First of martyrs, thou whose name

First of martyrs, thou whose name. Jean-Baptiste de Santeuil* (1630-1697), translated perhaps by a friend of Isaac Williams* (1802-1865). This is a translation of Santeuil’s ‘O qui tuo, dux martyrum’, from the Cluniac Breviary (1686) and from his Hymni Sacri et Novi (1689). It appeared in Williams’s Hymns translated from the Paris Breviary (1839), with the first line ‘Rightful Prince of Martyrs thou’. In the Preface Williams said that the translation was ‘supplied by a Friend’, whose identity has not been discovered. The text in 1839 was preceded by ‘St Stephen’s Day. Midnight’, and ‘Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life -Rev. ii’ (Revelation 2: 10), followed...