"Pange lingua gloriosi corporis mysterium" is a Medieval Latin hymn attributed to Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) for the Feast of Corpus Christi. It is also sung on Maundy Thursday during the procession from the church to the place where the Blessed Sacrament is kept until Good Friday. The last two stanzas (called, separately, Tantum ergo) are sung at Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. The hymn expresses the doctrine that the bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Christ during the celebration of the Eucharist. It is often sung in English as the hymn "Of the Glorious Body Telling" to the same tune as the Latin. The opening words recall another famous Latin sequence from which this hymn is derived: Pange lingua gloriosi proelium certaminis by Venantius Fortunatus.

Text

There are many English translations, of varying rhyme scheme and metre. The following has the Latin text with a doxology in the first column, and an English translation by Edward Caswall in the second. The third column is a more literal rendering. <poem lang="la" style="float:left;">Pange, lingua, gloriósi Córporis mystérium, Sanguinísque pretiósi, Quem in mundi prétium Fructus ventris generósi Rex effúdit géntium. Nobis datus, nobis natus Ex intácta Vírgine, Et in mundo conversátus, Sparso verbi sémine, Sui moras incolátus Miro clausit órdine. In suprémæ nocte coenæ Recúmbens cum frátribus Observáta lege plene Cibis in legálibus, Cibum turbæ duodénæ Se dat suis mánibus. Verbum caro, panem verum Verbo carnem éfficit: Fitque sanguis Christi merum, Et si sensus déficit, Ad firmándum cor sincérum Sola fides súfficit. Tantum ergo sacraméntum Venerémur cérnui: Et antíquum documéntum Novo cedat rítui: Præstet fides suppleméntum Sénsuum deféctui. Genitóri, Genitóque Laus et jubilátio, Salus, honor, virtus quoque Sit et benedíctio: Procedénti ab utróque Compar sit laudátio. Amen. Alleluja. <poem style="margin-left:2em; float:left;">Sing, my tongue, the Saviour's glory, Of His Flesh, the mystery sing; Of the Blood, all price exceeding, Shed by our Immortal King, Destined, for the world's redemption, From a noble Womb to spring. Of a pure and spotless Virgin Born for us on earth below, He, as Man, with man conversing, Stayed, the seeds of truth to sow; Then He closed in solemn order Wondrously His Life of woe. On the night of that Last Supper, Seated with His chosen band, He, the Paschal Victim eating, First fulfils the Law's command; Then as Food to all his brethren Gives Himself with His own Hand. Word-made-Flesh, the bread of nature By His Word to Flesh He turns; Wine into His Blood He changes: What though sense no change discerns. Only be the heart in earnest, Faith her lesson quickly learns. Down in adoration falling, Lo, the sacred Host we hail, Lo, o'er ancient forms departing Newer rites of grace prevail: Faith for all defects supplying, When the feeble senses fail. To the Everlasting Father And the Son who comes on high With the Holy Ghost proceeding Forth from each eternally, Be salvation, honor, blessing, Might and endless majesty. Amen. Alleluia. <poem style="margin-left:2em; float:left;">Tell, tongue, the mystery of the glorious Body and of the precious Blood, which, for the price of the world, the fruit of a noble Womb, the King of the Nations poured forth. Given to us, born for us, from the untouched Virgin, and dwelt in the world after the seed of the Word had been scattered. His inhabiting ended the delays with wonderful order. On the night of the Last Supper, reclining with His brethren, once the Law had been fully observed with the prescribed foods, as food to the crowd of Twelve He gives Himself with His hands. The Word as Flesh makes true bread into flesh by a word and the wine becomes the Blood of Christ. And if sense is deficient to strengthen a sincere heart Faith alone suffices. Therefore, the great Sacrament let us reverence, prostrate: and let the old Covenant give way to a new rite. Let faith stand forth as substitute for defect of the senses. To the Begetter and the Begotten be praise and jubilation, greeting, honour, strength also and blessing. To the One who proceeds from Both be equal praise. Amen, Alleluia.

