Adam of St. Victor: Collected Lyrics
01 / 1
Public-domain lyrics

Ecce dies celebris

Adam of St. Victor

“Ecce dies celebris” as printed in Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences (1867).

Adam of St. Victor: Collected Lyrics Text 1 1867 · historical text
Public domainHymnMediaeval song
Complete public-domain lyrics

This text comes from Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences, edited by John Mason Neale, a historical songbook transcribed on Wikisource and reproduced from the pinned revision linked below.

Verse 1

Hail the much remembered Day!

Night from morning flies away,

Life the chains of death hath burst:

Gladness, welcome! grief, begone!

Greater glory draweth on

Than confusion at the first.

Flies the shadowy from the true:

Flies the ancient from the new:

Comfort hath each tear dispersed.

Verse 2

Hail our Pascha, That wast dead!

What preceded in the Head

That each member hopes to gain;

Christ, our newer Pascha now,

Late in death content to bow

When the spotless Lamb was slain.

Verse 3

Christ the prey hath here unbound

From the foe that girt us round:

Tale, in Samson's prowess found

When the lion-form he slew:

David, in His Father's cause,

From the Lion's hungry jaws

And the bear's devouring paws

Hath set free His flock anew.

Verse 4

Samson thousands slew by dying:

Christ, true Samson, typifying,

Who by death o'ercame His foes:

Samson, by interpretation,

Is their sunlight: Our Salvation

Thus hath brought illumination

To the Elect on whom He rose.

Verse 5

From the Cross's pole of glory

Flows the must of ancient story

In the Church's wine-vat stored:

From the press, now trodden duly,

Gentile first-fruits gathered newly

Drink the precious liquor poured.

Verse 6

Sackcloth, worn with foul abuses,

Passes on to royal uses;

Grace in that garb at length we see,

The Flesh hath conquered misery.

They, by whom their monarch perished

Lost the kingdom, that they cherished,

And for a sign and wonder Cain

Is set who never shall be slain.

Verse 7

Reprobated and rejected

Was this Stone that, now elected,

For a Trophy stands erected

And a precious Cornerstone:

Sin's, not Nature's, termination,

He creates a new Creation,

And Himself their colligation,

Binds two peoples into one.

Verse 8

Give we glory to the Head,

O'er the members love be shed!

Credits

Written by Adam of St. Victor

Words by Adam of St. Victor. Historical text published in Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences (1867); public domain. No claim to a modern recording or arrangement.

Source & text edition

Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences (1867), edited by John Mason Neale, “Ecce dies celebris”

The 1867 published edition is in the public domain in the United States (pre-1931 publication). Entries whose credited author or translator died more than 70 years ago are also in the public domain in life-plus-70 jurisdictions; other entries are held.

How to read this historical text and its source

Read the source on Wikisource

View copyright evidence · Transcription terms (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Retrieved 2026-10-25. Line spacing and section labels are adapted for reading. The displayed text follows the linked edition. Editorial notes and abstract artwork are by 52lyrics.
Keep tracing

Keep reading the classics.

01Fight Fiercely, HarvardPublic-domain lyrics02The Old Dope PeddlerPublic-domain lyrics03Be PreparedPublic-domain lyrics04The Wild West Is Where I Want to BePublic-domain lyrics