The Exsultet, also called the Easter Proclamation (in Latin Praeconium paschale), is the ancient hymn of praise sung once a year, at the Easter Vigil, beside the newly lit paschal candle. It calls heaven, earth and the Church to rejoice, retells the Passover from Egypt to the Resurrection in the refrain “This is the night,” and contains the famous cry O felix culpa, “O happy fault.” Below are the full text in a traditional English translation and in Latin, how it is sung, its history and what it means. The next Easter Vigil is on the night of Saturday, March 27, 2027.
What is the Exsultet?
The name comes from its first word: Exsultet iam angelica turba caelorum, “Let the angelic host of heaven now rejoice.” The Missal calls it the praeconium, the “proclamation” or “herald’s announcement” of Easter.
It is sung at the very start of the Easter Vigil. The new fire is blessed outside, the paschal candle is lit from it and carried into the dark church while the deacon sings “The Light of Christ” three times. The flame is passed from the candle to the people’s small candles. Then, with the whole church standing in candlelight, the deacon sings the Exsultet from the ambo beside the paschal candle. It takes roughly ten minutes, depending on the singer.
The Exsultet in English
This traditional translation was printed in the daily missal The Mass Every Day of the Year (1916). It follows the Latin of the Missal in use before Pope Pius XII reformed the Holy Week rites in 1955. In parishes today you will hear the 2010 English translation of the Roman Missal, which is under copyright and printed in the Missal and in parish worship aids. It keeps the same structure, with the changes noted below.
Let now the mighty host of Angels in heaven above rejoice; yea, and all the unsearchable things of God; and let the trumpet of salvation sound aloud the triumph of the King of kings.
O let the earth be glad, resplendent with such brightness; and shining with the light of him who reigneth King forever, let it feel that over all the world darkness is no more.
Let Mother Church rejoice, adorned in splendor with so great a light: let this temple ring, resounding with the voices of the peoples, with the loud and mighty voices of their gladness.
And therefore, most dear brethren, who are come before the presence of this holy light and the wonder of its shining, I pray you all, as one with me to invoke the mercy of almighty God: that he who, for no worthiness of mine, hath deigned to number me among his Levites, may pour on me the rays of his own brightness, and let me sing the full and perfect praises of this blessed light. Through our Lord Jesus Christ his Son, who liveth and reigneth with him in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God world without end. Amen.
V. The Lord be with you.
R. And with thy spirit.
V. Lift up your hearts.
R. We have them, with the Lord.
V. Let us give thanks to our Lord God.
R. It is meet and just.
It is truly meet and just, with all our heart and soul and with the service of our voice, to praise Him, God invisible, almighty Father, and Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. Who for us hath paid to his eternal Father the debt of Adam, and with his blood hath mercifully blotted out the handwriting set up of old, by sin, against us.
For this is the Passover therein that true unspotted Lamb is slain whose blood doth consecrate the doorposts of the faithful. This is the night wherein thou once didst lead from Egypt our fathers, the children of Israel, and madest them to pass dry-shod the waters of the Red Sea. This, then, the night which cleared away, with pillar of fire, the darkness of iniquity. This the night which now through all the earth doth draw apart from worldly vice and from the murky ways of sin them that believe in Christ, restoring them to grace and to his holy fellowship. This the night wherein Christ broke the bonds of death and rose triumphant from the grave. For nothing did it profit to be born, had not we had the profit of redemption.
O wondrous condescension of thy mercy in behalf of us!
O priceless boon of boundless love, that thou to free a slave shouldst give thine only Son!
O surely needed sin of Adam’s fall, which Christ with his own death hath washed away!
O happy fall, that gained us such a Saviour, and so great!
O truly blessed night, which alone deserved to know the time and very hour wherein Christ rose again!
This indeed the Night, whereof it is written: and the night shall be lighted as the day; and: the night shall be my light in my pleasures.
And therefore doth this hallowed night drive sin afar and cleanse away all guilt; giveth innocency anew to them that are fallen and gladness to them that are in sorrow. Hatred it putteth down; and maketh smooth the ways of peace; and bringeth low the haughtiness of power.
Wherefore, holy Father, for the sake of this most favored night, accept the evening sacrifice of incense which Holy Church, with solemn offering of the wax produced by bees, doth bring thee through the hands of these her ministers. And now we know the glories of this pillar of light which the ruddy flame enkindles to the honor of our God.
