Ave Verum Corpus: Hail, True Body (Mozart)

Ave Verum Corpus

Ave Verum Corpus (“Hail, True Body”) is a brief chanted meditation on the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Our earliest record of it comes from Italian Franciscans in the 13th century. We don’t know the author of the words. A 14th century manuscript attributes it to Pope Innocent, but it fails to mention which Pope Innocent. Any of them from Innocent III through Innocent VI are possible candidates. In the Middle Ages it customarily accompanied the elevation of the Host at Mass.

Over the subsequent centuries numerous composers have set it to music. Among these are Franz Liszt, Camille Saint-Saëns, and a host of others. One of the most beautiful settings, and certainly the best known, comes to us from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Who, as it happens will be celebrating his 270th birthday later this month. Please take the time to open the clip below of Mozart’s reverent and moving Ave Verum Corpus.

The words of the chant, both in Latin and in English translation, appear below.

Ave verum corpus, natum
de Maria Virgine,
vere passum, immolatum
in cruce pro homine
cuius latus perforatum
fluxit aqua et sanguine:
esto nobis praegustatum
in mortis examine.

 
Hail, true Body, born
of the Virgin Mary,
having truly suffered, sacrificed
on the cross for mankind,
from whose pierced side
water and blood flowed:
Be for us a foretaste [of the Heavenly banquet]
in the trial of death!