Quem terra pontus

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General information

Office hymn for the Common of the Blessed Virgin Mary, attributed to Venantius Fortunatus (530-609). Note: Pope Urban VIII in 1632 changed the last word of the first verse from aethera to sidera.

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Text and translations

Latin.png Latin text

Quem terra, pontus, aethera[sidera]
colunt, adorant, praedicant,
trinam regentem machinam
claustrum Mariae baiulat.

Cui luna, sol, et omnia
deserviunt per tempora,
perfusa caeli gratia,
gestant puellae viscera.

Beata Mater, munere,
cuius supernus Artifex,
mundum pugillo continens,
ventris sub arca clausus est.

Beata caeli nuntio,
fecunda Sancto Spiritu,
desideratus gentibus,
cuius per alvum fusus est.

Iesu, Tibi sit gloria,[or Gloria tibi, Domine,]
qui natus es de Virgine,
cum Patre, et almo[Sancto] Spiritu,
in sempiterna saecula.
Amen.

English.png English translation

The God whom earth, and sea, and sky
adore, and laud, and magnify,
who o'er their threefold fabric reigns,
the Virgin's spotless womb contains.

The God whose will by moon, and sun,
and all things in due course is done,
is borne upon a Maiden's breast,
by fullest heavenly grace possessed.

How blest that Mother, in whose shrine
the great Artificer Divine,
whose hand contains the earth and sky,
vouchsafed, as in His ark, to lie.

Blest, in the message Gabriel brought;
blest, by the work the Spirit wrought;
from whom the great Desire of earth
took human flesh and human birth.

All honour, laud, and glory be,
O Jesu, Virgin-born, to Thee,
whom with the Father we adore,
and Holy Ghost for evermore.
Amen.
Translation by John Mason Neale

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