Enciclopedia Cattolica

MARIA CASTIS OCULIS

Volume VIII · p. 108 · 1952

English translation · Testo originale italiano

Image from page 108
Image from page 108

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

«MARIA CASTIS OCULIS». This is the hymn at Matins for the feast of St. Mary Magdalene.

It consists of a single stanza inspired by the account in John 12:3, which St. Robert Bellarmine, author of the Vespers hymn, extracted from the hymn *Magno salutis gaudio* by St. Gregory the Great (PL 78, 850).

Mary, the sinful woman of Magdala, enters the house of Simon where Jesus is at table, wets His feet with her tears, dries them with her flowing hair, and then anoints them with perfumes. A vivid and eloquent scene, rendered with brevity and clarity.

BIBL.: G. G. Belli, *Gli inni del Breviario tradotti*, Rome 1856, p. 98; C. Albin, *La poésie du Bréviaire*, Luce n.d., p. 312; A. Mirra, *Gli inni del Breviario romano*, Naples 1947, p. 228.