Rerum Deus Tenax Vigor


Rerum Deus Tenax Vigor is the daily hymn for None in the Roman Catholic Breviary.

Translations of the hymn

Latin textJ Ellerton

The original version of the hymn had the word "lumen" in the first line of the second verse, but some versions substituted the word "clarum" instead of lumen.

Literal translation of the hymn

Meaning and purpose of the hymn

It comprises only two stanzas of iambic dimeters together with a doxology, varying according to the feast or season.
As in the hymns for Prime, Sext and Compline, the theme is found in the steady march of the sun, that defines the periods of the day :
which translates :
Who mark'st the day-hours as they run by steady marches of the sun'.
The moral application is, as usual, made in the following stanza:
The authorship of the hymns for Terce, Sext and None is now ascribed only very doubtfully to St. Ambrose. They are not given to the saint by the Benedictine editors, but are placed by Luigi Biraghi amongst his inni sinceri, since they are found in all the MSS. of the churches of Milan. Daniel thinks that much longer hymns for the hours were replaced by the present ones. Pimont disagrees arguing that the saint may well have composed two sets of hymns for the hours. However, the researches of Blume show that the primitive Benedictine cycle of hymns, as attested by the Rules of Cæsarius and Aurelian of Arles, did not include these hymns, but assigned for Terce, Sext and None the hymns: "Jam surgit hora tertia", "Jam sexta sensim volvitur", "Ter hora trina volvitur"; the earliest MSS. of the cycle give for these hours, for the remainder of the year, the hymns: "Certum tenentes ordinem", "Dicamus laudes Domino", "Perfectum trinum numerum"; while other MSS. give as variants for Lent: "Dei fide qua vivimus", "Meridie orandum est", "Sic ter quaternis trahitur". This Benedictine cycle was replaced throughout Western Christendom by a later one, as shown by Irish and English MSS. which give the present hymns for the little hours.
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