Ranking of liturgical days in the Roman Rite
Encyclopedia
Ranking of liturgical days in the Roman Rite serves two purposes. The rank indicates some particular points about the manner of celebrating the day: for instance, the Mass of a Solemnity will include recitation of Gloria in Excelsis and Creed
, that of what is now called in a specific technical sense a Feast will have Gloria but not Creed. and a Memorial will have neither. The other purpose is to determine which Mass is to be said when two feasts coincide (or "occur") on the one day, as well as when a feast falls on a Sunday or certain other privileged days.
Each day in the Catholic liturgical calendar has a rank. The five basic ranks are as follows:
What the original meaning of the term "double" may have been is not entirely certain. Some think that the greater festivals were thus styled because the antiphons before and after the psalms were "doubled", i.e. twice repeated entire on these days. Others, with more probability, point to the fact that before the ninth century in certain places, for example at Rome, it was customary on the greater feast days to recite two sets of Matins, the one of the feria or week-day, the other of the festival. Hence such days were known as "doubles".
The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1907 shows the incremental crowding of the calendar with the following table based on the official revisions of the Roman Breviary in 1568, 1602, 1631 and 1882, and on the situation in 1907.
In 1907, when, in accordance with the rules in force since the time of Pope Pius V
, feast days of any form of double, if impeded by "occurrence" (falling on the same day) with a feast day of higher class, were transferred to another day, this classification of feast days was of great practical importance for deciding which feast day to celebrate on any particular day. Pope Pius X
simplified matters considerably in his 1911 reform of the Roman Breviary. In the case of occurrence the lower-ranking feast day could become a commemoration
within the celebration of the higher-ranking one. Further retouches were made by Pope Pius XII
in 1955, Pope John XXIII
in 1962, and Pope Paul VI
in 1969.
On ferias and many feast days of simple rank, the celebrant was permitted to substitute a Mass of his own choice such as a votive Mass, or a Mass for the dead.
Before the reform of Pope St Pius X in 1911, ordinary Doubles took precedence over most of the semidouble Sundays, resulting in many of the Sunday Masses rarely being said. While retaining the semidouble rite for Sundays, the reform permitted only the most important feast days to be celebrated on Sunday, although commemorations were still made until the reform of 1960.
The division into doubles (of various kinds) semidoubles and simples continued until 1955, when Pope Pius XII
abolished the rank of semidouble, making all the previous semidoubles simples, and reducing the previous simples to a mere commemoration in the Mass of another feast day or of the feria on which they fell.
Then, in 1960, Pope John XXIII
completely ended the ranking of feast days by doubles etc., replacing it by a ranking, applied not only to feast days but to all liturgical days, as I, II, III, and IV class days.
The 1969 revision by Pope Paul VI
divided feast days into "solemnities", "feasts" and "memorials", corresponding approximately to Pope John XXIII's I, II and III class feast days. Commemorations were abolished both as a rank of liturgical day and as the addition of a second presidential prayers after the day's Collect, Prayer over the Offerings, and Prayer after Communion at Mass.. While some of the memorials are considered obligatory, others are optional, permitting a choice on some days between two or three memorials, or between one or more memorials and the celebration of the feria. On a day to which no obligatory celebration is assigned, the Mass may be of any saint mentioned in the Roman Martyrology
for that day. This allows priests more flexibility in their celebration of mass, since they are now permitted to choose between the memorial masses of saints on most days of the year. Before the reforms there was always only one memorial and one text for mass per day, with lesser saints' days being merely commemorated, their own separate masses having frequently fallen into disuse and only the collect, secret and postcommunion remaining in the missal.
The developments in the ranking of feasts according to the Roman Breviary's calendar can be summarised thus:
divided Sundays into two classes. Sundays of the I class were the four of Advent, the four of Lent, the two of Passiontide, Easter Sunday, Low Sunday, and Pentecost. No feast whatsoever could replace the celebration of these Sundays, with the sole exception of the feast of the Immaculate Conception. All other Sundays were of II class, and outranked feasts of II class, with the exception that feasts of the Lord, whether I or II class, replaced celebration of a II class Sunday on which they happened to fall.
