Prince of Martyrs! Thou Whose Name

St. Stephen's Day from the Paris Breviary, 1736
See: Hymns to St Stephen

Words:  O qui tuo Dux martyrum, Jean Baptiste De Santeuil, "Victorinus Santolius," 1630—1697.
Of the Gallican Church. Canon of St. Victor, Paris.
Translation based on the one by J. D. Chambers, Lauda Syon, significantly altered.

Music: Thomas Helmore and Thomas Morley, eds., Music of the Appendix to the Hymnal Noted. (Novello, Ewer & Co., No Date, ca. 1870), Tune #127, pp. 136-137.
Meter: P.M. - 7777 7777

Source: John Mason Neale and Thomas Helmore, eds., The Hymnal Noted With Appendix, Revised and Greatly Enlarged, and Supplement. Tenth Edition. (London: J. Masters & Co., 1889), Tune #127, pp. 136-137.

1. Prince of Martyrs ! thou whose name
Doth thy saintly crown proclaim ;
Deathless are the flowers divine
Which thy sacred brow entwine.

2. Like a gem each rugged stone
Sparkling with thy life-blood shone ;
Nor could stars more brightly shine
Studded round thy head divine.

3. Every wound thy brow displays,
Beameth with unearthly rays ;
Like an Angel's is thy face,
Glowing with celestial grace.

4. To the Victim, for thee slain,
Thou layest down thy life again,
First in death thy Lord to own,
First to share His thorny crown.

5. Next to thy celestial Guide,
Thou didst stem the Red Sea's tide :
Leading on the Martyr host
To the heavenly Canaan's coast.

6. Thou, who didst dispense thy store
Daily to the sick and poor,
Now art come, a welcome guest,
To thy Father's Table blest.

7. In the nuptial robes arrayed,
Which thy blood hath purple made ;
Thou the Banquet dost attain
Of the Lamb that once was slain.

8. Glory to the Father be,
Glory, Virgin-born, to Thee,
And to Thee, blest Paraclete,
Through the ages infinite. Amen.

Sheet Music from Thomas Helmore and Thomas Morley, eds., Music of the Appendix to the Hymnal Noted. (Novello, Ewer & Co., No Date, ca. 1870), Tune #127, p. 136.

Note from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology. Second Revised Edition with New Supplement. (1892, 1907), p. 846. Excerpt from the longer entry for O qui tuo Dux martyrum:

Prince of martyrs ! thou whose name. This translation in the 1860 Appendix to the Hymnal Noted, and the People's Hymnal is a cento, stanzas i., iii.-v. being J. D. Chambers's translation (Lauda Syon, 1857, p. 83) altered; stanza ii., the 1839 text as above; stanzas vi., vii., added by the editor ; and the doxology from Murray's Hymnal, 1852, altered.

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