« ANIMA CHRISTI, SANCTIFICA ME ». — Eucharistic prayer, in the Roman Missal appended to the collection of prayers for thanksgiving after Mass, and granted indulgences by Pius IX (8 Jan. 1854).
S. Ignatius of Loyola placed it at the beginning of his Spiritual Exercises and recommends it in the colloquies after the individual meditations, especially those on the mysteries of the Lord, concluding the three colloquies with the Ave Maria (to Our Lady), the Anima Christi (to Jesus), and the Pater (to God the Father). It may therefore be said that Ignatius, by the use he makes of it, places the A. C. on the same level as the Ave Maria and the Pater Noster. Hence in liturgical books it now bears the title: Aspirationes s. Ignati ad Sumum Redemptorem.
But its origin is much earlier. Sertillanges attributes it to s. Thomas Aquinas, whereas Wilmart, basing himself on the tradition of the manuscripts, observes that its true place lies between s. Ignatius and s. Thomas, specifically in the 14th century. According to some, its author was Pope John XXII (1316–34), who, as the ancient manuscripts attest, also granted it rich indulgences. In the 14th century it was reproduced around a gate of the Alcázar of Seville; Margherita Ebner (d. 1350) was very familiar with II.
It was originally a prayer of the “Elevation” (v.). Often reproduced in books of devotion, it became popular, and its recitation was recommended during Mass, both at the Elevation and at Communion.
The various recensions contain variants, such as references to the death and torments of the Lord, to his sweat, and to his wisdom. An Italian manuscript of 1481, written in Naples for Sixtus IV (now in the possession of S. C. Cockerell), gives the following ending, which had long been in use: Et in hora mortis meae voca me, - Et inbe me venire ad te, - Et pone me iuxta te, - Ut cum Angelis tuis laudem te, - Et videam te in saecula saeculorum. Amen.
Translated into the vernacular from the outset, it is recited today in all languages. Cod. II. II. 17 of the Central National Library of Florence, from the 14th century, gives it in the vernacular of the Trecento: « O prezioso Animo di Cristo, santifica me, etc. » (fol. 106); another Italian version of the Trecento is found in cod. II. II. 68 (fol. 186) of the same library, dated by the copyist to 1391 (G. Mazzarini, Inventori dei Manoscritti delle Bibliot. d'Italia, VIII, pp. 139–40). Cod. 1052 of the Riccardiana Library in Florence, from the 15th century, contains an Italian translation dating at least from the 15th century (Arch. Franciscanum, 5 [1910], p. 744).
In its original Latin form it is a true Rhythmus, although in some verses a certain freedom appears. The fundamental pattern is the catalectic trochaic dimeter, that is, a series of four accents, the first separated by one or two syllables, while the fourth is left without a following syllable. To seven verses, entirely regular in accents and syllables, are interspersed several preceded by an anacrusis (or introductory movement) of one syllable (Ab hōste maligno defēude me) or of two syllables: Aqua lāteris Christi,
lāvo me. - Ne permittas me separati (i) a tē. - Ut cum Sāuctis tuis laudem tē. - The ending likewise conforms to the rhythm, accentuating Amen according to the Hebrew and Greek manner: In saecula saeculorum. Amēn. Throughout the composition the rhyme stands out: me, te.
With great appropriateness, holiness is attributed to the soul, inebriation to the blood; purification to the water, and consolation for our sorrows to the suffering of Jesus. The profound longing underlying every aspiration tends toward death to the world with the Crucified Jesus and toward eternal life.
In music the A. C. is considered a Eucharistic motet, a song for Communion. The Gregorian melody, in Mode I, simple and devout, of post-classical composition, divides it well into three stanzas of three verses each, followed by the refrain, Miserere Domine, sung by the people. At the beginning of the 15th century, Ciconia (v.) composed an O anima Christi for three voices, choosing the text of the Cockerell manuscript. This composition, published by Wolf in Geschichte der Mensural-Notation von 1250-1460 (III, Leipzig 1904, pp. 79–82) according to ms. 2216 of the University Library of Bologna, was reworked in 1921 (for two equal voices) by Gastoué (Collection choisie des Maîtres Polyphonistes des XII-XVe siècles of the » Schola Cantorum » of Paris, I Repertorio, no. 12). — The beautiful composition by Ettore Pozzoli, for one voice, was published in Melodie Sacre by Perosi (VII, p. 37).
Fascicle 43 of the Collection de la bibliothèque des Exercices de St Ignace (Enghien–Paris 1913, pp. 1–56) is devoted to the history of the A. C.: a series of studies (Vincenzo Baesten, Guido-Maria Dreves, Dr. Kéthen of Cologne, J.-K. Zenner) collected under the direction of H. Warrisant.