Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences/O beata beatorum
O beata beatorum.
This very elegant sequence is of German origin. Its rhymes are irregular in the original, as here. It was inserted in the Hymnal Noted.
Blessed Feasts of Blessed Martyrs!
Saintly days of saintly men!
With affection's recollections
Greet we your return again.
Mighty deeds they wrought, and wonders,
While a frame of flesh they bore:
We with meetest praise, and sweetest,
Honour them for evermore.
Faith unblenching, Hope unquenching,
Well-lov'd Lord, and single heart,—
Thus they glorious and victorious
Bore the Martyr's happy part.
Blood in slaughter poured like water,
Torments long and heavy chain,
Flame and axe and laceration,
They endured, and conquered pain.
While they pass'd through divers tortures,
Till they sank by death oppress'd,
Earth's rejected were elected
To have portion with the Blest.
By contempt of worldly pleasures,
And by mighty battles done,
They have reached the Land of Angels,
And with them are knit in one.
They are made coheirs of glory,
And they sit with Christ on high:
Oh that, as He heard their weeping,
He may also hear our cry;
Till, this weary life completed,
And its many labours past,
He shall grant us to be seated
In our Father's Home at last! Amen.