Hymnus Eucharisticus

What it is

The Hymnus Eucharisticus belongs to Magdalen College, one of the colleges of Oxford University in England. The singers are the college choir: boy choristers who come from Magdalen College School, plus academical clerks, which is what the college calls its student singers, with paid professional clerks filling out the parts. Mostly the hymn is heard indoors. Once a year the whole city hears it, and it is that singing people remember. The piece has been in the college's hands since the seventeenth century.

The tower at dawn

On 1 May each year the choir climbs Magdalen Tower and sings at six in the morning. The custom is called May Morning and is about five hundred years old. People gather in the streets below, High Street and Magdalen Bridge among them, to catch the sound, which reaches them faintly; in recent times microphones and speakers have carried it better. When the singing ends, the crowd drifts off to the rest of the day's celebrations, which include Morris dancing. In that way the hymn acts as the starting signal for Oxford's May Morning.

Music and words

The tune was written by Benjamin Rogers, who held a music doctorate from Oxford recorded in 1685. His setting survives on a single sheet of paper dated 1673, so he may have composed it earlier than that. Who wrote the words is less clear. They have been credited to Nathaniel Ingelo, and said to have been made for a civic dinner at Guildhall on 5 July 1660, with the king and other royal guests at the table. The claim is doubtful: Ingelo's own hymn reads very differently from the text sung today.

The college

Magdalen College was founded in 1458 by William Waynflete, who was Lord Chancellor and Bishop of Winchester. It was built where the Hospital of St John had stood, beyond Oxford's old East Gate. The hymn is performed there on important college occasions, sung from a gallery in the Great Hall, the room where the college eats. Outside Oxford the piece is known from film and television, most famously from Shadowlands, Richard Attenborough's 1993 film about the later life of C. S. Lewis, with Anthony Hopkins as Lewis and Debra Winger opposite him. Lewis taught at Magdalen and wrote in defence of Christian belief.

How Hymnus Eucharisticus is kept

Before six in the morning on 1 May, the choir takes its place on Magdalen Tower. The singers are the college's boy choristers, its student academical clerks and the professional clerks who support them. They sing the Hymnus Eucharisticus, and the sound carries down to the people gathered in the streets and on the bridge. Amplification has been added in recent years. Once the hymn is over, May Morning in Oxford begins in earnest: the crowd moves away to dances and other merrymaking, Morris dancing among them. At other times of year the same choir sings the hymn in the Great Hall on notable college days.

When and where

It is sung on 1 May, early in the morning: the choir begins at six o'clock from Magdalen Tower, and the singing opens that day's May Morning events. The date is fixed by the calendar rather than by any moveable feast, so it falls on the first of May every year. College occasions bring further performances at other points in the year.

Oxford, in England, is where the hymn belongs: Magdalen College keeps it, and the tower and Great Hall are its two stages. Around the college the sound reaches High Street and Magdalen Bridge, where people gather on 1 May. Beyond the city the hymn travels through recordings and through its use in films and on television.

What Hymnus Eucharisticus means

For the college, the hymn begins a day the whole city shares, and its yearly singing now stands for the arrival of May. May Morning is said to be five hundred years old, so the moment links today's college with a long line of earlier ones. Listeners who come out before dawn treat the faint sound from the tower as the reason for their early start, and the choir that provides it is drawn from the college's own school and student body.

Questions people ask about Hymnus Eucharisticus

See also

Christmas carolFestive songs and hymns sung during the Christmas season and door to doorSteelpanA tuned percussion tradition forged from industrial steel containers in TrinidadMorris danceA rhythmic English folk dance performed in costume with bells, sticks and handkerchiefsFleadh CheoilAn annual gathering of Irish traditional music and dance, featuring competitions, public sessions, and concerts across I

Good reading and sources

• BBC - Oxford CultureBBC, Article
• BBC - Oxford CultureBBC, Article

• Hymnus Eucharisticus on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-12.