Our Morning Offering – 30 January – Feast of St Martina (Died c228) Virgin and Martyr, Patron of Rome
Hear Thou with Joy, O Rome,
Martina’s Name
Breviary Hymn for Matins
By Pope Urban VIII (1568-1644) (Attrib)
Papal Reign from 1623-1644
Hear thou with joy, O Rome, Martina’s name,
Her praises celebrate with glad accord Martina,
high in merit, virgin blest
and martyr of the Lord.
Beauty and youth, the joys of happy home,
Ancestral palaces and noble birth;
All these were hers, all these for Jesu’s sake,
She counted nothing worth.
Her wealth she shared among the poor of Christ,
Content with seeking better wealth above:
Herself she gave to her immortal King,
too happy in His love.
The agonising hooks, the rending scourge,
Shook not the dauntless spirit in her breast;
With torments rack’d, Angels her fainting flesh
Recruit with heavenly feast.
In vain they cast her to the ravening beasts;
Calm at her feet the lion crouches down,
Till smitten by the sword at length she goes
To her immortal crown.
Now with the Saints Martina reigns in bliss
And. where Idolatry sate throned of yore,
From her victorious altar, praise and prayer
With odorous incense soar.
Expel false worldly joys and fill us, Lord,
With Thine enlightening beam Divine;
Who with Thy suffering Martyrs present art,
The Godhead, One and Trine.
Amen
Images omits Stanzas 4 and 6
AnaStpaul 