This magnificent Ascension hymn is traditionally attributed to the Venerable Bede (ca. 673–735), the brilliant English monk, biblical scholar, and historian. The earliest surviving manuscripts of his Latin text, “Hymnum canamus gloriae,” date from the tenth and eleventh centuries, with some containing up to thirty-two stanzas. One of the most fascinating aspects of the hymn is how Bede distinguished the ascension of Jesus from that of Elijah: drawing on Gregory the Great’s concept of a “dual heaven,” he taught that while Elijah made a lesser climb into the “aerial” heaven (the sky), Christ completely transcended all creation to enter the “aetherial” heaven, the very throne of God. Thus the first stanza joyfully describes “a road before untrod... unto the throne of God.” The exuberant “Alleluias” at the end of each line were not part of Bede’s original text, yet they perfectly suit the triumphant tenor of the feast. The English version is a composite weaving together the work of Benjamin Webb (1854) and Elizabeth Rundle Charles (1858).
Sung at Our Saviour
2026