O Euchari in leta via, BN 53

O Euchari,

in leta via ambulasti,

ubi cum filio Dei mansisti,

illum tangendo

et miracula eius que fecit videndo.

Tu eum perfecte amasti

cum sodales tui exterriti erant

pro eo quod homines erant

nec possibilitatem habebant

bona perfecte intueri.

Tu autem

in ardente amore plene caritatis

illum amplexus es

cum manipulos preceptorum eius

ad te collegisti.

O Euchari,

valde beatus fuisti

cum verbum Dei,

te in igne columbe imbuit

ubi tu quasi aurora illuminatus es,

et sic fundamentum Ecclesie

edificasti.

Et in pectore tuo choruscat dies

in quo tria tabernacula

super marmoream columpnam stant

in civitate Dei.

Per os tuum Ecclesia ruminat

vetus et novum vinum,

videlicet poculum sanctitatis.

Sed et in tua doctrina

Ecclesia effecta est racionalis,

ita quod supra montes clamavit

ut colles et ligna se declinarent

ac mamillas illius sugerent.

Nunc in tua clara voce

filium Dei ora pro hac turba

ne in ceremoniis Dei deficiat,

sed ut vivens holocaustum

ante altare Dei fiat.

Saint Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)

Translation:

O Eucharius,

you trod in the path of joyousness

when you tarried with the son of God,

touching Him

and seeing the miracles that He wrought.

You loved Him perfectly

when your fellow-travellers were terrified

because they were men

and had no chance

to see Divine Good perfectly.

But you

in the full love of burning devotion

cherished Him

when you garnered the bales

of His commands for yourself.

O Eucharius,

you were greatly blessed

when the word of God

touched you with the dove’s fire, whence

you were made shimmering like daybreak,

and thus so fashioned

the foundation of Ecclesia.

The daylight gleams in your breast

in which three shrines

stand on a marble pillar

in the city of God.

In your mouth Ecclesia savours

the old and the new wine

which is the potion of holiness.

And in your preaching

Ecclesia is filled with understanding,

so that she has proclaimed in the high places

that the hills and trees should bend

and be suckled by her.

Now, in your shining voice,

beseech son of God for this multitude

that they may not desert the rites of God

but may always make

the living sacrifice before His altar.