hymn · medieval
O Virga Ac Diadema
St. Hildegard of Bingen · 12th century · tr. Saint's Keep
O Virga Ac Diadema is Hildegard's Marian sequence — the virgin branch and royal diadem, flowering outside Adam's ruined line. Text and melody are both hers and public domain. The English here is our own prose crib for study, not a modern singable paraphrase under foreign copyright. Cross-read with Scivias and her other chants.
Latin · English
- 1
O virga ac diadema purpurae Regis quae es in clausura tua sicut lorica:
1O branch and diadem of the King's purple, you who stand closed as in a breastplate:
- 2
Tu frondens floruisti in alia via quam Adam omne genus humanum produxit.
2You flowered on a path other than the one by which Adam brought forth the whole human race.
- 3
Ave, ave, de tuo ventre alia vita processit qua Adam filios suos denudaverat.
3Hail, hail — from your womb another life went forth, by which Adam had stripped his sons.
- 4
O flos, tu non germinasti de rore nec de guttis pluviae, nec aer desuper te volavit sed divina claritas in nobilissima virga te produxit.
4O flower, you did not spring from dew nor from drops of rain, nor did air fly over you, but divine brightness brought you forth in the noblest branch.
In the graph
Composer-saint: St. Hildegard of Bingen. Treatise hub: Scivias. Pair with Columba Aspexit and O Euchari. Browse Marian chant.