Decet huius cunctis horis
festi voce dulcioris
facere memoriam.
Nec indignum. Sed benignum
voce cordi dare signum
Marie in gloriam.
Innovemus mente sana,
mater quod petit montana,
salutare gravidam.
Paranympho comitata,
fuerat quo salutata,
senem mulcet pavidam.
Remmiratur, sed matrona,
unde, inquit, tanta dona
mihi dantur hodie.
Ad me veniret quod illa,
mater dei et ancilla,
sceptrum omnis glorie?
Gaudet clauses sua matre,
sentit prolem sine patre,
agnum dei predicat.
Erit magnus infans rite,
regem celi, agnum vite,
clausus plausu indicat.
Nequit senex immorari,
rapit manus manu pari,
et nimis celeriter.
Exultabat modo miro,
circumplexa hanc in gyro,
salutando dulciter.
Clamat senex voce clara,
amplexata tot preclara
insignia deo cara
voce pendens veteri.
Salve inter mulieres,
te respexit celi heres,
meruisti, quod videres
casta fructum uteri.
Illa sed repudiavit,
laudem deo assignavit,
quando supplex decantavit
contexens: Magnificat.
Clemens virgo atque pia,
tu nos fove, o Maria,
partus namquetis nos quia
sola spes vivificat.
Amen.
TRANSLATION:
It is fitting at all hours
with sweet voice
to make memory of this feast.
Nor is it unseemly, but it is pleasing
to give a sign with voice and heart
for the glory of Mary.
Let us renew with clean mind,
because a mother [Mary] traversed mountains,
seeking to hail the pregnant woman.
Accompanied by a groomsman [Gabriel],
by whom she had been hailed,
she sooths the old fearful woman.
She wonders at the matter, but the matron says,
“Whence are such great gifts
given to me today?
Should it come to me,
as the mother and handmaiden of God,
the scepter of all glory?”
She rejoices with her mother [relative] privately,
she [Elizabeth] senses the offspring without a father,
she foretells the Lamb of God.
He will be a great infant, accordingly,
king of heaven, the lamb of life,
revealing the hidden with a clap.
The old woman is not able to delay,
she seizes one hand with the other,
and very quickly.
She was exulting in a wondrous way,
having embraced her in a circle,
with sweet salutation.
The old woman shouts with a clear voice,
embracing so many beautiful
signs of God, her dear,
old voice breaks out.
“Hail, among women,
the Heir of heaven has esteemed you,
you have merited that you,
although chaste, should see fruit of your womb.”
But she refused the praise,
and assigned it to God,
when on her knees she sang,
composing “Magnificat.”
Merciful and pious Virgin
Mary, favor us,
for you know that, for us,
only hope in your offspring gives life.
Amen.
– Jan z Jenštejna
Jan z Jenštejna (Jan of Jenštejn) was one of the most important 14th-century Bohemian scholars. Before being appointed archbishop of Prague in 1379 (a position he held until 1396), he studied in Padua, Bologna, Montpellier, and Paris. He was so highly regarded in France that King Charles V offered him a professorship at the Sorbonne in Paris. Upon his return to Bohemia, he was appointed chancellor to Wenceslas IV, with an additional position of bishop of Meissen in 1376. The plague struck Bohemia only a year after he became archbishop, and although he became infected, he survived, thereafter leading a life of extreme asceticism and self-denial.
In 1386, after a period of mystical visions, he is said to have introduced the liturgical feast of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary (although most Franciscan scholars attribute the feast’s actual creation to St. Bonaventure in the thirteenth century), and thereafter continued his life-long passion for composing liturgical poetry and song. Decet huius cunctis horis (sequence for the Visitation) is an exquisite example of Jenštejn’s literary and musical prowess.
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