The LION & the CARDINAL
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1 September 2010 ~ The Lion & the Cardinal by Daniel Mitsui



ST. GILES



His life, according to James of Voragine.

Sequence by Adam of St. Victor:

Congaudentes exultemus,
Exultantes celebremus
Aegidii solemnia,
Qui triumphans de terrenis
Coronandus in supernis
Summa petit gaudia!

Hunc insignem pietate,
Virum plenum sanctitate,
Stirpe natum regia,
Templum Deo mox futurum,
Mundo satis profuturum
Procreavit gratia.

Qui in primo aevi flore
Quantus floret in virore
Praemonstravit gratia;
Data veste mendicanti
Confert diu languescenti
Salutis remedia.

Hinc, post mortem genitorum,
Plenus laude meritorum,
Sua vendens omnia,
Larga manu dat egenis,
Egens ipse, alienis,
Exsulat a patria.

Undis nautae fatigati
Portum petunt liberati
Per ejus suffragia;
Medicina dum rogatur,
Sanitati revocatur
Vidualis filia.

Pellitur sterilitas,
Succedit fertilitas,
Surgit messis copia.
Aegri reparatio,
Pulso morbi vitio,
Moestis fit laetitia.

Ad deserta sitiens
Properavit, fugiens
Hominum consortia.
Panis ubi deerat,
Christus tamen aderat
Parando cibaria;
Fame ne deficeret,
Affuit, quae pasceret
Virum Dei, bestia.

Sic latere voluit;
Sed latentem reperit
Regalis familia.
Per nutricem cognitus,
A rege commonitus
Struit monasteria.
Illic castra militum
Pro Christo certantium
Collocavit fortia.

Hunc devote qui precatur
Voto regis non frustratur,
Protestante Gallia;
Dum pro rege supplicatur
Qui commisso premebatur,
Impetratur venia.

Mox nacturus praemia
Pro mundi victoria,
Subiit coelestia:
Quem coeli militia
Duxit ad palatia 
Ubi pax et gloria.

Hujus festum veneremus,
Venerantes habeamus
Semper in memoria.
Hunc submisse flagitemus,
Flagitantes imploremus
Nobis dari gaudia,
Quo felices maneamus
Et cum Sanctis decantemus
Festivum alleluia ! Amen.

Englished by Digby S. Wrangham:

Let us joy with exultation,
And, exulting, celebration
Make to-day of Giles's rites,
Who, o'er things of earth victorious,
Seeks those joys of all most glorious,
And a crown in heavenly heights!

He, for piety most noted,
Full of holiness devoted,
Scion of a regal race.
Soon to be God's holy temple,
And earth's very bright example,
Was begotten of God's grace.

In his youth's first early flower,
What in riper age his power
Would be, he, through grace, foreshowed;  
Clothing to a beggar giving,
Medicine too, his health reviving.
He on him, long sick, bestowed.

When his parents died, o'erflowing
With the praise due to well-doing,
Selling all, with open hand
Needy strangers he endoweth,
And, himself a pauper, goeth,
Exiled, from his native land.

Sailors, tempest-tost and wearied,
To the port they seek are carried.
Rescued by his earnest prayer:
To a widow he restoreth
Whole her child, while she imploreth
A physician in despair.

Barrenness away is chased,
By fertility replaced.
And a plenteous harvest comes:
Sick men with new health are filled,
Dire diseases thence expelled,
Causing joy in mournful homes.

To a bare and barren waste.
Sore athirst, he then made haste,
To escape from man's abode.
Christ Himself was present there,
Since but scanty was the fare,
To provide His servant's food;
Lest of hunger he should die,
A wild animal drew nigh
To sustain the man of God.  

Hidden thus he fain would be,
But the royal family
Of his place of hiding hear:
Through his nurse discovered, there
At the monarch's earnest prayer
He a monastery near, -
Where he many a warrior bold.
In the cause of Christ enrolled,
By his side encamped, - doth rear.

Through this monarch's prayer, whoever
Prays to Giles devoutly never, -
France is witness, - prays in vain;
For, when for the king he prayeth
On whose mind a dark deed weigheth,
He his pardon doth obtain.

