Sanctus

The Sanctus (Latin: Sanctus, "Holy") is a hymn in Christian liturgy. It may also be called the epinikios hymnos (Greek: ἐπινίκιος ὕμνος, "Hymn of Victory") when referring to the Greek rendition and parts of it are sometimes called "Benedictus". Tersanctus (Latin: "Thrice Holy") is another, rarer name for the Sanctus. The same name is sometimes used for the Trisagion.
In Western Christianity, the Sanctus forms part of the Ordinary and is sung (or said) as the final words of the Preface of the Eucharistic Prayer of remembrance, consecration, and praise. The preface, which alters according to the season, usually concludes with words describing the praise of the worshippers joining with the angels, who are pictured as praising God with the words of the Sanctus. In the Byzantine Rite and general Eastern Orthodox Christianity, the Sanctus is offered as a response by the choir during the Holy Anaphora.
Ἅγιος, ἅγιος, ἅγιος Κύριος Σαβαώθ· πλήρης ὁ οὐρανὸς καὶ ἡ γῆ τῆς δόξης σου, ὡσαννὰ ἐν τοῖς ὑψίστοις. Εὐλογημένος ὁ ἐρχόμενος ἐν ὀνόματι Κυρίου. Ὡσαννὰ (ὁ) ἐν τοῖς ὑψίστοις.Hágios, hágios, hágios, Kýrios Sabaṓth; plḗrēs ho ouranós kaí hē gê tês dóxēs sou, hōsanná en toîs hupsístois. Eulogēménos ho erkhómenos en onómati Kyríou. Hōsanná (ho) en toîs hupsístois.
In the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom and the Liturgy of St. Basil:
In the Liturgy of St. James:
In the Roman Rite:
In the Roman Rite, the Sanctus also forms part of the solemn hymn of praise Te Deum laudamus, but with the addition of a reference to the "majesty" of the Lord's glory in the Pleni sunt verse (the phrase pleni sunt caeli et terra gloria tua becomes pleni sunt caeli et terra maiestatis gloriae tuae). The Benedictus is not included in the Te Deum, and the Sanctus is therefore included as part of that hymn as follows:
In the Mozarabic Rite:
The Sanctus appears thus in the 1549 Book of Common Prayer (and as set to music by John Merbecke in 1550):
In the 1552 Book of Common Prayer and 1559 BCP it appears without the Benedictus:
The 1662 BCP has it thus:
Later Anglican prayer books following the ritualist and liturgical movements of the twentieth century, restored the Benedictus to this form, yielding:
The following English version was used by most Lutherans in North America until 1978 when the ICET version was adopted in the Lutheran Book of Worship. This traditional version has continued to be used in the Divine Service of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod:
In 1973 the International Consultation on English Texts (ICET) produced an ecumenical version that at that time was adopted by Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists and others:
Since 2011 the Roman Missal in English has:
As part of the Alexandrian rite, the Benedictus is not present in the Liturgy of Saint Cyril:
As Enrico Mazza writes:
As can be read in the same source, in the Alexandrian tradition on the other hand,
The first part of the Sanctus, the adaptation from Isaiah 6:3, describes the prophet Isaiah's vision of the throne of God surrounded by six-winged, ministering seraphim. A similar representation is found in Revelation 4:8. In Jewish liturgy, the verse from Isaiah is uttered by the congregation during Kedusha, a prayer said during the leader's repetition of the Amidah (18 Benedictions):
The text of the second part, beginning with the word Benedictus (Latin for "Blessed") is taken from Matthew 21:9, describes Jesus' Entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, which is in turn based on the first half of Psalm 118:26. In its present liturgical context "it points to the expected presence of the Lord in the eucharistic gifts". Within Anglicanism, the 1552 Book of Common Prayer omitted it and, though it is now permitted, "the choice whether or not to use the Benedictus is still for some a matter of Eucharistic theology and churchmanship".
The Sanctus appears in the Sacramentary of Serapion of Thmuis (the saint died in 360), but may go as far back to Christian liturgy in North Africa in the year 200.
