Enciclopedia Cattolica

RECTOR POTENS VERAX DEUS

Volume X · p. 368 · 1953

English translation · Testo originale italiano

«RECTOR POTENS VERAX DEUS». - Inno dell'ora di sesta, composto da s. Ambrogio.
«RECTOR POTENS VERAX DEUS». - Inno dell'ora di sesta, composto da s. Ambrogio.

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

«RECTOR POTENS VERAX DEUS». — Hymn of the sixth hour, composed by St. Ambrose.

The sixth hour corresponds to our midday. The heat of the hour recalls to the author the ardors of concupiscence and sensuality exploited by the noonday demon (Ps. 90:6). Against these, the poet invokes divine action to quench their power.

BIBL.: G. S. Pimont, Les hymnes du Bréviaire romain, I, Paris 1874, pp. 106–10; C. Albin, La poésie du Bréviaire, Lyon 5th ed., pp. 25, 27; V. Terreno, Gli inni dell'Ufficio divino, Mondovì 1932, pp. 42–43.