Audi, benigne conditor

Audi, benigne conditor. Latin, 9th century.  This anonymous text (Daniel’s attribution to Gregory the Great* in Thesaurus Hymnologicus I. 178 is entirely unfounded) entered the liturgical tradition in the 9th-century New Hymnal (see ‘Medieval hymns and hymnals’*), where it is commonly found as the ferial Vespers hymn during Lent. Milfull’s translation of verse 1 makes its explicitly Lenten character clear: ‘Benign creator, hear our prayers accompanied by weeping, poured out during this holy forty-day period of fasting’ (Milfull, 1996, p. 238). A partial survey of sources preserved in modern day Germany and Austria provides a useful illustration of the varied - but consistently Lenten -...