Panis angelicus
fit panis hominum;
dat panis caelicus
figuris terminum;
O res mirabilis:
manducat Dominum
pauper, servus et humilis.  

Te, trina Deitas
unaque, poscimus:
sic nos tu visita,
sicut te colimus;
per tuas semitas
duc nos quo tendimus,
ad lucem quam inhabitas.  

Thus Angels' Bread is made
the Bread of man today:
the Living Bread from heaven
with figures dost away:
O wondrous gift indeed!
the poor and lowly may
upon their Lord and Master feed.  

Thee, therefore, we implore,
o Godhead, One in Three,
so may Thou visit us
as we now worship Thee;
and lead us on Thy way,
That we at last may see
the light wherein Thou dwellest aye 


Excerpted from: 

http://home.earthlink.net/~thesaurus/thesaurus/Hymni/SacrisSol.html
and

http://www.stpetersnottingham.org/music/panisangelicus.html

Other CD's by Arthur Sulit and Tina Carey are at:

http://www.MuSeeks.com/ArthurSulit

This is one of the five beautiful hymns St. Thomas 
Aquinas (1225-1274) composed in honor of Jesus in the 
Blessed Sacrament at specific request of Pope Urban IV 
(1261-1264) when the Pope first established the Feast 
of Corpus Christi in 1264. Today Sacris Solemniis is 
used as a hymn for the Office of the Readings for 
Corpus Christi. The last two stanzas are the text for 
the hymn Panis Angelicus.

Excerpted from:

http://stthaquinas.8m.com/list_tdrain.htm

Saint Thomas Aquinas was born at the castle Rocca 
Secca in about AD 1225, to a knighted father and a 
Norman mother.  Though born in Italy, his coloring and 
built indicated a more northern European father and 
lineage. Rocca Secca overlooks the small town of 
Aquino.  At age five Thomas was placed in the great 
monastery of St. Benedict, Monte Cassino.  Here he 
stayed for about eight years in studies.  The 
political situation was not favorable there, so Thomas 
went in AD 1239 to the university of Naples where he 
studied the arts and sciences for five years.  Late in 
this education St. Thomas came to know priests from 
the Order of Preachers, and at nineteen he took the 
habit of St. Dominic. 

News of his religious dedication reached home, and it 
suited his mother that Thomas would be a Benedictine.  
However, she was appalled at her some joining a 
Mendicant order, and set out to take him out of the 
Dominicans. The friars hurried Thomas off to the 
monastery at Rome, but undeterred his mother went 
there, too.  He had left with the Master General on a 
trip, and obdurate his mother dispatched her sons in 
Tuscany to find Thomas and take him.  This they did 
and he was brought back to Rocca Secca, and then to 
the castle Monte San Giovanni.  There he learned large 
parts of Scripture, 
studied the Sentences of Peter Lombard, and wrote a 
treatise on the fallacies of Aristotle. 

Two years later his mother relented and he returned to 
the Order.  It was decided to send him to study under 
St. Albert the Great.  There at Cologne were many 
clerics from all parts of Europe, and the reserved 
young saint did not immediately impress anyone, even 
leading to the misplaced nickname 
of  "the dumb Sicilian ox".  In about AD 1252 Thomas 
was sent to teach at Paris, and there he expounded the 
Holy Scriptures, the Liber Sententiarum of Lombard, 
wrote a commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, 
Isaias and the Gospel of Matthew.  In about AD 1256 he 
neared completion of his Doctorate, and began work on 
Summa Contra Gentiles, a five volume work written with 
the Moors/Muslims in mind.  For the next nine years he 
taught, and eventually taught those close to the Papal 
court.  In AD 1266 he began his crown jewel, the Summa 
Theologiae. 

In AD 1269 he was back in Paris.  There St. Louis IX 
consulted him on a regular basis.  In addition, St. 
Thomas' mind and Angelic knowledge of the Faith 
exerted itself.  He was asked to explain whether or 
not in the the Blessed Sacrament, the accidents (ie 
bread) remained really or or only in appearances.  St. 
Thomas was known to have spent whole nights in 
Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in contemplation of 
theological matters, and after such prayer he 
completed his decision and laid it upon the Altar of 
God in confirmation.  Thereafter he conferred the 
knowledge that the Blessed 
Sacrament was wholly and completely transubstantiated 
into the Body of Christ, with the accident of bread 
existing only in appearance.  This would be excepted 
not only by the faculty, but soon after the Church 
universal, and would go on to destroy Luther's error 
of consubstantiation some two 
centuries later. 

