"AETERNE RECTOR SIDERUM". - Hymn of the Roman Breviary for Lauds of the feast of the Guardian Angels (Oct. 2). Its author is St. Robert Bellarmine, who in it displays his simple, candid and measured manner of speaking and writing. The prayer that rises to God, creator and provident preserver of all things (st. 1), asks, from the very first breaking of dawn, that the guardian angels, to whom we are entrusted, preserve us from every danger of soul and body (st. 2-3); that they protect us against the snares of the devil, of the passions and of the world, and keep peace for us, holding wars and famines far from our borders. The latter is a reference to the times of the author, troubled by the threats of the Turks, by the wars of religion and by pestilences.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: L. Venturi, Gli Inni della Chiesa tradotti e commentati, 3rd ed., Florence 1880, pp. 318-22; K. Kastner, Praktischer Brevier-Kommentar, II, Breslau 1924, p. 296; C. Albin, La poésie du Bréviaire, Lyon n.d., pp. 361-64; A. Mirra, Gli Inni del Breviario romano per i Licei filosofici e per il clero, Naples 1947, pp. 232-33.

Celestino Testore

@incollection{ec1_aeterne_rector_siderum, author = {Testore, Celestino}, title = {Aeterne Rector Siderum}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {I}, pages = {360}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1948}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/aeterne-rector-siderum} }

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