This is the only “sequence” hymn in our hymnal. Sequences were ancient choral chants sung before the Gospel reading; most were abandoned after the Reformation, yet this eleventh-century Easter masterpiece (attributed to Wipo of Burgundy) triumphantly survived. Its theological legacy is immense: it directly inspired the medieval folk hymn “Christ is Arisen” (LSB 459), which in turn inspired Luther’s “Christ Jesus Lay in Death’s Strong Bands.” The text is structured as a dramatic dialogue between a narrator and Mary Magdalene, linking the risen Christ to the Passover lamb and marveling at the “stupendous” combat where the Prince of Life died yet now reigns immortal. As early as the thirteenth century, congregations sang this sequence in alternation with the vernacular “Christ is Arisen,” a practice our hymnal preserves. --- *From the The Resurrection of Our Lord primer:* This is the only “sequence” hymn in our hymnal. Sequences were ancient choral chants sung before the Gospel reading; most were abandoned after the Reformation, yet this eleventh-century Easter masterpiece (attributed to Wipo of Burgundy) triumphantly survived. Its theological legacy is immense: it directly inspired the medieval folk hymn “Christ is Arisen” (LSB 459), which in turn inspired Luther’s “Christ Jesus Lay in Death’s Strong Bands.” The text is structured as a dramatic dialogue between a narrator and Mary Magdalene, linking the risen Christ to the Passover lamb and marveling at the “stupendous” combat where the Prince of Life died yet now reigns immortal. As early as the thirteenth century, congregations sang this sequence in alternation with the vernacular “Christ is Arisen,” a practice our hymnal preserves. --- *Another telling:* "Victimae paschali laudes" is the Easter sequence, attributed to Wipo of Burgundy (ca. 995-after 1048) and written about 1030. It is a drama in miniature. A narrator calls Christians to praise the Paschal Victim, "Death and life have contended in that combat stupendous," and then turns to Mary Magdalene: "Speak, Mary, declaring what you saw when wayfaring." She tells of the empty tomb, the angels and the grave clothes, and confesses, "My Lord, my hope, is arisen!" Across medieval Europe it was acted out on Easter morning in plays of the visit to the tomb. Out of it grew the German folk hymn "Christ ist erstanden" (LSB 459), and from that Luther made "Christ Jesus Lay in Death's Strong Bands" (LSB 458), borrowing its "strange and awesome strife"; the three melodies are audibly related. From the thirteenth century on, the choir sang the Latin sequence and the congregation answered with "Christ ist erstanden," a practice Lutherans kept and LSB restores by pairing 460 with 459. When the Council of Trent swept away most sequences, this one survived. Modern books omit one medieval verse that spoke against the Jews. The English is from The English Hymnal (1906), and the chant is in the Dorian mode, which in the Middle Ages carried solemn joy.