Latin, 6th or 7th century
Tr. John M. Neale, 1818-66
From Part II of an ancient Latin hymn of the 6th or 7th century beginning: “Urbs beata Hierusalem.” The author is not known. The first verse reflects Ephesians 2:20-21: “And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord.”
The hymn is often used at the dedication of churches, stanzas 3 and 4 being especially appropriate for that purpose.
Dr. Neale’s translation of the hymn, in nine stanzas, appeared in his Medieval Hymns, 1851. Our hymn is a selection of stanzas 5, 6, 7, and 8, of his translation, with some changes in the words. The Latin of our first three stanzas is as follows:
Angularis fundamentum
lapis Christus missus est
Qui compage parietis
in utroque nectitur,
Quem Sion sancta suscepit,