Our Morning Offering – 11 December – “The Month of the Divine Infancy and the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary” – Within the Octave
O Gloriosa Femina
O Glorious Maid, Exalted Far
By St Venantius Fortunatus (c530 – c609)
Bishop, Father o the Church
O Glorious Maid, exalted far
Beyond the light of burning star,
From Him who made thee, thou hast won
Grace to be Mother of His Son.
That which was lost in hapless Eve
Thy holy Scion did retrieve:
The tear-worn sons of Adam’s race
Through thee have seen the heavenly place.
Thou wast the gate of Heaven’s high Lord,
The door through which the Light hath poured.
Christians rejoice, for through a Maid
To all mankind is life conveyed!
All honour, laud and glory be,
O Jesu, Virgin-born, to Thee;
All glory, as is ever meet,
To Father and to Paraclete.
Amen.
This Hymn was used for Lauds in the Sarum Breviary for the Feasts of the Immaculate Conception, the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation, the Assumption and the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The above is the original text of this Hymn as it appears in The English Hymnal (1906), where it is listed as a Morning Office Hymn for Feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary:
Chant Tone: “O Gloriosa Domina” Gregorian Chant, Mode II, traditional.
AnaStpaul 