Vigil of All Saints

The Vigil of All Saints is of simple rite and the liturgical colour is violet. As with simple rite Vigils the Office runs from Mattins to None.

At Mattins the inivitatory, hymn, antiphons, psalms, versicle and response are from the Psalter for Wednesday. The lessons in the nocturn are a homily of St. Ambrose from the Common of Several Martyrs. The responsories are from the Wednesday of the fifth week of October. The Te Deum is not sung. The second scheme of Lauds for Wednesday is sung. After the antiphon on the Benedictus has been repeated the ferial preces are sung, with the choir kneeling. After the collect of the Vigil the Suffrage of the Saints is omitted.

At Prime the psalm displaced from Lauds by the Miserere is added to the psalmody of the day: Pss. 25, 51, 52 & 96. Both the Dominical and ferial preces are sung, the choir kneeling. At the other Horae Minores the short series of ferial preces are sung, again with the choir kneeling, before the collect of the Vigil.

Mass is sung after None. Following the normal rules for Vigils four candles are placed on the altar, in contrast with two on ordinary ferial days. The deacon and sub-deacon wear violet dalmatic and tunicle, not folded chasubles. The ferial tone is used for the orations and for the preface and Pater noster. There is no Gloria. The second collect is of the Holy Ghost, Deus,qui corda, the third collect Ecclesiae. As it is a 'kneeling day' the choir kneels for the prayers and from the Sanctus until Pax Domini. As the Gloria is not sung the dismissal is Benedicamus Domino.

Vespers are first Vespers of All Saints with a corresponding colour change to festive white. The Office is proper and the antiphons Vidi turbam magnam etc are sung with Pss. 109, 110, 111, 112 and 116 (Note following the 1911 re-ordering of the Psalterium Ps. 116 is both a Lauds psalm and Vesper psalm today, before the reform it was only used at Vespers). The hymn is Placare, Christe, servulis. At Compline the Dominical psalms are sung.

In the ancient rite found in the 'liturgical books of 1962' the Vigil of All Saints has been abolished. Today is kept as a IV class ferial 'green' day. Mass is of Pentecost XXII, there is a single collect. Although the Gloria is not sungIte, missa est is the dismissal.