«OPUS DECUSQUE REGIUM RELIQUERAS». — Hymn of the Lauds in the Office of St. Elizabeth Queen of Portugal (7 July), written by Urban VIII, who had canonized her in 1625.
The hymn is entirely a prayer to the Saint who, renouncing wealth and honours, devoted herself to the service of God and, not allured by earthly grandeur, enjoys in heaven the merited reward. May she also obtain for us union and charity in our works, as hinted at by the miracle of the roses.
BIBL.: G. G. Belli, Gli inni del breviario tradotti, Roma 1857, p. 278; C. Albin, La poésie du breviaire romain, Lyon n.d., p. 94; A. Mirra, Gli inni del breviario romano, Napoli 1947, pp. 225-26.