St. Bartholomew the Apostle 24th August

This Sunday the traditional Roman rite celebrates the feast of St. Bartholomew as a Double of the Second Class which outranks the semi-double Sunday liturgy.

Some words of John Eppstein, written some thirty-seven years ago, seem pertinent:

"The process of reducing the number of saints' days, and in particular of the festivals which could replace Sundays, had started before the Council [notably by the reforms of Pius X and John XXIII] and now the Catholic Church has swung from one extreme - the excess of feast days - to the other which, for the ordinary Sunday churchgoer means their virtual exclusion. To take a striking example; until a few years ago, during the summer holidays one often came upon a Sunday Mass celebrated with red vestments because it was the feast of an apostle, such as St. James, or St. Matthew or St. Bartholomew, instead of the invariable green. Nowadays, except for the tiny minority attending weekday Masses, no practising Catholic ever assists at the Mass of any apostle throughout the year, with the solitary exception of SS Peter and Paul, where their feast is a holyday of obligation."

Eppstein, J., Has the Catholic Church Gone Mad?, Tom Stacey Ltd, 1971, pp 56-7


At Mattins there are nine lessons, the ninth is of the occurring XV Sunday after Pentecost. In best practice this ninth lesson is made of the seventh, eighth and ninth of the Sunday but, the minimum requirement is that just the seventh lesson of the Sunday be used as the ninth of the day.

At Lauds there is a commemoration of the Sunday. At the Hours the solemn tone for the hymns is used, there are no preces at Prime. At Mass, in red vestments, the Gloria and Creed are sung and the preface of Apostles, the Sunday is also commemorated and its Gospel read in place of In principio as a 'proper last Gospel'.

Vespers are of the feast with a commemoration of the following day's feast, St. Louis of France, and a commemoration of the Sunday. There are no preces at Compline.

In the denuded 1962 rite St. Bartholmew is reduced to a mere commemoration and Eppstein's 'invariable green' used for yet another Sunday.