Sanctorum meritis

Settings by composers

• Anonymous SSTT
• Claudio Monteverdi
  • I solo S(vv.1-4)
  • II solo T (vv.1-4)
• Tomás Luis de Victoria SATB

Original text and translations

Latin text 1. Sanctorum meritis inclita gaudia Pangamus socii gestaque fortia Nam gliscit animus promere cantibus Victorum genus optimum. 2. Hi sunt quo retines mundis inhorruit Ipsum nam sterile flore per aridum Sprevere penitus teque secuti sunt, Rex, Christe, bone caelitum. 3. Hi pro te furias atque ferocia calcarunt hominum saevaque verbera, cessit his lacerans fortiter ungula nec carpsit penetralia. 4. Quæ vox, quæ poterit lingua retexere Quæ tu martyribus munera praeparas? Rubri nam fluido sanguine laureis Ditantur bene fulgidis. 5. Te, summa Deitas unaque, poscimus, ut culpas abluas, noxia subtrahes, Des pacem famulis nos quoque gloriam per cuncta tibi sæcula. Amen

English translation The merits of the saints, Blessèd for evermore, Their love that never faints, The toils they bravely bore— For these the Church today Pours forth her joyous lay— These victors win the noblest bay. They, whom the world of ill, While it yet held, abhorred; Its withering flowers that still They spurned with one accord— They knew them short lived all, And followed at Thy call, King Jesu, to Thy heavenly hall. Like sheep their blood they poured, And without groan or tear, They bent before the sword, For that their King most dear: Their souls, serenely blest, In patience they possessed, And looked in hope towards their rest. What tongue may here declare, Fancy or thought descry, The joys Thou dost prepare For these Thy saints on high! Empurpled in the flood Of their victorious blood, They won the laurel from their God. To Thee, O Lord most high, One in three Persons still, To pardon us we cry, And to preserve from ill: Here give Thy servants peace, Hereafter glad release, And pleasures that shall never cease. tr. John Mason Neale