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Advent Music Day 21: O Virgo Virginum

O Virgin of virgins, how shall this be?
For neither before thee was any like thee, nor shall there be after.
Daughters of Jerusalem, why marvel ye at me?
The thing which ye behold is a divine mystery.

  • Latin, chant tune: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eD1kHNpoeVk
  • Medieval motet by Desprez: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bi4RQIWlhCo

Yesterday's O Emmanuel completes the usual Seven Great O Antiphons. And they are arranged like this for a reason - if you look back over the week and take the first letter of each (after O) they spell ERO CRAS, Latin for 'Tomorrow I will be (there, with you).' Which if you sing them on the 17th-23rd, is true! But if, as in medieval English practice, O Virgo virginum, a hymn to the Mother of God, is used in addition to the usual 7 Great Oes, the backward acrostic becomes VERO CRAS, 'truly, tomorrow'. And the smaller antiphons for the Offices throughout the day of Christmas Eve are full of ‘cras/tina’ – tomorrow:

Judaea et Jerusalem, nolite timere: cras egredimini, et Dominus erit vobiscum, alleluia.
Judea and Jerusalem, fear not:  To-morrow ye shall go forth, and the Lord shall be with you, alleluia.

Crastina die delebitur iniquitas terrae, et regnabit super nos Salvator mundi.
Tomorrow the iniquity of the earth shall be cancelled out, and over us shall reign the Saviour of the world.

Crastina erit vobis salus, dicit Dominus Deus exercituum.
Tomorrow ye shall be saved, says the Lord God of hosts.

And this beautiful antiphon for the Benedictus:
Orietur sicut sol Salvator mundi, et descendet in uterum Virginis, sicut imber super gramen, alleluia.
The Saviour of the world shall arise like the sun, and descend into the womb of the Virgin as the dew upon the grass, alleluia.

 

Photo by KaLisa Veer on Unsplash