Firstpublished: Description: Antiphons for St. Ursula
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Original text and translations
Latin text
I.
Studium divinitatis
in laudibus excelsis osculum pacis
Ursule virginis
cum turba sua
in omnibus populis dedit.
II.
Unde quocumque venientes
perrexerunt,
velut cum gaudio celestis paradisi
suscepte sunt,
quia in religione morum
honorifice apparuerunt.
III.
De patria etiam earum
et de aliis regionibus
viri religiosi
et sapientes
ipsis adiuncti sunt,
qui eas in virginea custodia servabant
et qui eis in omnibus ministrabant.
IV.
Deus enim
in prima muliere presignavit
ut mulier a viri custodia
nutriretur.
V.
Aer enim volat
et cum omnibus creaturis
officia sua excercet,
et firmamentum eum sustinet
ac aer in viribus istius pascitur.
VI.
Et ideo puelle iste
per summum virum sustentabantur,
vexillate in regali prole
virginee nature.
VII.
Deus enim rorem in illas misit,
de quo multiplex fama crevit,
ita quod omnes populi
ex hac honorabili fama
velut cibum gustabant.
VIII.
Sed diabolus in invidia sua
istud irrisit,
qua nullum opus Dei
intactum dimisit.
English translation
I.
The longing of divinity
gave, among the highest honors
the kiss of peace
to the virgin Ursula,
with her retinue among all peoples.
II.
And so wherever
they went
they were received as though with
the joy of the heavenly paradise
because they appeared honorably
in the observance of customs.
III.
Even from their very homeland
and from other lands
pious men
and wise ones
joined up with those women,
men who protected them in their virginal keeping,
and who provided for them in all things.
IV.
You see, God
foreordained in the first woman
that woman would be nurtured
through the guardianship of man.
V.
You see, even the air is flying
and carrying out its duties
with all creation,
and the firmament supports it,
and the air feeds on its [firmament’s] energy.
VI.
And for that reason
those young women were sustained by the highest man
flying the royal banner of the child
of a virgin's womb.
VII.
You see, God poured the dew on them
from which a layered quality of reputation grew,
such that every people
would taste of this honorable reputation
like it was food.
VIII.
But the devil mocked that
in all his envy,
and so he let no work of God
go free, unmolested.
Latin text
English translation