Son of the highest, deign to cast

Author: Edward Caswall

Aeterni Patris Unice. Anon. [St. Mary Magdalene.] This hymn has been ascribed to St. Odo of Cluny; and is found in a manuscript of the 11th century, in the British Museum (Vesp. D. xii. f. 1536) added to the "Lauda Mater ecclesia" (q. v.). Both hymns are apparently in a later handwriting than the first part of the manuscript Daniel, i. No. 348, reprinted the text of Card. Newman, changing the opening word from "Eterne," to Aeterni. Mone, reprinted the text of a manuscript of the 14th century, and added thereto numerous references to manuscripts and various readings; and Daniel, iv. 244, the revised text of the Roman Breviary Summi parentis Unice. The text of the York Breviary is given in Card. Newman's Hymni Ecclesiae, 1838, and the Roman Breviary form in Biggs's Annotated Hymns Ancient & Modern with stanzas ii. 1. 2, "Reconditur aerario," for "Reconditur est aerario," in error. The older text sometimes reads, "Patris Aeterne Unice" . [Rev. W. A. Shoults, B. D.]
Translations in common use:—
1. Son of the Highest, deign to cast. By E. Caswall. Appeared in his Lyra Catholica, 1849, p. 164, and his Hymns and Poems, 1873, p. 89. In 1861 it was given with alterations in Hymns Ancient and Modern, the same text being repeated in the revised edition, 1875. A less altered text is No. St. John's Hymnal, Aberdeen, 1870.

--Excerpts from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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