"Who this is we must learn, for Man he seems
In all his lineaments, though in his face
The glimpses of his Father's glory shine."

[VIII]

Line
[9]The day of twelve hours appears to have been adopted by the Romans about B.C. 291. Ambrose (de virginibus, iii. 4), commenting on Ps. cxix. and the words "Seven times a day do I praise thee," declares that prayers are to be offered up with thanksgiving when we rise from sleep, when we go forth, when we prepare to take food, when we have taken it, at the hour of incense, and lastly, when we retire to rest. He probably alludes to private prayer. The stanza here indicates that the second hour after midday has arrived, when the fasting ended and the midday meal was taken.
[14]The word festum, as in [vii. 4], indicates a special fast day. Until the sixth century, fasting was simply a penitential discipline and was not used as a particular mode of penance. In the fourth century it was a fairly common practice as a preparation for Holy Communion. Fasting before Baptism was a much earlier practice. The stated fasts of the Western Church were (1) annual, that is, ante-paschal or Lent; (2) monthly, or the fasts of the four seasons in the 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th months; (3) weekly, on Wednesday and Friday. There was also the fast of the Rogations and the Vigils or Eves of holy days. It is doubtful whether all these were in vogue as early as Prudentius.
[33]This passage on the Shepherd reminds us of one of the most common pictorial representations of the Catacombs. Christian art owed something to paganism in this matter; ancient sculptures represent the god Pan with a goat thrown across his shoulders and a Pan's pipe in his hand; while the poets Calpurnius and Tibullus both refer to the custom of carrying a stray or neglected lamb on the shoulders of the shepherd. Going further back, the figure is common in the O. T. to express God's care over His people. Our Lord therefore used for His own purpose and transfigured with new meaning a familiar figure. The gradual transition from paganism to Christianity is curiously illustrated by the fact that in several of the Catacomb bas-reliefs and paintings the Good Shepherd holds in His outstretched hand a Pan's pipe. See Maitland's Church in the Catacombs, p. 315, for a woodcut of the Good Shepherd with a lamb over His shoulders, two sheep at His feet, a palm tree (or poplar) on either side, and a Pan's pipe in His right hand; and also the frontispiece for a reproduction from the Cemetery of St. Peter and St. Marcellinus.

[IX]

Line
[1]This hymn, which first introduced into sacred song the trochaic metre familiar in Greek Tragedy and the Latin adaptations of it, supplies the Moz. Brev. with some stanzas for use during Holy Week. The lines selected are [22-24], [1-21].
[11]The use of the symbol Ω, (pronounced here as a single syllable), appears to indicate that the names Omega and Omikron came into use at a later date than Prudentius' time. In Rev. i. 8, the best MSS. read εγω ειμι το αλφα και το ω.
[33]The words vulnerum piamina are generally supposed to refer to the "gifts which Moses commanded" to be offered by those healed of leprosy (Lev. xiv. 2). If so, Prudentius' language may imply that the cure was not actually complete until the offering of these gifts, and is at variance with St. Matthew, viii. 43, "and forthwith his leprosy was cleansed." Probably, however, his idea is rather that the gifts to the priest formally marked the leper as a clean man.
[71]Cf. [note on iii. 199].

[X]

