Sequence 82. St. Gratian

October 23RD.
NOW Gratian's welcome feast-day with its rites
To praise, which is his due, our Hps invites:
Gratian, the subject of our present praise,
O'erflows with grace in endless forms and ways.

Sweet were it Gratian present here to see ;
Sweet is his love and sweet his memory ;
Sweet are the relics we can of him trace ;
The name of Gratian is a name of grace.

May Gratian's ever-blessed victory
Inspire our hearts with fresh felicity;
A holy joy this holy day would see,
And all our rites thereon devout should be.

Beside the spot where his blest corpse was thrown
Our vigil keep we still with praise ne'er done ;
Gratian let those, who have true service shown,
Praise all together and each one alone !

Tradition tells that he a martyr died :
His mode of death oblivion's veil doth hide :
Let not disquietude behevers fill
For what no lictor's record doth reveal.

But, lest a cloud of error there should be
To dim the lustre of the Church's light,
Christ's virtue proves upon a filbert-tree
How great is Gratian's glory and how bright.

During the vigils on his feast-days' eves
Each tender branch renews its buds and leaves :
So that at mass, by the third hour, it heaves
'Neath the fresh fruit the little shrub receives.

A luckless accident there chanced to be ;
The sacred buildings were destroyed by fire,
And well nigh perished all that sacred tree ;
The very roots were scarcely left entire.

Soon as, their round complete, the days allow,
Christ, by a miracle far grander, now.

His praise of Gratian to the world to show,
Bids fruit on that nigh hopeless tree to grow.

The rod of Aaron murmurs did allay ;
This one clears poison from the blood away :
That rod of old resembles this, I say ;
That one was useful once, this many a day.

O Gratian, martyr of high dignity !
Forget not thy devoted family ;
But, as thou standest 'neath the great King*s eye,
Present us to the heavenly host on high ! Amen.