The Divine Office Part 20

_December. The Feast of the Immaculate Conception._ The discussion of the question of this feast lasted for more than a thousand years. A feast of the Conception was celebrated in the Eastern Church in the early part of the eighth century and was celebrated on the 9th December (Kellner, _Heortology_, p. 242, _et seq._). The feast was celebrated in England before the Norman Conquest (1066) (Bishop, _On the Origins of Feast of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary_, London, 1904).

But there is an earlier codex than those mentioned by Bishop, and from it, it is argued that the feast is of Irish origin. In a metrical calendar, which is reasonably referred to the time of Alfred the Great (871-901), there is the line "Concipitur Virgo maria cognomine senio"; and this calendar exhibits, says Father Thurston, S.J., "most unmistakable signs of the influence of an Irish character." It was written, Dr. Whitely Stokes believed, by an Irishman in the ninth century or thereabouts. The script appears to him to be "old Irish, rather than Anglo-Saxon, and the large numbers of commemorations of Irish saints and the accuracy with which the names are spelt, point to an Irish origin." This calendar places the feast of our Lady's Conception on the 2nd May. In the metrical calendar of Oengus, the feast is a.s.signed to the 3rd May, and in his _Leabhar Breac_, the scribe adds the Latin note, "Feir mar Muire et reliqua, _i.e._, inceptio ejus ut alii putant--sed in februo mense vel in Martio facta est illa, quae post VII. menses nata est, ut innaratur--vel quae libet alia feria ejus."

Again, in the martyrology of Tallaght, from which Gorman, a later martyrologist, says that Oengus, the Culdee, drew his materials, is found under date May 3rd, a mention of the celebration of the Conception of Mary. This evidence seems to show--although it is not perfectly conclusive--that the conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary was celebrated in the Irish Church in the ninth and tenth centuries, but not on the 8th December (see Father Thurston, S.J., _The Month_, May and June, 1904; Father Doncoeur, S.J., _Revue d'histoire ecclesiastique_, Louvain, 1907, p. 278, et seq.; Baudot, _The Roman Breviary_, pp.

253-255; Kellner, _op. cit._).

It is to be regretted that even in the new Breviary the lessons for the second nocturn of this feast are taken from the composition, _Cogitis me_, falsely attributed to St. Jerome, and rejected by critics, from the days of Baronius, as spurious (Baudot, _op. cit._, p. 236).

_February. The Purification._ Candlemas. According to the Gospel narrative, Mary fulfilled the commands of the Law (Lev. XII. 2-8), and on the fortieth day brought the prescribed offering to the Temple, where she met Simeon and Anna.

The first reference found in Christian writers to this festival is found in the famous _Peregrinatio Sylviae_, the diary of a Spanish lady who visited Jerusalem about 385-388. She tells us that the day began with a solemn procession, followed by a sermon on St. Luke II. 22 seqq., and a Ma.s.s. It had not yet a name, but was called the fortieth day after the Epiphany; and this naming shows that at Jerusalem the Epiphany was regarded as the day of Christ's birth. The lady's words show that the feast was not then observed in her own country. The feast was observed in Rome in 542; and Pope Sergius I. (687-701) ordered a procession on this festival. The opinion that is so often met with in pious books, that this feast with its procession of candlebearers was established by the Church to replace the riot and revels of the Pagan _Lupercalia_, is now rejected by scholars. For, processions, with or without lights, were so common amongst Pagans and Christians that any connection between these two feasts is negligible.

_March. St. Joseph_. In the Western Church the cultus of St. Joseph is not found in any calendar before the ninth century, although numerous traces of the esteem and veneration paid to him by individuals are found. The public cultus of St. Joseph was introduced by the private devotions of great servants of G.o.d, such as St. Bernard, St. Gertrude, St. Bridget of Sweden, John Gerson, St. Bernardine of Sienna, and other Franciscan preachers. The spread of the devotion in several countries led Pope Sixtus IV. (1471-1484) to introduce St. Joseph's feast, as a simplex, having only one lesson. Clement XI. (1700-1721) changed it into a feast of nine lessons. Two centuries previously the feast is found in Breviaries under date 19th March.

_The Annunciation_. Devotion to the Mother of G.o.d was continued by the apostles after the death of her Son. Fervent and widespread devotion is traceable in the Church's early days, but the organising of our Lady's feasts was a work of some time and difficulty. A great difficulty was the fear of blasphemy from pagans, and of error amongst pagan converts, so trained in myths and genealogies of the G.o.ds. Then the festivals commemorating the facts of the life, death and resurrection were primarily commemorative of the Redeemer and secondarily of His Mother.

