O salutaris hostia


"O Salutaris Hostia" is a section of one of the Eucharistic hymns written by Thomas Aquinas for the Feast of Corpus Christi and the Hour of Lauds in the Divine Office. It is actually the last two stanzas of the hymn Verbum supernum prodiens and is used for the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. The other two hymns written by Aquinas for the Feast contain the famous sections Panis angelicus and Tantum ergo.

Text

Local usage

As a liturgical text, the hymn is traditionally sung in Latin, but after the introduction of vernacular languages, it is also sung in the vernacular.
In Notre-Dame de Paris a middle stanza is inserted:
Latin TextLiteral Translation

In Scotland a similar middle stanza is inserted:
Latin TextLiteral Translation

Musical settings

William Byrd composed in the late 1500s. Marc-Antoine Charpentier composed six settings for "O salutaris Hostia": H.236, H.262, H.261, H.36, H.248, and H.249. Spanish composer Arriaga wrote a motet on the hymn for two tenors, bass and strings in 1823. Gioachino Rossini composed two settings of the hymn: one as a standalone piece for chorus and the other as a movement for solo soprano in his Petite messe solennelle. Both stanzas are retained in Arthur Honegger's 1939 setting for mezzo-soprano and piano, whereas only the first stanza is included in Vytautas Miškinis' setting for mixed choir a cappella, O salutaris hostia, in 1991. The first stanza is also inserted as part of the Sanctus of Robert Schumann's Mass in C minor, Op. posth. 147. San Francisco-based composer David Conte included the hymn as the first movement of his Two Hymns in Honor of the Blessed Sacrament.