December 26 (December 27 in the east) is celebrated as the feast day of Saint Stephen ( died c. 34). Stephen was a deacon in the early church at Jerusalem and the first documented martyr of Christianity, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. The popular carol "Good King Wenceslas" tells the story of a royal braving harsh winter weather to give alms to a poor peasant on the Feast of Stephen.
In the late sixteenth century in the western Finland town of Turku, the rector (principal) of the Cathedral School of the local Catholic diocese took on the task of collecting, preserving and perpetuating the late medieval (thirteenth century) Latin songs that were still sung during his century in the Finnish cathedral schools. The name of the man was Jaakko Finne (or Jaakko Suomalainen), who was also a hymnist and who wrote under the Latinized penname Jacobus Finno (ca. 1540-1588). The collected songs were finally ypublished in 1582 with the funding of a Finnish student named Theodoric Petri of Nyland, a member of an aristocratic family who was known by other names, but is remembered in print as Theodoricus Petri Nylandensi (ca. 1560- ca. 1630).
The song collection became known simply as Piae Cantiones, but its full title was Piae Cantiones ecclesiasticae et scholasticae veterum episcoporum (Devout ecclesiastical and school songs of the old bishops). The collection included 74 songs that give insight to medieval Catholic culture. The origin of the songs and melodies varies and most of the songs are religious in nature, but some are secular school songs. One such school song, by author unknown, was called “Tempus Adest Floridum,” Latin, meaning “Now Come the Flowers.” The song celebrates the coming of spring, the warming of the earth and the blooming of the flowers.
Tempus Adest Floridum
Tempus adest floridum, surgent namque flores
Vernales in omnibus, imitantur mores
Hoc quod frigus laeserat, reparant calores
Cernimus hoc fieri, per multos labores.
Sunt prata plena floribus, iucunda aspectu
Ubi iuvat cernere, herbas cum delectu
Gramina et plantae hyeme quiescunt
Vernali in tempore virent et accrescunt.
Haec vobis pulchre monstrant Deum creatorem
Quem quoque nos credimus omnium factorem
O tempus ergo hilare, quo laetari libet
Renovato nam mundo, nos novari decet.
Terra ornatur floribus et multo decore
Nos honestis moribus et vero amore
Gaudeamus igitur tempore iucundo
Laudemusque Dominum pectoris ex fundo.
In 1853 a new collection of Christmas songs was published by hymnist John Mason Neale (1818-1866) and minister and chorister Thomas Helmore (1811-1890). The collection was entitled Carols for ChristmasTide and included a carol by Neale that he may actually have written a few years earlier. The text was a tale of a young man named Václav (pronounced “VAHT-slaf”), who was the son of Duke Vratislav I of Bohemia. Václav was born around 907 in Prague, Bohemia (now part of the Czech Republic). Christianity spread through Bohemia during his reign as duke, which began about 924 or 925 when he assumed the throne at the age of eighteen. On September 28, 935, Václav was murdered on his way to church in a plot organized by his younger brother, Boleslav, who succeeded him as duke. Numerous saintly stories about Václav circulated following his death, as well as a few miracles that were attributed to his name. Václav was later venerated as a saint in both the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, and there is a major shrine to him at St Vitus Cathedral in Prague.
The carol takes place in the Bohemian bitter cold of December 26, the feast day of Saint Stephen, whose stoning is recounted in the Acts of the Apostles (the Book of Acts in the Bible). Neale set his new carol text to the tune of the old medieval Latin school song “Tempus Adest Floridum.” And rather than use his Czech name of Václav, Neale called him the name by which he was better known in the west—Wenceslas.
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In the late sixteenth century in the western Finland town of Turku, the rector (principal) of the Cathedral School of the local Catholic diocese took on the task of collecting, preserving and perpetuating the late medieval (thirteenth century) Latin songs that were still sung during his century in the Finnish cathedral schools. The name of the man was Jaakko Finne (or Jaakko Suomalainen), who was also a hymnist and who wrote under the Latinized penname Jacobus Finno (ca. 1540-1588). The collected songs were finally ypublished in 1582 with the funding of a Finnish student named Theodoric Petri of Nyland, a member of an aristocratic family who was known by other names, but is remembered in print as Theodoricus Petri Nylandensi (ca. 1560- ca. 1630).
The song collection became known simply as Piae Cantiones, but its full title was Piae Cantiones ecclesiasticae et scholasticae veterum episcoporum (Devout ecclesiastical and school songs of the old bishops). The collection included 74 songs that give insight to medieval Catholic culture. The origin of the songs and melodies varies and most of the songs are religious in nature, but some are secular school songs. One such school song, by author unknown, was called “Tempus Adest Floridum,” Latin, meaning “Now Come the Flowers.” The song celebrates the coming of spring, the warming of the earth and the blooming of the flowers.
Tempus Adest Floridum
Tempus adest floridum, surgent namque flores
Vernales in omnibus, imitantur mores
Hoc quod frigus laeserat, reparant calores
Cernimus hoc fieri, per multos labores.
Sunt prata plena floribus, iucunda aspectu
Ubi iuvat cernere, herbas cum delectu
Gramina et plantae hyeme quiescunt
Vernali in tempore virent et accrescunt.
Haec vobis pulchre monstrant Deum creatorem
Quem quoque nos credimus omnium factorem
O tempus ergo hilare, quo laetari libet
Renovato nam mundo, nos novari decet.
Terra ornatur floribus et multo decore
Nos honestis moribus et vero amore
Gaudeamus igitur tempore iucundo
Laudemusque Dominum pectoris ex fundo.
The carol takes place in the Bohemian bitter cold of December 26, the feast day of Saint Stephen, whose stoning is recounted in the Acts of the Apostles (the Book of Acts in the Bible). Neale set his new carol text to the tune of the old medieval Latin school song “Tempus Adest Floridum.” And rather than use his Czech name of Václav, Neale called him the name by which he was better known in the west—Wenceslas.
Good King Wenceslas
by John Mason Neale
Good King Wenceslas looked out on the Feast of Stephen,
When the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even.
Brightly shone the moon that night, though the frost was cruel,
When a poor man came in sight, gathering winter fuel.
“Hither, page, and stand by me, if you know it, telling,
Yonder peasant, who is he? Where and what his dwelling?”
“Sire, he lives a good league hence, underneath the mountain,
Right against the forest fence, by Saint Agnes’ fountain.”
“Bring me food and bring me wine, bring me pine logs hither,
You and I will see him dine, when we bear them thither.”
Page and monarch, forth they went, forth they went together,
Through the cold wind’s wild lament and the bitter weather.
“Sire, the night is darker now, and the wind blows stronger,
Fails my heart, I know not how; I can go no longer.”
“Mark my footsteps, my good page, tread now in them boldly,
You shall find the winter’s rage freeze your blood less coldly.”
In his master’s steps he trod, where the snow lay dinted;
Heat was in the very sod which the saint had printed.
Therefore, Christian men, be sure, wealth or rank possessing,
You who now will bless the poor shall yourselves find blessing.
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