Pange Lingua Gloriosi Corporis Mysterium

Pange Lingua Gloriosi Corporis Mysterium is a Medieval Latin hymn written by Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) for the Feast of Corpus Christi. It is also sung on Maundy Thursday during the procession from the church to the place where the Blessed Sacrament is kept until Good Friday. The last two stanzas (called, separately, Tantum Ergo) are sung at Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. The hymn expresses the doctrine that the bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of Christ during the celebration of the Eucharist.

It is often sung in English as the hymn Of the Glorious Body Telling, to the same tune as the Latin.

The opening words recall another famous Latin sequence, from which this hymn is derived: Pange Lingua Gloriosi Proelium Certaminis by Venantius Fortunatus.

There are many English translations, of varying rhyme scheme and metre. The following is the Latin text with a doxology, and an English translation by Fr. Edward Caswall:. The third column is a more literal rendering.

There are two plainchant settings of the Pange lingua hymn. The better known is a Phrygian mode tune from the Roman liturgy, and the other is from the Mozarabic liturgy from Spain. The Roman tune was originally part of the Gallican Rite.

...
Wikipedia