Music history

There are two plainchant settings of the Pange lingua hymn. The better known is a Phrygian mode (Mode III) tune from the Roman liturgy, and the other is from the Mozarabic liturgy from Spain. The Roman tune was originally part of the Gallican Rite. The Roman version of the Pange lingua hymn was the basis for a famous composition by Renaissance composer Josquin des Prez, the Missa Pange lingua. An elaborate fantasy on the hymn, the mass is one of the composer's last works and has been dated to the period from 1515 to 1521, since it was not included by Petrucci in his 1514 collection of Josquin's masses, and was published posthumously. In its simplification, motivic unity, and close attention to the text it has been compared to the late works of Beethoven, and many commentators consider it one of the high points of Renaissance polyphony. Juan de Urrede, a Flemish composer active in Spain in the late fifteenth century, composed numerous settings of the Pange lingua, most of them based on the original Mozarabic melody. One of his versions for four voices is among the most popular pieces of the sixteenth century, and was the basis for dozens of keyboard works in addition to masses, many by Spanish composers. Building on Josquin's treatment of the hymn's third line in the Kyrie of the Missa Pange Lingua, the "do–re–fa–mi–re–do"-theme (C–D–F–E–D–C) became one of the most famous in music history, used to this day in even non-religious works by composers including Simon Lohet, Michelangelo Rossi, François Roberday, Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer, Johann Jakob Froberger, Johann Caspar Kerll, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Fux wrote fugues on it, and the latter's extensive elaborations in the Gradus ad Parnassum made it known to every aspiring composer – among them Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart whose Jupiter theme borrows the first four notes. Anton Bruckner's first composition was a setting of the first strophe of the hymn: Pange lingua, WAB 31. The last two verses of Pange lingua (Tantum ergo) are often separated out. They mark the end of the procession of the monstrance in Holy Thursday liturgy. Various separate musical settings have been written for this, including one by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, one by Franz Schubert, eight by Anton Bruckner, one by Maurice Duruflé, and one by Charles-Marie Widor. Beethoven wrote an organ reharmonization of Pange lingua. The work was discovered in October 2012 by the musicologist and professor of the University of Manchester Barry Cooper. It was immediately proposed that the piece served as a sketch for the composer's Missa solemnis. Franz Liszt's "Night Procession" from Two Episodes from Lenau's Faust is largely a fantasy on the Pange lingua melody. A setting of Pange lingua, written by Ciaran McLoughlin, appears on the Solas 1995 album Solas An Domhain. Pange lingua has been translated into many different languages for worship throughout the world. However, the Latin version remains the most popular. The Syriac translation of "Pange lingua" was used as part of the rite of benediction in the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church of Kerala, India, until the 1970s.

Indulgence

In the Roman Catholic Church, full recitation of the Pange Lingua, or the Tantum Ergo, is followed by the Latin traditional verses, connected to the indulgence in perpetuity: "V. Panem de coelo praestitísti eis. R. Omnem delectaméntum in se habéntem. Oration Deus, qui nobis sub Sacraméntu mirábili Passiónis tuae memóriam reliquísti, tríbue quaesumus, ita nos Córporis et Sanguinis tui sacra mystéria venerári, ut redemptiónis tuae fructus in nobis iúgiter sentiámus. Qui vivis et regnas cum Deo Patre, in unitate Spíritus Sancti Deus per ómnia saecula saeculórum. Amen."

• don Giuseppe Riva, Manuale di Filotea, 1860 "Pius VII with Decree 25 August 1818 granted in perpetuity the indulgence of 300 days every time the Pange Lingua is recited, and 100 days only for those who recite the Tantum Ergo, always understanding that the aforementioned responsory is added Panem de coelo, etc. and the subsequent oration Deus qui nobis. Whoever practices this devotion at least 10 times a month has a plenary indulgence once a year on a day of his choice, in addition to the plenary indulgence on Holy Thursday, in Corpus Christi, or on a day of the Octave. These indulgences are applicable [to the souls of] the deceased."
• G.Riva, Manuale di Filotea, 1860

Sources