Hail! festal day, to endless ages known

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Hail! festal day, to endless ages known

Author: Venantius Honorius Clementianus Fortunatus; Translator: Thomas A. Lacey (1884)
Tune: SALVE! FESTA DIES (Powell 13455)
Published in 17 hymnals

Printable scores: MusicXML
Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

Hail! Festal Day! through ev'ry age, divine,
When God's fair grace from heav'n on earth did shine.
Hail! Festal Day divine. [Chorus]

2 Lo! God the Spirit to the Apostles' hearts
This day in form of fire Himself imparts. [Chorus]

3 From forth the Father, bearing mystic powers,
On human hearts new strength He richly showers. [Chorus]

4 Now cease they not, to all on earth that dwell,
God's wondrous works in divers tongues to tell. [Chorus]

5 Hail! Breath of Life, Hail! Holy Fount of Light!
Lifegiver! Fire of radiance ever bright! [Chorus]

6 Thou Good all good containing, Peace divine!
Fill with Thy sweetness all these hearts of Thine. [Chorus]

7 Who fillest all things, earth and sky and sea,
Cleanse Thou, and guard us; bid us live to Thee. [Chorus]

8 Some foretaste grant us of Thy secret things,
The overshadoing of cherub wings. [Chorus]

9 To love divine our lips and hearts inspire,
By flying seraph touched with altar fire. [Chorus]

Source: The Church Hymnal: containing hymns approved and set forth by the general conventions of 1892 and 1916; together with hymns for the use of guilds and brotherhoods, and for special occasions (Rev. ed) #571

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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 >

Translator: Thomas A. Lacey

Lacey, Thomas Alexander, s. of G. F. Lacey, was b. at Nottingham, Dec. 20, 1853. He entered Balliol Coll., Oxford, as an exhibitioner in 1871 (B.A. 1876, M.A. 1885), was ordained D. 1876, P. 1879, was from 1894 to 1903 Vicar of Madingley near Cambridge, and since then has been Chaplain of the London Diocesan Penitentiary. He was one of the Committee who compiled The English Hymnal, 1906, and contributed to it twelve translations (8, 66, 67, 69, 104, 123, 124, 174, 208, 226, 249, 325), also one unpublished and one previously published original, viz., 1. O Faith of England, taught of old. [Church Defence.] 2. The dying robber raised his aching brow. [Good Friday.] First in the Treasury, Sept. 1905, p. 482, headed "Sursum." T… Go to person page >

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Text Information

Text Information

First Line:	Hail! festal day, to endless ages known
Latin Title:	Salve festa dies
Author:	Venantius Honorius Clementianus Fortunatus
Translator:	Thomas A. Lacey (1884)
Source:	Latin
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain