Christmas Poems of St. Robert Southwell, and the Continuation of the Christmas Season

Et nos, beata quos sacri

Rigavit unda sanguinis,
Natalis ob diem tui
Hymni tributum solvimus.

And we, whom blessed stream,

Of Sacred Blood has wash’d,

To honor Iesu’s birth,

By hymn now proffer praise.

Hymn from Christmas Vespers. (Translation the author’s own)

The merry contemplation of a mystery as solemn, momentous, and joyful as the Word made flesh, and born into the world in humble circumstance, in order to redeem fallen mankind, cannot be confined to a single day. Indeed, there are, as is commonly sung, twelve days of Christmas, and although the world, like a child begging to open their presents early, is accustomed to dispense with the expectant season of Advent, in order to anticipate the joy of Christmas, these twelve days are the dozen that follow, rather than precede, Christmas Day, and lead up to the feast of the Epiphany on the sixth of January, (though the celebration of this feast is in the United States usually moved to the first Sunday after the first of January.) The liturgical season of Christmas, in fact, lasts until the feast of the Baptism of Our Lord, and traditionally until Candlemas, a feast which still has an intimate connection with the Christmas Mystery. 

The Christmas season is one for rejoicing and festivity, for one cannot but rejoice when they consider the mystery of Christmas, but it is also a season set apart for meditation upon Our Lord's Nativity; it is a season to Be mirthful now with all your might / For passed is your dismal night, but it is also a time wherein we ought In holy Church, with mind digest / Him honoring above all thing [1]. To rejoice and to be grateful is man's response to joyous news, and it is unsurprisingly difficult long to rejoice, if one does not keep before their mind the very reason for the joy: How can I keep my Christmas feast / In its due festive show, / Reft of the sight of the High Priest / From whom its glories flow? [2]

There are few ways more apt both to rejoice over and to reflect upon the mystery of Our Lord's Nativity, than by excellent Christmas poetry and hymns: the instruction calls to mind the mystery, while the delight stirs the heart to joy. Be mirthful and make melody! / All Gloria in excelsis cry! [3]. I have, therefore, selected a few Christmas poems of St. Robert Southwell, an English Jesuit and martyr from the reign of Elizabeth I, and included them here; and in order to facilitate their comprehension, I have, without modifying the poems, brought the spelling of the words into conformity with present custom, and added a few explanatory notes.

[1] William Dunbar, On the Nativity of Christ

[2] St. John Henry Newman, Verses on Various Occasions, no. 49

[3] William Dunbar, On the Nativity of Christ

The Burning Babe

As I in hoary [1] winter's night stood shivering in the snow,

Surpris'd I was with sudden heat, which made my heart to glow;

And lifting up a fearful eye to view what fire was near,

A pretty babe, all burning bright, did in the air appear.

Who, scorched with excessive heat, such floods of tears did shed,

As though his floods should quench his flames, which with his tears were fed.

'Alas,' quoth [2] he, 'but newly born, in fiery hearts I fry,' [3]

'Yet none approach to warm their hearts or feel my fire but I!'

'My faultless breast the furnace is, the fuel wounding thorns,'

'Love is the fire, and sighs the smoke; the ashes, shame and scorns.'

'The fuel justice layeth on, and mercy blows the coals,'

'The metal in this furnace wrought, are men's defiled souls,'

'For which, as now on fire, I am to work them to their good,'

'So will I melt into a bath to wash them in my Blood.'

With this he vanished out of sight, and swiftly shrunk away,

And straight [4] I called unto mind, that it was Christmas day.

[1] frosty; "white with frost," (from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language). c.f. hoarfrost 

[2] said

[3] burn

[4] immediately, at once

This is perhaps St. Southwell’s most famous poem, and is quite genius in its contrast of the Christ Child, ‘scorched with excessive heat,’ to the ‘hoary winter night,’ and the extension of the analogy of the warmth of Christ and the frigidity of the world outside of Him into a profound elaboration. As artists have very ingeniously depicted the scene of the Nativity, such that the principal source of light or illumination for the depiction emanates from the Christ Child [*], signifying that He is the light come into the world of darkness (c.f. Jn. I), so here we are reminded that there is nought but cold in the world, and that we are all ‘shivering in the snow,’ except for our sole refuge of warmth, the Christ Child. The season of Advent is our recollection of the cold darkness we live in; Christmastide, that a Saviour, ‘all burning bright,’ has come to enlighten, to warm, and to vivify us.

