1.1An alphabetical hymn to Christ, eternally begotten of the Father and born of the Virgin, celebrating the Son's full equality and mutual indwelling with the Father; it breaks off at the letter T.
1.3A hymn on Christ, the heavenly Adam, battling Satan: the devil, gloating over a world lost to idolatry, hears the angels' song at the nativity and the Father's voice at the baptism, and, seeing only a mortal body, prepares the temptation; the rest is lost.
authentic · Hymns 1 (the alphabetic hymn 'Ante saecula') and 3 are accepted as Hilary's; Feder prints them from the fragmentary Liber hymnorum. Hymn 2 survives only as a lacuna.
Standing
Honoured by the Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant traditions. Honoured as a saint or in a church calendar by: Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant.
Date
ca. 356–360 (approximate) · Jerome (Vir. ill. 100) names Hilary's Liber hymnorum; date uncertain.
Written at
Gaul or Phrygia (disputed)
Language
Latin
Genre
poem
Reference system
hymn.book-A number as in Feder (A. 'ex libro hymnorum': hymn 1 and hymn 3 survive; hymn 2 is lost). The dubious Hymnus de Christo (B) is not included.
SBL abbreviation
Hymn.Not yet checked
Clavis
CPL 472 (not yet checked)
Text from
A. Feder, ed., S. Hilarii episcopi Pictaviensis opera, pars 4, CSEL 65 (Vienna: Tempsky, 1916) (Printed edition (Feder, 1916) in the public domain; digital text CC BY-SA 4.0)