Jesu, our Lenten fast to Thee

Jesu, our Lenten fast to Thee. John W. Hewett* (1824-1886).  This is a translation of the Latin hymn, ‘Jesu, quadrigenariae’ (‘Jesus, of the forty days…’). The translation was printed in Hewett’s Verses by a Country Curate (Ashby-de-la-Zouche, 1859), where it was entitled ‘A Morning Hymn for Lent’. Hewett attributed the Latin hymn to Hilary of Poitiers* (‘S. Hilarius’) but this is doubtful. The Latin hymn was found in most Monastic Breviaries, normally for Lent at Vespers or Lauds. The translation was included in the Second Edition of A&M (1875) (it is not in the First Edition, 1861, as stated in JJ, p. 593). The first stanza was recast in A&M (1904):                    1875...