« BELLA DUM LATE FURERENT ET URBES ». – Hymn of Vespers for the feast of the seven holy founders of the Order of the Servants of Mary, canonized by Leo XIII in 1888. The celebration of the feast was extended to the universal Church. The hymn alludes to the deeds of the seven Florentine patricians who, in a period of internal conflicts, withdrew to Monte Senario in penitential contemplation of the sorrows of the Virgin. Its author was Fr. Galletti of the same Order, and it was revised by Leo XIII.
BIBL.: G. Bossi, Gli inni del Breviario romano, versione ritmica, Rome 1919, p. 126; A. Mirra, Gli inni del Breviario romano, Naples 1947, p. 192. Silverio Mattei