Long before the inst.i.tution of her feast, the cultus of Mary was almost universal. The feast of the Annunciation falls on the 25th March with us. Its date depends entirely on the date of Christmas, but the birth of Christ was not always placed in calendars on the 25th December.

In early days the feasts of martyrs and other saints were not celebrated in Lent, and hence this feast of the Blessed Virgin was set down in some calendars as transferred, and was celebrated in Advent. In Spain, it was celebrated eight days before Christmas. In the East, the feast was generally celebrated on the 25th March, and gradually this date was fixed, and was sanctioned by several councils in the eleventh century.

_May. The Finding of the Holy Cross_. The history of the finding of the true cross by St. Helena is well known. The Alexandrine Chronicle gives the day as the 14th September, 320. This September feast of the holy cross is of earlier origin than the feast of May. The latter was established to commemorate the act of the emperor in 629, when he brought back to Jerusalem the true cross, from the Persian conquerors.

On 3rd May, he handed it over to the Patriarch Zacharias, and, strange to say, this festival of May spread rapidly in the Western Church, whilst in the East only one feast, (the September one), of the finding of the cross was celebrated for centuries. In Milan, for instance, the September feast was received in the eleventh century, whilst the May feast was rooted in the Western Church very many years before that time.

The antiphons and hymns of this Office are, it is said, amongst the most beautiful and sublime prayers of our liturgy.

_The Apparition of St. Michael_. The cultus of the holy angels is of Jewish origin and existed in the Christian Church from the beginning. In St. Paul's Epistle to the Colossians (modern _Khonus on the Lycus_) he speaks of this devotion and of the attempts of a Gnostic sect to spread false doctrines on this point (Col. ii, 18). Although the evil wrought was long lived, true devotion to the angels was practised in Colossae and there the Archangel Michael appeared. In honour of this apparition, the festival of St. Michael in September was established. Devotion to the Archangel was of very early date in Rome and in the Western Church generally. Ma.s.ses in his honour are found in the oldest Roman Sacramentary (483-492); and in these he is mentioned by name in prayers and prefaces. The May feast was inst.i.tuted in the sixth century, to commemorate a second apparition near Sipontum on Monte Gargano, which took place on the 8th May, 520.

_June 29. Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul_. There always has been a constant tradition in Rome that these two saints suffered martyrdom on the same day, 29th June, and it is only natural that this day should be kept with great devotion and solemnity at Rome. In the East, feasts in honour of these martyrs were held at different seasons, Christmas, February and Epiphany. The day was kept in many places as a solemn holiday, servile works being prohibited. But in Rome, devotion was closely connected with the date and with the exact places of martyrdom.

"Owing to the distance which separated the two churches of the apostles from each other, it was most fatiguing to celebrate Ma.s.s at both places, and so in course of time the festival was divided into two parts, and the Ma.s.s in honour of St. Paul took place on the 3Oth June."

_July. The Visitation_. This feast was probably originated by the Franciscans in the thirteenth century. It certainly was preached and spread by their zeal. It is mentioned amongst Franciscan records bearing date 1263. It was kept in different places at different dates. In Paris it was kept in April. In 1850 Pius IX. raised this feast to the rank of a double of the second cla.s.s, to thank G.o.d for having, on this day, 2nd July, freed Rome from the revolutionary yoke.

_Feast of St. Mary Magdalen_. Commentators on Sacred Scripture are not agreed whether Mary of Magdala was the sister of Lazarus or whether there were two or three Marys connected with our Lord--Mary the sister of Lazarus, Mary of Magdala, and Mary the sinner named in St. Luke's Gospel vii. 27. The Roman liturgy seems to favour the opinion that Mary of Magdala was the sister of Lazarus, and that she was a sinner and was possessed by seven devils. The history of Mary Magdalen after our Lord's death has been written, with large and varied additions of adventure, by pious mediaevalists. In the Western Church, traces of the saint's cultus are met with in Bede and his contemporaries. But devotion far and wide begins with mediaeval times. The many legends which have grown up around her name and history have so obscured historic truth that the Breviary gives no historic lessons on her feast day, but gives as a lesson part of a homily from St. Gregory. Some of the legends may be found in the Office of St. Martha (July, 29th).

