Iste Confessor Domini Colentes
ISTE CONFESSOR DOMINI COLENTES
Office hymn that was traditionally sung at Vespers and Matins in the Common of confessors, bishops, and non-bishops. It is written in four-line stanzas, three sapphics and one adonic. It is of unknown authorship and is found in many MSS dating back to the tenth century, although it is conjectured to have been composed in the eighth century or earlier. The hymn extols the virtues of the saint, recounts cures wrought through his intercession, and asks for his continued assistance. The text was altered considerably in the Roman Breviary of 1632, only four lines remaining unchanged.
Bibliography: Analecta hymnica 51:134–135, text. j. connelly, ed. and tr., Hymns of the Roman Liturgy (Westminster, Md.1957), tr. and commentary. g. m. dreves, Ein Jahrtausend lateinischer Hymnendichtung, 2 v. (Leipzig 1909). f. j. e. raby, A History of Christian-Latin Poetry from the Beginnings to the Close of the Middle Ages (Oxford 1953).
[m. a. malone]