St. Pius V

Today is the fast of St. Pius V the energetic sixteenth century pope perhaps most famous for the Missal and Breviary he promulgated. Today is also the seventh day in the Octave of the Solemnity of St. Joseph Patron of the Universal Church.

The feast is of double rite. As noted in yesterday's post Vespers was 'from the chapter of the following' i.e. of St. Pius V. If one was using the Breviary Pius V had promulgated in 1568 with the bull Quod a nobis this would have meant (applying the rules to the current Kalendar) that the antiphons and psalms at Vespers would have been from the Common of Non-Virgins, i.e. St. Monica's Office, with the first antiphon Dum esset Rex etc and the first psalm 109 sung to tone 3a. The other antiphons and psalms would have been from the common. The chapter would have been Ecce sacerdos magnus and the rest from the Common of a Confessor Bishop. However, using the breviary promulgated after the 1911-13 reform whilst the 'from the chapter' rule for concurrence is maintained it loses its meaning somewhat as instead of the antiphons and psalms coming from the common they are taken from the ferial psalter hence the antiphons and psalms of Monday were used; i.e. the antiphon Alleluia and psalm 114 sung to tone 1g2. Now the point I am trying to make is that under the new arrangement the 'from the chapter of the following' is rather meaningless as first Vespers of St. Pius V would use exactly the same psalmody with the post 1913 rules. In 'Ordo speak' V a cap seq, com praec now equates to V seq, com praec.

Mattins, of course, has three nocturns. In the first nocturn lessons are from the book of the Apocalypse that was began yesterday. The second nocturn has the usual historical lessons and the third nocturn a homily of St. Gregory the Great on St. Matthew's Gospel. At Lauds a commemoration of the Octave is made. At Prime the first announcement in the Martyrology is of tomorrow's Octave Day of the Solemnity of St. Joseph. Hymns of Iambic metre of course have the Paschaltide Doxology.

Mass follows Terce. The Mass formulary is Statuit ei Dominus and the Gospel of the talents. The Gloria is sung, the second collect is of the Octave, the Credo is sung and the preface that of St. Joseph.

Vespers is first Vespers of the following Octave Day of St. Joseph with a commemoration of St. Pius V and St. John before the Latin Gate.

In the 'liturgical books' of 1962 St. Pius V has had the usual treatment and cut down to a third class feast with just one nocturn of three lessons and has no Gospel. No commemoration is made at Lauds. The hymns of the Little Hours do not have the Paschaltide Doxology. The Mass texts are all different except the collect. This is not actually a 1962 change but reflects a decree of the SRC in 1942 that made sweeping changes to about twenty-five days in the liturgical year. Popes were given their own proper with the effect that many ancient texts, e.g. such as Juravit unique to the feast of St. Gregory on March 12th, were simply swept aside. Change for the sake of change does appear to be very much a characteristic of that period. In the 1962 mass then the texts will be different, there is no Octave to commemorate, no Creed and the preface is the common one. Vespers will be of the feast without any commemorations.

One does rather wonder what St. Pius V would make of the many changes made to the Missal and Breviary he promulgated?