Doctor of the Church Thomas Aquinas composed chants for the new Catholic Feast of Corpus Christi (celebrating the Body of Christ in the Eucharist) in 1263, and Catholics and Protestants alike have relished in his verses. Pange lingua, the hymn for Vespers, has remained a perennial favorite for new compositions; O salutaris hostia is another. The text, as set by Thomas Tallis and others, is the fifth verse of the Hymn at Lauds for Corpus Christi, but it also serves several distinct liturgical moments of adoration to the elevated Host (the communion bread that will become the Body of Christ to the faithful): as a separate hymn at the blessing of the sacrament on Corpus Christi, during the Office of Benediction of the scarament, and sometimes even during the Mass itself, for the Elevation of the Host. Tallis thus chose a text rich in mystical devotion, which hails the "Saving Victim" who shall "open wide the gate of heaven" to all below needing His speedy aid.

Tallis never published his five-voiced motet on O salutaris hostia during his lifetime, and he did apparently revise it at times. Yet musicians are relatively sure of his musical intentions. The motet opens with a lush and expansive imitative gesture, as the same simple melodic motive gradually descends from the highest voice to the lowest. His melody is vaguely reminiscent of the hymn's opening chant melody; it is the sense of the text of salvation streaming down from heaven that seems to have provided him greater inspiration. Tallis even repeats the same imitative gesture a second time, with a balanced cadence establishing the home key. He completes the textual thought by means of a second imitative motive, once again streaming down from on high; this time the imitation transpires thrice, with a climactic leap to the highest note in the soprano voice. The second half of the text, which bemoans the oppression of foes that surround humankind, Tallis sets to a denser musical texture, using more notes and more complicated imitative patterns and avoiding home-key cadences. Yet hope returns in the fourth line of text, and the composer devotes nearly half of the motet's length to this line, underscoring the assistance that will come from the Saving Victim. Twice the choir returns to its original order of entry, singing an upward-leaping motive of supplication, followed by many extended reiterations of the word "help."

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