It giveth of itself that other lights may burn, yet nothing loseth of its brightness; for it continually is fed with melting wax, the precious substance which the mother bee hath given.
O truly blessed Night, which, despoiling Egypt, enriched the Hebrew people! Night, wherein heaven is joined with earth and God is reconciled with man.
Therefore, we humbly beseech thee, O Lord that this paschal light, consecrated to the glory of thy name, with unfailing brightness may burn and dispel the darkness of our night. Accept it, O Lord, for a sweet-smelling savor, and let its radiance be blended with the lights of heaven above. Let the day star find it burning, that bright and morning Star which knows no setting — even he who, rising from the shades of death, shone with ray serene upon mankind.
And therefore, O Lord, we pray thee, grant us peace and quiet in these paschal joys, and keeping us thy servants, thy whole clergy and thy faithful people, together with our blessed Pontiff (Name) and our Bishop (Name) with thy watchful protection graciously deign to rule and govern us all, and preserve us evermore. Through the same Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God world without end. Amen.
In the older rite the deacon acted out the text as he sang it. At “accept the evening sacrifice of incense” he fixed five grains of incense in the candle in the form of a cross. At “It giveth of itself that other lights may burn” he lit the candle. At “O truly blessed Night” the lamps of the church were lit.
The Exsultet in Latin
The Latin text of the same Missal. The current Latin text (2002) keeps almost all of it word for word.
Exsultet jam Angelica turba coelorum: exsultent divina mysteria: et pro tanti Regis victoria tuba insonet salutaris.
Gaudeat et tellus tantis irradiata fulgoribus: et aeterni Regis splendore illustrata, totius orbis se sentiat amisisse caliginem.
Laetetur et mater Ecclesia, tanti luminis adornata fulgoribus: et magnis populorum vocibus haec aula resultet.
Quapropter astantes vos, fratres carissimi, ad tam miram hujus sancti luminis claritatem, una mecum, quaeso, Dei omnipotentis misericordiam invocate.
Ut, qui me non meis meritis intra Levitarum numerum dignatus est aggregare: luminis sui claritatem infundens, Cerei huius laudem implere perficiat.
Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, Filium suum: qui cum eo vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus: per omnia saecula saeculorum.
R. Amen.
V. Dominus vobiscum.
R. Et cum Spiritu tuo.
V. Sursum corda.
R. Habemus ad Dominum.
V. Gratias agamus Domino Deo nostro.
R. Dignum et justum est.
Vere dignum et justum est invisibilem Deum Patrem omnipotentem Filiumque ejus unigenitum, Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, toto cordis ac mentis affectu et vocis ministerio personare.
Qui pro nobis aeterno Patri Adae debitum solvit: et veteris piaculi cautionem pio cruore detersit.
Haec sunt enim festa paschalia, in quibus verus ille Agnus occiditur, cujus sanguine postes fidelium consecrantur.
Haec nox est, in qua primum patres nostros, filios Israel eductos de Aegypto, Mare Rubrum sicco vestigio transire fecisti.
Haec igitur nox est, quae peccatorum tenebras columnae illuminatione purgavit.
Haec nox est, quae hodie per universum mundum in Christo credentes, a vitiis saeculi et caligine peccatorum segregatos, reddit gratiae, sociat sanctitati.
Haec nox est, in qua, destructis vinculis mortis, Christus ab inferis victor ascendit.
Nihil enim nobis nasci profuit, nisi redimi profuisset.
O mira circa nos tuae pietatis dignatio!
O inaestimabilis dilectio caritatis: ut servum redimeres, Filium tradidisti!
O certe necessarium Adae peccatum, quod Christi morte deletum est!
O felix culpa, quae talem ac tantum meruit habere Redemptorem!
O vere beata nox, quae sola meruit scire tempus et horam, in qua Christus ab inferis resurrexit!
Haec nox est, de qua scriptum est:
Et nox sicut dies illuminabitur:
Et nox illuminatio mea in deliciis meis.
Hujus igitur sanctificatio noctis fugat scelera, culpas lavat: et reddit innocentiam lapsis et maestis laetitiam.
