Placare, Christe, servulis

O Christ, Thy guilty people spare

The Hymns of the Breviary and Missal

Placare, Christe, servulis,
Quibus Patris clementiam
Tuæ ad tribunal gratiæ
Patrona Virgo postulat.
Et vos beata, per novem
Distincta gyros agmina,
Antiqua cum præsentibus,
Futura damna pellite.
Apostoli cum Vatibus,
Apud severum Judicem,
Veris reorum fletibus
Exposcite indulgentiam.
Vos purpurati Martyres,
Vos candidati præmio
Confessionis, exsules
Vocate nos in patriam.
Chorea casta Virginum,
Et quos eremus incolas
Transmisit astris, cœlitum
Locate nos in sedibus.
Auferte gentem perfidam
Credentium de finibus,
Ut unus omnes unicum
Ovile nos pastor regat.
Deo Patri sit gloria,
Natoque Patris unico,
Sancto simul Paraclito,
In sempiterna sæcula.

O Christ, Thy guilty people spare!
Lo, kneeling at Thy gracious throne,
Thy Virgin-Mother pours her prayer,
Imploring pardon for her own.
Ye Angels, happy evermore!
Who in your circles nine ascend,
As ye have guarded us before,
So still from harm our steps defend.
Ye Prophets and Apostles high!
Behold our penitential tears;
And plead for us when death is nigh,
And our all-searching Judge appears.
Ye Martyrs all! a purple band,
And Confessors, a white-robed train;
Oh, call us to our native land,
From this our exile, back again.
And ye, O choirs of Virgins chaste!
Receive us to your seats on high;
With Hermits whom the desert waste
Sent up of old into the sky.
Drive from the flock, O Spirit blest!
The false and faithless race away;
That all within one fold may rest,
Secure beneath one Shepherd’s sway.
To God the Father glory be,
And to His sole-begotten Son;
And glory, Holy Ghost, to Thee,
While everlasting ages run.

Author: Ascribed to Rabanus Maurus (776-856). Meter: Iambic dimeter. Translation by Father Caswall. There are seven translations. Liturgical Use: Hymn for Vespers. First line of Original Text: Christe Redemptor omnium.

“Be merciful, O Christ, to Thy servants, for whom the Virgin-Patroness implores the mercy of the Father at the throne of Thy grace.”
“And ye, O blessed hosts, divided into nine circles (choirs), drive away past, present, and future evils.”
“Ye Apostles, together with the Prophets, earnestly entreat forgiveness of the severe Judge, on account of the sincere tears of the guilty.”
“Ye purple-robed Martyrs, and ye who are white-robed on account of your confession, call us exiles to our native land.” Confessionis: Confessors “confess their faith” by the practice of heroic virtue. Read the article on Confessor, in the Cath. Encycl. Candidatus, the Saints in general are styled “white-robed” (Cf. Apoc. 7, 9-14).
“Ye chaste choir of Virgins, and ye whom the desert waste hath sent as dwellers to heaven, establish us in the mansions of the Blessed.”
“Drive away the faithless race from the land of the faithful, that one Shepherd may rule over us all as over one fold.”
“When the celebration of All Saints was extended to the Frankish empire in 825, after having been observed in Rome for two centuries, and its celebration fixed on the 1st of November, the verse Gentem auferte perfidam Credentium de finibus was added to the hymn with reference to the Normans and Saracens who were laying waste both the northwest of Gaul and the south of Italy” (The Roman Breviary its Sources and History, by Dom Jules Baudot, O.S.B., p. 68).