"" (He on the Cross is my love) is the beginning of

Passion hymn Passion hymns are hymns dedicated to the Passion of Jesus. They are often sung during Passiontide, namely for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. Many of them were used as chorales in Passion (music), Passions, such as Bach's St John Passion structu ...

s in German. One version was written by as a translation of the Latin "Amor meus crucifixus est" (My love was crucified), attributed to

Ignatius of Loyola Ignatius of Loyola, Society of Jesus, S.J. (born Íñigo López de Oñaz y Loyola; eu, Ignazio Loiolakoa; es, Ignacio de Loyola; la, Ignatius de Loyola; – 31 July 1556), venerated as Saint Ignatius of Loyola, was a Spain, Spanish Catholic ...

, to the melody of "". A famous version was written by

Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (; 2 July 1724 – 14 March 1803) was a German poet. His best known work is the epic poem ''Der Messias'' ("The Messiah"). One of his major contributions to German literature was to open it up to exploration outside ...

, in six

stanza In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian language, Italian ''stanza'' , "room") is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or Indentation (typesetting), indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme scheme, rhyme and ...

s, and first published in 1758. It was associated with the melody used first for "". Several poems and hymns use Klopstock's beginning and format, including a 1974 version in three stanzas by Lothar Zenetti which is contained in regional sections of the German Catholic hymnal ''

Gotteslob ''Gotteslob'' ("Praise of God") is the title of the hymnbook authorized by the Catholic dioceses in Germany, Austria, South Tyrol, Luxembourg and Liège, Belgium. First published in Advent 2013, it is the current official hymnal for German-speaki ...

''.

History

All poems begin with a declaration of love for the crucified

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

: The stanzas have eight lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCCAA, with the A lines of 8 syllables, the others 7 syllables.

Mentzer

wrote "", a poem in six stanzas, as a translation of the Latin "Amor meus crucifixus est" (My love was crucified), attributed to

. It was assigned to the melody of "". This version appears in Zahn's catalogue as anonymous, Zahn No. 6639. It was also attributed to Ahasverus Fritzsch. The last two lines are the same in all six stanzas; the seventh line repeats the first, and the rhyming eighth line says "weil ich mich im Glauben übe" (because I practice the faith).

Greding

A poem in the 1740 hymnal ''Erquickstunden in dem Heiligthum Gottes'' from Stuttgart, began: "Der am Creutz ist meine Liebe, und sonst nichts in dieser Welt" (He on the Cross is my love, and nothing else in the world), and ends "Es sey heiter oder trübe, der am Creutz ist meine Liebe" (Be it fair or dull, He on the Cross is my love). In this version, the name of Jesus is not mentioned. This poem has been attributed to J. E. Greding.

Klopstock

Klopstock wrote "" as a poem in six

s in the same format as Mentzer. He retained the first two lines, but worded the conclusion differently: "Meine Lieb ist der Erwürgte, der für mich beym Richter bürgte" (My love is the strangled one, who vouched for me before the judge). He repeated this ending for the second stanza, but saying "on the Cross" instead of "before the judge". In the following stanza, he varied the ending, with "Den ich dann nicht mehr betrübe. Du bist ewig meine Liebe." (Whom I then no longer sadden. You are my love forever.) in the final stanza. The poem was first published in 1758 in the collection ''Geistliche Lieder'' (''Spiritual Songs'') in Copenhagen and Leipzig. It appeared in further editions until 1809. In the 1809 edition, as volume 7 of his works, it had six revised

s. The melody was taken from the

Genevan Psalter The ''Genevan Psalter'', also known as the ''Huguenot Psalter'', is a metrical psalter in French created under the supervision of John Calvin for liturgical use by the Reformed churches of the city of Geneva in the sixteenth century. Background ...

where it appeared in 1551.

Zenetti

In 1974, Lothar Zenetti wrote a version in three stanzas in the format, using the same first two lines for all three stanzas, and paraphrasing the end of Klopstock's sixth stanza for the last two lines of his first stanza. It is contained in regional sections of the German Catholic hymnal ''

'', in the

Diocese of Limburg The Diocese of Limburg (Latin: ''Dioecesis Limburgensis'') is a diocese of the Catholic Church in Germany. It belongs to the ecclesiastical province of Cologne, with metropolitan see being the Archdiocese of Cologne. Its territory encompasses ...

, as GL 774. In the

Trier Trier ( , ; lb, Tréier ), formerly known in English as Trèves ( ;) and Triers (see also names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle in Germany. It lies in a valley between low vine-covered hills of red sandstone in the ...

section, the same version is GL 773.

References

External links

Alphabetisches Verzeichnis der Gesänge nur LM
(in German) Diocese of Limburg 2013 {{authority control 1757 poems 18th-century hymns in German Christian poetry