O Sacrum Convivium is a Latin prose text honoring the Blessed Sacrament. It was included as an antiphon to Magnificat in the vespers of the liturgical office on the feast of Corpus Christi. The text of the office is attributed with some probability to Saint Thomas Aquinas. Its sentiments express the profound affinity of the Eucharistic celebration, described as a banquet, to the Paschal mystery : "O sacred banquet at which Christ is consumed, the memory of his Passion is recalled, our souls are filled with grace, and the pledge of future glory is given to us."
Original Latin (punctuation from Liber Usualis)
O sacrum convivium!
in quo Christus sumitur:
recolitur memoria passionis eius:
mens impletur gratia:
et futurae gloriae nobis pignus datur.
Alleluia.
Translation of original Latin
O sacred banquet!
in which Christ is received,
the memory of his Passion is renewed,
the mind is filled with grace,
and a pledge of future glory to us is given.
Alleluia.
O Sacrum Convivium exists in Gregorian and Ambrosian chant forms. Some of the many composers who have set the text are as follows:
Jacques Arcadelt
Gregor Aichinger
Hendrik Andriessen
Kim André Arnesen
Jason Bahr
Giuseppe Antonio Bernabei
James Biery (With an alternate English text by Marilyn Biery)
Douglas Brooks-Davies
Javier Busto
William Byrd
Giovanni Paolo Cima
Giovanni Croce
Fredrik Sixten O Sacrum Convivium
Don Michael Dice
Eugene E. Englert
Rolande Falcinelli
Richard Farrant
Andrea Gabrieli
Noel Goemanne
Francisco Guerrero
Matthew Harris
Gabriel Jackson
Kenneth Leighton
Franz Liszt
Luca Marenzio
Frank Martin
Peter Mathews
Olivier Messiaen
Vytautas Miškinis
Philip Moore
Cristóbal de Morales
Francisco J. Nunez
Don Lorenzo Perosi
Roger T. Petrich
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
Roberto Remondi
Fredrik Sixten
Steven Stucky
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck
Thomas Tallis
Francisco Valls
Ludovico da Viadana
Tomas Luis de Victoria
Nicholas Wilton
Jules Van Nuffel
Ralph Vaughan Williams has a wordless chorus intone the chant melody in "Love Bade Me Welcome," the third of the Five Mystical Songs.
Johann Emanuel Faulhaber (1772-1835) compositore della "Reggia Città di Louny" (Bohemia)
Francisco José Carbonell (1985). His "O Sacrum Convivium" was awarded with the First Prize in the 2015 Chorus Austin Young Composers Competition.
