« EXULTET ORBIS GAUDIIS ». – Hymn of Vespers for the feasts of the Apostles, by an unknown author.
Heaven and earth are called upon to celebrate the praises of these first followers of Jesus. Constituted judges of all nations at the universal judgment (Mt. 19, 28), the Apostles
are the light of the world (ibid., 5, 14), those who have the power to open and close the gates of heaven (Is. 20, 23) and who will heal the sick through the laying on of hands (Mt. 16, 18).
The prayer is beautiful and inspired, for it exhales, like a mysterious perfume, from the words of Jesus to the Apostles; the same, however, cannot be said of the poetry.
BIBL.: G. G. Bell, Gli inni del Breviario tradotti, Rome 1856, p. 346; C. Blume, Die Hymenen des Thesaurus hymnologicus H. A. Daniel, Leipzig 1908, p. 126; V. Terreno, Gli inni dell'Ufficio divino, Mondovì 1932, p. 300; A. Mitra, Gli inni del Breviario romano, Naples 1947, p. 245. Silverio Mattei