The 1955 reform of Pope Pius XII did not have this division of Sundays into classes. Instead it laid down that the Sundays of Advent and Lent and those that follow up to Low Sunday, and also Pentecost Sunday, are celebrated as doubles of the first class, and outrank all feasts; but when feasts of the first class occur on the second, third or fourth Sunday of Advent, masses of the Feast are permitted. Sundays previously celebrated in the semi-double rite were raised to the double rite. A feast of our Lord occurring on a Sunday per annum was to take the place of the Sunday.
Before that, ferias were either "major" or "minor". The major, which must have at least a commemoration, even on the highest feasts, were those of Advent and Lent, the Ember days, and the Monday of Rogation week; the others were called minor. Of the major ferias Ash Wednesday and the days of Holy Week were privileged, so that their office must be taken, no matter what feast might occur.
Ember days are four separate sets of three days within the same week — specifically, the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday — roughly equidistant in the circuit of the year, that were formerly set aside for fasting and prayer. These days set apart for special prayer and fasting were considered especially suitable for the ordination of clergy. The Ember Days are known in Latin as quatuor tempora (the "four seasons"), or jejunia quatuor temporum ("fasts of the four seasons"). They occur in the weeks between the third and fourth Sundays of Advent, between the first and second Sundays of Lent, between Pentecost and Trinity Sunday, and beginning the first Wednesday after the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (September 14), which is between the liturgical third and fourth Sundays of September.
Rogation Days are, in the calendar of the Western Church, four days traditionally set apart for solemn processions to invoke God's mercy. They are April 25, the Major Rogation (or Greater Litanies), coinciding with St. Mark's Day (but transferred to the following Tuesday if they fell on Easter); and the three days preceding Ascension Thursday, the Minor Rogations (or Lesser Litanies). These are indicated below in the main body of the calendar and in the Movable Feasts section.
the vigils of Christmas, the Epiphany, and Pentecost were called "major vigils"; the rest were "minor" or "common" vigils In early times, every feast had a vigil, but the increase in the number of feasts and abuses connected with the evening and night service of which the vigils originally consisted, led to their diminishment. Nevertheless, the Roman Rite
kept many more vigils than other Latin liturgical rites
such as the Ambrosian Rite
and the Mozarabic Rite
, and if they fell on a Sunday transferred them to the previous Saturday. Most feasts of the Apostles had Vigils. The Vigil of St. Matthias was unique, in that it was normally commemorated on 23 February, the feast of St. Peter Damian, but in leap year, was kept on 24 February, the leap day of the Roman calendar
.
Pope Pius XII
divided Vigils into only two classes: "privileged vigils" (Christmas and Pentecost) and "common vigils" (Ascension of Our Lord, Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Baptist, Saints Peter and Paul, Saint Lawrence). All others, even in local calendars were suppressed.
In Pope John XXIII' s 1960 Code or Rubrics, Vigils were divided into three classes. The Easter Vigil was left out of the calculations, being celebrated in a different way from that of other Vigils. The Vigils of Christmas and Pentecost were of the I class, and took precedence over any feast. The II class Vigils were those of the Ascension of Our Lord, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Baptist, and Saints Peter and Paul; they took precedence over liturgical days of III or IV class. There was only one III class Vigil, that of Saint Lawrence, which had precedence only over IV class liturgical days.
had many octaves
, without any indication in the calendar itself of distinction of rank between them, apart from the fact that the Octave Day (the final day of the octave) was ranked higher than the days within the octave. Several octaves overlapped, so that , for instance, on 29 December the prayer of the saint of the day, Saint Thomas Becket
, was followed by the prayers of Christmas Day, of Saint Stephen
, of Saint John the Evangelist
and of the Holy Innocents. The situation remained such until the reform of Pope Pius X
.
To cut down on the monotony of repeating the same prayers in Mass and Office every day for eight days, Pope Pius X classified the octaves as "privileged", "common" or "simple"
The privileged octaves were of three "ranks". The first rank belonged to Easter and Pentecost (permitting no feast to be celebrated during them, or even to be commemorated until Tuesday Vespers), the second to Epiphany and Corpus Christi (the Octave Day ranked as a Greater Double, the days within the octave as semidoubles, giving way only to Doubles of the I Class, and on the Octave day itself only to a Double of the I class which was celebrated in the entire Church), the third rank to Christmas, the Ascension, and the Sacred Heart (these gave way to any feast above the level of Simple).