_August. The a.s.sumption._ "In all probability this is the earliest of our Lady's festivals" (Kellner, _op. cit._, p. 235). Early writers mention the Garden of Gethsemani as the place of Mary's burial and the third year--some say the twelfth year--after our Lord's death as the year of her death. St. John Damascene relying on the writings of Euthymius tells us what we know of the a.s.sumption. He tells that the wife of the Emperor Marcian (450-457) wished to transfer our Lady's relics from Jerusalem to Constantinople and was informed by Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem, that such relics were not in Jerusalem. The Blessed Mother had been buried there, in the Garden of Gethsemani, in the presence of the Apostles, Thomas alone being absent. On his arrival he wished to venerate the Mother of G.o.d; the tomb was opened for him, but nothing was found save the linen grave-clothes, which gave forth a sweet perfume. The Apostles concluded that Christ had taken to Heaven the body which had borne Him. The Emperor Maurice ordered the date, the 15th August, long and widely recognised, to be the date of this annual festival. However, some churches celebrated it on other dates. In the Gothico-Gallic missal of the eighth century, the feast is fixed for the 18th January. The festival was called sometimes _dormitio Mariae, pausatio Mariae_. It was celebrated in Rome at the end of the seventh century, but how long it had been in existence there, and in the West generally before that time, no one can say.

_Feast of the Name of Mary._ This feast owes its origin to the devotion of the faithful and was first authorised by the Pope in 1513. It was extended to the universal calendar in 1683, on the occasion of the deliverance of Vienna from the Turks.

Over the derivation and meaning of the name _Maria_ much scholars.h.i.+p and conjecture have been lavished. It is said to mean (1) _stella maris_ (Eusebius); (2) lady, from the Syrian _Martha_ (St. John Damascene); this is the Breviary meaning, but the Breviary uses the first meaning, _stella maris_, too; (3) stately, imposing one (Bardenhewer); (4) from the Egyptian, _merijom_, friend of water, bride of the sea (Macke).

_October. Feast of the Holy Rosary._ It is not necessary to speak of the origin of the Rosary. This feast was established by Gregory XIII. in 1573, as a thanksgiving for the victory of Lepanto (October, 1571).

Clement XI. extended the feast to all Christendom in consequence of the victory gained at Peterwarden by Prince Eugene in 1716.

_November. Feast of all Saints._ This feast was "inst.i.tuted to honour all the saints, known and unknown, and, according to Urban IV., to supply any deficiencies in the faithful's celebration of saints' feasts during the year. In the early days, the Christians were accustomed to solemnize the anniversary of a martyr's death for Christ, at the place of martyrdom. The neighbouring dioceses began to interchange feasts, to transfer them and to divide them, and to join in a common feast; ...

frequently groups of martyrs suffered on the same day, which naturally led to a joint commemoration. In the persecution of Diocletian the number of martyrs became so great that a separate day could not be a.s.signed to each. But the Church, feeling that every martyr should be venerated, appointed a common day for all. The first trace of it we find in Antioch on the Sunday after Pentecost. ... At first only martyrs and St. John the Baptist were honoured by a special day. Other saints were added gradually, and increased in number when a general process of canonization was established; still, as early as 411 there is in the Chaldean calendar a 'commemoratio Confessorum' for the Friday after Easter. ... Gregory IV. (827-844) extended the celebration on 1st November to the entire Church" (_Cath. Ency._, art, "All Souls").

_Feast of All Souls_, "The theological basis for the feast is the doctrine that the souls, which, on departing from the body are not perfectly cleansed from venial sins, or have not fully atoned for past transgressions, are debarred from the Beatific Vision, and that the faithful on earth can help them by prayers, almsdeeds, and especially by the holy sacrifice of the Ma.s.s. In the early days of Christianity the names of the departed brethren were entered in the diptychs. Later, in the sixth century, it was customary in Benedictine monasteries to hold a commemoration of the deceased members at Whitsuntide, In Spain, there was such a day before s.e.xagesima or before Pentecost, at the time of St.

Isidore (d. 636). In Germany, there existed (according to the testimony of Widukind, Abbot of Corvey, c. 980) a time-honoured ceremony of praying for the dead on 1st October. This was accepted and sanctified by the Church" (_Cath. Ency._, art. "All Souls").

The psalms and lessons of this Office are especially well chosen, and the responses to the lessons--said to be the work of Maurice de Sully (d. 1196)--are greatly admired by liturgical experts.