Some academic trouble arose in AD 1272 and Thomas went 
to Naples, and there he would end his labors.  During 
the feast of St. Nicholas while offering Mass Thomas 
was struck with a profound revelation.  This caused 
the saint to end his dictations and writing, leaving 
the Summa Theologiae unfinished.  He was ill when he 
was called by Pope Gregory X to administer "on the 
Errors of the Greeks" to the General Council of 
Lyons.  He grew much worse, and had to stop at the 
Cistercian abbey of Fossa Nuova.  There on his death 
bed he began to expand on the Canticle of Canticles, 
but did not finish and gave up his ghost on the 
seventh of March, AD 1274.  Saint Thomas was only 50. 


<><><><><><> 

This is one of the five hymns composed by St. Thomas
in honor of Our Lord present in the Most Blessed 
Sacrament, for the Feast of Corpus Christi which was 
instituted by Pope Urban IV, in AD 1264.  It is highly 
suitable for recitation at Holy Mass: 


Sacris solemniis iuncta sint gaudia, 
Et ex praecordiis sonent praeconia; 
Recedant vetera, nova sint omnia, 
Corda, voces, et opera. 

Noctis recolitur cena novissima, 
Qua Christus creditur agnum et azyma 
Dedisse fratribus, iuxta legitima 
Priscis indulta patribus. 

Post agnum typicum, expletis epulis, 
Corpus Dominicum datum discipulis, 
Sic totum omnibus, quod totum singulis, 
Eius fatemur manibus. 

Dedit fragilibus corporis ferculum, 
Dedit et tristibus sanguinis poculum, 
Dicens: Accipite quod trado vasculum; 
Omnes ex eo bibite. 

Sic sacrificium istud instituit, 
Cuius officium committi voluit 
Solis presbyteris, quibus sic congruit, 
Ut sumant, et dent ceteris. 

Panis angelicus fit panis hominum; 
Dat panis caelicus figuris terminum; 
O res mirabilis: manducat Dominum 
Pauper, servus et humilis. 

Te, trina Deitas unaque, poscimus: 
Sic nos tu visita, sicut te colimus; 
Per tuas semitas duc nos quo tendimus, 
Ad lucem quam inhabitas. Amen. 
------------------------------------------------ 


At this our solemn feast 
Let holy joys abound, 
And from the inmost breast 
Let songs of praise resound; 
Let ancient rites depart, 
And all be new around, 
In every act, and voice, and heart. 


Remember we that eve, 
When, the Last Supper spread, 
Christ, as we all believe, 
The Lamb, with leavenless bread, 
Among His brethren shared, 
And thus the Law obeyed, 
Of all unto their sire declared. 


The typic Lamb consumed, 
The legal Feast complete, 
The Lord unto the Twelve 
His Body gave to eat; 
The whole to all, no less 
The whole to each did mete 
With His own hands, as we confess. 


He gave them, weak and frail, 
His Flesh, their Food to be; 
On them, downcast and sad, 
His Blood bestowed He: 
And thus to them He spake, 
"Receive this Cup from Me, 
And all of you of this partake." 


So He this Sacrifice 
To institute did will, 
And charged His priests alone 
That office to fulfill: 
In them He did confide: 
To whom it pertains still 
To take, and the rest divide. 


Thus Angels' Bread is made 
The Living Bread for us today: 
The Living Bread from heaven 
With figures does away: 
O wondrous gift indeed! 
The poor and lowly may 
Upon their Lord and Master feed. 


You, therefore, we implore, 
O Godhead, One in Three, 
So may You visit us 
Who worship You with glee; 
And lead us on Your way, 
That we at last may see 
Where You dwell in Eternal Day. 
Amen. 



		              
		              

  Genre: Classical Vocals