The common octaves were those of the Immaculate Conception, the Assumption, the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, the Solemnity of St. Joseph, Saints Peter and Paul, and All Saints, as well as, locally, the principal patron saint of a church, cathedral, order, town, diocese, province, or nation. These too gave way to any feast above the level of Simple. the difference between them and privileged octaves of third rank concerned which Psalms were said in the Divine Office
.
The simple octaves were those of Saint Stephen
, Saint John the Evangelist
, the Holy Innocents, Saint Lawrence, the Nativity of Mary and, locally, secondary patrons. These were all Doubles of the II class, their Octave day was a Simple and, in contrast to the situation before Pope Pius X, their Mass was not repeated on the days within the octave.
In Pope Pius XII's reform, only the octaves of Christmas, Easter and Pentecost were kept. The days within the Easter and Pentecost octaves were raised to double rite, had precedence over all feasts, and did not admit commemorations.
Creed
A creed is a statement of belief—usually a statement of faith that describes the beliefs shared by a religious community—and is often recited as part of a religious service. When the statement of faith is longer and polemical, as well as didactic, it is not called a creed but a Confession of faith...
, that of what is now called in a specific technical sense a Feast will have Gloria but not Creed. and a Memorial will have neither. The other purpose is to determine which Mass is to be said when two feasts coincide (or "occur") on the one day, as well as when a feast falls on a Sunday or certain other privileged days.
Each day in the Catholic liturgical calendar has a rank. The five basic ranks are as follows:
- SolemnitySolemnityA Solemnity of the Roman Catholic Church is a principal holy day in the liturgical calendar, usually commemorating an event in the life of Jesus, his mother Mary, or other important saints. The observance begins with the vigil on the evening before the actual date of the feast...
—the highest ranking feast day. It commemorates an event in the life of Jesus or Mary or celebrates a saint important for the Church as a whole or for the local community. The Mass of a solemnity has proper readings, and the Gloria and Creed are recited. Outside of Advent, Lent and Eastertide, if a solemnity falls on a Sunday, it is celebrated in place of the Sunday.
- Feast—the rank of secondary liturgical days including lesser events in the life of Jesus, Mary or an Apostle (theologically speaking) or for major saints.
- Memorial—the commemoration of a saint of lesser importance. Many memorials are optional or only observed in specific dioceses, regions or nations.
- Seasonal Weekday—a weekday in a "strong" liturgical season (Advent, Christmas Season, Lent, Easter Season) on which no solemnity, feast, or memorial is observed.
- FeriaFeriaA feria was a day on which the people, especially the slaves, were not obliged to work, and on which there were no court sessions...
or Ferial Weekday—a weekday in ordinary time on which no solemnity, feast or memorial is observed.
Feast days
The ranking of feast days of saints and of Christian mysteries such as the Ascension of the Lord, which had grown from an original division between doubles and simples developed into a more complicated hierarchy of Simple, Semidouble, and Double, with feast days of the Double Rite further divided into Double of the I Class, Double of the II Class, Greater Double or Major Double, and Double, in order of descending rank.What the original meaning of the term "double" may have been is not entirely certain. Some think that the greater festivals were thus styled because the antiphons before and after the psalms were "doubled", i.e. twice repeated entire on these days. Others, with more probability, point to the fact that before the ninth century in certain places, for example at Rome, it was customary on the greater feast days to recite two sets of Matins, the one of the feria or week-day, the other of the festival. Hence such days were known as "doubles".
