A prayer of the Church · its history

Veni Sancte Spiritus — the Golden Sequence

The 'Golden Sequence' of Pentecost — 'Come, thou Holy Spirit, come' — long held the loveliest of the medieval sequences, its authorship debated between King Robert II, Stephen Langton, and Pope Innocent III.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

The prayer

Come, thou holy Paraclete, and from thy celestial seat send thy light and brilliancy: Father of the poor, draw near; giver of all gifts, be here; come, the soul's true radiancy. Come, of comforters the best, of the soul the sweetest guest, come in toil refreshingly.

Medieval c. 750 – 1100
1030
Event
The older ascriptions

Following Durandus, earlier writers ascribed the sequence variously to King Robert II of France (who reigned 997–1031) and, with Cardinal Bona, to Hermann Contractus — attributions the later manuscript evidence does not bear out.

180 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
Scholastic c. 1100 – 1500
1210
A.D.
1907–1914
“This makes probable the ascription to Stephen Langton (q.v.), made by a writer whom Cardinal Pitra thinks an English Cistercian who lived about the year 1210. More probable is the ascription to Innocent III made by Ekkehard V in his "Vita S. Notkeri", written about 1220.”
1250
Event
The Golden Sequence of Pentecost

Ranked among the loveliest hymns of the Latin Church, the Veni Sancte Spiritus is sung at Mass from Whitsunday (Pentecost) through the following Saturday; it comprises ten short stanzas and is one of only a handful of sequences kept in the Roman Missal.

Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.