Celtic and Old English Saints 16 October =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= * St. Gall of Ireland * St. Kiara of Kilkeary * St. Lull of Mainz * St. Conogan of Quimper * St. Eliphius of Toul =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
St. Gall of Ireland, Abbot and Hermit, Enlightener of Switzerland ------------------------------------------------------------ Below is the text of a hymn in praise of Saint Gall, recorded by the medieval music ensemble, Altramar, in their collection, Celtic Wanderers: The Pilgrim's Road. The group have recorded a number of CDs featuring materials relating to Irish and other saints. The Celtic Wanderers disc also includes a number of selections from the Feast of Saint Killian, as well as an instrumental piece, Puella Christi, in honour of Saint Brigid, which derives from a 12th-century Austrian manuscript. I have reproduced the Latin text and translation of the Saint Gall hymn from the sleevenotes which accompany the recording. Prosa: Dilecte Deo Galle Text and Melody: Notker Balbulus "Liber Hymnorum" MS St Gall 318 (10thc.) Notker Balbulus was a monk at the monastery of St Gall, a famous centre of learning and culture in medieval Germany and Switzerland. He was the compiler of a Liber Hymnorum, a collection of medieval sequences. These were musical settings of texts called prosae, composed of double versicles, each with its own melody. Dilecte Deo Galle is written in honour of Saint Gall; like Notker's other sequences, this prosa text was set to pre-existing melodies of unknown origin. The melody is characterized by the repetition of short motives, many of which are built around the interval of a third, a trait shared by Irish chant. The fact that Notker's music teacher was an Irish monk makes this fact particularly interesting. Dilecte deo, Galle, perenni hominibusque et coetibus angelorum qui Jesu Christi oboediens arduae suasioni Praedia patris gremium matris conjugis curam ludicra nati Sprevisti pauperem pauper dominum sequens Et crucem gaudis praetulisti lubricis Sed Christus pretio centuplicatio Haec compensat ut dies iste testatur, dum tibi nos omnes filios dulci subdit affectu Sueviamque suavem patriam tibi, Galle, donavit Nection et judicem in caelis apostolorum choro junctum te fecit sedere. Te nunc suppliciter precamur, ut nobis Jesum Christum, Galle, postules favere Et locum corporis ejus pace repletas Ac tuas supplices crebra prece subleves Ut tibi debitam honorificentiam Laetabundi semper mereamur solvere O Galle, Deo dilecte. O Gallus, beloved by eternal God, by men and assemblies of angels, obeying the difficult admonition of Jesus Christ, you despised farm lands of your father, the lap of your mother the care of a spouse and the joys of a child; as a pauper you followed the Lord who was a pauper and you preferred the cross to deceitful joys, but with a hundred-fold reward, Christ will compensate you for these things, when that day is revealed, when with sweet affection He gives all of us as children to you and presents Suebia to you, Gallus, as a beloved homeland and indeed He has made you as a judge in the heavens and you are joined with the choir of apostles. Now we humbly pray to you that you, Gallus, might beseech Jesus Christ to watch over us and that you might fill the place of his body with peace and that you might lift up your suppliants with frequent prayer that full of joy we may be worthy to discharge the honour owed to you, O Gallus, beloved of God. http://brigid-undertheoak.blogspot.com/2009/10/hymn-of-notker-balbulus-in-praise-of.html -oOo- The Monastery and Library of St Gall A paper from the Ir.Ecc.Record on the Monastery and Library of St Gall. It's long but well worth reading, as the author introduces many of the scholars of St Gall and the volumes that the Library contained. He also includes some very entertaining glosses from the scribes, both complaining about their labour and warning anyone tempted to make off with their books. Below is a wonderful paper on the Monastery and Library of Saint Gall from the Irish Ecclesiastical Record of 1894. I am unable to reproduce the footnotes and some of the foreign language material, so please refer to the original volume for the complete article. The author is the journal's German expert, Father J.F.Hogan, whose paper on Saint Colman of Austria I also recently reprinted. Father Hogan contributed a series of papers on Irish monastic foundations in Germany to the I.E.R. which I am currently working my way through and hope to bring online before long. In this paper he introduces us to the successors of Saint Gall and the reputation for learning which their monastery enjoyed. Along the way we will meet some of Saint Gall's most famous sons, including the Irish scholar Moengal, the hymnographer Notker Balbulus and the physician Notker Medicus, among many others. http://brigid-undertheoak.blogspot.com/2009/10/monastery-and-library-of-saint-gall.html