The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1907 shows the incremental crowding of the calendar with the following table based on the official revisions of the Roman Breviary in 1568, 1602, 1631 and 1882, and on the situation in 1907.
| Pope | Date | |Doubles, II Class | |Doubles | |Total | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pius V | 1568 | 19 | 17 | 0 | 53 | 60 | 149 |
| Clement VIII | 1602 | 19 | 18 | 16 | 43 | 68 | 164 |
| Urban VIII | 1631 | 19 | 18 | 16 | 45 | 78 | 176 |
| Leo XIII | 1882 | 21 | 18 | 24 | 128 | 74 | 275 |
| - | 1907 | 23 | 27 | 25 | 133 | 72 | 280 |
In 1907, when, in accordance with the rules in force since the time of Pope Pius V
Pope Pius V
Pope Saint Pius V , born Antonio Ghislieri , was Pope from 1566 to 1572 and is a saint of the Catholic Church. He is chiefly notable for his role in the Council of Trent, the Counter-Reformation, and the standardization of the Roman liturgy within the Latin Church...
, feast days of any form of double, if impeded by "occurrence" (falling on the same day) with a feast day of higher class, were transferred to another day, this classification of feast days was of great practical importance for deciding which feast day to celebrate on any particular day. Pope Pius X
Pope Pius X
Pope Saint Pius X , born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, was the 257th Pope of the Catholic Church, serving from 1903 to 1914. He was the first pope since Pope Pius V to be canonized. Pius X rejected modernist interpretations of Catholic doctrine, promoting traditional devotional practices and orthodox...
simplified matters considerably in his 1911 reform of the Roman Breviary. In the case of occurrence the lower-ranking feast day could become a commemoration
Commemoration (prayer)
In the Roman Rite, when a higher-ranked liturgical celebration impedes the celebration of a lesser one that, either permanently or by coincidence, falls on the same day, the prayer of the lower-ranked celebration is usually added to that of the higher...
within the celebration of the higher-ranking one. Further retouches were made by Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII
The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
in 1955, Pope John XXIII
Pope John XXIII
-Papal election:Following the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958, Roncalli was elected Pope, to his great surprise. He had even arrived in the Vatican with a return train ticket to Venice. Many had considered Giovanni Battista Montini, Archbishop of Milan, a possible candidate, but, although archbishop...
in 1962, and Pope Paul VI
Pope Paul VI
Paul VI , born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding Pope John XXIII, who had convened the Second Vatican Council, he decided to continue it...
in 1969.
On ferias and many feast days of simple rank, the celebrant was permitted to substitute a Mass of his own choice such as a votive Mass, or a Mass for the dead.
Before the reform of Pope St Pius X in 1911, ordinary Doubles took precedence over most of the semidouble Sundays, resulting in many of the Sunday Masses rarely being said. While retaining the semidouble rite for Sundays, the reform permitted only the most important feast days to be celebrated on Sunday, although commemorations were still made until the reform of 1960.
The division into doubles (of various kinds) semidoubles and simples continued until 1955, when Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII
The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
abolished the rank of semidouble, making all the previous semidoubles simples, and reducing the previous simples to a mere commemoration in the Mass of another feast day or of the feria on which they fell.
Then, in 1960, Pope John XXIII
Pope John XXIII
-Papal election:Following the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958, Roncalli was elected Pope, to his great surprise. He had even arrived in the Vatican with a return train ticket to Venice. Many had considered Giovanni Battista Montini, Archbishop of Milan, a possible candidate, but, although archbishop...
completely ended the ranking of feast days by doubles etc., replacing it by a ranking, applied not only to feast days but to all liturgical days, as I, II, III, and IV class days.
The 1969 revision by Pope Paul VI
Pope Paul VI
Paul VI , born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding Pope John XXIII, who had convened the Second Vatican Council, he decided to continue it...
divided feast days into "solemnities", "feasts" and "memorials", corresponding approximately to Pope John XXIII's I, II and III class feast days. Commemorations were abolished both as a rank of liturgical day and as the addition of a second presidential prayers after the day's Collect, Prayer over the Offerings, and Prayer after Communion at Mass.. While some of the memorials are considered obligatory, others are optional, permitting a choice on some days between two or three memorials, or between one or more memorials and the celebration of the feria. On a day to which no obligatory celebration is assigned, the Mass may be of any saint mentioned in the Roman Martyrology
Roman Martyrology
The Roman Martyrology is the official martyrology of the Roman Rite of the Roman Catholic Church. It provides an extensive but not exhaustive list of the saints recognized by the Church.-History:...
for that day. This allows priests more flexibility in their celebration of mass, since they are now permitted to choose between the memorial masses of saints on most days of the year. Before the reforms there was always only one memorial and one text for mass per day, with lesser saints' days being merely commemorated, their own separate masses having frequently fallen into disuse and only the collect, secret and postcommunion remaining in the missal.
