52
Gravi me terrore pulsas, vitæ dies ultima.
This awful hymn, the Dies iræ of individual life, was written by S. Peter Damiani, Cardinal Bishop of Ostia, the great coadjutor of S. Gregory VII. in his reform of the Church. He lived from 1002 to 1072, and spent the last years of his life in devotion and retirement at his Abbey of S. Croce d' Avellano, having resigned his Cardinalate. His realization of the hour of death is shown, not only by this hymn, but by the Commendatory Prayer, used from his time in the Roman Church, which begins, "To Goo I commend thee, beloved brother; and to Him Whose creature thou art I commit thee:" originally composed by S. Peter as a letter to a dying friend.
O what terror in thy forethought,
Ending scene of mortal life!
Heart is sickened, reins are loosened,
Thrills each nerve, with terror rife,
When the anxious heart depicteth
All the anguish of the strife!
