O virga ac diadema

St. Hildegard composed some of the most beautiful music the Church has ever known. Anonymous 4 and Voices of Ascension have some spectacular CDs of her works, and Naxos always has good quality music at a reasonable price. One of the best ways to listen is with the volume down fairly low, down at the "haunting" level, where you can allow it to seep into your very soul, rather than at the head-banging sound level for heavy metal rock. It is hard to believe that what you are listening to is about 900 years old.

O virga ac diadema by Hildegard von Bingen
(I was hoping to find the version by Voices of Ascension, but could not find it)

O virga ac diadema
by St. Hildegard of Bingen (A.D. 1098-1179)

O virga ac diadema purpurae Regis
quae est in clausura tua sicut lorica.

Tu frondens floruisti in alia vicissitudine,
quam Adam omne genus humanum produceret.

Ave, ave, de tuo ventre alia vita processit,
qua Adam filios suos denudaverit.

O flos, tu non germinasti de rore,
nec de guttis pluviae, nec aer desuper te volavit,
sed divina claritas in nobilissima virga
te produxit.

O virga, floriditatem tuam
Deus in prima die creaturae suae praeviderat.

Et de Verbo suo auream materiam,
O laudabilis Virgo, fecit.

O quam magnum est in viribus suis latus viri,
de quo Deus formam mulieris produxit,
quam fecit speculum omnis ornamenti sui
et amplexionem omnis creaturae suae.

Inde concinunt caelestia organa,
et miratur omnis terra, o laudabilis Maria,
quia Deus te valde amavit.

O quam valde plangendum et lugendum est,
quod tristitia in crimine per consilium serpentis
in mulierem fluxit.

Nam ipsa mulier, quam Deus matrem omnium posuit,
viscera sua cum vulneribus ignorantiae decerpsit
et plenum dolorem generi suo protulit.

Sed, o aurora, de ventre tuo
novus sol processit,
qui omnia crimina Evae abstersit
et maiorem benedictionem per te protulit,
quam Eva hominibus nocuisset.

Unde, o Salvatrix, quae novum lumen
humano generi protulisti,
collige membra Filii tui
ad caelestem harmoniam.

O quam valde plangendum et lugendum est,
quod tristitia in crimine per consilium serpentis
in mulierem fluxit.

Nam ipsa mulier, quam Deus matrem omnium posuit,
viscera sua cum vulneribus ignorantiae decerpsit
et plenum dolorem generi suo protulit.

Sed, o aurora, de ventre tuo
novus sol processit,
quia omnia crimina Evae abstersit
et maiorem benedictionem per te protulit,
quam Eva hominibus nocuisset.

Unde, o Salvatrix, quae novum lumen
humano generi protulisti,
collige membra Filii tui
ad caelestem harmoniam.


Green branch and imperial diadem,
in your virginity enclosed as in shining armour,

You branched, blossoming, in a fashion changed
from that by which Adam produced the whole human race.

All hail,
from your womb came forth another life
which Adam had stripped from his sons.

O flower, it was not the dew that made you bud,
nor drops of rain, nor did the wind waft over you,
but the divine radiance brought you forth
from the most noble branch.

O branch, God foresaw your flowering
on the first day of creation.

And He made you, O Virgin most worthy of praise,
as a golden matrix for His Word

O how great in its strength is the side of Man
from which God brought forth Woman,
whom He made the the mirror of all His beauty
and the embrace of all His creation.

And so all heaven's instruments make music together,
and all the earth admires you, Mary most worthy of praise,
whom God has loved so deeply.

A very great cause it was for lamenting and mourning,
That through the counsel of the serpent, sorrow and guilt
flowed into woman.

For that woman, whom God had set to be the mother of us all,
she destroyed her own womb with the wounds of ignorance
and gave birth to all pain for her children.

But, o dawn, from your womb
a new Sun rises,
which has cleansed all Eve's sins,
and through you a blessing flows
greater than the harm Eve did to men.

And thus you have saved us, you who bore the New Light
for mankind.
Gather then the members of your Son
into celestial harmony.
.