Casimir Ubaghs

 St. Ubaldus

 Prefecture Apostolic of Belgian Ubanghi

 Vicariate Apostolic of Ubanghi

 Prefecture Apostolic of Ubanghi-Chari

 Diocese of Uberaba

 Ubertino of Casale

 Ubiquitarians

 Prefecture Apostolic of Ucayali

 Uccello

 Archdiocese of Udine

 Diocese of Ugento

 Ferdinando Ughelli

 Uhtred

 Cornelius Ujejski

 Kaspar Ulenberg

 Ulfilas

 William Bernard Ullathorne

 Richard Ullerston

 Antonio de Ulloa

 Francisco de Ulloa

 St. Ulrich

 Ulrich of Bamberg

 Ulrich of Richenthal

 St. Ulrich of Zell

 St. Ultan of Ardbraccan

 Ultramontanism

 Unam Sanctam

 Ungava

 Uniformity Acts

 Unigenitus

 Union of Brest

 Union of Christendom

 Unions of Prayer

 Unitarians

 United States of America

 Unity (as a Mark of the Church)

 Universalists

 Universals

 Systems of the Universe

 Universities

 Vicariate Apostolic of Unyanyembe

 Vicariate Apostolic of Upper Nile

 Upper Rhine

 Ancient See of Upsala

 University of Upsala

 Uranopolis

 Pope Urban I

 Pope Bl. Urban II

 Pope Urban III

 Pope Urban IV

 Pope Bl. Urban V

 Pope Urban VI

 Pope Urban VII

 Pope Urban VIII

 Urbi et Orbi

 Archdiocese of Urbino

 Urbs beata Jerusalem dicta pacis visio

 Andrés Urdaneta

 Diocese of Urgel

 Urim and Thummim

 Urmiah

 Juan José Urráburu

 Ursperger Chronicle

 St. Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins

 Society of the Sisters of St. Ursula of the Blessed Virgin

 Ursulines

 Ursulines of Quebec

 St. Ursus

 Prefecture Apostolic of Urubamba

 Uruguay

 Diocese of Uruguayana

 Ushaw College

 Usilla

 Martyrology of Usuard

 Usury

 Utah

 Uthina

 Utica

 Utilitarianism

 Utopia

 Ut Queant Laxis Resonare Fibris

 Utraquism

 Archdiocese of Utrecht

Urbs beata Jerusalem dicta pacis visio


The first line of a hymn of probably the seventh or eighth century, comprising eight stanzas (together with a doxology) of the form:


Sung in the Office of the Dedication of a Church, the first four stanzas were usually assigned to Vespers and Matins, the last four to Lauds. In the revision by the correctors under Urban VIII (see BREVIARY) the unquantitative, accentual, trochaic rhythm was changed into quantitative, iambic metre (with an addition syllable), and the stanza appears in the Breviary with divided lines:

The original hymn for Lauds (Angularis fundamentum lapis Christus missus est) was changed into "Alto ex Olympi vertice", etc. Hymnologists, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, criticise adversely the work of the correctors in general. Of this hymn in particular some think that, where as it did not suffer as much as some others, yet it lost much of its beauty in the revision; others declare that it was admirably transformed without unduly modifying the sense. However this may be, the changed rhythm and the additional syllable did not deter the editors of the Ratisbon Antiphonary from including a melody, which fitted admirably the rhythm of the "Pange lingua gloriosi", but which was greatly marred and rendered hardly singable when updated to the reversed rhythm of the "Coelestis Urbs Jerusalem". A different textual revision, ascribed to Sebastian Besnault, appeared in the Sens Breviary of 1626:


Neale thinks this is inferior to the original, but superior to the Roman revision. Roundell admits the blemishes in the original that would suggest emendation, but thinks that the Roman revision left out "most of the architectural imagery", and notes that the Sens Breviary omitted "the whole conception of the Heavenly City 'as a bride adorned for her husband'". He nevertheless considers the revisions, if looked at as new hymns, "spirited and attractive". The Parisian Breviary of 1736 gives the form:

The hymn finds its Scriptural inspiration in Eph., ii, 20; I Pet., ii, 5; Apoc., xxi. Including all forms of the hymn, there are about thirty translations into English verse.

H.T. HENRY