The feast of All Saints is a double of the first class with an octave. The feast developed from the dedication of the Pantheon to St. Mary and the Martyrs. This dedication took place on May 13th 610. In some places, and the in Byzantine East to this day, a celebration of All Saints took place after Trinity. The celebration of the feast spread and Gregory IV transferred the feast and dedication to November 1st in 835. Louis the Pious spread the celebration throughout his empire and the feast entered the Universal Calendar. Sixtus IV gave the feast an octave in the fifteenth century.
At Mattins the invitatory and hymn are proper, the antiphons and psalms taken from the Office of Martyrs, the lessons in the first nocturn are taken from the book of the Apocalypse. In the second nocturn the lessons are taken from a sermon of the Venerable Bede. In the third nocturn the homily on the Gospel is from St. Augustine. The ninth lesson is from the homily for the Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost.
At Lauds the antiphons are those used at Vespers and the Sunday psalms are sung. A commmeoration of the Sunday is sung.
Prime has the festal psalms (53, 118i, 118ii) and the lectio brevis is proper, Benedictio et claritas.
Mass is sung after Terce. The Asperges is sung, it being Sunday. The Mass has the Gloria and a commemoration of the Sunday. The Creed is sung and the preface is that of Blessed Trinity as the Sunday is commemorated. The last Gospel is of the Sunday, not In principio.
At second Vespers the psalms are those used for Apostles but the fifth psalm is Ps. 115, Credidi. A commemoration of the Sunday is sung. After Benedicamus Domino the verse Fidelium is omitted and the choirs sits as the festive dressing of the altar is removed and the liturgical mood swings from joy to deepest mourning. Vespers of the Dead are then sung.
In the 'liturgical books of 1962' most of the rite remains as it was. However, there is no ninth lesson at Mattins. At Mass there is no proper last Gospel. Vespers of All Saints are sung but not Vespers of the Dead as they, rather strangely, get treated as Vespers of All Soul's Day.
Rubricarius,
ReplyDeleteWhat is your opinion of the Gallican prefaces?
At the Mass I attended, the Sunday was commemorated, but the Common Preface was used - which struck me as odd, since it was a Sunday. The Last Gospel was In principium...
ReplyDeleteScott,
ReplyDeleteI prefer the prefaces in the Missal of Robert of Jumieges (see the Henry Bradshaw Society for a reprint). There are more of them and I like the quality. I don't like the Gallican preface of the Holy Eucharist. Call me biased but a person of great influence on my liturgical thinking, the late Mgr. Canon Alfred Newman Gilbey R.I.P., made the point that the Nativity and Corpus Christi were both about the Incarnation.
Tom,
Yes, very odd indeed!