To receive those laurels soon
By his earthly triumphs won,
Hath this saint to heaven gone,
Whom the host about God's throne
To those mansions, where alone
Peace and glory are, led on.

Giles's feast then venerate we,
Venerating, consecrate we
In perpetual memory!
Humbly now let us entreat him,
And, entreating, supplicate him,
That true joys our portion be.
Where in bliss that endeth never
We may Alleluias ever
With the Saints sing joyfully! Amen.

31 August 2010 ~ The Lion & the Cardinal by Daniel Mitsui



ILLUSTRATION REPORT ~ AUGUST 2010

For a more detailed account of my artstic activity, please subscribe to my electronic newsletter by e-mailing danmitsui [at] hotmail [dot] com.

Please also e-mail me if you are interested in purchasing original drawings or prints, commissioning works of art, collaborating, licensing an image or selling my work in a store. I welcome questions, comments, advice and criticism.

I am very interested in bringing my work and my knowledge about sacred art to a broader audience than this web log, especially by speaking or exhibiting artwork for parishes, schools, youth groups, conferences and other organizations. If you know of any opportunities for this, or if you would like to invite me, please e-mail me.

My main web site has been redesigned, and now includes prices on all works for sale, most of which are in the sections on religious art, biological art and giclée prints.

During the past month, I have completed one large drawing on commission, one large drawing on speculation, and several small works. In the coming months, I will be participating in several art and craft fairs around Chicago, and in November, I will be exhibiting my work at the Gateway Liturgical Conference in St. Louis.


New Drawing: Last Judgment
This black ink drawing of the Last Judgment is one of the largest works that I have created on speculation in recent years. It includes figures of David and the Sibyl, and the 15 signs of the end of the world. Please visit this page to see larger images, and to read a detailed description of its content and symbolism.

SCAN

The drawing measures 12" x 9", centered on a 14" x 11" piece of Bristol board. The original is for sale for $3300. I have not yet decided whether to issue a limited-edition print of it; please e-mail me if you would be interested in one, as this will help me gauge interest and make the decision. The prints, if I decide to issue them, will likely cost about $144 each.
New Drawing: Lily Cross
This drawing of Christ crucified on a lily was based on a late mediaeval wall painting at Godshill, on the Isle of Wight. Please visit this page to see larger images, and to read a detailed description of its content and symbolism.

SCAN

The drawing measures 9" square; it was made with colored inks on bristol board. The haloes and certain other elements are gold leaf. It was created on commission for a patron in England.
New Drawing: Annunciation
SCAN

This small drawing of the Annunciation has an historiated initial with Gabriel and Mary inside it. The large letters M and G are gold leaf. 3 1/2" x 4 1/2". Original for sale: $175
New Drawing: Trinity
SCAN

Recently, I discovered in my files a folder filled with half-finished drawings from about four years ago. Most of my work from that time no longer meets my standards. However, I found one incomplete Scutum Fidei with the words Pater, Filius and Spiritus Sanctus written in the distinctive, almost runic style of display capitals from the Lindisfarne Gospels and other early Irish and Northumbrian illuminated manuscripts; I liked the lettering that I had done so much that I considered finising the drawing, but instead I cut out the words and mounted them on another piece of Bristol board colored with a green wash. 4" x 6". Original for sale: $100
New Drawing: St. Patrick
SCAN

While working on the Trinity collage, I regretted not having used this style of lettering in such a long time. So I made a small drawing of St. Patrick in the style of the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Book of Kells, with two zoomorphic knots and a gold leaf background. 3 1/2" x 4 1/2". Original for sale: $175
Interview
I was recently interviewed by Rev. Mr. Lawrence Klimecki for his Gryphon Rampant website. The complete interview can be read here. An excerpt:
LK: Tell us some more about your work.

DM: The majority of my work is done in black ink on Bristol board. Mostly I draw with artists' pens, the ones with the finest tips available (size 005). My other basic tools are a pencil and a pencil sharpener, a ruler, and a kneaded rubber eraser. I sometimes use brushes and india ink for coloring in black spaces, and metal-tipped calligraphers' pens for lettering.

I start by outlining frames and borders with a ruler and compass. In this I attempt to imitate the method mediaeval craftsmen used to create harmonic proportions, deriving the lengths and widths from a sequence of squares whose areas diminish in geometrical progression.

