Soul, Recommendation of the.
The Roman Ritual, title V, chapter VII, contains certain liturgical prayers with which the Church accompanies the souls of the faithful to the very threshold of eternity: this is the Ordo Commendationis Animae, followed by chapter VIII, entitled *De exspiratione*. In ancient times, the terminology was not uniform, and the two parts were almost always combined into one. Often the name "commendatus" was given to the entire set of prayers recited not for a single deceased person in particular, but for all the departed, so much so that sometimes the name "commendator animarum" or "defunctorum" is found. An author of the 12th century thus enumerated the rites of the final passage: anointing, communicating, commending, burying (Gilbert de Limerick, *De statu Ecclesiae*: PL 159, 1002).
The most ancient texts do not have a particular liturgical name for the ritual ceremonies performed at the bedside of the sick, but speak only of psalmody and the litanies of the saints. Indeed, in the life of St. Austreberta, abbess of Pavilly (d. 704), we read: “Meanwhile, as all who were present chanted psalms and successively invoked the names of the saints, she interrupted the voices of the chanters with whatever strength she had” (*in Acta SS. Februarii*, II, Paris 1865, p. 423). Psalms and litanies are thus among the most ancient elements of the Ordo Commendationis Animae, so much so that around 1145, Bernard, prior of the Lateran, wrote: “With the litanies we commend the souls of the dying into the blessed company of the saints” (*Ordo officiorum Ecclesiae lateranensis*, ed. Fischer, *Historische Forschungen und Quellen*, Munich 1916, p. 67). Their use dates back to the 8th century. The most ancient texts report that in monasteries the monks gathered around the dying, recited the Creed, and sang psalms and litanies. The names of St. Joseph, St. Camillus de Lellis, and St. John of God were added in more recent times. Also from the 8th century is the moving: “Proficiscere, anima christiana...” The “Libera, Domine, animam servi...” we find for the first time in the Sacramentary of Reichenau, also from the 8th century. The other prayers that form the present Ordo Commendationis Animae date roughly from the same period and come from various sources. Once this was completed, from the most remote antiquity, the Church’s concern was to provide the soul with every aid for its supreme journey.
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“ANIMA CHRISTI, SANCTIFICA ME.”
Eucharistic prayer, in the Roman Missal appended to the collection of thanksgiving prayers 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 recommended it in his conversations after each meditation, especially those on the Lord’s mysteries, concluding the three colloquies with the Hail Mary (to the Virgin), the *Anima Christi* (to Jesus), and the Our Father (to God the Father). One may therefore say that, by the use he made of it, Ignatius placed the *Anima Christi* on the same level as the Hail Mary and the Our Father. In liturgical books it now bears the title: *Aspirationes s. Ignatii ad Summum Redemptorem*.
Its origin, however, is much earlier. Sertillanges attributes it to St. Thomas Aquinas, while Wilmart, basing himself on manuscript tradition, observes that its true place is between St. Ignatius and St. Thomas, specifically in the 14th century. According to some, its author would be Pope John XXII (1316-34), who, as ancient manuscripts attest, also granted it a rich indulgence. In the 14th century it was inscribed around a door of the Alcázar of Seville; Margaret Ebner (d. 1350) was very familiar with II.
Originally it was an Elevation prayer (*v.*). Frequently included 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 codex of 1481, written in 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 outset, today it is recited in all languages. Codex II. 11. 17 of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale in Florence, from the 14th century, gives it in 14th-century Italian: “O precious Soul of Christ, sanctify me, etc.” (fol. 106); another 14th-century Italian version is in codex II. 11. 68 (fol. 186) of the same library, dated by the scribe to 1391 (G. Mazzatinti, *Inventari dei Manoscritti delle Biblioteche d’Italia*, VIII, pp. 139-40). Codex 1032 of the Biblioteca Riccardiana in Florence, from the 15th century, contains an Italian translation at least from the 15th century (*Archivum Franciscanum*, 3 [1910], p. 74).
In its original Latin form it is a true *rhythmus*, though in some verses a certain freedom appears. The fundamental scheme is the catalectic trochaic dimeter, that is, a series of four accents, the first divided by one or two syllables, and the fourth left unstressed. To seven perfectly regular verses in terms of accents and syllables are interspersed others preceded by anacrusis (or introductory syllable) of one syllable (“Ab hoste maligno defende me”) or two syllables: “Aqua lateris Christi, lava me, — Ne permittas me separari a te. — Ut cum Sanctis tuis laudem te.” The ending also conforms to the rhythm, accenting *Amen* in the Hebrew and Greek manner: *In saecula saeculorum. Amen.* Throughout the composition the rhyme *me–te* stands out.
With great propriety holiness is attributed to the soul, intoxication to the blood; to water, purification; to Jesus’ suffering, the consolation of our sorrows. The profound yearning of every aspiration tends toward death to the world with Jesus Crucified and toward eternal life.
In music the *Anima Christi* is considered an eucharistic motet, a Communion chant. The Gregorian melody, in mode 1, simple and devout, of post-classical composition, divides it neatly into four strophes of three verses each, followed by the intercalated *Miserere Domine* sung by the people. At the beginning of the 15th century Ciconia (*v.*) set to music an *O Anima Christi* for three voices, choosing the text from the Cockerell codex. This composition, published by Wolf in *Geschichte der Mensuralnoten 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 Gassuè (*Collection choisie des Maîtres Polyphonistes des XII-XVe siècles* of the “Schola Cantorum” of Paris, I Repertory, no. 12). — The fine 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 *Anima Christi*: a series of studies (Vincenzo Baesten, Guido-Maria Dreves, Dr. Kehrein of Cologne, J.-K. Zenner) collected under the direction of H. Watrigant.