Ecce sacerdos magnus

It is an antiphon and a responsory from the common of confessor bishops in the Liturgy of the Hours and in the Graduale Romanum, and the Epistle in their proper Mass.

Its words are, Ecce sacerdos magnus, qui in diebus suis, placuit Deo, which means "behold the great priest, who in his days, pleased God".

In others, the response is: Non est inventus similis illi, qui conservaret legem excelsi (no one has been found to be like him in the keeping of the laws of the Most High)[Sir 44:20].

The following is a complete text and translation of a different version, which may be used at the procession of a bishop at a solemn celebration of ordination: Ecce sacerdos magnus, qui in diébus suis plácuit Deo: Ideo jure jurando fecit illum Dóminus crescere in plebem suam.

[citation needed] It has been often set to music by composers, including Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina[4],Anton Bruckner,[3] Edward Elgar and Jules Van Nuffel.

The responsory Ecce sacerdos magnus for the festival of a confessor bishop, from the Liber Responsorialis juxta Ritum Monasticum , Solesmes, 1895, page 194. Since it is the second responsory of its nocturn, it doesn't have a half-doxology. The responsory ends with the repetition of the partial respond.