas and has been dated to the 7th century by Pérez de Urbel (1926: 122). This dating was accepted by Diaz y Diaz 1958: 347 and Szöverffy 1998, 35. Its Hispanic origin is not entirely certain because the hymn is known to us also from non-Hispanic manuscripts (see Blume 1897, 244; Sanchez 2010, 846).The hymn is transmitted in the following manuscripts of Hispanic provenance: Psalmi Cantica et Hymni, Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid, ms. 10001 (the 9th–11th c.), Emilianensis, Biblioteca de la Real Academia de la Historia, ms. 30 (the 10th c.), Psalmi Cantica et Hymni, British Library in London, ms. 30851 (the 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. (trans.), 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", 1958).
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 | S00030 | Stephen, the First Martyr | Stephanus, primus martyr | Certain |
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