CHRISTE SANCTORUM DECUS ANGE- LORUM. — Hymn of Lauds on the feast of St Michael the Archangel, taken from that of the feast of the Angels. It is found among the works of Rabanus Maurus and truly does honour to the lyrical genius, grave and measured, of the illustrious monk of Fulda. It is a very well-modulated Sapphic hymn, from which only those strophes are taken which are addressed to the three Archangels whose particular qualities they extol: Michael, the angel of peace for having vanquished Lucifer; Gabriel, the heavenly messenger of the Incarnation; Raphael, the angel of healing.
BIBL.: G. G. Belli, Gli inni del breviario romano, tradotti, Roma 1857, p. 310; C. Albini, La poésie du Bré- viaire, Lione s. d., p. 340; G. Bossi, Gli inni del Breviario roma- no, versione ritmica, Ro- ma 1919, p. 192; A. Mirra, Gli inni del Bre- viaire, Napoli 1947, p. 208. Silverio Mattei