Iam Toto Subitus Vesper

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IAM TOTO SUBITUS VESPER

Office hymn that was historically sung, first at Matins, subsequently at Vespers, on the feast of the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady. Its composition is ascribed to Callisto Palumbella, a bishop of the 18th century, who was a member of the servites, and to whom the feast had been granted in 1688. The meter is minor asclepiadic in the first three lines of each strophe and glyconic in the fourth line. Within the space of its six stanzas the hymn details the sufferings of Christ upon the cross and stresses their effect on His Mother.

Bibliography: j. julian, ed., A Dictionary of Hymnology (New York 1957) 1:578. m. britt, ed., The Hymns of the Breviary and Missal (new ed. New York 1948).

[j. p. mccormick]