Conditor alme siderum

"This hymn spans all of salvation history, from creation to the end of time when the entire created order will be redeemed and caught up in the life of the Trinity.

John Mason Neale made a translation of the hymn which appeared as "Creator of the Stars of Night" in the first edition of the Hymnal Noted in 1852.

The new text as found in the Antiphonale Romanum II, for Vespers of Sundays and feasts, contains several differences, including the elimination of the Greek word (h)agie in verse 5, due to a correction of the meter, giving Te, Sancte, fide quæsumus instead ("Most holy, faithful One, we beseech thee").

Qui daemonis ne fraudibus periret orbit, impetu amoris actus, languidi mundi medela factus es.

Commune qui mundi nefas ut expiares; ad crucem e Virginis sacrario intacta prodis victima.

Thou, grieving that the ancient curse should doom to death a universe, hast found the medicine, full of grace, to save and heal a ruined race.

Thou cam’st, the Bridegroom of the bride, as drew the world to evening-tide; proceeding from a virgin shrine, the spotless victim all divine.

The Latin “sidus” (“siderum”) means more than just a “star”, encompassing also the sun, moon, and planets, as well as all the heavenly constellations and comets and meteors. [ 1 ]