Fugat odia, concordiam parat et curvat imperia.
In hujus igitur noctis gratia, suscipe, sancte Pater, incensi hujus sacrificium vespertinum: quod tibi in hac Cerei oblatione sollemni, per ministrorum manus de operibus apum, sacrosancta reddit Ecclesia.
Sed jam columnae hujus praeconia novimus, quam in honorem Dei rutilans ignis accendit.
Qui licet sit divisus in partes, mutuati tamen luminis detrimenta non novit.
Alitur enim liquantibus ceris, quas in substantiam pretiosae hujus lampadis, apis mater eduxit.
O vere beata nox, quae exspoliavit Aegyptios, ditavit Hebraeos!
Nox, in qua terrenis coelestia, humanis divina junguntur.
Oramus ergo te, Domine: ut Cereus iste in honorem tui nominis consecratus, ad noctis hujus caliginem destruendam, indeficiens perseveret.
Et in odorem suavitatis acceptus, supernis luminaribus misceatur.
Flammas ejus lucifer matutinus inveniat.
Ille, inquam, lucifer, qui nescit occasum.
Ille, qui regressus ab inferis, humano generi serenus illuxit.
Precamur ergo te, Domine: ut nos famulos tuos, omnemque clerum, et devotissimum populum: una cum beatissimo Papa nostro N., et Antistite nostro N., quiete temporum concessa, in his paschalibus gaudiis, assidua protectione regere, gubernare et conservare digneris. […]
Per eundem Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, Filium tuum:
Qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus: per omnia saecula saeculorum.
R. Amen.
How today’s Exsultet differs
The Exsultet sung today is the same ancient hymn, with a few changes:
- “The sacrifice of this incense” became “the sacrifice of this praise.” The older text reads incensi hujus sacrificium; the current one reads laudis huius sacrificium. The grains of incense are now fixed in the candle, if they are used, when the candle is prepared at the fire, before the procession. The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia judged that the custom of fixing the grains at these words probably arose from a misunderstanding of the text (incensum can mean simply “something kindled,” the lit candle itself).
- The line about despoiling Egypt was dropped. The older text says the blessed night “despoiled the Egyptians and enriched the Hebrews” (quae exspoliavit Aegyptios, ditavit Hebraeos). The current text goes straight to “in which heavenly things are joined to those of earth.”
- The ending names Christ. The older text closed with an intercession for the Pope, the bishop and, until 1806, the Holy Roman Emperor. The current Latin text ends with the Morning Star who knows no setting: Christus Filius tuus, “Christ your Son,” who returned from the realm of the dead and shone serenely on the human race.
- A lay cantor may sing it. When there is no deacon, the priest sings the Exsultet. If necessary a lay cantor may sing it, leaving out the passage that asks the people to pray for the singer and the greeting “The Lord be with you.”
- There is a shorter form. The Missal also provides an abbreviated version for use when needed.
“O happy fault” (O felix culpa)
The most famous lines of the Exsultet are these:
O surely needed sin of Adam’s fall, which Christ with his own death hath washed away!
O happy fall, that gained us such a Saviour, and so great!
In Latin: O certe necessarium Adae peccatum… O felix culpa, quae talem ac tantum meruit habere Redemptorem! The Church does not call sin good. It praises God, whose love was so great that he answered the worst thing in human history with something greater still: the Incarnation, the Cross and the Resurrection. As St. Paul wrote, “where sin abounded, grace did more abound” (Romans 5:20).
The Catechism of the Catholic Church quotes the Exsultet on exactly this question, why God did not prevent the first sin. It cites St. Thomas Aquinas, who wrote that God permits evil in order to draw forth some greater good, and then the Exsultet’s “O happy fault” (CCC 412; Aquinas, Summa Theologiae III, q. 1, a. 3, ad 3).
What the Exsultet says
- All creation rejoices: the angels in heaven, the earth now flooded with light, and Mother Church, whose house rings with the voices of her people.
- Easter is the true Passover: Christ is the Lamb whose blood marks the doorposts of the faithful, as the blood of the Passover lamb marked the houses of Israel in Egypt (Exodus 12).
- “This is the night”: the night God led Israel dry-shod through the Red Sea (Exodus 14), the night of the pillar of fire (Exodus 13:21), and the night Christ broke the bonds of death and rose from the grave.