The developments in the ranking of feasts according to the Roman Breviary's calendar can be summarised thus:
| Pope | - | Antiquity | Doubles | Simples | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | 13th century | Doubles | Semidoubles | Simples | ||||
| Pius V | 1568 | Doubles, I Class | Doubles, II Class | Doubles | Semidoubles | Simples | ||
| Clement Vlll | 1602 | Doubles, I Class | Doubles, II Class | Greater Doubles | Doubles | Semidoubles | Simples | |
| Pius XII | 1955 | Doubles, I Class | Doubles, II Class | Greater Doubles | Doubles | Simples | Commemorations | |
| John XXIII | 1960 | I Class | II Class | III Class | Commemorations | |||
| Paul VI | 1969 | Solemnities | Feasts | Memorials and Optional Memorials | Ferias | |||
Sundays
Pope John XXIII's Code of RubricsCode of Rubrics
The Code of Rubrics is a three-part liturgical document promulgated in 1960 under Pope John XXIII, which in the form of a legal code indicated the rules governing the celebration of the Roman Rite Mass and Divine Office....
divided Sundays into two classes. Sundays of the I class were the four of Advent, the four of Lent, the two of Passiontide, Easter Sunday, Low Sunday, and Pentecost. No feast whatsoever could replace the celebration of these Sundays, with the sole exception of the feast of the Immaculate Conception. All other Sundays were of II class, and outranked feasts of II class, with the exception that feasts of the Lord, whether I or II class, replaced celebration of a II class Sunday on which they happened to fall.
The 1955 reform of Pope Pius XII did not have this division of Sundays into classes. Instead it laid down that the Sundays of Advent and Lent and those that follow up to Low Sunday, and also Pentecost Sunday, are celebrated as doubles of the first class, and outrank all feasts; but when feasts of the first class occur on the second, third or fourth Sunday of Advent, masses of the Feast are permitted. Sundays previously celebrated in the semi-double rite were raised to the double rite. A feast of our Lord occurring on a Sunday per annum was to take the place of the Sunday.
Ferias
In addition to his division of festal days and Sundays, Pope John XXIII introduced a division of ferias into four classes:- First-class ferias, outranking all feasts: Ash Wednesday and all the weekdays of Holy Week.
- Second-class ferias, outranking local second-class feasts: ferias of Advent from 17 December to 23 December, and Ember DaysEmber daysIn the liturgical calendar of the Western Christian churches, Ember days are four separate sets of three days within the same week — specifically, the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday — roughly equidistant in the circuit of the year, that were formerly set aside for fasting and prayer...
of Advent, Lent and September. - Third-class ferias: ferias in Lent from Thursday after Ash Wednesday to Saturday before the Second Sunday of the Passion (Palm Sunday) except Ember Days (these outranked third-class feasts), and ferias in Advent up to 16 December except Ember Days (these were outranked by third-class feasts).
- Fourth-class ferias: all other ferias
Before that, ferias were either "major" or "minor". The major, which must have at least a commemoration, even on the highest feasts, were those of Advent and Lent, the Ember days, and the Monday of Rogation week; the others were called minor. Of the major ferias Ash Wednesday and the days of Holy Week were privileged, so that their office must be taken, no matter what feast might occur.
Ember days are four separate sets of three days within the same week — specifically, the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday — roughly equidistant in the circuit of the year, that were formerly set aside for fasting and prayer. These days set apart for special prayer and fasting were considered especially suitable for the ordination of clergy. The Ember Days are known in Latin as quatuor tempora (the "four seasons"), or jejunia quatuor temporum ("fasts of the four seasons"). They occur in the weeks between the third and fourth Sundays of Advent, between the first and second Sundays of Lent, between Pentecost and Trinity Sunday, and beginning the first Wednesday after the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (September 14), which is between the liturgical third and fourth Sundays of September.
Rogation Days are, in the calendar of the Western Church, four days traditionally set apart for solemn processions to invoke God's mercy. They are April 25, the Major Rogation (or Greater Litanies), coinciding with St. Mark's Day (but transferred to the following Tuesday if they fell on Easter); and the three days preceding Ascension Thursday, the Minor Rogations (or Lesser Litanies). These are indicated below in the main body of the calendar and in the Movable Feasts section.
Vigils
In the Tridentine CalendarTridentine Calendar
The Tridentine Calendar is the calendar of saints to be honoured in the course of the liturgical year in the official liturgy of the Roman Rite as reformed by Pope Pius V, implementing a decision of the Council of Trent, which entrusted the task to the Pope....
the vigils of Christmas, the Epiphany, and Pentecost were called "major vigils"; the rest were "minor" or "common" vigils In early times, every feast had a vigil, but the increase in the number of feasts and abuses connected with the evening and night service of which the vigils originally consisted, led to their diminishment. Nevertheless, the Roman Rite
Roman Rite
The Roman Rite is the liturgical rite used in the Diocese of Rome in the Catholic Church. It is by far the most widespread of the Latin liturgical rites used within the Western or Latin autonomous particular Church, the particular Church that itself is also called the Latin Rite, and that is one of...
kept many more vigils than other Latin liturgical rites
Latin liturgical rites
Latin liturgical rites used within that area of the Catholic Church where the Latin language once dominated were for many centuries no less numerous than the liturgical rites of the Eastern autonomous particular Churches. Their number is now much reduced...
such as the Ambrosian Rite
Ambrosian Rite
Ambrosian Rite, also called the Milanese Rite, is a Catholic liturgical Western Rite. The rite is named after Saint Ambrose, a bishop of Milan in the fourth century...
and the Mozarabic Rite
Mozarabic Rite
The Mozarabic, Visigothic, or Hispanic Rite is a form of Catholic worship within the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church, and in the Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church . Its beginning dates to the 7th century, and is localized in the Iberian Peninsula...
, and if they fell on a Sunday transferred them to the previous Saturday. Most feasts of the Apostles had Vigils. The Vigil of St. Matthias was unique, in that it was normally commemorated on 23 February, the feast of St. Peter Damian, but in leap year, was kept on 24 February, the leap day of the Roman calendar
Roman calendar
The Roman calendar changed its form several times in the time between the founding of Rome and the fall of the Roman Empire. This article generally discusses the early Roman or pre-Julian calendars...
.
Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII
The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
divided Vigils into only two classes: "privileged vigils" (Christmas and Pentecost) and "common vigils" (Ascension of Our Lord, Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Baptist, Saints Peter and Paul, Saint Lawrence). All others, even in local calendars were suppressed.
In Pope John XXIII' s 1960 Code or Rubrics, Vigils were divided into three classes. The Easter Vigil was left out of the calculations, being celebrated in a different way from that of other Vigils. The Vigils of Christmas and Pentecost were of the I class, and took precedence over any feast. The II class Vigils were those of the Ascension of Our Lord, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Baptist, and Saints Peter and Paul; they took precedence over liturgical days of III or IV class. There was only one III class Vigil, that of Saint Lawrence, which had precedence only over IV class liturgical days.
Octaves
The Tridentine CalendarTridentine Calendar
The Tridentine Calendar is the calendar of saints to be honoured in the course of the liturgical year in the official liturgy of the Roman Rite as reformed by Pope Pius V, implementing a decision of the Council of Trent, which entrusted the task to the Pope....
had many octaves
Octave (liturgical)
"Octave" has two senses in Christian liturgical usage. In the first sense, it is the eighth day after a feast, reckoning inclusively, and so always falls on the same day of the week as the feast itself. The word is derived from Latin octava , with dies understood...
, without any indication in the calendar itself of distinction of rank between them, apart from the fact that the Octave Day (the final day of the octave) was ranked higher than the days within the octave. Several octaves overlapped, so that , for instance, on 29 December the prayer of the saint of the day, Saint Thomas Becket
Thomas Becket
Thomas Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170. He is venerated as a saint and martyr by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion...
