Ave verum corpus natum

Ave verum corpus natum. Anon. [Holy Communion.] The text of this famous Eucharistic hymn is given in Daniel, volume ii, page 327, and as No. 213 in Franz Joseph Mone's collection. Mone highlights the heading "In elevatione Corporis Christi" from a 14th-century Reichenau manuscript, which notes that "Pope Innocent composed the following salutation" and records that "this prayer has three years of indulgences granted by Pope Leo." François Levis, in Anecdota Sacra (Turin, 1789, page 107), gives the text with the variant reading "Esto nobis praestantior virtus in examine" instead of the customary line "Esto nobis praegustatum mortis in examine." It appears in J. M. Horst's Paradisus Animae (Cologne edition, 1644, page 321), Section V, "De Sacramento Eucharistiae," prescribed as a private prayer during the elevation of the Host in the Mass. It is also included in Kehrein, No. 157.

Translations in Common Use:

1. Hail to Thee! true Body sprung. By Edward Caswall, first published in Lyra Catholica (1849, page 249) in 10 lines, and reprinted with slight alterations in Hymns & Poems (1873, page 162). This version is standard across Roman Catholic hymnals, and a cento combined with J. R. Beste's version appeared in the People's Hymnal (1867, No. 177).
2. Hail, true Body, born of Mary. By H. N. Oxenham, in The Sentence of Kaires and Other Poems (1854 and 1867), included as No. 214 in the Appendix to the Hymnal Noted (1864).
3. Hail, true Body Incarnated. By W. J. Irons, in his Hymns (1866, No. 113) and Psalms & Hymns for the Church (1873 and 1883, No. 67), specially suited for Good Friday.
4. Hail, true Body! God of heaven. By J. R. Beste, published with the Latin text in Church Hymns (1849).

Translations not in Common Use:

Hail, true Body, born of Mary. Translated by E. B. Pusey (1848).