"AURORA SOLI PRAEVIA". - Hymn of Lauds for the feast of the Apparition of the Madonna of Lourdes, composed in 1890, the year the Office was approved (S. R. Cong., Decreta 1890, fol. 23ª).
The hymn unfolds in a gentle movement of joy, that joy which comes with the rising of the dawn, when from the lips of Christians the morning prayer ascends to heaven. In elegant tones, brief images from the Old Testament depicting the Virgin are recalled, such as the Ark of the Covenant, the fleece of Gideon, or those referred to her, like the dragon whose head she crushes.
BIBL.: C. Albin, La poésie du Breviare, I, Lyon n.d., pp. 103-112; G. Bossi, Gli inni del Breviario romano, versione ritmica, Rome 1919, p. 121; A. Mirra, Gli inni del Breviario romano, Naples 1947, p. 166.