You’ve probably never heard this version of Thomas Aquinas’s famous eucharistic hymn

O Salutaris Hostia, the well known eucharistic hymn, often sung at the beginning of exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, was composed by Thomas Aquinas for morning prayer for the feast of Corpus Christi. For the same feast day he wrote Panis angelicus and Tantum ergo.

The fittingly angelic version above was arranged by Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds, one of the most sought after living composers (listen and you’ll see why). The piece was performed by the Trinity College Choir in the Trinity College Chapel in Cambridge. They recorded the song for the Northern Lights album, which is a collection of performances of Ešenvalds’s compositions, including a number of other sacred pieces like Ubi Caritas and Nunc Dimittis. The album is available on iTunes.

Cecilia Team