O Roma felix - Samuel WEBBE

O Roma felix, quae duorum Principum
Es consecrata glorioso sanguine:



Sung life during Traditional Latin Mass
For full video see:
   • Feast of SS Peter and Paul - Traditio...  


Horum cruore purpurata ceteras,
Excellis orbis una pulchritudines.

4. Sit Trinitati sempiterna gloria,
Honor, potestas, atque jubilatio,
In unitate quae gubernat omnia,
Per universa saeculorum saecula.



Samuel Webbe (1740 – 25 May 1816) was an English composer.
Born in Menorca in 1740, Webbe was brought up in London. His father died when he was still an infant, and his mother returned to London where she raised Webbe in difficult circumstances. At the age of 11 he was apprenticed to a cabinet maker, and during the first year of his apprenticeship his mother died.

Webbe was an autodidact. He first discovered his aptitude for music when called on to repair the case of a harpsichord. During the course of the repair work he taught himself to play the instrument. Near the end of the job he was overheard playing it. As a result of this incident he turned to the study of music under Carl Barbandt.

A Roman Catholic, in 1776 Webbe succeeded George Paxton as organist of the Sardinian Embassy Chapel, a position which he held until 1795: he was also organist and choirmaster of chapel of the Portuguese Embassy in Lincoln's Inn Fields, the only place in London where the Catholic liturgy could be publicly celebrated.

Webbe was buried in Old St Pancras Churchyard in London, east of the small church. The stone originally had the form of a red granite obelisk but only the base now remains.