The Gloria and Sanctus in Latin, Word by Word

The Gloria and the Sanctus are the two great sung texts of the Ordinary of the Mass. The Gloria is the best vocative lesson in Latin: one line addresses Christ four times in three patterns. The Sanctus keeps two Hebrew words untranslated and reuses the ablative of the Ave Maria's gratia plena.

The Gloria

Gloria in excelsis Deo,

et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis.

Laudamus te, benedicimus te, adoramus te, glorificamus te,

gratias agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam tuam,

Domine Deus, Rex caelestis, Deus Pater omnipotens.

Domine Fili unigenite, Iesu Christe,

Domine Deus, Agnus Dei, Filius Patris,

qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis;

qui tollis peccata mundi, suscipe deprecationem nostram.

Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris, miserere nobis.

Quoniam tu solus Sanctus, tu solus Dominus, tu solus Altissimus,

Iesu Christe, cum Sancto Spiritu: in gloria Dei Patris. Amen.

The first line is the angels' song at Bethlehem, Luke 2:14, where the Vulgate has in altissimis; the hymn says in excelsis, both in the highest. The rest is an early Christian hymn translated from Greek, sung in the Roman mass by the early sixth century.

Peace to people of good will

Gloria has no verb: Latin leaves out sit, be. Glory be to God in the highest.

Bonae voluntatis describes hominibus: people of good will, people marked by good will. So the Latin gives peace to a group.

The older English, on earth peace, good will toward men, follows Greek manuscripts where good will is nominative, a second gift to everyone. The oldest Greek manuscripts and the Latin have the genitive, and modern Catholic English follows them: peace to people of good will. The difference is one Greek letter.

We praise you: four verbs and an idiom

Laudamus te, benedicimus te, adoramus te, glorificamus te: four verbs, we, each with the same accusative te. It is a list, and meant to sound like one.

Then an idiom worth learning whole:

Latin normally does not give thanks, it does them: gratias agere. Propter magnam gloriam tuam is propter with the accusative: because of your great glory. The same noun gratia means grace in the singular (gratia plena) and thanks in the plural.

Domine Fili: four vocatives

The Gloria addresses God and Christ again and again, and each address is a vocative:

Domine Fili unigenite, Iesu Christe has four nouns in the vocative, with an adjective agreeing, in three patterns. Fili and unigenite sit side by side with different endings because only nouns in -ius shorten to -i; the same rule gives Vergili from Vergilius.

The next line, Agnus Dei, Filius Patris, uses nominative forms to address him. Latin allows a nominative in place of a vocative, especially in a title, and Deus is normally used that way.

Qui tollis: you who take away

Qui tollis is a relative pronoun with a second-person verb: you who take away, not who takes away.

Miserere looks passive. It is the imperative of misereor, a deponent verb: passive in form, active in meaning, and its imperative ends in -re. Classical Latin puts the person pitied in the genitive (miserere mei, have mercy on me); church Latin also uses the dative, miserere nobis.

Dexteram is an adjective with manum, hand, left out: the right hand.

The Sanctus

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth.

Pleni sunt caeli et terra gloria tua.

Hosanna in excelsis.

Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini.

Hosanna in excelsis.

It joins two biblical texts and adapts both:

The liturgy says Sabaoth where the Vulgate of Isaiah has exercituum, adds caeli, and turns his glory into your glory, gloria tua, so that the hymn speaks to God.

Pleni sunt caeli et terra gloria tua runs on the rule of the Ave Maria: plenus takes the ablative of what fills it.

• Pleni sunt caeli et terra gloria tua. - Heaven and earth are full of your glory.
• Ave Maria, gratia plena. - Hail Mary, full of grace.

Pleni is masculine plural, agreeing with caeli, the nearer of its two subjects. Benedictus qui venit is blessed is he who comes: venit is present here.

Hebrew kept whole

Both came into Latin through Greek and were never translated. Sabaoth stands where a genitive would be (of hosts) but has no ending at all: it cannot be declined. Hosanna began as a plea and had become a shout of praise by the time of the Gospels.

Saying it

At mass, sing in Church Latin; this course's audio speaks classical. The pronunciation lesson has every rule.

Mistakes English speakers make

What to do next

1. Find every vocative in the Gloria and name its pattern.
2. Compare gloria tua in the Sanctus with gratia plena in the Ave Maria.
3. Go on to the mass responses, and see participles for benedictus.