‘O Christ who art the light and day’ is a hymn for Compline often sung during Lent, so it seems appropriate to post some medieval English versions of it in this season. You can read some information about the history of the hymn here; it was already in existence, and prescribed for use at Compline, by the end of the fifth century. The hymn is mentioned in St Æthelwold’s rule for his reformed monastery at Winchester in the tenth century, and it was certainly known in Anglo-Saxon England (the manuscript above is from mid-eleventh century Canterbury).
Read it all and listen to the song here:
We used this last night–the lyrics are magnificent!