Veni Sancte Spiritus

This article is about the sequence. For the prayer, see Come, Holy Spirit. For the hymn, see Veni Creator Spiritus.
"Golden Sequence" redirects here. For the mathematical ratio, see Golden ratio.
The dove: iconographic symbol of the Holy Spirit

Veni Sancte Spiritus (“Come, Holy Spirit”), sometimes called the “Golden Sequence” (Latin: Sequentia Aurea) is a sequence sung in honour of God the Holy Spirit, prescribed in the Roman Rite for the Masses of Pentecost Sunday.[1] It is usually attributed to either the 13th-century Pope Innocent III, or to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton, among others.

Veni Sancte Spiritus is one of only four medieval sequences which were incorporated into the Liturgy of the Roman Curia – a Roman carryover from the pre-Tridentine Mass celebrated before the standardisations by the Council of Trent (1545–63). It is therefore found in editions of the Roman Missal published in 1570; before the Tridentine Missal, many feasts also had their own sequences.[2] Today, it is still sung or recited at Mass on Pentecost, generally before the Gospel reading.

  1. ^ Liber Usualis, pp. 880-81. Solesmes 1961.
  2. ^ David Hiley, Western Plainchant : A Handbook (OUP, 1993), II.22, pp.172-195