« CUSTODES HOMINUM PSALLIMUS ANGELOS ». — Vespers hymn for the feast of the Guardian Angels (2 October). It consists of three sapphic stanzas inspired by the need for heavenly assistance in the continual struggles that must be sustained against the forces of evil. The third stanza is a prayer to the Guardian Angel. It is found for the first time in a Cistercian breviary of 1570.
BIBL.: G. G. Belli, Gli inni del Breviario romano tradotti, Rome 1857, p. 312; C. Albini, La poésie du Bréviaire, I, Lyon n.d., p. 115; G. Bossi, Gli inni del Breviario romano, versione ritmica, Rome 1919, p. 192; A. Mitra, Gli inni del Breviario romano, Naples 1947. Silverio Mattei