I draw the difficult parts (such as human figures) with pencil, then correct and ink them. Most of the ornamental patterns I can draw freehand in ink, without pencilling them beforehand. One of my peculiarities is that I seldom, almost never, make draft sketches on separate pieces of paper. I prefer to work on the final piece of paper from the start. When I make mistakes in ink, I use hard erasers to rub them out or knives to scrape them away.

When I work in color, I use various combinations and dilutions of calligraphers' inks, applied with fine watercolor brushes. I use gold leaf for certain details. Sometimes I work on animal-skin parchment instead of paper; this yields a more precise drawing because there is so little bleed. I have been using goatskin, although I will probably switch to calfskin soon because the surface is smoother and doesn't ruin my pens as easily.

LK: We have a rich tradition of Catholic art to draw upon, how much of this plays a role in your work?

DM: Foremost, I want to uphold the principle of iconography, which was stated by the fathers of the Second Nicene Council: The composition of religious imagery is not left to the initative of artists, but is formed upon principles laid down by the Catholic Church and by religious tradition... The execution alone belongs to the painter, the selection and arrangement of subject belongs to the Fathers.

I am most strongly influenced by the art of the high to late middle ages, usually called Gothic; it is there that I see the principle of iconography expressed most perfectly in the western Church, ordered to her liturgy and theology. I refer most often to illuminated books from this era, as well as incunabula, stained glass windows, tapestries, panel paintings and works in metal for guidance in composing my drawings. I usually eschew linear perspective and Renaissance-style figurativism.

Gothic art contains within it all the best ideas of the traditions that preceded and influenced it, without suffering the influences that diminish the art of later eras. I believe that Gothic art ought to hold the same place in Roman Catholic art that Gregorian Chant holds in Roman Catholic music and the Thomism holds in Roman Catholic thought: a standard of excellence against which all other sacred art should be measured.

That does not mean that I see no value in religious art from other eras; in practice, I receive plenty of commissions for drawings of subjects or ideas that were never depicted in Gothic art. When that happens, I am happy to refer to Byzantine or Baroque or Japanese or any of a thousand other styles of art. But my guiding aesthetic is still high to late mediaeval.

In matter of ornament, which I think the fathers of Nicaea II would have considered part of the execution belonging to the painter, I am much more willing to depart from mediaeval precedents; any kind of intricate pattern interests me, and I am especially fond of Celtic knotwork and microbiological forms. I have joked at times that, were my real name lost to history, I would want to be known as the Master of the Mitochondria. These have become such a signature decorative motif for me that I sometimes draw a mitochondrion in place of a written signature.
Limited-Edition Art Prints for Sale
Limited-edition giclée art prints on heavy rag paper are available of the following works. Click on the thumbnails below for more information about each drawing, or here for more information about limited-edition prints in general.

ANNUNCIATION
Annunciation
Image size: 6" x 8"
Paper size: 8" x 10"
Limited edition (1-100) signed giclee art print
$96 + shipping

CRUCIFIXION
Crucifixion
Image size: 8" x 11"
Paper size: 9" x 12"
Limited edition (1-100) signed giclee art print
$120 + shipping

ST. MICHAEL
St. Michael
Image size: 5.5" x 8.5"
Paper size: 8" x 10"
Limited edition (1-30) signed giclee art print
$96 + shipping

ST. COLUMBA
St. Columba of Iona
Image size: 8 1/2" x 11 1/9"
Paper size: 9" x 12"
Limited edition (1-6) signed giclee art print
$120 + shipping


Tree of Life and Death
Image size: 5 1/4" x 7"
Paper size: 8" x 10"
Limited edition (1-50) signed giclee art print
$96 + shipping
Christmas Cards for Sale

Tree of Jesse
Card size: 5" x 7"
Blank inside
$1 per card + shipping
Envelopes included
Minimum order of 10


Annunciation to the Shepherds
Card size: 4" x 5"
Blank inside
$1 per card + shipping
Envelopes included

See this page for more information.
Printed Universal Bookplates for Sale

Olives


Critters


Maze

Size of printed bookplates: 3" x 4"
Digital prints on white acid-free paper
50 cents each + shipping

See this page for more information.

