«SACRA IAM SPLENDENT DECORATA LYNCHNIS». — Hymn of Matins for the feast of the Holy Family, composed by Leo XIII.
After a brief introduction, the poet enters the modest house of Nazareth and describes in moving vignettes the humble life led there by the three extraordinary persons who dwell in it after their return from the flight into Egypt. Jesus spends His childhood and youth there up to the age of thirty, helping St. Joseph in his arduous work, while Mary, affectionate mother and spouse, watches and smiles, pondering what is happening around her.
BIBL.: V. Terreno, *Gli inni dell'Ufficio divino*, Mondovì 1932, pp. 124-28; A. Moresi, *La S. Famiglia di Nazareth*, Milano 1934, p. 135; A. Mirra, *Gli inni del Breviario rom.*, Napoli 1947, p. 100.