Written around 569 AD by Venantius Fortunatus in unrhymed trochaic tetrameter (the marching cadence of the Roman legions), this text was composed when Queen Rhadegund received a relic of the cross from the eastern emperor for her nunnery in Poitiers. The original ten Latin stanzas included the "bait and hook" theory of the atonement (the devil swallowing the bait of the Savior and the hook of the cross) and a poetic contrast between the ruinous tree of Eden and the rescuing wood of Calvary. This sixth-century hymn was the direct inspiration for Thomas Aquinas’s "Now, My Tongue, the Mystery Telling," which deliberately borrowed its opening Latin words and poetic meter. During the Good Friday service, it is sung for the Adoration of the Cross, concluding the liturgy on a note of victory.
Sung at Our Saviour
2026