The Confessor Of Christ, From Shore To Shore

This hymn is used for Vespers and Matins in the Common of a Confessor and Bishop as well as of a Confessor who is not a Bishop in the Extraordinary Form. In the Ordinary Form, it is used for Vespers on the Feast of St. Martin of Tours (Nov. 11), for whom the hymn was originally written.

The Confessor of Christ, from shore to shore
Worshipp’d with solemn rite;
This day went up with joy, his labours o’er,
To his blest seat in light.

[If it be not the day of his death, the following is substituted.]
This day receives those honours which are his,
High in the realms of light.

Holy and innocent were all his ways;
Sweet, temperate, unstain’d;
His life was prayer,—his every breath was praise,
While breath to him remain’d.

Ofttimes his merits high in every land,
In cures have been displayed;
And still does health return at his command
To many a frame decay’d.

Therefore to him triumphant praise we pay,
And yearly songs renew;
Praying our glorious Saint for us to pray,
All the long ages through.

To God, of all the centre and the source,
Be power and glory given;
Who sways the mighty world through all its
course,
From the bright throne of Heaven.

Words: Anonymous Latin, 8th C.; tr. Fr. Edwards Caswall, C.O., 1849.
Tune: TBD…
Meter: 10.6.10.6

The original Latin text of this hymn may be found here.