John Henry Cornell was born in New York city, May 8, 1838, and was for many years organist at St. Paul's Chapel, Trinity Church. He is the author of numerous educational works on the theory and practice of music. He composed the above tune in 1872. Died March 1, 1894. "AVE, MARIS STELLA." One of the titles which the Roman Catholic world applied to the Mother of Jesus, in the Middle Ages, was "Stella Maris," "Star of the Sea." Columbus, being a Catholic, sang this hymn, or caused it to be sung, every evening, it is said, during his perilous voyage to an unknown land. The marine epithet by which the Virgin Mary is addressed is admirable as a stroke of poetry, and the hymn--of six stanzas--is a prayer which, though offered to her as to a divine being, was no doubt sincere in the simple sailor hearts of 1492. The two following quatrains finish the voyagers' petition, and point it with a doxology-- Vitam praesta puram, Iter para tutum, Ut videntes Jesum Semper collaetemur. Sit laus Deo Patri, Summo Christo decus, Spiritui Sancto, Tribus honor unus! A free translation is-- Guide us safe, unspotted Through life's long endeavor Till with Thee and Jesus We rejoice forever. Praise to God the Father, Son and Spirit be; One and equal honor To the Holy Three. Inasmuch as this ancient hymn did not attain the height of its popularity and appear in all the breviaries until the 10th century, its assumed age has been doubted, but its reputed author, Venantius Fortunatus, Bishop of Poitiers, was born about 531, at Treviso, Italy, and died about 609. Though a religious teacher, he was a man of romantic and convivial instincts--a strange compound of priest, poet and _beau chevalier_. Duffield calls him "the last of the classics and first of the troubadours," and states that he was the "first of the Christian poets to begin that worship of the Virgin Mary which rose to a passion and sank to an idolatry." _TUNES_ To this ancient rogation poem have been composed by Aiblinger (Johann Caspar), Bavarian, (1779-1867,) by Proch (Heinrich), Austrian, (1809-1878,) by Tadolini (Giovanni), Italian, (1803-1872,) and by many others. The "Ave, Maris Stella" is in constant use in the Romish church, and its English translation by Caswall is a favorite hymn in the _Lyra Catholica_. "AVE, SANCTISSIMA!" This beautiful hymn is not introduced here in order of time, but because it seems akin to the foregoing, and born of its faith and traditions--though it sounds rather too fine for a sailor song, on ship or shore. Like the other, the tuneful prayer is the voice of ultramontane piety accustomed to deify Mary, and is entitled the "Evening Song to the Virgin." Ave Sanctissima! we lift our souls to Thee Ora pro nobis! 'tis nightfall on the sea. Watch us while shadows lie Far o'er the waters spread; Hear the heart's lonely sigh; Thine, too, hath bled.