Fr Stephanos highlights a bad translation

Fr Stephanos over at Me Monk. Me Meander. has been kind enough to do a graphic display relating to my comment on my "favourite" bad translation in the old ICEL.

Another important defect in the old ICEL was in the prayer Supra quae in the Roman Canon. The Latin text reads:

Supra quae propitio ac sereno vultu respicere digneris: et accepta habere, sicuti accepta habere dignatus es munera pueri tui iusti Abel, et sacrificium Patriarchae nostri Abrahae, et quod tibi obtulit summus sacerdos tuus Melchisedech, sanctum sacrificium, immaculatam hostiam.

This was rendered accurately by Hillaire Belloc as:

Which deign to regard with a propitious and serene countenance, and to hold acceptable as You held acceptable the gifts of Your just servant Abel, and the sacrifice of our Patriarch Abraham, and that which Your High Priest Melchisedech offered You, a holy sacrifice, a spotless victim.

The old ICEL translates it as:

Look with favour on these offerings and accept them as once you accepted the gifts of your servant Abel, the sacrifice of Abraham, our father in faith, and the bread and wine offered by your priest Melchizedek.

The serene and propitious countenance (or "serene and kindly gaze") is reduced to "Look with favour" and Melchisedek is denied the "high" of high priest. The most glaring error, however, is that the words "sanctum sacrificium, immaculatam hostiam" are simply not included in the translation.

The addition of these words to the canon is found as early as the Gelasian Sacramentary. The Liber Pontificalis ascribed the phrase to Pope Leo the Great; Duchesne argued that it was directed against the Manichees who denied the holiness of matter and therefore of any material sacrifice. Presumably the new ICEL will restore these words so that the people are allowed to hear the prayer as it was provided in the Roman Rite for centuries and preserved in the Missal of Paul VI.