Primary source · Latin

The Hymns of Ambrose

Ambrose of Milan · c. AD 386

Patrologia Latina, vol. 16 (Migne) — manuscript witness to The Hymns of Ambrose
Patrologia Latina, vol. 16 (Migne) — 1845https://vk.com/docs · Public domain · Commons
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Patrologia Latina, vol. 16 (Migne) — manuscript witness to The Hymns of Ambrose

Patrologia Latina, vol. 16 (Migne) — 1845https://vk.com/docs · Public domain · Commons

What this text is

Songs written to hold a besieged congregation together — Veni redemptor gentium, Aeterne rerum conditor — the metre that became the voice of the Western church, as Augustine heard it and wept.

Profile of Ambrose of Milan →

Interlinear passages

Word-for-word glosses of the original; the complete public-domain translation is linked below.

Veni redemptor gentium — first stanza
VeniComeredemptorredeemergentium,of the nationsostendeshowpartumthe birthvirginisof the virgin

Public-domain translations

J. M. Neale's rendering (1852)

Come, thou Redeemer of the earth, and manifest thy virgin-birth: let every age adoring fall; such birth befits the God of all.

Manuscript witnesses

Early antiphoner and psalter traditions

8th c. onward

The authentic core (Aeterne rerum conditor, Deus creator omnium...) transmitted by continuous liturgical use — Augustine quotes them within a decade.

LITURGICAL WITNESSES

Patrologia Latina, vol. 16 (Migne)

1845

Standard pre-critical text of the corpus.

PRINTED PROXY

Provenance

Milan, AD 386 — sung first in the besieged basilica

Editions & scholarship

Critical editions and standard translations behind the text above.

Figures named in this text (2)