«TE DICIMUS PRAECONIO». — Hymn of Matins for the feast of the Apparition of the Madonna of Lourdes composed in 1880 by LEO XIII.
It celebrates the Virgin, free from original sin as she was destined to crush the head of the ancient serpent. She will thus be the glory and adornment of humanity because she has effaced the shame of Eve. The final stanza is a prayer that she may keep the tempter far away and confound his snares and deceits.
BIBL.: C. Albin, La poésie du Bréviaire, Lyon 8vo, s.a., pp. 597–609; A. Mirra, Gli inni del Breviario romano, Naples 1947, p. 164.