Crucis Christi mons Alvern'

Author: St. Francis of Assisi

St. Francis of Assisi (Italian: San Francesco d'Assisi, born Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, but nicknamed Francesco ("the Frenchman") by his father, 1181/1182 – October 3, 1226) was an Italian Catholic friar and preacher. He founded the men's Order of Friars Minor, the women’s Order of St. Clare, and the Third Order of Saint Francis for men and women not able to live the lives of itinerant preachers followed by the early members of the Order of Friars Minor or the monastic lives of the Poor Clares. Though he was never ordained to the Catholic priesthood, Francis is one of the most venerated religious figures in history. Francis' father was Pietro di Bernardone, a prosperous silk merchant. Francis lived the high-spirited life typic… Go to person page >

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Text Information

Text Information

First Line:	Crucis Christi mons Alvern'
Author:	St. Francis of Assisi

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Notes

Crucis Christi mons Alvernae. [St. Francis of Assisi.] This hymn is given in a Franciscan Breviary, printed at Venice in 1495, as the hymn at first Vespers on the Feast of the Stigmata of St. Francis, Sept. 17th (Paris, 1597, p. 43). It is given, but imperfectly, in Daniel, i., No. 452.

The traditional account of the conferring of the Stigma, or Marks of the Passion, on St. Francis, on Mount Alverna, is given in his Life , by St. Bonaventura, chapter xiii. (see his Works). The Marks of the Passion are said to have been imprinted by a Seraph, and on the occasion of one of the yearly visits paid by St. Francis to Mount Alverna, which he was wont to make at the beginning of Lent in honour of St. Michael. St. Bonaventura's account is given in the Roman Breviary, where it furnishes the lessons for the second Nocturn at Matins on the Festival of St. Francis. [Rev. W. A. Shoults, B.D.]

Translation in common use:—
Let Alverna's holy mountain, by E. Caswall, in his Masque of Mary, 1858, and again in his Hymns and Poems , 1873, p. 196, in 7 stanzas of 6 lines. It is given in several Roman Catholic hymnbooks for Schools and Missions, including the Crown of Jesus; the Hymns for the Year, and others.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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