Iam Sol Recedit Igneus

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IAM SOL RECEDIT IGNEUS

Office hymn that was traditionally used at first Vespers of the Sundays after Epiphany and after Pentecost. With the variation of one word in the fourth line of the first stanza (Infunde amorem cordibus instead of Infunde lumen cordibus ), it was also assigned for use at Vespers of Trinity Sunday. The original text began O lux beata trinitas,/Et principalis unitas. The original hymn, written in iambic dimeter, is often ascribed to St. ambrose; he is actually cited as its author by Hincmar of Reims in a work of 857. However, more recent works on hymnology tend to refer to the authorship as unknown. Some would ascribe it to gregory the great; however, it may date only from the 9th century. The 1632 revision of the Roman Breviary abbreviated the hymn to two stanzas and a doxology.

Bibliography: Analecta hymnica 51:38. j. julian, ed., A Dictionary of Hymnology (New York 1957) 1:842. m. britt, ed., The Hymns of the Breviary and Missal (new ed. New York 1948) 6263, 164165. j. connelly, Hymns of the Roman Liturgy (Westminster MD 1957) 43. j. szÖvÉrffy, Die Annalen der lateinischen Hymnendichtung (Berlin 196465) 1:142, 214.

[j. p. mccormick]