"Sancti venite." A communion hymn.
"Urbs beata Jerusalem."^500 It is from the eighth century, and one of those touching New
Jerusalem hymns which take their inspiration from the last chapter of St. John’s Apocalypse, and
express the Christian’s home-sickness after heaven. The following is the first stanza (with Neale’s
translation):
"Urbs beata Jerusalem,
Dicta pacis visio,
Quae construitur in coelo
Vivis ex lapidibus,
Et angelis coronata
Ut sponsata comite."
Blessed City, Heavenly Salem,
Vision dear of Peace and Love,
Who, of living stones upbuilded,
Art the joy of Heav'n above,
And, with angel cohorts circled,
As a bride to earth dost move!"
"Apparebit repentina." An alphabetic and acrostic poem on the Day of Judgment, based on
Matt. 25:31–36; from the seventh century; first mentioned by Bede, then long lost sight of; the
forerunner of the Dies Irae, more narrative than lyrical, less sublime and terrific, but equally solemn.
The following are the first lines in Neale’s admirable translation:^501
"That great Day of wrath and terror,
That last Day of woe and doom,
Like a thief that comes at midnight,
On the sons of men shall come;
When the pride and pomp of ages
All shall utterly have passed,
And they stand in anguish, owning
That the end is here at last;
And the trumpet’s pealing clangor,
Through the earth’s four quarters spread,
Waxing loud and ever louder,
Shall convoke the quick and dead:
And the King of heavenly glory
Shall assume His throne on high,
And the cohorts of His angels
Shall be near Him in the sky:
And the sun shall turn to sackcloth,
And the moon be red as blood,
(^500) In the Roman Breviary: "Coelestis urbs Jerusalem." Neale thinks that the changes in the revised Breviary of Urban
VIII. have deprived "this grand hymn of half of its beauty."
(^501) See the original in Daniel, I. 194. Other English translations by Mrs. Charles, and E. C. Benedict. In German by
Königsfeld: "Plötzlich wird der Tag erscheinen."