30 August 2010 ~ The Lion & the Cardinal by Daniel Mitsui



16TH CENTURY GERMAN BOOK of HOURS ~ NORBERTINE USE









ST. FIACRE



His life, according to James of Voragine.

29 August 2010 ~ The Lion & the Cardinal by Daniel Mitsui



DECOLLATION of ST. JOHN the BAPTIST



The story, according to James of Voragine.

Sequence by Adam of St. Victor:

Praecursorum summi regis 
Et praeconem novae legis 
Celebrat Ecclesia. 
In hac luce tam festiva, 
Gaude, mater, et votiva 
Deprome praeconia. 

Hujus ortum veneremur, 
Sed nec minus delectemur 
In ejus martyrio. 
Totus mundus sit jocundus! 
Nulli martyr hic secundus 
Virtute vel praemio. 

Non est nostrae pravitatis 
Virum tantas sanctitatis 
Laudare per omnia. 
Summa rei recitetur, 
Ut affectus inflammetur 
Ex ejus memoria. 

Non arundo levitatis, 
Sed columna veritatis 
Nulla palpat crimina; 
Scribas tangit et doctores, 
Vocans legis transgressores 
Viperae genimina. 

Arguebat hic Herodem, 
Nec terretur ab eodem 
Ligatus in carcere. 
Fert injuste Justus poenam, 
Rem detestans tam obscoenam 
Regis et adulterae. 

Saevit in hunc vis tyranni: 
Laus accrescit hinc Johanni, 
Tyranno supplicium; 
Stultus servit sapienti, 
Quia Justus in praesenti 
Purgatur per impium. 

In natalis sui coena 
Capitali plecti poena 
Johannem rex imperat. 
Spiculator saltatrici, 
Saltatrix dat genetrici 
Caput quod petierat. 

Crux praesignat sublimari 
Christum, sed hunc minorari 
Capitis abscissio. 
Mors est justi pretiosa 
Quam praecessit gloriosa 
Vitae conversatio. 

Nos ad laudem tui, Christe, 
Praecursoris et Baptistae  
Colimus solemnia. 
Tu nos ab hac mortis valle, 
Duc ad vitam recto calle 
Per ejus vestigia. Amen.  

Englished by Digby S. Wrangham:

John, the King of kings' precursor, 
John, the new Law's bold rehearser, 
Celebrates the Church to-day! 
Mother! on so glad a morning 
Joy, with praise his name adorning, 
And bring forth a votive lay! 

Let us keep his birthday rightly. 
But rejoice we no less brightly 
In the martyrdom he won. 
Show, Creation! exultation; 
Second is this martyrs station, 
In both mark and meed, to none!

'Tis not for our fallen nature 
To extol each single feature 
Of such special sanctity:  
Be the tale in sum repeated; 
That our love may kindle, heated 
With his blessed memory. 

He, no reed to bend and quiver, 
But Truth's pillar, firm for ever, 
Never calleth evil good; 
Scribes he strikes at and professors, 
Calling all the Law's transgressors 
Offspring of a viper's brood. 

Herod's sin he censured gravely; 
Bound by him, he bore up bravely. 
In a prison kept secure: 
Pains unjust the just endureth, 
Who such filthiness abhorreth 
In the king and paramour.

Tyrant power against him burneth: 
Whence John greater honour earneth, 
And the tyrant torments dure: 
Help to wisdom folly giveth, 
Since the just, while here he liveth, 
By the impious is made pure. 

At his birthday-feast at even 
Orders by the king are given, 
That the head of John be brought. 
She who danced that head receiveth 
From the officer, and giveth 
To her mother what she sought. 

Christ's increase the Cross foreshoweth, 
But, that less the Baptist groweth, 
His beheading shadows forth. 
Precious, if the life preceding 
Glory o'er that life were shedding, 
Is the righteous' death on earth. 

Christ! the better to adore Thee 
Through the Baptist sent before Thee,  
We this feast-day celebrate: 
Out of death's dark valley lead us 
Thither, where his steps precede us, 
And our path to life make straight! Amen.

28 August 2010 ~ The Lion & the Cardinal by Daniel Mitsui



ST. AUGUSTINE



His life, according to James of Voragine.

