Virginis Proles Opifexque Matris
VIRGINIS PROLES OPIFEXQUE MATRIS
The hymn in the Divine Office that was historically assigned for Matins of the Common of a virgin-martyr. It has five stanzas each of which has three sapphic and one adonic verse. Stanzas one, four, and five are used also in the Common of a virgin; stanzas four and five, in the Common of a non-virgin. The author is unknown. Its inclusion in a 9th-century hymnal suggests the 8th century as the time of its origin. The fact that it is found in increasingly numerous manuscripts after the 9th century attests its merit. Its graceful sapphic strophes originally had an end syllable rhyme in the 3d and 4th verses, but in the revision of the hymns under Pope urban viii the rhyme disappeared. Several phrases and lines also were revised, but on the whole the hymn did not suffer radical change.
Bibliography: m. britt, The Hymns of the Breviary and Missal (new ed. New York 1948) 376–378.
[g. e. conway/eds.]