[*] vide e.g. Geertgen tot Sint Jans’ Nativity at Night

The Nativity of Christ

Behold the father is his daughter's son,

The bird that built the nest is hatch'd therein;

The old of years an hour hath not outrun, 

Eternal life to live doth now begin. 

The Word is dumb, the mirth of hea’en doth weep,

Might feeble is, and force doth faintly creep.

O dying souls, behold your Living Spring!

O dazzled eyes, behold your Sun of Grace!

Dull ears, attend what word this Word doth bring;

Up heavy hearts with joy, your Joy embrace!

From death, from dark, from deafness, from despairs,

This Life, this Light, this Word, this Joy repairs.

Gift better than Himself God doth not know,

Gift better than His God, no man can see;

This Gift doth here the Giver given bestow,

Gift to this Gift, let each receiver be.

God is my gift, Himself He freely gave me,

God’s gift am I, and none but God shall have me.

Man alter’d was by sin from man to beast,

Beast’s food is hay, hay is all mortal flesh;

Now God is flesh, and lies in manger prest [1],

As hay the brutest sinner to refresh.

O happy field wherein this Fodder grew,

Whose taste doth us from beasts to men renew!

[1] “Ready, not dilatory,” (from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language).

The poem is simple in its form, but the depth is quite profound, and excels his better known poem The Burning Babe in theological richness, and is no less remarkable in the pleasantness of its images, and the ingenuity of its contrasts. There is, however, less unity to the poem’s argument, and the transition from one thought to the next, while not rough, is sudden.

New Prince, New Pompe

Behold a seely [1], tender babe

In freezing winter night

In homely manger trembling lies:

Alas, a piteous sight.

The Inns are full, no man will yield

This little Pilgrim bed;

But forced he is with seely beasts 

In crib to shroud his head.

Despise not Him for lying there;

First what he is, inquire.

An orient pearl is often found

In depth of dirty mire.

Weigh not His crib, His wooden dish,

Nor beasts that by Him feed;

Weigh not His mother's poor attire,

Nor Joseph's simple weed [2].

This stable is a Prince's court,

The crib, His chair of state;

The beasts are parcel of His pomp,

The wooden dish, His plate;

The persons in that poor attire

His royal liv'ries [3] wear;

The Prince Himself is come from hea'en:

This pomp is prized there.

With joy approach, O Christian wight [4],

Do homage to thy King,

And highly prize this humble pomp,

which He from hea'en doth bring.

[1] "Lucky, happy," (from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language).

[2] "A garment; cloaths; habit; dress," (from Johnson's Dictionary). 

[3] "The cloaths given to servants," (from Johnson's Dictionary).

[4] "A person; a being," (from Johnson's Dictionary).

This poem possesses a very pleasant variation, as the iambic meter alternates between trimeter and tetrameter, and with its alternation of rhymed and unrhymed lines, viz. '-, A, -, A, -, B, -, B, -, C, -, C, -' and so on.

The poem begins with the description of Christ’s humble circumstance, and then proceeds to consider the true yet hidden majesty of the Child, the rex regum et dominus dominantium, who inaugurates a new pomp of humility and poverty to characterize His followers, in obrogation of the vain pomp of the world.

A Sermon of St. Bede the Venerable for All Saints

St. Bede the Venerable, an eighth century English monk and Doctor of the Church, composed a wonderful sermon for the solemnity of All Saints, a portion of which was at one point included in the Matins Lessons, a part of the Divine Office, which the Church assigned to be read for the solemnity. I have included the portion belonging to the Matins' lessons below, with an English translation of my own, along with a small number of notes, followed by the original Latin.

English Translation

Today, dearly beloved, we celebrate under the singular joy of a solemnity the festivity of all the saints: in whose society heaven exults, by whose patronage the earth rejoices, by whose triumphs holy Church is crowned; the confession of which saints, as much as it was firm in suffering, so much does it now shine in honour; for, while the fight grew, so too grew the fighters’ glory, and the triumph of martyrdom is adorned with the various kinds of sufferings, and through such mighty torments, mightier still was the reward: whilst Holy Mother Church, who has been spread throughout the whole world, was led forth in her very head, Christ Jesus, to fear not contumelies, crucifixions, and death; and having been more and more strengthened — not by resisting, but by bearing — all whom dreadful [1] cells have enclosed in her illustrious army — who indeed were par and like in fervour of virtue in bearing the fight [2] — she has inspired to a glorious triumph [3].

