The Church Fathers · c. 200–250
The Hymn of the Pearl
Anonymous
What it is
A prince is sent from the East to Egypt to fetch a pearl from a serpent, puts on Egyptian clothes, eats their food, forgets who he is and falls asleep — until a letter arrives from his parents that flies to him and speaks, and he remembers, takes the pearl, and goes home to a robe that has been kept for him and turns out to be his own likeness.
Why it lasted
The most beautiful poem to survive from early Christianity, embedded in the Acts of Thomas and plainly older. Every reader recognises the story and no two agree on what it means.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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