- The night is turned to light: the Exsultet applies to Easter the words of the psalm, “night shall be light as day” (Psalm 138:11–12 in the Douay-Rheims; Psalm 139 in modern Bibles).
- What this night does: it drives away sin, washes away guilt, restores innocence to the fallen and joy to the sorrowful, casts out hatred and brings peace.
- The candle as an offering: the candle, made of wax “which the mother bee hath given,” is offered to God. It gives its flame to others yet loses none of its light, a picture of the risen Christ who shares his life without being diminished.
- Christ the Morning Star: the hymn ends with the star that never sets, echoing “until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts” (2 Peter 1:19) and Christ’s words “I am… the bright and morning star” (Apocalypse 22:16).
History
No one knows who wrote the Exsultet. It has sometimes been credited to St. Ambrose, but the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia, judging by the regular rhythm of its Latin prose, placed its composition between the fifth and seventh centuries. A lit candle at the Easter Vigil was an old custom in Italy, Gaul and Spain. St. Augustine mentions composing a verse in praise of the candle (City of God XV, 22). The Liber Pontificalis credits Pope Zosimus (417–418) with bringing the custom into the Church of Rome.
The earliest manuscripts with the Exsultet are Gallican books: the Bobbio Missal (seventh century), the Missale Gothicum and the Missale Gallicanum Vetus (eighth century). From there it passed into the supplement to the Gregorian Sacramentary and so into the Roman Missal. Its melody is a richly ornamented form of the chant of the Preface, and its middle section is shaped like a Preface, opening with “Lift up your hearts.”
In southern Italy in the tenth and eleventh centuries, the Exsultet was sung from long parchment scrolls, the Exultet rolls, unrolled over the front of the ambo as the deacon sang. They were illuminated with pictures painted upside down relative to the text, so that the people below could see them the right way up as the scroll hung down.
For centuries the Vigil had been celebrated on Holy Saturday morning. The 1955 reform of Holy Week returned it to the night, so that the Exsultet is once again sung in the darkness it describes.
Frequently asked questions
What does “Exsultet” mean?
It is Latin for “let it rejoice” or “let it exult,” the first word of the hymn: Exsultet iam angelica turba caelorum, “Let the angelic host of heaven now rejoice.”
When is the Exsultet sung?
Only once a year, at the Easter Vigil on the night before Easter Sunday, right after the procession with the paschal candle. In 2027 that is Saturday night, March 27.
Who sings the Exsultet?
The deacon, after receiving the priest’s blessing, which in the 1916 missal reads: “May the Lord be in thy heart, and on thy lips; that thou mayest worthily and duly announce his paschal praise.” If there is no deacon, the priest sings it; if necessary, a lay cantor.
What is “O happy fault”?
O felix culpa: the Exsultet’s praise of God for answering Adam’s sin with “such a Saviour, and so great.” It does not call sin good, but praises the greater good God drew from it.
Why does the Exsultet mention bees?
The paschal candle is made of beeswax, and the hymn offers the candle to God as the work of bees. Older Latin forms had a longer “praise of the bee,” traces of which survive in the line about “the mother bee.”
Do people hold candles during the Exsultet?
Yes. Everyone stands holding a candle lit from the paschal candle, as at the Gospel, while the deacon sings.
More Easter pages
- Easter Vigil 2027: what happens, step by step
- Easter 2027
- Holy Week 2027
- Victimae Paschali Laudes, the Easter Sequence
- Regina Caeli
- Catholic Easter prayers
- The Easter Octave
- Good Friday
- Catholic hymns
Texts and sources
- English: The Mass Every Day of the Year (1916 daily missal), Holy Saturday, “The Exultet,” public domain (archive.org). OCR errors corrected and logged.
- Latin: Missale Romanum before the 1955 Holy Week reform, Holy Saturday, as transcribed by the Divinum Officium project; the obsolete petition for the Emperor is omitted.
- Charlton Benedict Walker, “Exultet,” Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 5 (1909), Wikisource.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 412; St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae III, q. 1, a. 3, ad 3.
- Exodus 12–14; Psalm 138:11–12; Romans 5:20; 2 Peter 1:19; Apocalypse 22:16 (Douay-Rheims).