DE DONIS DEI. – A formula often used, above all, in liturgical furnishings and in ancient Christian inscriptions both in the West and in the East (τὰ σὰ ἐκ τῶν σῶν προσφέραμεν).
It is also found in a Jewish funerary inscription at Auch (De Saulcy, in Comptes rendus de l'Académie des inscriptiones et belles lettres, 1869, p. 172). The formula De donis Dei et Christi is also frequently found, as well as De donis Dei et Sée D(e) Genitricis Mari(a)e, or et sēi Johannis Baptist(a)e, or et Dom(i)ni Petri, or et beati Pauli. At Iulia Concordia (Portogruaro), however, one finds de data Dei or de Dei datis (CIL, V, 1718, 8677).
In the Unde et memores of the Canon of the Mass one finds: Offerimus tibi Domine... de tuis donis ac datis.
BIBL.: H. Leclercq, s.V. in DACL, IV, cols. 1307–10; E. Diehl, Inscriptiones Christiane Latinae veteres, III, Berlin 1935 (see index). Enrico Josi