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Veni Sancte Spiritus (“Come, Holy Spirit”), sometimes called the “Golden Sequence” (Latin: Sequentia Aurea) is a sequence sung in honour of God the Holy Spirit, prescribed in the Roman Rite for the Masses of Pentecost Sunday.[1] It is usually attributed to either the 13th-century Pope Innocent III, or to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton, among others.
Veni Sancte Spiritus is one of only four medieval sequences which were incorporated into the Liturgy of the Roman Curia – a Roman carryover from the pre-Tridentine Mass celebrated before the standardisations by the Council of Trent (1545–63). It is therefore found in editions of the Roman Missal published in 1570; before the Tridentine Missal, many feasts also had their own sequences.[2] Today, it is still sung or recited at Mass on Pentecost, generally before the Gospel reading.
The 2004 Enchiridion Indulgentiarum grants a partial indulgence to those who recite the sequence at sunrise or sunset; at the beginning or conclusion of one’s workday; and before or after meals.[6]
The sequence was set to music by a number of composers, especially during the Renaissance, including Dufay, Josquin, Willaert, Palestrina, John Dunstaple, Lassus, Victoria, and Byrd. Marc-Antoine Charpentier wrote two settings, H.364, H.364 a, for 3 voices and bc (1690s) and H.366 for 3 voices and bc (1690s). Later composers who have set the text include Arvo Pärt, Morten Lauridsen, Frank La Rocca, George Fenton, and Samuel Webbe.[7]