Sequence by Adam of St. Victor:

De profundis tenebrarum 
Mundo lumen exit clarum 
Et scintillat hodie: 
Olim quidem vas erroris, 
Augustinus vas honoris
Datus est Ecclesiae. 

Verbo Dei dum obedit, 
Credit errans et accedit 
Ad baptismi gratiam; 
Quam in primis tuebatur, 
Verbis, scriptis exsecratur 
Erroris fallaciam. 

Firmans fidem, formans mores, 
Legis sacrae perversores 
Verbi necat gladio; 
Obmutescit Fortunatus; 
Cedunt Manes et Donatus 
Tantae lucis radio. 

Mundus marcens et inanis, 
Et doctrinis doctus vanis 
Per pestem haereticam, 
Multum coepit fructum ferre, 
Dum in fines orbis terrae 
Fidem sparsit unicam. 

Clericalis vitae formam 
Conquadravit juxta normam 
Coetus apostolici: 
Sui quippe nil habebant; 
Tanquam suum dividebant 
In commune clerici. 

Sic multorum pro salute 
Diu vivens in virtute 
Bona tandem senectute 
Dormivit cum patribus. 
In extremis nil legavit 
Qui suum nil aestimavit, 
Immo totum reputavit 
Commune cum fratribus. 

Salve, gemma confessorum, 
Lingua Christi, vox coelorum, 
Tuba vitae, lux doctorum, 
Praesul beatissime;
Qui te patrem venerantur, 
Te doctorem, consequantur 
Vitam in qua gloriantur 
Beatorum animae. Amen. 

Englished by Digby S. Wrangham:

From the depths of dark obscurest 
Comes forth light, which shines, the purest, 
On the earth to-day from heaven: 
Once a vessel, truth mistrusting, 
Now for honour made, Augustine  
To the Church of God was given. 

He, the Word of God obeying, 
Now believes, once from it straying, 
And for grace to baptism comes: 
He those errors, once commended, 
And in youth with words defended, 
Reprobates in written tomes. 

Faith confirming, precepts framing, 
Those, against Christ's law declaiming, 
Slays he with the Word's sharp sword: 
Fortunatus' utterance faileth. 
Manes with Donatus quaileth, 
'Neath such radiant light outpoured. 

Earth, made void and fast expiring, 
But vain doctrines' lore acquiring, 
Through the pest of heresy, 
To produce much fruit commences, 
As the one Faith he dispenses 
To its furthest boundary'. 

Rules he made for priestly living; 
As their pattern, to them giving 
The Apostles' company: 
Nought their own these priests computed, 
But whate'er seemed theirs devoted 
To the whole community. 

Thus, for many's welfare striving, 
Many years in virtue living. 
At a good old age arriving, 
With his sires he slept at last. 
No bequests he left, when dying, 
Who, its ownership denying, 
Thought his wealth should be supplying 
All with whom his lot was cast. 

Hail, Confessors' gem bright burning! 
Tongue of Christ! heaven's voice of warning!  
Trump of life and light of learning! 
Prelate high amongst the blest! 
May those, Father! who revere thee, 
'Neath thy guidance that life near thee 
Gain, where joys the truest cheer thee 
In the Saints' all-glorious rest! Amen. 

27 August 2010 ~ The Lion & the Cardinal by Daniel Mitsui



SEVEN SACRAMENT FONT at MARTHAM



Eamon Duffy:
One of the most remarkable manifestations of the impact of the Church's catechetical concerns on the laity is the collection of forty or so octagonal baptismal fonts, the majority of them in Norfolk and Suffolk, which portray the Seven Sacraments around the bowl. These fonts date from the three generations before the Reformation. One of the earliest is at East Dereham, acquired in 1468, and the last, at Walsoken, was made ten years after the break with Rome, in 1544. Many, perhaps most, of these fonts are the result of lay benefactions to the parish church...

