It is no earthly summer's ray

Translator: Frederick William Faber

Raised in the Church of England, Frederick W. Faber (b. Calverly, Yorkshire, England, 1814; d. Kensington, London, England, 1863) came from a Huguenot and strict Calvinistic family background. He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, and ordained in the Church of England in 1839. Influenced by the teaching of John Henry Newman, Faber followed Newman into the Roman Catholic Church in 1845 and served under Newman's supervision in the Oratory of St. Philip Neri. Because he believed that Roman Catholics should sing hymns like those written by John Newton, Charles Wesley, and William Cowpe, Faber wrote 150 hymns himself. One of his best known, "Faith of Our Fathers," originally had these words in its third stanza: "Faith of Our Fathers! Mary'… Go to person page >

Deoora lux aeternitatis auream. Translation of [Aurea luce et decore roseo] by E. Caswall in his Lyra Catholica, 1849, p. 159, and his Hymns, 1873, p. 87, as “Bathed in Eternity's all-beauteous beam;" and by F. W. Faber in his Jesus & Mary, &c, 1849, as "It is no earthly summer's ray." This latter translation is adopted by some Roman Catholic hymnbooks for Missions and Schools, and is also in the Marquess of Bute's edition of the Roman Breviary, 1879.

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)