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Prayers

Rerum Deus tenax vigor: the hymn at the Ninth Hour

A Latin hymn of the 600s or 700s for the afternoon, as the day wanes. It asks God for light at evening and a holy death.

Picture: Barent Fabritius, Tobit and Anna with the Kid, 1667

The words of the prayer

Plain English

O God, the unfailing strength of all things,You remain unmoved in Yourself,and You set the hours of daylightone after another.

Give light at evening,so that life may never fade,but everlasting glory may be close at hand,the reward of a holy death.

Grant this, most loving Father,and You, His only Son, equal to the Father,with the Spirit, the Comforter,now and for ever and ever.

Traditional wording, 1851

O God, Creation’s secret Force,Thyself unmov’d, all motion’s source,Who from the morn, till ev’ning’s ray,Through all its changes guid’st the day:

Grant us when this short life is past,The glorious ev’ning that shall last:That, by a holy death attain’d,Eternal glory may be gain’d.

O Father, that we ask be done,Through Jesus Christ, Thine Only Son;Who, with the Holy Ghost and Thee,Shall live and reign eternally. Amen.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Latin, with John Mason Neale’s English beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: John Mason Neale, The Hymnal Noted, 1851.

Neale’s verse is freer than the Latin. Where the plain wording asks God to give light at evening so that life may never fade, his hymn asks for “the glorious ev’ning that shall last”.

When it is said

The Latin breviaries of Rome, Salisbury, York and other churches all set it for None, the short service of the ninth hour, in the afternoon.

It can be said at home in the afternoon, or by anyone in the later years of life.

Where it comes from

Author doubtful

Who wrote it?

Its author is unknown. An editor in 1862 counted it among the hymns of St Ambrose of Milan, but it is not one of the 12 hymns that the Benedictine editors of his works accepted as his own. It has been dated to the 7th or 8th century, and it is found in Latin manuscripts of the 700s, one of them in the Vatican.

John Julian, A Dictionary of Hymnology (1907), “Rerum Deus tenax vigor”; Migne, Patrologia Latina, volume 17, the hymns of uncertain authors (Latin Wikisource)

The evening of life

In 1852 a short commentary on the hymn book called the Hymnal Noted was printed in London “for the use of the poor”. At the ninth hour, it says, as the day declines, we remember that God made all things and still holds them up. Then we pray that when the day of this life is over, we may have a glorious evening, the rest of the kingdom of heaven. It points to the prophecy of light at evening in Zechariah 14:7.

A Short Commentary on the Hymnal Noted (London, 1852)

What the words mean

O Strength and Stay

Several English versions of the hymn are sung. The one printed beside the plain wording is by the hymn writer John Mason Neale, from his Hymnal Noted. The best known today, “O Strength and Stay, upholding all creation”, is by John Ellerton and F. J. A. Hort, and it first appeared in the hymn book Church Hymns in 1871.

John Julian, A Dictionary of Hymnology (1907), “Rerum Deus tenax vigor”

The Scripture in it

It will be a unique day known only to the LORD, without day or night; but when evening comes, there will be light.

Zechariah 14:7 Echoed Light at evening, the prophecy the 1852 commentary points to.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.

In Latin

Rerum Deus tenax vigor,

Immotus in te permanens,

Lucis diurnae tempora

Successibus determinans.

Largire clarum vespere

Quo vita nusquam decidat,

Sed praemium mortis sacrae

Perennis instet gloria.

Praesta, Pater piissime,

Patrique compar unice,

Cum Spiritu paraclito

Nunc et per omne saeculum.

From Migne, Patrologia Latina, volume 17, among the hymns of uncertain authors, on Latin Wikisource.

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Berean Standard Bible