Line
[1]Parts of this hymn are used in the Moz. Brev. in the Office of the Dead, being ll. [1-16], [45-48], [57-68], [157-168]. The burial rites of the primitive Church were simple, and marked by an absence of the ostentatious expression of grief which the pagan peoples displayed. The general practice of cremation was rejected, partly owing to the new belief in the resurrection of the body, and partly from a desire to imitate the burial of the Lord. At Rome, during the first three centuries, the dead were laid in the Catacombs, in which Prudentius took conspicuous interest (see Translator's Note), but after 338 A.D. this practice became less frequent, and was completely abandoned after 410 A.D. Elsewhere, from the earliest times, the Christians purchased special enclosures (areae), which were often attacked and rifled by angry mobs in the days of persecution. The body was frequently embalmed (cf. [ll. 51, 52]), swathed in white linen ([l. 49]), and placed in a coffin; vigils and hymns continued for three or four days, but hired mourners were forbidden ([l. 113]), and instead of the dirges of the heathens, chants expressive of triumphant faith were sung as the body was carried to the grave, where a simple service was held, and evergreens and flowers were strewn about the tomb ([ll. 169, 170]). The earliest inscriptions are often roughly scratched on plaster, and consist merely of a name and age, or simple words like-- GEMELLA DORMIT IN PACE but later (cf. [l. 171]), they were engraved on small marble slabs.
[25]In both thought and language this stanza, as [vii. 16] et seq., is evidently reminiscent of Horace (Sat. 2, ii. 77): Quin corpus onustum, etc. "The Body, too, with Yesterday's excess Burthened and tired, shall the pure Soul depress, Weigh down this Portion of celestial Birth, This Breath of God, and fix it to the Earth." (Francis).
[51]Boldetti, in his work on the Catacombs (lib. i. cap. 59), says that on many occasions, when he was present at the opening of a grave, the assembled company were conscious of a spicy odour diffusing itself from the tomb. Cf. Tertullian (Apol. 42): "The Arabs and Sabaeans knew well that we consume more of their precious merchandise for our dead than do the heathen for their gods."
[57]Prudentius' firm faith in the resurrection of the body is also nobly expressed in the Apotheosis (ll. 1063 et seq.):-- "Nosco meum in Christo corpus resurgere; quid me
Desperare iubes? veniam, quibus ille revenit
Calcata de morte viis: quod credimus hoc est.
* * * * *
Pellite corde metum, mea membra, et credite vosmet
Cum Christo reditura Deo; nam vos gerit ille
Et secum revocat: morbos ridete minaces:
Inflictos casus contemnite; tetra sepulcra
Despuite; exsurgens quo Christus provocat, ite." Translation. "I know in Christ my body shall arise;
Why bid me, then, despair? for I shall go
By that same path whereby my Lord returned,
Death trodden 'neath His feet: this is my creed.
Banish, my limbs, all terror; and believe
That ye with Christ our God shall yet return;
He beareth you and with Himself recalls.
Laugh at the threats of sickness; scorn the blows
Of fate; despise the horrors of the tomb;
And fare ye where the risen Christ doth call."
[61]The poet expresses as a duty owed to Christ Himself the heathen obligation of casting three handfuls of earth upon a body discovered dead.
[69]For the incident referred to in these lines, see the Apocryphal book of Tobias, cc. ii. and xi. Tobit, a pious Israelite captive in Nineveh, was reduced to beggary as the result of his zeal in burying those of his countrymen who had been killed and exposed by royal command. He also lost his sight, which was eventually restored by the application of the gall of a fish which attacked his son Tobias, and was killed by him. The "fish" of the legend is probably the crocodile, whose gall was credited with medicinal properties by various Greek and Latin writers. Cf. Pliny, N. H. xxviii. 8: "They say that nothing avails more against cataract than to anoint the eyes with its gall mixed with honey."
[113]Cf. Cyprian (De Mortal. 20): "We must not lament our brethren whom the Lord's summons has freed from the world, for we know that they are not lost, but gone before. We may not wear the black robes of mourning while they have put on the white raiment of joy. Nor may we grieve for those as lost whom we know to be living with God."
[171]Cf. Perist. vii.:-- "Nos pio fletu, date, perluamus Marmorum sulcos." The early Christian epitaphs, of which many thousands exist, are instinct with a faith which is in striking contrast to the unrelieved gloom or sullen resignation of paganism. We may compare with the common AVE ATQVE VALE "Hail and farewell" or inscriptions like INFANTI DVLCISSIMO QVEM DI IRATI AETERNO SOMNO DEDERUNT "To a very sweet babe, whom the angry gods gave to unending sleep." the Christian DVLCIS ET INNOCENS HIC DORMIT SEVERIANVS SOMNO PACIS CVIVS SPIRITVS IN LVCE DOMINI SVSCEPTVS EST (A.D. 393) "Here slumbers in the sleep of peace the sweet and innocent Severianus, whose spirit is received in the light of the Lord" or NATVS EST LAVRENTIVS IN ETERNVM ANN. XX. DORMIT IN PACE (A.D. 329) "Laurentius was born into eternity in his twentieth year. He sleeps in peace." See also [note on iii. 205].

GEMELLA DORMIT IN PACE

"The Body, too, with Yesterday's excess

Burthened and tired, shall the pure Soul depress,

Weigh down this Portion of celestial Birth,

This Breath of God, and fix it to the Earth."

(Francis).

"Nosco meum in Christo corpus resurgere; quid me
Desperare iubes? veniam, quibus ille revenit
Calcata de morte viis: quod credimus hoc est.
* * * * *
Pellite corde metum, mea membra, et credite vosmet
Cum Christo reditura Deo; nam vos gerit ille
Et secum revocat: morbos ridete minaces:
Inflictos casus contemnite; tetra sepulcra
Despuite; exsurgens quo Christus provocat, ite."

Translation.

"I know in Christ my body shall arise;
Why bid me, then, despair? for I shall go
By that same path whereby my Lord returned,
Death trodden 'neath His feet: this is my creed.
Banish, my limbs, all terror; and believe
That ye with Christ our God shall yet return;
He beareth you and with Himself recalls.
Laugh at the threats of sickness; scorn the blows
Of fate; despise the horrors of the tomb;
And fare ye where the risen Christ doth call."