My next challenge within this project is to revisit the lovely hymn that Hildegard wrote for St Ursula. Here is the original chant, sung according to the Dendermonde manuscript:
Cum vox sanguinis
When the voice of Ursula’s blood, and of her innocent host, sounded before God’s throne, an ancient prophecy passed through the root of Mamre and spoke in the revealed truth of the Trinity: “This blood touches us, let us all now rejoice.”
And after that, the congregation of the lamb came, through the ram caught in the thorns, and said: “Let there be praise in Jerusalem for the redness of this blood.”
Then came that sacrifice of the calf, which the old law indicated, a sacrifice of praise, clothed in many colors, that hid God’s face from Moses, showing him only God’s back. This stands for priests who show God with their tongues but cannot see him fully. And say: “O most noble host, because the virgin, called Ursula on earth and the Dove in heaven, gathered around her a host of innocents.”
O Ecclesia, you are worthy of that host’s praise. That great host, which is signified by the unconsumed bush that Moses saw, and which God planted in the first root in the humans he made of earth. So that it might have life without any mixture with man, that host called out in a radiant voice made of gold, topaz and sapphire, loved by the lamb.
Now let all the heavens rejoice, and let all people be adorned with them. Amen.
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