ANIMA CHRISTI, SANCTIFICA ME. — A Eucharistic prayer, in the Roman Missal appended to the florilegium of prayers for thanksgiving after Mass, and granted an indulgence by Pius IX (8 January 1854).
St. 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 Hail Mary (to Our Lady), with the Anima Christi (to Jesus), and with 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 Hail Mary and the Pater Noster. Hence in liturgical books it now bears the title: Aspirationes s. Ignati ad Summum Redemptorem.
But its origin is much earlier. Sertillanges attributes it to St. Thomas Aquinas, while Wilmart, basing himself on the manuscript tradition, observes that its true place is between St. Ignatius and St. Thomas, and precisely in the 14th century. According to some, its author would be Pope John XXII (1316-34), who, as the ancient manuscripts attest, also enriched it with indulgences. In the 14th century it was reproduced around a door of the Alcázar of Seville; Margaret Ebner (d. 1350) was very familiar with it.
It was originally a prayer of « Elevation » (v.). Frequently reproduced in books of devotion, it became popular, and its recitation during Mass was recommended, both at the Elevation and at Communion.
The various recensions contain variants, such as allusions to the death and torments of the Lord, to his sweat, to his wisdom. An Italian codex of 1481, written at Naples for Sixtus IV (now in the possession of S. C. Cockerell), gives the following ending, long in use: Et in hora mortis meae voca me, - Et iube 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 very beginning, today it is recited in all languages. Codex II. II. 17 of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale of Florence, of the 14th century, gives it in 14th-century vernacular: « O prezioso Animo di Cristo, santifica me, ecc. » (fol. 106); another Italian version of the 14th century is in codex II. II. 68 (fol. 186) of the same library, dated by the copyist to 1391 (G. Mazzatinti, Inventari dei Manoscritti delle Bibliot. d'Italia, VIII, pp. 139-40). Codex 1052 of the Biblioteca Riccardiana of Florence, of the 15th century, contains an Italian translation of at least the 1400s (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 scheme is the catalectic trochaic dimeter, that is, a series of four accents, the first separated by one or two syllables, and the fourth left unaccented. To seven verses, perfectly regular in accents and syllables, are added some preceded by an anacrusis (or lead-in) of one syllable (Ab hōste maligno defēnde me) or of two syllables: Aqua lāteris Christi, lāvo me. - Ne permittas me separari a tē. - Ut cum Sānctis tuis laudem tē. - The ending likewise falls within the rhythm, accenting Amen according to the Hebrew and the Greek: In saecula saeculorum. Amēn. Throughout the composition the rhyme stands out: me, te.
With great propriety holiness is attributed to the soul, ebriety to the blood; purification to the water, the comfort of our sorrows to the suffering of Jesus. The deep yearning of every aspiration tends to death to the world with Jesus Crucified and to eternal life.
In music the A. C. is considered a Eucharistic motet, a chant for Communion. The Gregorian melody, of mode I, simple and devout, of post-classical composition, divides it well into 3 strophes of 3 verses each, followed by the intercalary refrain, Miserere Domine sung by the people. At the beginning of the 15th century Ciconia (v.) set an O anima Christi to music for 3 voices, choosing the text of the Cockerell codex. 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 in 1921 reworked (for 2 equal voices) by Gastoué (Collection choisie des Maîtres Polyphonistes des XII-XVe siècles of the « Schola Cantorum » of Paris, I Repertorio, n. 12). - The beautiful composition by Ettore Pozzoli, for 1 voice, was published in Melodie Sacre by Perosi (VII, p. 37).
Bibliography9 works
Fasc. 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 editorship of H. Warrisant.
Igino Cecchetti