Hymnus Eucharisʹticus

Sung as the clock strikes 5 a.m. by Magdalen choir on the summit of Wolsey’s Tower (Oxford) on May morning to greet the rising sun. Some say the custom dates from the reign of Henry VIII.; if this overshoots the mark, no one knows for certainty a more exact period.

“Te Deum Patrem colĭmus,

Te laudibus prosequimur;

Qui corpus ciborificis,

Cœlesti mentem gratia.”

Hymnus Eucharisticus.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.