This traditional Christmas hymn—not sure I would call this a carol, although everyone else calls it a carol—caught my attention when I looked up Blessed Henry Suso. Henry Suso is the English delineation of the German, Heinrich Seuse, who was a Fourteenth Century (1295-1366) Dominican friar, famous preacher, defender of the controversial Meister Eckhart, spiritual writer, poet, and Christian mystic. He was beatified by Pope Gregory XVI in 1831, almost five hundred years after his death. He has not been canonized as of now.
Henry Suso caught my attention from a recent conversation I had with a Dominican Sister who had taken on the religious name of Sister Henry Suso. Now I had heard of Blessed Henry Suso—he was part of the Fourteenth Century German mystics who called themselves the “Friends of God”—but I did not know any real detail, and I had never heard anyone take on his name for their own. I did not ask the good Sister why she took his name—it was not part of our conversation, and frankly only came to mind after we had parted. If I ever speak to her again, I will definitely ask.
So
I started to research Blessed Henry. He
came from a noble German family but was rejected by his father for not being
inclined to the military life, and the father sent Heinrich to a Dominican
friary at the age of thirteen. I surmise
Suso was too bookish for his “coarse” father.
Benedict M. Ashley, O.P. allocates three pages, which is not
insignificant, to Suso in his history on the Order of Preachers, The Dominicans (Wipf and Sock
Publishers, 1990), and relates how the “dreamy” boy came “under the influence
of courtly literature.” A sensitive boy,
he then came to his spiritual awakening at the age of eighteen, went on to
study in Cologne under Meister Eckhart, and when Eckhart was accused of heresy,
Suso published his first book, The Little
Book of Truth, explaining Eckhart’s theology from an acceptable, non-heretical
point of view. But it was his next book
that brought his own thought to the public.
Ashley writes
[At] about 1328 he wrote a much more personal work The Little Book of Eternal Wisdom in which in vivid poetic language he developed his chief theme of a spiritual marriage to the Crucified as the Eternal Wisdom through total emptying of self and a sharing in His Passion. (p. 73)
That is interesting. I have read of several female saints who had a spiritual marriage with Christ—St, Catherine of Siena perhaps the most famous—but Suso is the only male saint I know to have done so with the possible exception of St. John of the Cross. Suso went on to write more books, lecture, and preach sermons. Perhaps this mystical marriage is why the good Dominican Sister felt a connection with the Fourteenth century Dominican mystic.
And
this brings me to this beautiful hymn which translates to "In Sweet Rejoicing." Suso didn’t write the music but he wrote the words in an ecstatic mystical
experience where he was dancing with angels.
Or perhaps more precisely one of the angels dictated the words to
him. Fr. Ezra Sullivan, O.P. at his website quotes from Suso’s autobiography: /
“Now this same angel came up to the Servant [Suso] brightly, and said that God had sent him down to him, to bring him heavenly joys amid his sufferings; adding that he must cast off all his sorrows from his mind and bear them company, and that he must also dance with them in heavenly fashion. Then they drew the Servant by the hand into the dance, and the youth began a joyous song about the infant Jesus, which runs thus: ‘In dulci jubilo…'(-from Bl Suso’s auto/biography)
Perhaps
it’s noteworthy that Suso wrote the words from this mystical experience at
about the same time he published his first book of his spirituality. The words over time have been put to several melodies. I don’t know if Suso
ever heard it sung, except by the angels, or if he even conceptualized it as a
song. The original is a mixture of German and Latin, which I think is original
in itself, and here is the first verse of that original.
1. In dulci jubilo,
Nun singet und seid froh!
Unsers Herzens Wonne
Leit in praesepio,
Und leuchtet als die Sonne
Matris in gremio,
Alpha es et O, Alpha es
et O!
You can read all four verses in the original here.
I
think the most common setting to music is the Robert Lucas de Pearsall
translation published in 1837. Robert Lucas de Pearsall was a 19th century English composer mostly known
today for the setting of this carol. What’s
distinct about Pearsall’s translation, which strikes me as brilliant, is that
he kept that Latin verses while loosely translating the German into English. It keeps the religious tone of the piece while
one whose native language is English can grasp the meaning. Here are all four verses of the Pearsall translation.
1. In dulci jubilo
Let us our homage shew:
Our heart's joy reclineth
In praesepio;
And like a bright star
shineth
Matris in gremio,
Alpha es et O!
2. O Jesu parvule,
My heart is sore for
Thee!
Hear me, I beseech Thee,
O puer optime;
My praying let it reach
Thee,
O princeps gloriae.
Trahe me post te.
3. O patris caritas!
O Nati lenitas!
Deeply were we stained.
Per nostra crimina:
But Thou for us hast
gained
Coelorum gaudia,
Qualis gloria!
4. Ubi sunt gaudia,
If that they be not
there?
There are Angels singing
Nova cantica;
And there the bells are
ringing
In Regis curia.
O that we were there!
Finally for having to bear with me as I took you through the general history of this carol, I offer you a Christmas present, two versions of In dolci jubilo. First a medieval arrangement by the early music group Harry Christopher’s The Sixteen.
And
then a more contemporary version sung by The St. Phillip’s Boy’s Choir.
Merry
Christmas to all.
