Iste Confessor Domini sacratus [colentes]. [Saints' Days.] This hymn is found in the Common of Confessors in the Sarum, York, Aberdeen, Mozarabic, Roman and other Breviaries. In the Roman Breviaryof 1632 (text in Daniel, i., No. 226) it is altered considerably, beginning "Iste confessor Domini colentes.”
Daniel, after giving the text at i., No. 226, notes at iv. p. 371, that it is contained in a 9th century manuscript at Bern as a hymn on St. Germanus. It is in three manuscripts of the 11th century, in the British Museum (Vesp. D. xii. f. 108; Jul. A. vi. f. 66 b; Harl. 2961, f. 249), and in the Latin Hymns of the Anglo-Saxon Church, 1851, p. 136, is printed from an 11th century manuscript at Durham (B. iii. 32, f. 40). Also in three manuscripts (Nos. 387, 413, 414) of the 11th century, at St. Gall. Also in Card. Newman's Hymni Ecclesiae, 1838 and 1865. The text usually translated is from the Roman Breviary of 1632. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]
Translations in common use:—
1. The Confessor of Christ, from shore to shore. By E. Caswall, in his Lyra Catholica, 1849, p. 216, and again in his Hymns & Poems, 1873, p. 114. This is also given in some Roman Catholic collections for Missions and Schools.
2. He, the Confessor of the Lord, with triumph. By J. M. Neale, in the Hymnal Noted, 1852, No. 41.
3. This is the day when Jesus' true Confessor. By R. F. Littledale, made for and first published in the People's Hymnal, 1867, and repeated, except the alternative first stanza and the third, in the Marquess of Bute's Roman Breviary in English, 1879, i. p. 842.
4. He, whom in all lands celebrate the faithful. Appeared in the Antiphoner & Grail, 1880, and the Hymner, 1882, and appointed for St. Silvester.
Translations not in common use:—
1. Unto Thine holy Confessor, our voices. W. J. Blew, 1852.
2. This Thy Confessor Lord! of fame sublime. J. D. Chambers (from the older text), 1866.
3. O'er all the world the faithful sing. J. Wallace, 1874.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
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