It may be noted here, that, in the recitation of this Office, which is, for most priests, the only choral recitation of liturgy, care should be taken to select the proper nocturn or nocturns. "In the general rubrics of the Breviary (t.i.t. XIX. n. 2) it is stated that the invitatory is not to be said in _Officio Defunctorum_ per annum, excepto die Commemorationis omnium fidelium defunctorum, ac in die obitus seu depositionis defuncti et quandocunque dic.u.n.tur tres nocturni. When, therefore, only one nocturn is recited, the invitatory is to be omitted except on the dies obitus seu depositionis." In this latter case, even though the body is not present--for some special reason, such as contagious disease--the invitatory is not to be omitted.

"On any other occasion, no matter how solemn or privileged, such as the seventh, thirtieth, or anniversary day, when only one nocturn is recited, the invitatory must not be included. This is clear, not only from the rubrics of the Breviary and Ritual (t.i.t. VI., cap. IV.) but also from certain answers of the Congregation of Rites" (_Irish Eccles.

Record_, December, 1913).

Dom Baudot's _The Roman Breviary_ gives in an appendix, pp. 239-252, "tables showing the date at which each saint was inserted in the Roman Breviary, the rank given to his festival, and the variations it has undergone. It is often difficult to give precise dates."

ROGATION DAYS, EMBER DAYS AND LITANIES.

"Litanies were solemn supplications inst.i.tuted to implore the blessing of Heaven on the fruits of the earth. It was customary to recite them in the spring, that is, the season of late frosts, so much dreaded by the cultivators of the soil.... The people marched in procession to the spot, chanting the while that dialogue prayer which we call a litany, elaborated, according to circ.u.mstances, into a long series of invocations, addressed to G.o.d and to angels and saints."

"The day set apart for this purpose at Rome was the 25th April, a traditional date, being that on which the ancient Romans celebrated the festival of the Robigalia....

"The most ancient authority for this ceremony is a formulary for convoking it, found in the Register of St. Gregory the Great, which must have been used in the first instance in the year 598" (d.u.c.h.esne, _Christian Wors.h.i.+p_, chap, viii., n. 9).

Ember days, a corruption from Latin Quatuor Tempora (four times). "The purpose of their introduction, besides the general one intended by all prayer and fasting, was to thank G.o.d for the gifts of nature, to teach men to make use of them in moderation, and to a.s.sist the needy. The immediate occasion was the practice of the heathens of Rome. The Romans were originally given to agriculture and their native G.o.d belonged to the same cla.s.s. At the beginning of the time for seeding and harvesting religious ceremonies were performed to implore the help of their deities; in June for a bountiful harvest, in September for a rich vintage, and in December for the seeding.... The Church when converting heathen nations has always tried to sanctify any practice which could be utilised for a good purpose." The fasts were fixed by the Church before the time of Callixtus (217-222). The spread of the observance of Ember days was slow; but they were fixed definitely and the fast prescribed for the whole Church by Gregory VII. (1073-1085). (_Cf. Catholic Encyclopedia_, word, Ember Days; d.u.c.h.esne _Christian Wors.h.i.+p_, chap, viii.; Dom Morin _Revue Benedictine_, L'Origine des Quatre Temps, 1897, pp. 330-347.)

NOTE A.

THE BREVIARY HYMNS.

Of all the many and varied branches of Christian art, there is none which offers to the researches of criticism a field so extensive as does the hymnography of the Roman Breviary. No other source of liturgical study, if we except the antiphonarium, has received such attention from studious men. But never, in any age, did this study receive such careful treatment and give rise to such patient and laborious research as in our own. (Pimont, _Les hymnes du Breviare Romain_, Introduction.)

In this note, an attempt will be made to define a hymn, to tell of the introduction of hymns into the Roman Breviary, and to note briefly the character of these hymns.

St. Augustine, commenting on Psalm 122, defined a hymn as a song with praise of G.o.d, cantus est c.u.m laude Dei. It may, however, be more strictly defined as a spiritual song, a religious lyric (v. _Cath, Ency._, art. "Hymn").

In the early Christian a.s.semblies great use was made of the psalms and canticles in their congregational singing. St. Paul wrote: "Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual canticles, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord" (Ephes. v. 18) "...teaching and admonis.h.i.+ng one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual canticles, singing in grace in your hearts to G.o.d" (Col. iii. 16). The Jesuit, Father Arevalo, in his _Hymodia Hispanica_, cites many witnesses, such as Clement of Alexandria, the Apostolic Const.i.tutions, Pliny the younger, to prove that hymns were used in the first and second centuries. But a much-debated question is, whether those hymns were really made part of the Office, as hymns stand there to-day. Some scholars deny that they were; others a.s.sert that they were certainly part of the Church's Office. All agree that they were certainly in use formally and substantially in the Office in the third and fourth centuries in the Eastern and in the Western Church. The Council of Antioch (269-270) wrote to the Pope that Paul of Samosate had suppressed some canticles recently composed in honour of Jesus Christ.

