Quae gloriosum tanta coelis evocat

The Latin hymn "Quae gloriosum tanta coelis evocat" was composed by Guillaume de la Brunetière for the festival of the Conversion of St. Paul. It serves as a dramatic and theological meditation on the sudden divine intervention on the road to Damascus, tracking the shift of Saul from a persecutor to an apostle.

The text was first published within the Cluniac Breviary of 1686 on page 920. It subsequently secured a prominent place within the revised Parisian Breviary of 1736, where it was designated as the proper hymn for Lauds on the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. Following its inclusion in these influential collections, the hymn was adopted into several modern French regional Breviaries. In the nineteenth century, it gained broader academic and devotional interest among English churchmen when Cardinal John Henry Newman reprinted it in his Hymni Ecclesiae (editions of 1838 and 1865).

English Translations

The text was translated into English during the mid-nineteenth century by two prominent figures associated with the recovery of Latin liturgical poetry:

"Why, Saviour, dost Thou come?" was translated by Robert Campbell and published in his Hymns and Anthems (1850, page 85). This version achieved wider denominational circulation when it was included in the 1860 Appendix to the Hymnal Noted.

"Lord, from out Thy glorious skies" is an independent translation executed by Isaac Williams. It was published in his landmark collection, Hymns Translated from the Parisian Breviary (1839, page 180).