“LUCIS CREATOR OPTIME.” – Hymn of Vespers in the Office of Sunday, composed by St. Ambrose.
It opens the series of hymns that, throughout the week, sing the marvels of creation. As the darkness of night, full of terrors and dangers, advances, the Christian soul turns to God, the 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, Rome 1856, pp. 68-71; S. G. Piment, Les hymnes du Bréviaire romain, I, Paris 1884, pp. 116-23; C. Albin, La poésie du Bréviaire, I, Les hymnes, Ligne 3, pp. 72-74; F. Vanderstuyf, Les hymnes du Bréviaire romain, Paris 1912, pp. 66-67. Silverio Mattei