The Holy Name

The feast of the Holy Name of Jesus is a Double of the Second Class and its liturgical colour is white. The feast was granted to the Franciscan Order in 1530 to be kept on 14th January. In 1721 the feast was extended to the Universal Calendar to be kept on the second Sunday after the Epiphany. Following the 1911-13 reform this feast takes the place of the second 'vacant' Sunday after the Nativity or, when no Sunday falls between the Circumcision and the Epiphany, it is kept on January 2nd. In the Sarum Rite the feast was kept on August 7th and that date still appears in the Calendar of the Book of Common Prayer. The Office of the feast begins with Mattins.

Yesterday afternoon second Vespers of the feast of the Circumcision were sung. The antiphons O admirabile commercium were sung, doubled, with the same psalms 109, 112, 121, 126 & 147). The Office hymn was Jesu, redemptor omnium. After the collect of the feast there were no commemorations. At Compline Te lucis was sung with the Doxology and melody of the Incarnation and the Dominical preces were omitted.

At Mattins the invitatory is Admirabile nomen Jesu etc and the Office hymn is Jesu, Rex admirabilis etc. In the first nocturn the antiphons Domine, Dominus noster etc are sung, doubled, with psalms 8, 18 & 23 and the lessons are from the Acts of the Apostles. In the second nocturn the antiphons Memores erunt etc are sung, doubled, with psalms 44, 45 & 86 and lessons are taken from a sermon of St. Bernard. In the third nocturn the antiphons Cantate Domino etc are sung, doubled. with psalms 95, 96 & 97. The homily is also from St. Bernard. The Te Deum is sung. At Lauds the antiphons are again proper, Oleum effusum etc sung, doubled, with psalms 92, 99, 62, Benedicite and 148. The Office hymn is Jesu, decus angelicum. After the collect of the feast a commemoration is sung of the Octave Day of St. Stephen the Protomartyr.

At the Hours the antiphons from Lauds are sung in the usual order with the festal psalms. The Doxologies of the hymns at the Little Hours are changed in honour of the Incarnation, Jesu, tibi sit gloria etc. At Prime (Pss. 53, 118i & 118ii) the short lesson is proper, Omne quodcumque.

The Mass is proper, In nomine Jesu. The Gloria is sung. In said Masses the second collect is of the Octave Day of St. Stephen the Protomartyr. The Creed is sung and the preface is of the Nativity.

At second Vespers the antiphons Omnis qui invocaverit etc are again sung, doubled, with Psalms 109, 110, 111, 112 and 115. The Office hymn is Jesu, dulcis memoria. No commemorations are sung. At Compline Te lucis is sung with the Doxology and melody of the Incarnation and the Dominical preces are omitted.

In the 'liturgical books of 1962' the co-title 'Circumcision' has been dropped although the texts remain the same. At Compline and at the Hours the hymns do not have their Doxologies changed. The Octave of St. Stephen, or at least what little had remained of it, has been abolished. At the Hours the antiphons and psalms are from the Sunday Office, not of the feast (at Prime Pss. 117, 118i & 118ii) and the short lesson at Prime is from the season, Ipsi peribunt). At Mass there is a single collect.

Art: Jastrow, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons