Procedenti Puero

Today is January 1, the first day of the new year. It is also the eighth day of Christmas, a twelve day feast, which is superseded (on the thirteenth day) by the Feast of Epiphany (January 6). So, if you’re counting up from Christmas Day, today is the eighth day; if you’re counting down to the end of the cycle, there are five days left (including this one) before Epiphany begins. The principle numbers involved (1, 5, 8, 12, 13) are rich with meaning for those familiar with numerical symbolism, both biblical and general (the Golden Ratio, Fibonacci Sequence, etc.).

In the Christian calendar, this day is is celebrated variously as The Feast of Circumcision or The Feast of the Holy Name. (Jesus, in keeping with Mosaic regulation, was circumcised, and officially named, on the eighth day after birth.) It is a day in which a birth that brings forth new life is officially acknowledged, but also a day in which (through the bloody rite of circumcision) death is foreshadowed – but rebirth and glorious resurrection life springing from that death are also anticipated. It is a day both for looking backwards and looking forwards – for Christ, after all, as the Alpha and Omega, has superseded Janus, the two-faced Roman god of doorways and new beginnings, now relegated to servile obscurity. (“Why do we call it ‘January?’” many are heard to ask.)

The following medieval text has long been used as part of the church’s traditional liturgy on this day. (Some versions have many additional verses.)

      Procedenti puero | Unto the boy proceeding forth
      (Eia! Novus annus est!) | (Hey! It is a new year!) 
      Virginis ex utero | From the virgin’s womb 
      Gloria laudis! | [Let the] glory of praise [be given]! 
      Deus homo factus est, | God is made man, 
      Et immortalis. | And [yet] immortal.

      In valle miseriae | Into this vale of misery 
      (Eia!), etc.
      Venit nos redimere. | He came to redeem us.
      Gloria, etc.

      Christus nobis natus est. | Christ is born for us. 
      (Eia!), etc.
      Crucifigi passus est | He suffered crucifixion. 
      Gloria, etc.

      Cuius circumcissio | Whose circumcision
      (Eia!), etc.
      Nostra sit salvatio. | Is our salvation.
      Gloria, etc.

      Redemptorem saeculi | The Redeemer of the Age 
      (Eia!), etc.
      Laudent omnes populi. | Let all the peoples praise.
      Gloria, etc.

      Collaudemus Dominum, | Let us together praise the Lord,
      (Eia!), etc.
      Salvatorem hominum. | The Savior of mankind.
      Gloria, etc.