Egregie Doctor Paule
EGREGIE DOCTOR PAULE
Brief office hymn that was traditionally assigned to the feast of St. Paul. In the Roman Breviary of 1632, it was assigned to the feasts of SS. Peter and Paul. It was originally part (stanza 4 and the doxology, stanza 6) of the longer hymn decora lux aeternitatis, which was in turn a revised version of a Carolingian poem on the Apostles Peter and Paul, Aurea luce et decore roseo (Analecta hymnica 51:216). In the Decora hymn, Paul is addressed as egregie doctor (cf. Colossians 3 and 1 Corinthians 12) and is asked to "fashion our lives aright and carry off our hearts with yours to heaven."
Bibliography: j. connelly, Hymns of the Roman Liturgy (Westminster, MD, 1957) 168–170. b. stÄblein, Lexicon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiburg 1957–65) 3:674. j. szÖvÉrffy, Die Annalen der lateinischen Hymnendichtung (Berlin 1964–65) 1:122–124.
[j. szÖvÉrffy]