The present form of the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, the primary liturgy of the Eastern Orthodox Church, reads (when in Greek) the following text:
The above differs from the Roman Rite Latin text
The Liturgy of Saint Basil of the Eastern Orthodox Church has the same form of the Sanctus as the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom, with its two variants of the Hosanna phrase.
In older Greek liturgical manuscripts, various forms of the hymn are attested; the ones that will follow below, belong to the ones edited by Swainson in his 1884 book The Greek liturgies. Among these forms, there are variations of the hymn being composed of practically only the Old testament part. Others include: In the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom, one of them excludes not only the article ὁ, but also the article «τῆς»:
The Liturgy of Saint James as given in Swainson reads as follows:
This text not only omits the article ὁ that is used in the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom, but also has Kyrie (vocative case) where the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom has Kyrios (nominative).
In current use, the Liturgy of Saint James may use the nominative rather than the vocative case of Κύριος; the article ὁ is also not present in this form at the concluding Hosanna.
Moreover, a different variant of the Liturgy of Saint James is found in the margin of a manuscript that gives only the three words Ἅγιος, ἅγιος, ἅγιος in the body: "In the margin, much abbreviated, may be discerned the following: Κύριος σαβαώθ, πλήρης ὁ οὐρανὸς καὶ ἡ γῆ τῆς δόξης σου. Ὡσαννὰ ἐν τοῖς ὑψίστοις· εὐλογημένος ὁ ἐλθὼν καὶ ἐρχόμενος ἐν ὀνόματι Κυρίου· ὡσαννὰ ἐν τοῖς ὑψίστοις. This produces the text:
This version adds "he who came and" before "he who comes"; in this it resembles the Liturgy of Saint James in the tradition of the Syriac Orthodox Church:
The Syriac Orthodox Church also has what it calls the Liturgy of Saint Dionysius, in which the Hosanna phrase appears only at the end:
The form used in the ancient Liturgy of Addai and Mari is much shorter:
The Coptic version of the Liturgy of Saint Basil also gives a short text of what it calls the Hymn of the Seraphim:
The priest's introductions, following the rubrics that set what should be done by whom with each passage, uniformly call the hymn the ἐπινίκιος ὕμνος, i.e. "the hymn of victory". On the other hand, it used to be that, as Swainson notes about an attested variant form wherein only Ἅγιος, ἅγιος, ἅγιος is being quoted:
The Sanctus has been set to numerous plainchant melodies, many of which are given in the Roman Missal, and many more composers have set it to polyphonic music, both in single settings and as part of cyclic mass settings.
Parts of the Hymn have also been used in modern music, notably "Prism of Life" by Enigma (album Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi!)
Modern versions of the content of Sanctus include the 1986 German hymn "Du bist heilig, du bringst Heil", derived from a Swedish model.
In the Tridentine Mass the priest joins his hands while saying the word "Sanctus" and then, bowing, continues to recite the whole of the Sanctus in a lower voice, while a small bell is rung; then, on reaching the words "Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini", he stands erect again and makes the Sign of the Cross. He then continues immediately with the Canon of the Mass, while the choir, if there is one, sings the Sanctus. In the pre-1962 form, the choir pauses for the Consecration and continues with the Benedictus part afterwards. As a result of this division, the Sanctus has sometimes been spoken of as "Sanctus and Benedictus". However, in line with Pope John XXIII's revision of the rubrics of the liturgy, the splitting of the Sanctus, when sung to Gregorian chant (though not if sung polyphonically) was forbidden and is thus not allowed in celebrations of the 1962 Tridentine Mass as authorized by Pope Benedict XVI's Summorum Pontificum.
In the Mass revised after the Second Vatican Council, the Sanctus may, of course, not be split, since the whole of the eucharistic prayer is sung or spoken aloud, and the only ceremony prescribed for the priest during the Sanctus is to join his hands. He and the people sing or recite together the whole of the Sanctus, before the priest continues the Eucharistic Prayer.
Words of the Sanctus are often used in church architecture and Christian art.