Crux Fidelis

The Pange lingua gloriosi proelium, with the refrain Crux fidelis, is the second great hymn of the Cross composed by St Venantius Fortunatus (6th c.). It is sung at the Adoration of the Cross on Good Friday, alternating with the improperia. Not to be confused with the Eucharistic Pange Lingua of St Thomas.

Faithful Cross, above all other,
one and only noble tree:
none in foliage, none in blossom,
none in fruit your peer may be;
sweetest wood and sweetest iron,
sweetest weight is hung on thee.

Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle;
sing the ending of the fray;
now above the Cross, the trophy,
sound the loud triumphant lay;
tell how Christ, the world’s Redeemer,
as a victim won the day.

God in pity saw man fallen,
shamed and sunk in misery,
when he fell on death by tasting
fruit of the forbidden tree;
then another tree was chosen
which the world from death should free.

Thus the work for our salvation
he ordained to be done;
to the traitor’s art opposing
art yet deeper than his own:
thence the remedy procuring,
whence the fatal wound had come.

So when now at length the fullness
of the sacred time drew nigh,
then the Son, the world’s Creator,
left his Father’s throne on high;
from a Virgin’s womb appearing,
clothed in our mortality.

All within a lowly manger,
lo, a tender babe he lies!
see his gentle Virgin Mother
lull to sleep his infant cries!
while the limbs of God incarnate
round with swathing bands she ties.

To the Trinity be glory
everlasting, as is meet:
equal to the Father, equal
to the Son and Paraclete:
God the Three in One, whose praises
all created things repeat. Amen.