The fonts are common in areas where Lollardy had been particularly strong in the generation prior to their appearance, as at Martham in Norfolk, the home of the redoubtable Margery Baxter, and it has been suggested by Professor Ann Nichols, the leading authority on the subject, that they represent a considered response to the Lollard attack on the sacramental teaching of the Church, and mark the understanding and acceptance of that teaching by the most influential laity of East Anglia. Certainly the iconography of the sacraments on the fonts is extraordinarily precise and "correct". In many continental and some English representations of the sacraments in other media they are represented by some peripheral part of the ritual... On these fonts, by contrast, the scene depicted is almost always that of the action held by the theologians to be constitutive of the sacrament... The carvings therefore represent an extremely precise and full form of catechetical teaching, perhaps designed to counteract heresy. At any rate the very large number commissioned in the later fifteenth century bear witness to lay interest in and enthusiasm for the teachings they enshrine. After the Reformation, Protestant activists recognized in the iconography of these fonts a rallying point for Catholic belief and a means of propagating it, and attacked them accordingly.
[The Stripping of the Altars by Eamon Duffy. Yale University Press, 1992]

More information and pictures at Norfolk Churches.


26 August 2010 ~ The Lion & the Cardinal by Daniel Mitsui



MIMI NUMINUM NIVIUM



Marc Drogin:
Among the amusements of scribes of the Gothic era was the creation of verses employing a minimal number of letters. Some surviving examples are based on the use of i, m, n and u and v. It has been suggested that these verses were created as an example of the script's unreadability. I have seen them offered, though, only as an exercise in making a comprehensible statement with the fewest possible letters...

This example concerns a letter of complaint by short actors, sent to the Senate in Rome, pointing out their desire to continue distributing to the actors wine acquired from particular vineyards near the walls.

In English the letter reads: The very short mimes of the gods of snow do not at all wish that during their lifetime the very great burden of [distributing[ the wine of the walls to be lightened.

In Latin it reads: Mimi numinum nivium minimi munium nimium vini muniminum imminui vivi minimum volunt.
[Medieval Calligraphy: Its History and Technique by Marc Drogin. Dover Publications: New York, 1980]

25 August 2010 ~ The Lion & the Cardinal by Daniel Mitsui



CATACOMB ICONOGRAPHY





Emile Mâle:
The visitor who wanders through the Catacombs, and glimpses in their shadows the half-obliterated paintings of the funerary chambers, is surprised to recognize the same subjects depicted over and over again. What appear, nearly always, before him are: the resurrection of Lazarus; the healing of the paralytic; the young Hebrews in the fiery furnace; Daniel in the pit of lions; Susannah among the elders; and Jonah thrown to the sea monster. Why were these scenes, which no common thread seems to unite, the ones chosen by the earliest Christian artists? For a long time we remained in ignorance, but today we know why.

From a very early time, a prayer was recited for the dead whose original phrasing was rediscovered a few years ago. It ran approximately thus: Father, it was said, deliver this soul as Thou didst deliver Jonah from the sea monster, the young Hebrews from the furnace, Daniel from the lions' pit, Susannah from the hands of the elders... Then, addressing the Son, it continued, Thou also, Son of God, I beseech Thee who didst open the eyes of the blind, restore life to the limbs of the paralytic, raise Lazarus...

Thus the funeral liturgy led to the uniformity in the art of the Catacombs. The paintings in the underground chambers were nearly always nothing else than the verses of a prayer for the dead... Nothing could be more moving. Those long-ago generations of Christians saw in Christianity the assurance of immortality. The miracles of both Testaments were for them a guarantee of the Christ's promise, and the raising of Lazarus became the very affirmation of the Christian resurrection. So we sometimes find, near the dead, a small figure of Lazarus wrapped in a winding-sheet. The pagans, hesitating between the dreams of their poets and the systems of their philosophers, did not know what to make of death; they vacillated between the fear of annihilation and the hope of a shadowy afterlife, and that uncertainty was the cruellest of sufferings. Pagan tombs were decorated with a funerary spirit who leaned, weeping, over an extinguished torch. In contrast, on the marble slab which covered the tomb of the Christian, an anchor was engraved, the symbol of his invincible hope. Life: that is the assurance that the paintings of the Catacombs express. That is the word which reveals itself everywhere by the flickering light of lanterns. It was at these depths, among these shadows, under the weight of this deep volcanic ash, heavy as the cover of a sepulcher, that man believed most fervently in life.
[Art and Artists of the Middle Ages by Emile Mâle, translated by Sylvia Stallings Lowe. Black Swan Books: Redding Ridge, 1986]

24 August 2010 ~ The Lion & the Cardinal by Daniel Mitsui



ST. BARTHOLOMEW



His life, according to James of Voragine.

