TE DECET LAUS. - A hymn, or rather a brief Trinitarian acclamation in the form of a doxology.

Very ancient, it already appears in the Apostolic Constitutions (book VII, ch. 48, 3, with a reworked variant "Patrem per Filium in Spiritu Sancto") and still today in the Orthros of the Byzantine liturgy (Orologion, Rome 1937, pp. 129-30). Following the example of the Eastern monks, the hymn, translated from the Greek, was prescribed by St. Benedict (Reg., ch. XI) for Sundays and feasts at the night Office after the reading of the Gospel; in the monastic rite the doxology follows the singing of the "Te Deum," just as in the Byzantine rite the similar doxology of the "Gloria in excelsis" follows it to conclude the night Office. In the Middle Ages it was also used in the Office of the secular clergy in place of the "Te Deum" when another Office (double Office) was recited at night or in the morning (Radulfo de Rivo, De canon. observatione, prop. 21 at the end, ed. C. Mohlberg, II, Münster 1915, pp. 123, 21). A doxology similar to the T. d. l. was already used in the synagogue service on Saturday morning.

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: L. Eisenhofer, Hand. der kath. Liturgik, I, Freiburg 1932, p. 209; A. Baumstark, Liturgie comparée, Chevetogne 1940, pp. 94-95; M. Righetti, Manuale di storia liturgica, I, Milan 1950, p. 201.

Pietro Siffrin

@incollection{ec11_te_decet_laus, author = {Siffrin, Pietro}, title = {Te Decet Laus}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XI}, pages = {1861}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/te-decet-laus} }

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