This year’s occasion was a sparkling affair with the sun shining on a very enthusiastic crowd that had gathered to listen to the Magdalen College Choir greet the rising sun, in a ceremony that goes back 500 years. The Choir had climbed the 172 steps to the top of the Great Tower where at 6am they sang Hymnus Eucharisticus, a hymn composed in the 17th century by a Fellow of Magdalen, the words of which can be found below:
Te Deum Patrem colimus,
Te Laudibus prosequimus,
qui corpus cibo reficis,
coelesti mentem gratia.
Te adoramus, O Jesu,
Te, Fili unigenite,
Te, qui non dedignatus es
subire claustra Virginis.
Actus in crucem, factus est
irato Deo victima
per te, Salvator unice
vitae spes nobis rediit.
Tibi, aeterne Spiritus
cuius afflatu peperit
infantem Deum Maria,
aeternum benedicimus.
Triune Deus, hominum
salutis auctor optime,
immensum hoc mysterium
orante lingua canimus.
