"ALES DIEI NUNTIUS." - Hymn of the Roman Breviary for the ferial lauds of Tuesday. It consists of stanzas 1, 2, 21, 25 of a long hymn by Prudentius (late 4th century), the first of his book Cathemerinon, which is entitled ad gallicinium. The poet evokes with more art, but with less warm feeling, the concept of St. Ambrose in the hymn Aeterne rerum conditor (v.). The rooster, which with its morning crowing calls drowsy men back to the day's work, is a symbol of Jesus, the powerful "awakener" of souls, who calls all to abandon the alluring softness of sleep, which enervates, in order to await his imminent coming in vigilance, in purity and in sobriety (stanzas 1-2). This dynamic and virile concept makes a warm invocation well up from the soul to Jesus, that he may give his faithful the strength to free themselves from the night of sin and that living light of grace which is necessary to respond to his intimate calls (stanzas 3-4).

Bibliography6 works

BIBL.: S. G. Pinon, Les hymnes du Bréviaire romain, I, Paris 1874, pp. 171-81; L. Venturi, Gli inni della Chiesa tradotti e commentati, Florence 1880, pp. 68-71; G. M. Dreves-C. Blume, in Analecta hymnica, 51 (1908), pp. 32, 50; K. Kastner, Brevier-Kommentar, I, Breslau 1923, pp. 43; C. Albin, La poésie du Bréviaire, I: Les Hymnes, Lyon n.d., pp. 43-45; A. Mirra, Gli inni del Breviario romano per i licei filosofici e per il clero, Naples 1947, pp. 64-66.

Celestino Testore

@incollection{ec1_ales_diei_nuntius, author = {Testore, Celestino}, title = {Ales Diei Nuntius}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {I}, pages = {753}, 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/ales-diei-nuntius} }

One of some 20,000 entries brought back from the twelve printed volumes (1948–54). Spotted something? Help us improve it.

About this entry