An
engraving of an
angel with the words Gloria in excelsis Deo et in terra pax ("Glory to God in the highest and peace on Earth"), the words angels sang when the birth of
Christ was announced to shepherds, as recounted in
Luke 2:14. This formed the basis of a
doxology which is today known as Gloria in Excelsis Deo. A tradition recorded in the
Liber Pontificalis states that
Pope Telesphorus used the
hymn at the
Mass of
Christmas Day in the 2nd century A.D., and it is still recited in its entirety in the
Byzantine RiteOrthros service. The Gloria has been and still is sung to a wide variety of melodies, modern scholars having catalogued well over two hundred of them.Image:
Dalziel Brothers, after J. R. Clayton
An
engraving of an
angel with the words Gloria in excelsis Deo et in terra pax ("Glory to God in the highest and peace on Earth"), the words angels sang when the birth of
Christ was announced to shepherds, as recounted in
Luke 2:14. This formed the basis of a
doxology which is today known as Gloria in Excelsis Deo. A tradition recorded in the
Liber Pontificalis states that
Pope Telesphorus used the
hymn at the
Mass of
Christmas Day in the 2nd century A.D., and it is still recited in its entirety in the
Byzantine RiteOrthros service. The Gloria has been and still is sung to a wide variety of melodies, modern scholars having catalogued well over two hundred of them.Image:
Dalziel Brothers, after J. R. Clayton