O truly joyous Mother Church, whom the honour of divine dignation [4] has illumined, whom the glorious blood of conquering martyrs has decorated, whom the pure virginity of perseverant confession has vested! Neither roses nor lilies are lacking amidst her flowers [5]. Let each one now, dearly beloved, fight, so that they might for both honours receive the most magnificent dignity: the crown, either pure white of virginity, or blood red of suffering. In the heavenly camps both peace and army [6] have their own flowers which crown the soldiers of Christ.

For the ineffable and immense goodness of God provides for this also, that the time of labours and agonies indeed is not extended, neither made long nor eternal, but brief and, if I may so speak, momentary: that in this quick and short life there should be agonies and labours; but in that life which is eternal, crowns and the rewards of merits should endure without end; that after the darkness of this world they are soon to see the brightest light, and soon to receive a happiness greater than the bitterness of all sufferings. The Apostle himself so testified, when he says: ‘The sufferings of this time are not the like of the coming glory, which will be revealed in us' [7].

Notes

[1] Literally 'penal cell', carcer poenalis; rendered dreadful cell to better keep with the register of the sermon.

[2] fight or contest, certamen : perhaps an allusion to St. Paul's famous "I have fought the good fight", bonum certamen certavi, vide 2 Timothy 4:7.

[3] A triumphus or triumph referred in ancient Rome a specific type of military parade. Though Venerable Bede is writing after the fall of the empire, this soldierly language is still expressive of the glory and joy that ensue after a hard-faught battle or contest.

[4] 'dignation', an older English word for the Latin dignatio. It is the noun derived from the verb 'deign', as in 'God so deigned to redeem.' 

[5] The red color of roses represents martyrdom, while the white of lilies represents purity. Neither martyrs nor virgins are lacking amidst the Church's saints. But the analogy may be extended further: the lilies are the virgins specifically, but also in a broader sense the saints of innocence, like St. Therese; the roses are the martyrs but also, perhaps, in a broader sense the penitents who atone for their sins through suffering and penance, like St. Augustine of Hippo.

[6] Peace, pax, perhaps stands for the virgins and innocent, unstained by sin; acies, literally an army in array, for the martyrs and the penitents, who attain to their place by contest and suffering.

[7] From Romans 8:18. The Knox translation has it, “Not that I count these present sufferings as the measure of that glory which is to be revealed in us.”

Latin

Hódie, dilectíssimi, ómnium Sanctórum sub una solemnitátis lætítia celebrámus festivitátem: quorum societáte cælum exsúltat, quorum patrocíniis terra lætátur, triúmphis Ecclésia sancta coronátur, quorum conféssio quanto in passióne fórtior, tanto est clárior in honóre: quia, dum crevit pugna, crevit et pugnántium glória, et martýrii triúmphus multíplici passiónum génere adornátur: perque gravióra torménta, gravióra fuére et prǽmia: dum cathólica mater Ecclésia, quæ per totum orbem longe latéque diffúsa est, in ipso cápite suo Christo Jesu edúcta est, contumélias, cruces et mortem non timére; magis magísque roboráta, non resisténdo, sed perferéndo, univérsis, quos ágmine ínclito carcer pœnális inclúsit, pari et símili calóre virtútis ad geréndum certámen, glóriam triumphálem inspirávit.

O vere beáta mater Ecclésia, quam sic honor divínæ dignatiónis illúminat, quam vincéntium gloriósus Mártyrum sanguis exórnat, quam inviolátæ confessiónis cándida índuit virgínitas! Flóribus eius nec rosæ nec lília desunt. Certent nunc caríssimi, sínguli, ut ad utrósque honóres amplíssimam accípiant dignitátem, corónas, vel de virginitáte cándidas, vel de passióne purpúreas. In cæléstibus castris pax et ácies habent flores suos, quibus mílites Christi coronántur.

Dei enim ineffábilis et imménsa bónitas étiam hoc provídit, ut labórum quidem tempus et agónis non exténderet, nec longum fáceret, aut ætérnum, sed breve, et ut ita dicam, momentáneum: ut in hac brevi et exígua vita agónes essent et labóres; in illa vero quæ ætérna est, corónæ et prǽmia meritórum: ut labóres quidem cito finiréntur, meritórum vero prǽmia sine fine durárent: ut post huius mundi ténebras visúri essent candidíssimam lucem, et acceptúri maiórem passiónum cunctárum acerbitátibus beatitúdinem, testánte hoc idem Apóstolo, ubi ait: Non sunt condígnæ passiónes huius témporis ad superventúram glóriam, quæ revelábitur in nobis