The Paschal Work (prose paraphrase of the Paschal Song)
Opus Paschale (Paschale opus)
· Sedulius (Caelius Sedulius)
· c. 425-450
· bible
Latin · domain: latin-poetry-late-antique · researched 2026-11-14
partial / older only. An English translation exists but is partial or older than the critical edition. The gap is a modern, complete translation from the original. A rendering of a daughter version does not count here: it is recorded on the dossier of the text it actually translates.
Why this is in the register
Sedulius wrote the Carmen Paschale in hexameters and then reworked it himself in prose as the Opus Paschale. Carl P. E. Springer's SBL Writings from the Greco-Roman World volume, The Paschal Song and Hymns (2013), translates the five books of the Carmen and the hymns in full but offers the prose work only in an appendix of 'Excerpts from the Paschale opus', as the volume's own contents list shows (https://hollis.harvard.edu/permalink/f/1s5nto6/alma990137319340203941). No English translation of the complete Opus Paschale appears in HOLLIS: a search for 'Sedulius Opus paschale' returns the Springer volume, an Italian study, Latin editions (CSEL, Brepols) and a French bilingual edition, Le chant de Pâques: Poème pascal; Prose pascale (Migne, 2013), which does translate both (https://hollis.harvard.edu/discovery/search?query=any,contains,Sedulius%20Opus%20paschale&tab=Everything&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&vid=01HVD_INST:HVD2&offset=0 A further search for English translations of Sedulius returns only Springer (https://hollis.harvard.edu/discovery/search?query=any,contains,Sedulius%20English%20translation%20Paschal&tab=Everything&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&vid=01HVD_INST:HVD2&offset=0 So the verse Carmen is fully available; the author's own prose rewriting exists in English only as scattered excerpts in an appendix.
The Opus Paschale is Sedulius's own prose twin of his verse Gospel paraphrase, and comparing the two is the standard way of studying late antique Christian prose rhythm and biblical paraphrase technique. Without a full English version the reader can see the poem but not the deliberate rhetorical downgrading - the same miracles retold in different registers - that made the pair a school text for a thousand years.
Sedulius, active 5th century. "The Paschal song and hymns." Atlanta : Society of Biblical Literature, [2013]. https://hollis.harvard.edu/permalink/f/1s5nto6/990137319340203941
Selbach, Alina. "Sedulius, Carmen Paschale 1 : einleitung, text mit ubersetzung und kommentar." Wuppertal, [Germany] : Polyphem Verlag, [2025]. https://hollis.harvard.edu/permalink/f/1s5nto6/99161831726503941
Duckett, Eleanor Shipley. "Latin writers of the fifth century." New York, H. Holt and company [c1930]. https://hollis.harvard.edu/permalink/f/1s5nto6/990012707060203941
BakesÌovaÌ, VaÌclava. "The Figurativeness of the Language of Mystical Experience, Particularities and Interpretations." Brno [Czech Republic] : Masarykova univerzita nakladatelství 2021. https://hollis.harvard.edu/permalink/f/1s5nto6/99156931012203941
Cite: Tergwame, “The Paschal Work (prose paraphrase of the Paschal Song)”
(latin gap dossier), 2026.
https://naxiai.com/christian/gaps/latin-sedulius-opus-paschale