Let Other Cities Strive, Which Most

For The Weeks After Epiphany

Words: O sola magnarum urbium, From Cathemerinon ("The Hymns of Prudentius"), Aurelius Clemens Prudentius (348-405)

Translation:  (Probably) John Dryden. Primer, 1706.

Source: Orby Shipley, Annus Sanctus: Hymns of the Church for the Ecclesiastical Year. Vol. 1. (London and New York: Burns and Oates, 1884), p. 56-57.

Let other cities strive, which most 
Can of their strength or heroes boast ; 
Bethlem alone is chose to be 
The seat of heaven-born majesty. 

	Here, while our God incarnate lay, 
The officious stars their homage pay ; 
A sun-like meteor quits its sphere 
To show the Sun of justice here. 

	Hither the faithful sages ran 
To own their king, both God and Man ; 
And with their incense, myrrh and gold 
The mysteries of their vows unfold. 

	To God the censer's smoke ascends ; 
The gold the sovereign king attends ; 
In myrrh the bitter type we see 
Of suffering and mortality. 

	Glory to thee, O Christ, whose rays 
Illustrated the Gentiles* ways ; 
Whilst equal praises still repeat 
The Father, and the Paraclete. 

Note from Shipley:

63. O sola magnarum urbium. Lauds Hymn from, the Breviary, by Aurelius Prudentius Clemens, Fourth Century. Let other cities strive, which most. Primer, 1706. (Probably) John Dryden. 56

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