Faithful cross, above all others

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Faithful cross, above all others

Author: Venantius Honorius Clementianus Fortunatus
Tune: MONROVIA
Published in 2 hymnals

Representative Text

1 Faithful cross, above all other:
one and only noble tree!
None in foliage, none in blossom,
none in fruit thy peer may be:
sweetest wood and sweetest iron,
sweetest weight is hung on thee.

2 Bend thy boughs, O tree of glory!
Thy relaxing sinews bend;
for awhile the ancient rigor
that thy birth bestowed, suspend;
and the King of heavenly beauty
gently on thine arms extend.

3 Praise and honor to the Father,
praise and nonor to the Son,
praise and honor to the Spirit,
ever Three and ever One:
one in might and one in glory
while eternal ages run.

1 Crux fidelis inter omnes,
arbor una nobilis:
Nulla talem silva, profert,
fronde, flore, germine;
dulce lignum, dulces clavos,
dulce pondus sustinet.

Source: Wonder, Love, and Praise: a supplement to the Hymnal 1982 #737

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Author: Venantius Honorius Clementianus Fortunatus

Venantius Honorius Clematianus Fortunatus (b. Cenada, near Treviso, Italy, c. 530; d. Poitiers, France, 609) was educated at Ravenna and Milan and was converted to the Christian faith at an early age. Legend has it that while a student at Ravenna he contracted a disease of the eye and became nearly blind. But he was miraculously healed after anointing his eyes with oil from a lamp burning before the altar of St. Martin of Tours. In gratitude Fortunatus made a pilgrimage to that saint's shrine in Tours and spent the rest of his life in Gaul (France), at first traveling and composing love songs. He developed a platonic affection for Queen Rhadegonda, joined her Abbey of St. Croix in Poitiers, and became its bishop in 599. His Hymns far all th… Go to person page >

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