Aurora Lucis Rutilat
Stanza 9
Claro paschali gaudio
Sol mundo nitet radio,
Cum Christum iam apostoli
Visu cernunt corporeo.
10
Ostensa sibi vulnera
In Christi carne fulgida
Resurexisse Dominum
Voce fatentur publica.
11
Rex Christe clementissime,
Tu corda nostra posside,
Ut tibi laudes debitas
Reddamus omni tempore.
Doxology
Quaesumus, auctor omnium,
In hoc paschali gaudio
Ab omni mortis impetu
Tuum defendas populum.
Gloria tibi, Domine,
Qui surrexisti a mortuis,
Cum Patre et sancto Spiritu
In sempiterna saecula.
The full hymn was used at first as a morning hymn throughout the Easter season. Later it was broken up into parts for various services during the day, as follows: Aurora lucis rutilat, stanzas 1-4; Tristes erant apostoli, stanzas 5-8; Claro paschali gaudio, stanzas 9-11. A traditional double doxology of two stanzas which varies in form but which is always present, completes the third hymn. The subject matter follows the Biblical narrative of the events of Easter morning.
The entire hymn was translated by John Mason Neale, Collected Poems of John Mason Neale, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1914, pp. 121-122, and published in The Hymnal Noted, in 1852. The full translation which has been greatly altered may also be found in Hymns Ancient and Modern, pp. 198-199, in a traditional form.
Those who sing this hymn at Eastertide may be assured that it has been in unbroken use for fourteen centuries, a universal expression of the season’s unchanging faith and joy.
MUSIC. PUER NOBIS. For comments on this tune see Hymn 87.