The festival of the Resurrection has a particularly rich, deep, and ancient glory about it. Anyone who has attended the thrilling radiance of an Easter Vigil service, or felt like he was in heaven while belting out the Gloria on Easter morning, can tell you that. Christians have always celebrated Christ’s Resurrection with the highest reverence and joy. Our Lutheran church has preserved a great treasure from this heritage of ours: the less-than-familiar Easter hymn, “Christians, to the Paschal Victim” (LSB 460).
The text of this hymn is attributed to Wipo of Burgundy (c. 995–after 1048), a priest who was chaplain to the Holy Roman Emperor at the time. Throughout the Middle Ages, the text and its rather eerie but joyfully-bursting-with-confidence Dorian chant tone was used as an Easter sequence to introduce the Gospel reading. Interestingly, the hymn was also widely used as part of a drama performed apart from the church service, which narrated the events of Easter morning. As early as the 1200s, churches often alternated this Latin chant with stanzas of the German hymn “Christ is Arisen” (LSB 459). Lutherans continued this practice during and after the Reformation.
The text of the hymn first calls Christians to praise Christ, their risen Passover Lamb. The summary it gives of our redemption is beautiful: “The Lamb the sheep has ransomed: Christ, who only is sinless, Reconciling sinners to the Father.” In the following section, the narrator dialogues with Mary Magdalene, asking her to tell what she witnessed at the tomb. Mary responds by relating what she saw there, and by confessing that “My Lord, my hope, is arisen!” The next line after her response, omitted in our hymnals, points out that Mary is to be believed instead of the deceitful Jews (see the Latin text below). The hymn concludes with our own confident confession of Jesus’ resurrection: “We know (scimus) that Christ has truly risen from the dead!” and by asking for His mercy.
The Latin text of this hymn, “Victimae Paschali Laudes,” might be of interest to some of our Latin students. The grammar isn’t difficult, and most of the vocabulary is easy to figure out if you’re familiar with the English hymn. (You might also find some discrepancies with the way it’s rendered in English!) As usual, some nuance and beauty is always lost in translation, and it is wonderful to sing and understand this hymn in its original language. (Here’s a video of how it sounds.)
Whether you sing in Latin or in English, may you all have a blessed Easter season, enjoying our Christian heritage and taking joy in our Lord’s resurrection from the dead!
In Christ,
Miss Hahn
Victimae paschali laudes
immolent Christiani.
Agnus redemit oves:
Christus innocens Patri
reconciliavit peccatores.
Mors et vita duello
conflixere mirando:
dux vitae mortuus,
regnat vivus.
Dic nobis Maria,
quid vidisti in via?
Sepulcrum Christi viventis,
et gloriam vidi resurgentis
Angelicos testes,
sudarium, et vestes.
Surrexit Christus spes mea:
praecedet suos [vos] in Galilaeam.
[Credendum est magis soli
Mariae veraci
Quam Judaeorum Turbae fallaci.]
Scimus Christum surrexisse
a mortuis vere:
tu nobis, victor Rex, miserere.
Amen. Alleluia.
Christians, to the Paschal Victim
Offer your thankful praises!
The Lamb the sheep has ransomed:
Christ, who only is sinless,
Reconciling sinners to the Father.
Death and life have contended
In that combat stupendous:
The Prince of life, who died,
Reigns immortal.
“Speak, Mary, declaring
What you saw when wayfaring.”
“The tomb of Christ, who is living,
The glory of Jesus’ resurrection;
Bright angels attesting,
The shroud and napkin resting.
My Lord, my hope, is arisen;
To Galilee He goes before you.”
[Omitted from LSB 460
]
Christ indeed from death is risen,
Our new life obtaining.
Have mercy, victor King, ever reigning!
Amen. Alleluia.
