Hymns to Saints Donatus and Hilary
Lokrantz calls the meter minor Sapphic
Saint Donatus, Bishop of Arezzo in Tuscany along with the monk Hilary was put to death for the Faith under Julian the Apostate (A.D. 361). Hilary was scourged to death; Donatus was beheaded. Saint Gregory and others relate the many miracles wrought by these holy men, among which the restoring of a glass altar-chalice dashed in pieces by the Pagans.
In the 11th century it was a tradition that the city of Arezzo guarded the relics of seven martyrs: the bishop Donato, the hermit Hilary, the virgins Flora and Lucilla, the brothers Lamentino and Pergentino and, lastly, the famous bishop of Benevento, Gennaro. In Arezzo are the hermitage of Camaldoli and the monasteries of S. Gennaro in Campoleone, of the SS. Flora and Lucilla and of S. Fedele di Poppi. For each of these saints Damian wrote texts.
Damian certainly went to Arezzo many times, not so much for his work of reform or as a bishop or as a father of monks, but rather as a pilgrim.
Hymnus Sanctorum Donati et Hilariani (46)
Hymn to Saints Donatus and Hilary
1.
Gloriam clari canimus triumphi
Quo polum victor petiit Donatus
Compar et ponae simul et coronae
Hilarianus.
We sing the glory of the bright triumph
With which Donatus the victor sought heaven
Hilary is equal in both his punishment
And his crown.
2.
Hi velut binae radiant lucernae
Orbis et taetras removent tenebras,
Dum tonant verbis rutilantque signis
Prodigiorum.
They shine as two lights
They remove the ugly and the shadows of the world,
While they thunder with words and glow with
Signs of wonders.
3.
Daemones captis spoliant rapinis,
Quos precum duris cruciant flagellis,
Robur aegrotis reparantque caecis
Lumen utrumque.
The demons whom they torment with hard whips of prayer,
They despoiled of their captured booty,
They renew strength to the ill and to
Each eye of the blind.
4.
Mensibus clauso tribus e sepulcro
Prodit infossum mulier talentum;
Proli sic vivo prolix marito,
Ne moreretur.1
Having been shut up for three months the woman produces
Buried money from the grave;
With her child alive and a living husband,
So that he may not die.
5.
Fragmen obtriti calcis (priorem)
Surgit (in formam), [pereunte parva
Parte], sed nullus liquor, inde stilla,
Res nova mundo!2
A fragment of a worn-out vessel
Is restored to its previous shape, even though a little part
Is missing, but no liquid spills from there,
A new thing in the world!
6.
Quaesumus, celsi proceres: “Olympii
Nos simul vestris precibus paternis
Erigat lapsos solidetque fractos
Dextera Christi.”3
We ask you, exalted on high in heaven:
May your paternal prayers repair us broken sinners
And raise us to heaven
By the right hand of Christ.
7.
Laus, honor patri parilique proli…
Praise, honor to the father and also to the son…
1 There are at least two explanations for this verse. Donatus’ mother, Flaminia, prayed to St. Gervasius, to save her husband, Faustus, from an illness. Gervasius promised recovery and a son, both of which occurred. Flaminia named the boy Donatus (gift). She brought him up as a Christian. At 17 he enlisted in the 12th Legion “Fulminatrix.” He rose through the ranks eventually becoming a personal bodyguard to the Emperor, Marcus Aurelius. More likely, I think, Donatus derives from ‘Deo natus,’ born of God, this second birth ‘of God,’ is said to occur for saints when they die.
2 Gregory relates in his Dialogue that people were receiving the Holy Communion in the Mass, and the deacon was distributing the Blood of Christ, when pagans rushed in and the holy chalice was shattered. Donatus gathered the fragments of the chalice, prayed, and restored it to its former shape. The Devil, however, hid one fragment, and yet the vessel did not leak. At the sight of this miracle, eighty pagans were converted and received baptism.
3 Again I feel led astray by Lokrantz and Facchini 2007. I do not have the knowledge of Italian or the access to the manuscripts to argue conclusively, but the text in Lokrantz 1960 has ‘Olympi,’ which I interpret as ‘heaven,’ and not (as found in Lokrantz and Facchini 2007) ‘prolix,’ which could be a child or simply an extent of space or time. Quaesumus, celsi proceres Olympi: Nos simul uestris precibus paternis Erigat lapsos solidetque fractos Dextera Christi. I feel that ‘Olympii’ makes more sense here.
Hymnus Sanctorum Donati et Hilariani (47)
Hymn to Saints Donatus and Hilary
1.
Donate, sidus aureum,
Martyr et proles martyrum,
Sed quos ad fidem praevenis,
Martyrio praecederis.
Donatus, star of gold,
Martyr and child of martyrs,
But you are preceded in martyrdom
By those whom you surpass in faith.
2.
Nobis, praesul egregie,
Decus et lux ecclesiae,
Tibi festa colentibus
Sacris succurre precibus.
Exceptional protector,
Glory and light of the church,
With your holy prayers
Help us who are devoting this festival to you.
3.
Qui das trimenstri mortuae
Viva verba depromere,
Resuscita per spiritum
Sepultos mole criminum.1
You who allow the three months dead
To produce living words,
Resurrect in the spirit,
Those buried by a mass of crimes.
4.
Vita luxit et moribus
Hilarianus monachus;
Iure functus hospitii
Fit consors et martyrii.
By his life and by his character
Monk Hilary shines;
Having discharged the duty of hospitality
He becomes also a sharer of martyrdom.
5.
Vos, clarae mundi lampades
Caelique vivi lapides,
Nos infelices meritis
Vestris adscite praemiis.
You bright lamps of the world
And living stones of heaven,
Bring us unhappy ones over
To your deserved rewards.
6.
Sit patris laus ingenito…
Let there be praise to the unbegotten (son) of the father…
1 This may refer to the legend in which he finds a dead man on the way to his funeral when a creditor says he cannot be buried until a debt is paid. The dead man’s wife appealed to St. Donatus who took the dead man’s hand. The man came to life, proved that the debt had been paid, and then asked to be allowed to return to his eternal rest.
