Annue Christi saeculorum Domine

Annue Christi saeculorum Domine. Latin, before 11th century. This hymn, ‘Grant us, O Christ, lord of the ages’, was used at Vespers on the Feasts of individual Apostles, and was included in the late-tenth century Anglo-Saxon hymnals associated with the Benedictine reforms at Canterbury* and Winchester*. It was quite widely used in the middle ages, including by the Carmelites* in their distinctive feast in honour of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The hymn has four stanzas succeeded by a verse applied to the Apostle whose Feast it was. Sometimes the stanza preceded the four verses of ‘Annue Christi’, as in ‘De Sancto Petro Apostolo’. Examples of individualised final stanzas...