St. Dionysius of Alexandria composed some hymns, to win over an erring bishop. In the fourth century the Council of Laodicea spoke of the introduction of some hymns, which were not approved; and St. Basil tells us that hymns were in universal use in the Eastern Church.

In the Western Church, St. Hilary of Potiers (370) composed a hymn book for his church. Its existence is known from the words of St. Jerome. St.

Augustine states that St. Ambrose (340-397), shut up with his people in the church in Milan by the persecutors, occupied his flock by their singing of hymns which he himself had composed, and some of which are in our Breviaries. The Church of Milan certainly had hymns in its Office and in its Office books then, for St. Paulinus in his life of St.

Augustine wrote: "Hoc in tempore, primum antiphonae, hymni ac vigilae in Ecclesia Mediolanensi celebrari coeperunt; cujus celebritatis devotio usque in hodiernam diem, non solum, in Ecclesia Mediolanensi verum per omnes pene Occidentis provincias manet."

But the question arises, when did Rome introduce hymns into her liturgy?

The learned Jesuit, Father Arevalo, held that the Roman Office had hymns as an integral part from the time of St. Ambrose, and he called the opinion of those who held that they were of later introduction an inveterate error, _errorem inveteratum (Hymnodia Hispanica_ XVIII., n.

95). The introduction of antiphonal chanting was introduced into Rome at the time of St. Ambrose and liturgical hymn singing, too, was introduced about the same time. This we know from the Milanese priest Paulinus, St. Augustine, Pope Celestine I., and Faustus, Bishop of Riez.

But formal, official and systematic hymnody was not introduced in Rome until centuries after the death of St. Ambrose. Mabillon (Suppl. ad IV.

lib de div. off. Amalarii, t. 11) and Tomasi (In annot, ad Resp. et antip. Rom. Ecc.) place the date of the introduction of hymns into the Roman liturgy, in the eleventh or twelfth centuries. But scholars now agree that hymns were formally recognised in the liturgy of Rome in the latter half of the ninth century. "To judge of what Amalare of Metz says, there was no sign of it at the beginning of the ninth century, but from the middle of the same century onwards hymns must have been introduced into the Office used by the Churches of the Frankish empire, and shortly afterwards in Rome" (Baudot, _op. cit._, pp. 67-68). Wilfrid Strabo agrees with Amalare. Raba.n.u.s Maurus testifies that hymns were in general usage in the second part of the ninth century. (Migne, Pat. Lat.

clx. 159, cxiv. 956). This is the opinion of Gueranger, Pimont, Blume and Baumer.

Dom Gueranger explains why Rome, the mother and mistress of all the churches, did not adopt the practice of hymn chanting in her liturgy for centuries; why she did not precede or quickly follow the Eastern and many parts of the Western Church in this matter of liturgical hymns.

"The Church," he says, "did not wish to alter by religious songs the simplicity, or the meaning, of her great liturgical prayer. Nor did she wish to adopt quickly any innovation in her liturgy or discipline"

(_Inst. Liturg._ I. 1, pp. 170-171).

No part of the Church's liturgy has met with such persistent, abusive, and often ignorant criticism as her hymns have received.

The renaissance clerics, the Gallicans, the Jansenists, and the Protestants poured forth volumes of hostile and unmerited criticism on the matter and form of Rome's sacred songs. Becichemus, rector of the Academy of Pavia in the sixteenth century, in his introduction to the work of Ferreri, wrote of the hymns: "sunt omnes fere mendosi, inepti, barbarie refecti, nulla pedum ratione nullo syllabarum mensu compositi.... Ut ad risum eruditos concinent, et ad contemptum ecclesiastici ritus vel literatos sacerdotes inducant.... Literatos dixi: nam ceteri qui sunt sacri patrimonii h.e.l.luones, sine scientia, sine sapientia, satis habent, ut dracones stare juxta arcam Domini." The remarks of the rector recall the saying of Lactantius, "literati non habent fidem." Ferreri, who had been commissioned by Pope Clement to revise and correct the Breviary hymns, wrote in his dedication epistle: "I have given all my care to this collection of new hymns, because learned priests and friends of good Latinity who are now obliged to praise G.o.d in a barbarous style, are exposed to laugh and to despise holy things." Santeuil (1630-1697) characterised the Breviary hymns as the product of ignorance, the disgrace of the Latin language, the disreputable relics of the early ages, the result of lunacy.