Hymn 8

8. On the Place where the Martyrs Suffered, now the Baptistery at Calahorra.

A place chosen for Christ it is, where it may carry tried hearts

up to heaven by blood, and cleanse them by water.

Here two men, slain for the Lord’s name,

bore their purple martyrdom by a fair death.

Here too indulgence flows in a clear fount

and washes away old stains in a new stream.

Whoever longs to climb to heaven’s eternal kingdom,

let him come hither thirsting; behold, the way is prepared.

Before, the crowned witnesses climbed the steep

halls; now the washed souls seek the heights.

The Spirit, wont to descend in an everlasting glide,

as it had given the palm, so grants pardon,

the earth drinks the sacred dews, whether from the fount or from blood,

and, wet, overflows forever for its own God.

The lord of the place is he from the wound of whose two sides

on this side blood poured out and flowed, and on that, water,

from here you will go, as each one can, through the wounds of Christ,

borne up, one by swords and another by waters.