Behold the messengers of Christ

Behold the messengers of Christ. Jean-Baptiste de Santeuil* (1630-1697) translated by Isaac Williams* (1802-1865), altered by the compilers of A&M.  This is a translation of de Santeuil’s Latin hymn, ‘Christi perennis Nuntii’, from his Hymni Sacri et Novi (Paris, 1689), used for Vespers and Nocturns in the Paris Breviary (1736) for the Feasts of St Mark (25 April) and St Luke (18 October). The Latin text began:  Christi perennes Nuntii, Retecta qui caelestibusScriptis Dei mysteriaTotem per orbem spargitis.  Williams’s translation was published in the British Magazine (February 1837) and then in his Hymns translated from the Parisian Breviary (1839). It was set for the Commemoration of...