Tree of Life

Sing, my tongue,                                                                        Pange, lingua, gloriosi
Tell His triumph far and wide;                                                    proelium certaminis,
The Savior's glory;                                                                      et super Crucis trophaeo
Tell aloud the famous story                                                         dic triumphum nobilem,
Of His body crucified;                                                                 qualiter Redemptor orbis
How upon the cross a victim,                                                      immolatus vicerit.
Vanquishing in death, He died.

Eating of the tree forbidden,                                                        De parentis protoplasti
Man had sunk in Satan's snare,                                                    fraude Factor condolens,
When our pitying Creator did                                                      quanda pomi noxialis
This second tree prepare;                                                             morte morsu corruit,
Destined, many ages later,                                                           lignum tunc notavit,
That first evil to repair.                                                                damna ligni ut solveret.

Faithful Cross!                                                                              Crux fidelis,
Above all other,                                                                             inter omnes
One and only noble Tree!                                                              arbor una nobilis;
None in foliage, non in blossom,                                                   nulla talem silva profert,
None in fruit thy peers may be;                                                     flore, fronde, germine.
Sweetest wood and sweetest iron!                                                 Dulce lignum, dulci clavo,
Sweetest Weight is hung on thee!                                                  dulce pondus sustinens!

                                                 
                                                by Venantius Fortunatus (530-609)  In this extract from a hymn written for the procession that brought a part of the true Cross to Queen Radegrund in 570 Venantiius supposes that the cross on which Jesus died was made from wood grown from a cutting of the tree from which Adam and Eve ate the fruit.


The photo,above, by Marie-Lan Nguyen, is of 'The Holy Cross plus two Trees of Life' (circa 950AD)
with the inscription 'Jesus Christ conquers'. This is the centre section of the Harbaville Tryptych, in the Louvre.