«CAELESTIS AULAE NUNTIUS». — Hymn of Vespers for the feast of the Holy Rosary, instituted by Gregory XIII on 1 April 1573 in memory of the victory won at Lepanto by the Christian armies against the Turks two years earlier. Clement XI, after the victory in Hungary in 1716, likewise against the Turks, extended it to the universal Church. Leo XIII raised its liturgical rank and in 1888 approved a new Office, of which the present hymn forms part; it had been composed many years earlier by Fr. Eustachio Sirena and inserted in the Dominican Breviary in 1834. The motives that prompted the pontiffs to institute the feast are not mentioned at all, whereas the scenes of the individual mysteries are depicted in vivid and animated colours: the announcement by the Archangel Gabriel, the Visitation to St. Elizabeth, the birth of Jesus in the manger, his presentation in the Temple, and his finding among the Doctors.
CAELESTIS AULAE NUNTIUS
Cite this article
“CAELESTIS AULAE NUNTIUS.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. III (1949), p. 183. Azione Romana digital edition, https://azioneromana.com/article/caelestis-aulae-nuntius.