Exultet

The hymn in praise of the paschal candle sung by the deacon, in 
the liturgy of Holy Saturday. In the missal the title of the hymn 
is "Praeconium", as appears from the formula used at the blessing 
of the deacon: "ut digne et competenter annunties suum Paschale 
praeconium . Outside Rome, the use of the paschal candle appears 
to have been very ancient in Italy, Gaul, Spain, and perhaps, from 
the reference by St. Augustine (De Civ. Dei, XV, xxii), in Africa. 
The Liber Pontificalis attributes its introduction in the local 
Roman Church to Pope Zosimus. The formula used for the 
"Praeconium" was not always the "Exultet", though it is perhaps 
true to say that this formula has survived, where other 
contemporary formulae have disappeared. In the "Liber Ordinum", 
for instance, the formula is of the nature of a benediction, and 
the Gelasian Sacramentary has the prayer "Deus mundi conditor", 
not found elsewhere, but containing the remarkable "praise of the 
bee -- possibly a Vergilian reminiscence -- which is found with 
more or less modification in all the texts of the "Praeconium" 
down to the present day. The regularity of the metrical cursus of 
the "Exultet" would lead us to place the date of its composition 
perhaps as early as the fifth century, and not later than the 
seventh. The earliest manuscript in which it appears are those of 
the three Gallican Sacramentaries: -- the Bobbio Missal (seventh 
century), the Missale Gothicum and the Missale Gallicanum Vetus 
(both of the eighth century). The earliest manuscript of the 
Gregorian Sacramentary (Vat. Reg. 337) does not contain the 
"Exultet", but it was added in the supplement to what has been 
loosely called the Sacramentary of Adrian, and probably drawn up 
under the direction of Alcuin. 

As it stands in the liturgy, it may be compared with two other 
forms, the Blessing of Palms, and the Blessing of the Baptismal 
Font. The order is, briefly: