22 November 2014

XXIV And Last Sunday After Pentecost 1862

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Let's start our 1862/3 Catholic year today, with the coming week's Ordo for the dioceses of England and Wales, the last week of 1861/62.  (The Scottish hierarchy not yet having been restored, the supplements to the calendar used in the diocese of Rome are used there (as well as "in Australia and other places" as one missal puts it), and there are no particular diocesan feasts, as there are no dioceses, but simply districts administered by Vicars Apostolic.)

23 SUNDAY. 24th and last after Pentecost. St Clement, Pope Martyr, double.  2nd prayers and Last Gospel of Sunday.  3rd prayers of St Felicity, Martyr. Red. Vespers: 2nd of St Clement to the little Chapter, thence forward of tomorrow's feast of St John of the Cross (in the hymn Meruit supremos); commemoration of St Clement and of St Chyrsogonous, martyr. White.

24 Monday. St John of the Cross, Confessor, double. 2nd prayers of St Chrysogonous, Martyr. White.

25 Tuesday. St Catherine, Virgin Martyr, double. Red.

26 Wednesday. St Felix of Valois, Confessor, double. 2nd prayers of St Peter of Alexandria, Bishop, Martyr. White.

27 Thursday. St Gregory Thaumaturgus, Bishop, Confessor, double.  White.

28 Friday. Feria. 2nd prayers for the Dead (Fidelium). 3rd prayers A cunctis. Green. Abstinence. [In the diocese of Nottingham, St Wencelaus, Martyr, semidouble (transferred from 28 September). 2nd prayers A cunctis. 3rd prayers free choice of priest. Red.]

29 Saturday. Vigil of feast of St Andrew. 2nd prayers of St Saturninus, Martyr. 3rd prayers Concede. Violet. [In the diocese of Nottingham, add 4th prayers for the Dead (Fidelium) and 5th prayers free choice of priest.]

The last week of the year is relatively straightforward. The feast of St Clement outranks the last Sunday after Pentecost and the feast of St Felicity, so takes priority, though the prayers proper to all three are, of course, said.  Sunday Vespers, a normal part of life in most parishes, starts off as Vespers of the feast of St Clement but changes half way through to ensure that Monday's feast of St John of the Cross is suitably honoured, though St Clement, and Monday's secondary feast are also commemorated. The week progresses quietly except that on Friday, the diocese of Nottingham finally has a free day to celebrate St Wenceslaus, which should have been celebrated on 28 September. In fact 28 September fell on a Sunday and was the feast of the Seven Sorrows of the BVM, so St Wenceslaus had to be transferred to 7 October in most dioceses, but Nottingham celebrated the feast of the Finding of St Stephen Protomartyr, which had been transferred from 2 September, on which date in Nottingham the feast of St Aidan was celebrated, itself transferred from 31 August, and which was marked in Nottingham as the Anniversary of the Dedication of the Cathedral, a double of the first class with an Octave.

Friday being a feria, priests were at liberty to offer any votive Mass they might choose, but the second and third prayers (ie each of the Collect, Secret and Postcommunion) were to be taken from "Prayers of the Time": here we find A cunctis, to pray for the Church and the Pope, Fidelium, to pray for the dead.  At some point during the year we will explore the plan for their use. (Two of these are hidden in my post-Summorum Pontificum Baronius 1962 hand missal between the 24th Sunday after Pentecost and the Gallican Prefaces, while the rest are nowhere. Equally surprising (to me) is that the propers for Vespers for every Sunday is included.)

The prayers of free choice would be taken from the section of the Missal called "Various Prayers" which range from begging the prayers of the Saints, through prayers in time of famine, of earthquake or of storm, to prayers for our enemies, amongst many more (there are 30 in my 1895 missal, and 33 in 1939: we might at some point do an interesting compare and contrast on what 19th and 20th century missalists thought the intention associated with these prayers was).  Friday is also a day of abstinence from meat (and this includes eggs: meat's way of making more meat).

At St Mary Magdalene in Brighton, the Rev George Oldham said Low Mass at 8.30 on Sundays, and had High Mass at 11.  There was Catechism and Benediction at 3.00 pm, and Devotions, Sermon and Benediction at 7.00.  Mass was said at 8.00 am on weekdays, and there was Benediction at 7.00 pm on Thursdays.  Confessions were on Wednesdays from 12.00 to 1.00, and Thursdays and Saturdays from 7.00 to 9.00 pm.

(Please let me know if there is a parish whose schedule you would be interested in, though bear in mind that the amount of detail will be that which the contemporary PP could be bothered to supply to Messrs Burns and Lambert.)
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3 comments:

Rubricarius said...

'V a cap seq, com praec' used to be a very common phrase of Ordo-speak. Post-1913 although still used it was relatively meaningless except in a couple of rare occurrences. I could never understand the reason for altering the rules around Fidelium either - which came slightly later than 1913 in the decade following whereby Fidelium was added to the prayers of a ferial day but had to be in penultimate place. Its use on simple feasts was abolished. What was that supposed to achieve I wonder?

Ttony said...

I'll leave Vespers to you :-). I can say how it was celebrated on Sundays in parishes in 1862/3, but not why. I must admit though, that I like the way Sunday Vespers can join two days, in a manner analogous to Sunday being both Sunday and a feast.

There is a structure around Common Commemorations that I haven't got clear yet: for example, in your period (Pius XI)A Cunctis is a second prayer except from the Purification till Lent and on the Sundays after Pentecost, when it is a third prayer. I had thought that this was an ancient usage, but my 1940 O'Connell simply has a table showing which of the eight can be said when, and when they come second and when third. The "why" is beyond me at present, but I wonder if it is another sweeping-up post the Pius X reforms. It is a pity he didn't write an exculpatory Bugnini-like lengthy Apologia explaining why he did what he did.

But this is good fun!

Rubricarius said...

Like you I much prefer the older praxis whereby one can have the psalms of one day's Vespers with 'from the chapter' of the following. Many years ago (1990s) I was involved with a small group trying to sing the Hours at Maiden Lane on Saturdays. Frankly, it was rather boring to almost always have the ferial psalmody to the same tones. It was only then I started to realise how much more interesting the former praxis was - despite the given 'script' that it was all so terrible to have the same psalms. At least the tone varied depending on whether martyrs, confessors etc were celebrated.

With the 'common commemorations' aka prayers of the season bear in mind that if, for example, a simple feast is commemorated on a semi-double only the first common commemoration is made: so if A cunctis is the first prescribed common commemoration it will be the third collect on such a day. If two simple feasts are commemorated then the common commemorations are omitted in this scenario. In strictly private Masses on simple and ferial days the number of collects could go up, at the choice of the celebrant but alway in that case the total number could be three, five or seven, never two, four or six. As far as I can tell the principle of odd numbers does seem to be ancient and, I believe, the case before Trent.