DIVINUM OFFICIUM Hymn

Hymnus: Aurora caelum purpurat

Paschal Season - Lauds Hymn - Auth. St. Ambrose(?)

Aurora caelum purpurat, the Lauds hymn for Eastertide, attributed to St. Ambrose. The hymn celebrates the dawn (aurora) that purples the heavens as a figure of the Resurrection morning. Christ, the true Sun of Justice, rises from the tomb as the earth rejoices in the new creation inaugurated by His victory over death.

LATINE
Aurora caelum purpurat, / Aether resultat laudibus, / Mundus triumphans jubilat, / Horrens avernus infremit. // Rex ille dum fortissimus / De mortis inferno specu / Patrum senatum liberum / Educit ad vitae jubar. // Cujus sepulcrum plurimo / Custode signabat lapis, / Victor triumphat, et suo / Mortem sepulcro funerat. // Sat funeri, sat lacrimis, / Sat est datum doloribus: / Surrexit exstinctor necis, / Clamat coruscans Angelus. // Ut sis perenne mentibus / Paschale, Jesu, gaudium, / A morte dira criminum / Vitae renatos libera. // Deo Patri sit gloria, / Et Filio, qui a mortuis / Surrexit, ac Paraclito, / In sempiterna saecula. Amen.
ENGLISH
The dawn was purpling o'er the sky; / With alleluias rang the air; / Earth held a glorious jubilee; / Hell gnash'd its teeth in fierce despair: // When our most valiant mighty King / From death's abyss, in dread array, / Led the long-prison'd Fathers forth, / Into the beam of life and day: // When He, whom stone and seal and guard / Had safely to the tomb consign'd, / Triumphant rose, and buried Death / Deep in the grave He left behind. // Calm all your grief, and still your tears; / Hark! the descending angel cries; / For Christ is risen from the dead, / And Death is slain, no more to rise. // O Jesu! from the death of sin / Keep us, we pray; so shalt Thou be / The everlasting Paschal joy / Of all the souls new-born in Thee. // To God the Father, with the Son / Who from the grave immortal rose, / And Thee, O Paraclete, be praise / While age on endless ages flows. Amen.
NOTA
FONS
Breviarium Romanum (1962)
USUS
Paschal Season - Lauds Hymn - Auth. St. Ambrose(?)
HORA
Lauds
TEMPVS
paschal
GENVS
Hymn