«LUCIS CREATOR OPTIME». – Hymn of Vespers in the Office of Sunday, composed by St. Ambrose.
It opens the series of hymns that sing, throughout the week, of the wonders of creation. As the darkness of night advances, full of horrors and dangers, the Christian soul turns to God, author of light on the first day of creation, and asks him to free it from sin, which alone can bring back into the world the darkness of the spirit.
BIBL.: G. Belli, Gli inni del Breviario tradotti, Roma 1856, pp. 68-71; S. G. Pimont, Les hymnes du Bréviaire romain, I, Parigi 1884, pp. 116-23; C. Albin, La poésie du Bréviaire, I, Les hymnes, Lione s. a., pp. 72-74; F. Vanderstruyf, Les hymnes du Bréviaire romain, Parigi 1912, pp. 66-67. Silverio Mattei