Sequence by Adam of St. Victor:

Laudemus omnes inclyta
Bartolomaei merita:
Cujus sacra solemnia
Nobis inspirant gaudia.

Per diem centum vicibus
Flexis orabat genibus,
Nec minus noctis tempore,
Toto prostratus corpore.

In ipsius praesentia
Obmutescunt daemonia;
Christi sonante buccina,
Falsa terrentur numina.

Non Astaroth illudere
Genti permisit miserae;
Nec fallere, nec laedere,
Nec laesis potest parcere.

Gravi dignus supplicio
Cruciatur incendio;
Quanta fit ejus tortio
Berith patet indicio.

Per virtutes Apostoli
Patescit fraus diaboli.
Arte detecta subdoli,
Cultores cessant idoli.

Liber exultat Pseustius,
Hostis repressa rabie,
Credit et rex Polymnius,
Propter salutem filiae.

Percussus as Apostolo
Daemon mugit ex idolo:
"A vobis ultra, miseri,
Sacra non posco fieri.

"Me jam nil posse fateor,
Qui vix respirans torqueor;
Ante diem judicii
Poenam ferens incendii."

Sic effatus disparuit
Et sigilla comminuit;
Sed nec praesentes terruit,
Nam virtus crucis affuit.

Christi signat charatere
Fanum manus angelica:
Laesos absolvit libere
Potestate mirifica.

Mox pellem mutat India,
Tincta baptismi gratia;
Ruga carens et macula,
Coelesti gaudet copula.

Currunt ergo pontifices
Ad Astyagem supplices,
Athletam jam emeritum
Poscentes ad interitum.

Sub Christi testimonio,
Caput objecit gladio;
Sic triumphavit hodie
Doctor et victor Indiae.

Bartolomaee, postula
Pro servis prece sedula,
Ut post vitae curricula
Christum laudent in saecula. Amen.

Englished by Digby S. Wrangham:

Come, let us all with praises now
Bartholomew's rare merits show,
Whose sacred feast-day here below
Makes all our hearts with gladness glow.

He used an hundred times a day
Upon his bended knees to pray;
Nor through the hours of night did he,
Laid prostrate, pray less frequently.

Wherever he was present here
The very devils dumb appear;
When he, Christ's trumpet, soundeth clear,
False gods and idols quake for fear.

He would not Ashtaroth allow
With lies an hapless race to cow:
Nor cheat, not hurt, them can he now,
Nor pity for his victims show.

He, worthy of grave punishment,
To writhe 'mid fires of hell is sent;
Where by what torments he is rent
From Berith's tale is evident.

Through this Apostle's might alone
The devil's fraud is fully shown;
And, when his cunning craft is known,
No followers more the idol own.

Pseustius exulted, when relieved
From demon's rage, held 'neath control:
And king Polymnius believed,
Because his daughter was made whole.

As 'neath the Apostle's stroke he lies,
The demon from the idol cries;
"From you, my wretched votaries!
I ask no further sacrifice.

"Powerless I am, I now declare,
Who scarce can breathe in torture here;
Before the judgment-day appear,
The punishment by fire I bear!"

He disappeared, as thus he spake,
And his own idol-image brake;
But made none present fear nor quake:
The Cross was there his place to take.

With Christ's own mark, the Cross's sign,
An angel's fingers mark the fane,
And thence, through wondrous power divine,
The vexed free absolution gain.

While through baptismal grace we see
India, so dark-hued formerly;
Without a spot, from wrinkle free,
Thus joined to heaven it joys to be.

Their high-priests to Astyages
Then hasten, and, upon their knees,
Demans that he at once will slay
The champion, victor in the fray.

To witness thus for Christ his Lord,
His head he bowed beneath the sword;
So he this day, as victor, shone,
Who India taught and India won.

In constant prayer God's throne before,
For us, Bartholomew! implore,
That we, when this life's course is o'er,
May sing Christ's praise for evermore! Amen.

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