Aurea luce et decore roseo

Dating probably from the sixth century, this Latin hymn for the feast of SS. Peter and Paul was traditionally ascribed to Elpis, wife of the philosopher Boethius, though hymnologists such as Franz Joseph Mone consider this attribution improbable due to its non-classical meter. It is preserved in eleventh-century manuscripts at the British Museum and Durham Cathedral, as well as ninth-century manuscripts at Bern. Stanzas from the hymn were frequently used independently for specific festivals, such as stanza 3 ("Jam bone pastor Petre") for St. Peter's Chair and Chains, and stanza 4 ("Doctor egregie, Paule") for the Conversion of St. Paul.

In the revised Roman Breviary of 1632, the hymn was substantially recast, with stanza 1 opening "Decora lux aeternitatis auream," stanza 3 as "Beate pastor Petre," and stanza 4 as "Egregie doctor Paule." English translations of the original text include John David Chambers's "With golden splendour bright" in Lauda Syon (1866). The revised Breviary text was translated by Edward Caswall as "Bathed in Eternity's all-beauteous beam" and by Frederick William Faber as "It is no earthly summer's ray" (1849). Caswall also translated the individual stanzas for St. Peter ("Peter, blest Shepherd, hearken to our cry") and St. Paul ("Lead us, great teacher Paul, in wisdom's ways").