Jam morte victor

Now Christ, the Conqueror of death

The Hymns of the Breviary and Missal

Jam morte victor obruta
Ab inferis Christus redit,
Fractisque culpæ vinculis,
Cœli recludit limina.
Visus satis mortalibus
Ascendit ad cœlestia,
Dexteræque Patris assidet
Consors paternæ gloriæ.
Quem jam suis promiserat,
Sanctum daturus Spiritum,
Linguis amoris igneis
Mœstis alumnis impluit.
Soluta carnis pondere
Ad astra Virgo tollitur,
Excepta cœli jubilo,
Et Angelorum canticis.
Bis sena cingunt sidera
Almæ parentis verticem:
Throno propinqua Filii
Cunctis creatis imperat.
Gloria tibi Domine
Qui natus es de Virgine,
Cum Patre et Sancto Spiritu
In sempiterna sæcula.

Now Christ, the Conqueror of death,
Breaks sin’s enslaving chain,
And rising from the tomb returns,
And opens heaven again.
Awhile beheld by mortal men,
He rises from their sight;
Ascending to the Father’s throne,
He reigns in equal light.
His promised gift unto His own
He sends forth from above,
And rains the Holy Spirit down
In fiery tongues of love.
The Virgin, freed of mortal weight,
Is borne than stars yet higher,
And with glad melody is hailed
By each Angelic choir.
Our Mother’s gentle brow now shines
With crown in starry sheen,
As nigh her Son, in light enthroned,
She reigns creation’s Queen.
O Jesu, born of Virgin bright,
All glory be to Thee,
With Father and with Paraclete,
Through all eternity.

Author: Father Augustine Ricchini, O.P., 18^th cent. Meter: Iambic dimeter. Translation by the Benedictines of Stanbrook. Liturgical Use: Hymn for Lauds on the Feast of the Holy Rosary. Theme: The Five Glorious Mysteries. There are six translations.

The Resurrection: “Death having been vanquished, Christ, the conqueror, returns from Limbo, and having broken the bonds of sin, He reopens the portals of heaven.”
The Ascension: “Having appeared sufficiently long to men, He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father, a co-sharer of His glory.”
The Coming of the Holy Ghost: “The Holy Spirit whom He had already promised to His own, He showers down upon His sorrowing Apostles in fiery tongues of love.”
The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin: “Liberated from the weight of the flesh, the Virgin is taken, up to heaven; she is received with the jubilation of heaven, and with the songs of Angels.”
The Coronation of the Blessed Virgin: “Twelve stars now crown the brow of the glorious Mother; near the throne of her Son, she reigns over all created things.” There is an allusion in this stanza to the “great sign” that appeared in heaven: “A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars” (Apoc. 12, 1). See footnote on this verse of the Apoc, in the Douay Bible. Imperat: “reigns over” in the sense that she is styled—Queen of Angels, Patriarchs, Prophets, etc., in the Litany.