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Text:Sweet Flowerets of the Martyr Band
Author: Aurelius Prudentius
Translator (from Latin):Henry W. Baker
Tune:SALVETE FLORES
Composer:John Bacchus Dykes
Media:MIDI file

6413. Sweet Flowerets of the Martyr Band

1. Sweet flowerets of the martyr band,
So early plucked by cruel hand;
Like rosebuds by a tempest torn,
As breaks the light of summer morn.

2. First victims offered for the Lord,
Ye little knew your high reward,
As, at the very altar, gay
With palms and crowns ye seemed to play.

3. Ah! what availed King Herod’s wrath?
He could not stay your Savior’s path;
The Child he sought alone went free;
That Child is King eternally.

4. O Lord, the virgin born, to Thee
Praise, honor, might and glory be,
Whom with the Father we adore
And Holy Ghost forevermore.

Text Information
First Line: Sweet flowerets of the martyr band
Title: Sweet Flowerets of the Martyr Band
Latin Title: Salvete flores martyrum
Author: Aurelius Prudentius (413, cento)
Translator (from Latin): Henry W. Baker
Meter: LM
Language: English
Source: Translation in Hymns Ancient and Modern, 1875
Copyright: Public Domain
Notes: The metaphor of the murdered children as flowers recalls how St. Augustine described them as "buds, killed by the frost of persecution the moment they showed themselves."
Tune Information
Name: SALVETE FLORES
Composer: John Bacchus Dykes (1875)
Meter: LM
Incipit: 32344 35532 34436
Key: C Major
Copyright: Public Domain



Media
Adobe Acrobat image: Adobe Acrobat image
(Cyber Hymnal)
MIDI file: MIDI File
(Cyber Hymnal)
Noteworthy Composer score: Noteworthy Composer score
(Cyber Hymnal)
XML score: XML score

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