Beata Viscera (Blessed Womb) is a medieval sacred song by famous medieval composer Perotin, set to a poem attributed to Phillip the Chancellor. The song is a conductus, a type of sacred – but not necessarily liturgical – song based on a Latin text, popular in the Middle Ages. In its description of a
scholarly work on the topic, Cambridge University Press explains:
"The conductus repertory is the body of monophonic and polyphonic non-liturgical Latin song that dominated European culture from the middle of the twelfth century to the beginning of the fourteenth... [it] emerges as a genre of great poetic and musical sophistication that brought the skills of poets and musicians into alignment."
Beata Viscera is a poetic meditation on the Incarnation, the Nativity, and the perpetual virginity of Our Lady. It begins by praising Our Lady's blessed womb, which brought forth the Savior of mankind, and how she remained "integral" (virgin) after having become Mother.
The song meditates on the Gentiles, who were "sitting in darkness" until Our Lord's Birth, while calling to mind the errors of the Jews and their denial at the Nativity. It urges the Jews to convert to Christ, who is the fulfillment of the Old Testament, "the closed mysteries of the Mosaic law". As the song contrasts the Jews' rejection of Our Lord, and the Gentiles' acceptance of Him ("the youngest were the first"), it makes an appeal for their conversion, that they might join the "Easter children" in the "wonderful novelty and new joy" of Our Lord's Birth and Our Lady's
perpetual virginity and motherhood.
Beata viscera is here interpreted by Estonian ensemble Vox Clamantis. Note: only verses 1, 2, 4, and 7 are sung in the recording – marked below in red. We have included all seven verses below.
Listen to Beata Viscera
Lyrics:
Latin text:
1. Beata viscera Marie Virginis
Cuius ad ubera Rex magni nominis;
Veste sub altera vim celans numinis
Dictavit federa Dei et hominis.
O mira novitas et novum gaudium,
Matris integrita post puerperium.
2. Populus gentium sedens in tenebris
Surgit ad gaudium partus tam celebris:
Iudea tedium fovet in latebris,
Cor ferens conscium delicet funebris,
O mira novitas...
3. Partum quem destruis, Iudea misera!
De quo nos argues, quem docet littera;
Si nova respuis, crede vel vetera,
In hoc quem astruis Christum considera.
O mira novitas...
4. Legis mosayce clausa misteria;
Nux virgam mystice nature nescia;
Aqua de silice, columna previa,
Prolis dominice signa sunt propera.
O mira novitas...
5. Te semper implicas errore patrio;
Dum viam indicas errans in invio:
In his que predicas, sternis in medio
Bases propheticas sub Evangelio.
O mira novitas...
6. Fermenti pessimi qui fecam hauserant,
Ad panis azimi promisa properant:
Sunt Deo proximi qui longe steterant,
Et hi novissimi qui primi fuerant.
O mira novitas...
7. Solem, quem librere, dum purus otitur
In aura cernere visus non patitur,
Cernat a latere dum repercutitur,
Alvus puerpere, qua totus clauditur.
O mira novitas...
English translation (1):
1. Blessed is the womb of the Virgin Mary,
At whose bosom was the King of great name;
Concealing God's power under [human] garment,
He dictated the covenant between God and man.
O wonderful novelty and new joy,
The virginity of a Mother after childbirth.
2. The people of the nations, sitting in darkness,
Rose to the joy of so famous a Birth:
Judea cherishes repugnance in hiding,
The heart bearing knowledge of funeral delight,
O wonderful novelty...
3. The Birth that you deny, unhappy Judea
About which you argue us, is taught by the letter;
If you reject the new, believe then the old,
In that which you seek, consider Christ.
O wonderful novelty...
4. The closed mysteries of the Mosaic Law;
The mysterious wooden rod of unknown nature;
The water from the stone, the guiding fire column,
These are hidden signs for the ex-chosen people.
O wonderful novelty...
5. You always tangle yourself in the ancestral error;
While you point the way, you err:
In those things which you preach, you spread out
The prophetic foundations beneath the Gospel.
O wonderful novelty...
6. Those who had drunk the worst ferments,
Now rush to the promised unleavened bread:
Those who were far away became the nearest,
And the last ones became the first.
O wonderful novelty...
7. The sun, unconcealed, shining,
At daylight one cannot suffer to see,
One sees it from in its reflection,
In the womb of childbirth, which is fully virginal.
