Adest Dies Leticie - This is the Day of Rejoicing

This is a hymn for the feast of Saint Brigid from a 15th-century manuscript of her festal Sarum Office, preserved at Trinity College, Dublin. The hymn celebrates the incident of the wood made to spring back to life at the touch of Saint Brigid, which the Martyrology of Ado and the Roman Martyrology record.

Adest dies leticie
quo sancta virgo Brigida
de tenebris miserie
transit ad regna lucida.
A statu puericie
Deo servire studuit
dono pollens mundicie
sponso superno placuit.
In signum pudicicie
altaris quod exaruit
manus tactu virginee
lignum repente viruit
Hec est laurus Hibernie
cuius viror non marcuit
plena misericordiae
nulli petenti defuit.
Per secla sine terminis
soli Deo sit gloria;
qui prece tante virginis
nos ducat ad celestia.
Amen.

The day of rejoicing is come,

In which the holy virgin Brigid

From the shadows of misery

passes to the realms of light.

From a modest station

She strove to serve God,

Mighty in the gift of purity

She was pleasing unto the Bridegroom on high.

As a sign of her virtue

The wood of the altar which had dried out

By a touch of the hand of the virgin

Was at once made green again.

This is Ireland's laurel

Whose green verdure never fades,

Filled with loving kindness

She fails none who entreat her aid.

For ages without end

To God alone be glory,

Who by the prayers of such a virgin

Leads us to the Kingdom of Heaven.

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