Scripture Verse

A woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. Proverbs 31:30

Introduction

Words: Sil­vio An­to­ni­ano, in the Ro­man Bre­vi­ary (Ven­ice, It­aly: 1603) (For­tem, vir­ili pec­to­re). Trans­lat­ed to from La­tin to Eng­lish by J. Ath­el­stan Ri­ley (1858–1945) in The Eng­lish Hym­nal (Lon­don: Ox­ford Uni­ver­si­ty Press, 1906). This hymn was in­tend­ed for a la­dy’s fun­er­al.

Music: St. Am­brose (Feill­ée) Fran­çois de la Feill­ée, Mé­thode du plain-chant 1782 (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pic­ture of An­to­ni­ano or de la Feill­ée (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

portrait
J. Athelstan Riley (1858–1945)

Lyrics

The prais­es of that saint we sing,
To whom all lands their tri­bute bring,
Who with in­do­mi­ta­ble heart,
Bore through­out life true wo­man’s heart.

Restraining ev­ery fro­ward sense
By gen­tle bonds of ab­sti­nence,
With pray­er her hun­gry souls she fed,
And thus to hea­ven­ly joys hath sped.

King Christ, from whom all vir­tue springs,
Who on­ly do­est won­drous things,
As now to Thee she kneels in pray­er,
In mer­cy our pe­ti­tions hear.

All praise to God the Fa­ther be,
All praise, eter­nal Son, to Thee;
Whom with the Spir­it we ad­ore
Forever and for­ev­er­more.