Veni sponsa Christi

Veni sponsa Christi is the Magnificat antiphon at Second Vespers from the Common of Virgins.

Settings

Anonymous, Trent 89 SAT Giacomo Carissimi SSATTB Giovanni Paolo Cima A & bc Baldassare Donato SATTTB Andrea Gabrieli SATB Nicholas Gombert Orlando di Lasso Luca Marenzio SAATB (first two lines) SATB

Claudio Monteverdi a 3 Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina SATB Peter Philips SSATB Constanzo Porta Josef Rheinberger Jean Richefort a 5 Andrea Rota SATTB Tomás Luis de Victoria SATB

Also of note are several parody masses:

• Missa Veni sponsa Christi (Manuel Cardoso)
• Missa Veni sponsa Christi a 5 super Jean Richafort attributed to Lupus Hellinck or Nicolle des Celliers de Hesdin
• Missa Veni Sponsa Christi (Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina) a 4 (5) on his own motet

Text and translations

Latin text Veni sponsa Christi, accipe coronam quam tibi Dominus praeparavit in aeternum pro cujus amore sanguinem tuum fudisti et cum Angelis in paradisum introisti. Veni, electa mea, et ponam in te thronum meum quia concupivit Rex speciem tuam.

English translation Come, bride of Christ, receive the crown which the Lord has prepared for you for all eternity; for whose love you have shed your blood. And you will enter into the Paradise among the angels. Come, O you my chosen one, and I will set my throne within you: so shall the King have pleasure in your beauty.