# me tibi commissum pietate superna



## Ihsiin

Hello everyone.

I am not at all well versed in Latin and have very few expertise in this language. Though from time to time, when I needed to, I have translated little bits of Latin, this line from the Guardian Angel prayer has me defeated:

_me tibi commissum pietate superna_

If anyone could give me a translation and explain word for word how the meaning is constructed I'd be incredibly grateful.
Thanks.


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## wandle

These words have more than one possible meaning, depending upon the rest of the sentence in which they occur.

Could you give the full sentence and preferably the preceding sentence as well?


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## Ihsiin

Oh yes, sorry, the complete prayer is as follows:

_Angele Dei qui custos es mei
me tibi commissum pietate superna
__illumina, custodi, rege et guberna_.


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## Scholiast

salvete amici!

_Angele_ [vocative, "(O) Angel"] _Dei_ [genitive, "of God"] _qui_ [relative pronoun, nominative, "who"] _custos_ [nom. complement to _qui_, "guardian"] _es_ [2nd. pers. sing., "(you) are"] _mei _[genitive, "of me", "my"];

_me_ [accusative object (of the verbs in line 3), "me"] _tibi_ [dative, "to you"] _commissum_ [participle, agreeing with _me_, "entrusted"] _pietate_ [ablative, "with (your) dutifulness"] _superna_ [adjective agreeing with _pietate_, "heavenly"];

_illumina_, _custodi_, _rege_ _et_ _guberna_ [all imperative verbs], "enlighten, protect, rule and govern".

In a freer rendering:

"Angel of God, you who are my guardian,
As I have been committed to your heavenly and dutiful care,
Shed your light on me, watch over me, rule me and guide me".

Σ


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## Ihsiin

Thank you very much Scholiast. Very enlightening.
I'm still a little confused about _commissum_, though. Is there a dropped pronoun somewhere, i.e.: "[He has] committed me to you", or "[I am] committed to you"? I understand the meaning (for which I thank you again), but I feel that there's something missing here.


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## Scholiast

salvete, Ihslin et alii



> Is there a dropped pronoun somewhere,...?



No: that's not how participles work, in Latin or English or any other language that has them.

Think "The books _*written*_ by Cicero", or "the task *entrusted* to me". These function as adjectives and must therefore (in inflected languages such as Latin or French or German) agree with the nouns they qualify.

Now make these "books" or "tasks" the object of a verb:

"We have read the books written by Cicero", "I relish the task entrusted to me": the noun becomes accusative, and by agreement therefore so does the participle.

Σ


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## Ihsiin

Oh ok, I understand now. So the _me_ is the lynchpin of the whole phrase. So we could translate it as something like: "...illumine, protect, rule and govern me, who am entrusted to your heavenly duty."


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## wandle

I would say that *pietate superna*, which is ablative, means 'by celestial love',  in other words, by the love of God.

For example: 'illumine, protect, rule and guide me who have been entrusted to you by divine love'.


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## wtrmute

The whole _commissum pietate superna_, "commended by Upper piety", is an apposite phrase elaborating upon _me_, which is the direct object of the last four verbs.  In fact, the Portuguese translation goes "já que a ti me confiou a piedade Divina", which translates to "since Divine piety entrusted me to you".  Naturally, the verses are slightly modified so they rhyme, but the sense is broadly the same.


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