, was followed by the prayers of Christmas Day, of Saint Stephen
Saint Stephen
Saint Stephen The Protomartyr , the protomartyr of Christianity, is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox Churches....
, of Saint John the Evangelist
John the Evangelist
Saint John the Evangelist is the conventional name for the author of the Gospel of John...
and of the Holy Innocents. The situation remained such until the reform of Pope Pius X
Pope Pius X
Pope Saint Pius X , born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, was the 257th Pope of the Catholic Church, serving from 1903 to 1914. He was the first pope since Pope Pius V to be canonized. Pius X rejected modernist interpretations of Catholic doctrine, promoting traditional devotional practices and orthodox...
.
To cut down on the monotony of repeating the same prayers in Mass and Office every day for eight days, Pope Pius X classified the octaves as "privileged", "common" or "simple"
The privileged octaves were of three "ranks". The first rank belonged to Easter and Pentecost (permitting no feast to be celebrated during them, or even to be commemorated until Tuesday Vespers), the second to Epiphany and Corpus Christi (the Octave Day ranked as a Greater Double, the days within the octave as semidoubles, giving way only to Doubles of the I Class, and on the Octave day itself only to a Double of the I class which was celebrated in the entire Church), the third rank to Christmas, the Ascension, and the Sacred Heart (these gave way to any feast above the level of Simple).
The common octaves were those of the Immaculate Conception, the Assumption, the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, the Solemnity of St. Joseph, Saints Peter and Paul, and All Saints, as well as, locally, the principal patron saint of a church, cathedral, order, town, diocese, province, or nation. These too gave way to any feast above the level of Simple. the difference between them and privileged octaves of third rank concerned which Psalms were said in the Divine Office
Liturgy of the hours
The Liturgy of the Hours or Divine Office is the official set of daily prayers prescribed by the Catholic Church to be recited at the canonical hours by the clergy, religious orders, and laity. The Liturgy of the Hours consists primarily of psalms supplemented by hymns and readings...
.
The simple octaves were those of Saint Stephen
Saint Stephen
Saint Stephen The Protomartyr , the protomartyr of Christianity, is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox Churches....
, Saint John the Evangelist
John the Evangelist
Saint John the Evangelist is the conventional name for the author of the Gospel of John...
, the Holy Innocents, Saint Lawrence, the Nativity of Mary and, locally, secondary patrons. These were all Doubles of the II class, their Octave day was a Simple and, in contrast to the situation before Pope Pius X, their Mass was not repeated on the days within the octave.
In Pope Pius XII's reform, only the octaves of Christmas, Easter and Pentecost were kept. The days within the Easter and Pentecost octaves were raised to double rite, had precedence over all feasts, and did not admit commemorations.
See also
- OctaveOctave (liturgical)"Octave" has two senses in Christian liturgical usage. In the first sense, it is the eighth day after a feast, reckoning inclusively, and so always falls on the same day of the week as the feast itself. The word is derived from Latin octava , with dies understood...
- Tridentine CalendarTridentine CalendarThe Tridentine Calendar is the calendar of saints to be honoured in the course of the liturgical year in the official liturgy of the Roman Rite as reformed by Pope Pius V, implementing a decision of the Council of Trent, which entrusted the task to the Pope....
- General Roman Calendar as in 1954
- General Roman Calendar of Pope Pius XIIGeneral Roman Calendar of Pope Pius XIIIn 1955 Pope Pius XII made several changes to the General Roman Calendar of 1954, changes that remained in force only until 1960, when Pope John XXIII, on the basis of further recommendations of the commission that Pius XII had set up, decreed a further revision of the Roman Catholic calendar of...
- General Roman Calendar of 1962General Roman Calendar of 1962This article lists the feast days of the General Roman Calendar as it was in 1962, following the reforms that Pope John XXIII introduced with his motu proprio Rubricarum instructum of 23 July 1960...
- Roman Catholic calendar of saintsRoman Catholic calendar of saintsThe General Roman Calendar indicates the days of the year to which are assigned the liturgical celebrations of saints and of the mysteries of the Lord that are to be observed wherever the Roman Rite is used...