O what their joy and their glory must be

O what their joy and their glory must be. Peter Abelard* (1079-1142), translated by John Mason Neale* (1818-1866).

The Latin text, ‘O quanta qualia sunt illa sabbata’* was written by Abelard for the Paraclete Hymnal* (Hymnarius Paraclitensis) used by the convent of the Paraclete near Paris founded by Heloise*. See Analecta Hymnica 48: 163. Neale’s translation was made for the Hymnal Noted Part II (1854). It was included, with alterations, in the Appendix (1868) to the First Edition of A&M, and has remained in all subsequent editions until it was omitted by A&MRW. It was also in EH/NEH. It was shortened from its original seven stanzas in SofP and further shortened in SofPE. Many selections and versions exist of the original stanzas: the seven-stanza text is in A&MCP.

Neale’s translation loses two syllables, avoiding the final dactyl (‘Sābbata’). It is normally set, as in the Hymnal Noted, to a tune called REGNATOR ORBIS, from its setting in François de La Feillée*’s Méthode du plain-chant (1808) to ‘Regnator orbis summus et Arbiter’. Another translation, by Alan Gaunt*, beginning ‘What of those Sabbaths? What glory! What grandeur!’ is used by RS. Another translation, by Helen Waddell*, beginning ‘How mighty are the sabbaths’, is used by BBCHB and NCH.

In the USA and Canada it was used by Charles S. Robinson* in Laudes Domini (New York, 1884) and by Robinson and Edward Judson in The New Laudes Domini (New York, 1892), and it was included in H40 and H82. It seems to have grown in reputation in recent years: Erik Routley* included it in the Reformed Church’s Rejoice in the Lord (1985) and it was in UMH and LSB. The Companion to the Hymns of the last-named book notes that ‘Fervent longing animates the entire hymn, in particular the first stanza. Eternal life is not a dry doctrine but an indispensable reality consisting of joy and glory, rest and blessing, crown and communion with God’ (2019, Vol.I, p. 893, note to Hymn 675).

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Further Reading  

Joseph Herl, Peter C. Reske and Jon D. Vieker, Editors, Lutheran Service Book. Companion to the Hymns. Volume 1 [on the individual hymns]. Volume 2 [historical essays and notes on authors and composers]  (St Louis, Missouri: Concordia Publishing House, 2019).