Arranging the Breviary for the Rest of the Liturgical Year

This is our annual posting on one of the discrepancies between the traditional arrangement of the Roman Breviary and the new rubrics of 1960; this year, the first such discrepancy appears at Vespers this coming Saturday. In some years, but not this one, there is also a discrepancy between the traditional placement of the September Ember Days, and their placement according to the new rubrics.

One of the changes made to the Breviary in the revision of 1960 regards the arrangement of the months from August to November.

The first Sunday of each of these months is the day on which the Church begins to read a new set of Scriptural books at Matins, with their accompanying responsories, and Magnificat antiphons at Saturday Vespers. These readings are part of a system which goes back to the sixth century: in August, the books of Wisdom are read; in September, Job, Tobias, Judith and Esther; in October the books of the Maccabees; in November, Ezekiel, Daniel, and the twelve minor Prophets. (September is actually divided into two sets of readings, Job having a different set of responsories from the other three books.)

Folio 99r of the antiphonary of Compiègne, 860-77 AD, with the responsories taken from the books of the Maccabees. (Bibliothèque nationale de France. Département des Manuscrits. Latin 17436)

The “first Sunday” of each of these months is traditionally that which occurs closest to the first calendar day of the month, even if that day occurs within the end of the previous month. This year, for example, the first Sunday “of October” is actually September 29th, the Sunday closest to the first day of October.

In the 1960 revision, however, the first Sunday of the months from August to November is always that which occurs first within the calendar month. According to this system, the first Sunday of October is the 6th this year.

This change also accounts for one of the many peculiarities of the 1960 Breviary, the fact that November has four weeks, which are called the First, Third, Fourth and Fifth. According to the older calculation, November has five weeks when the 5th of the month is a Sunday, as it was last year. (This is also the arrangement that has the shortest possible Advent of three weeks and one day.) According to the newer calculation, November may have three or four weeks, but never five. In order to accommodate the new system, one of the weeks had to be removed; the second week of November was chosen, to maintain the tradition that at least a bit of each of the Prophets would continue to be read in the Breviary. However, in some years, November only has three weeks, and the first one is also omitted, but this is not the case this year.

One further note regarding a major discrepancy between the Roman Rite and the post-Conciliar Rite. On September 29th, the Roman Rite celebrates the feast known as “the Dedication of St Michael”, since it originated with the dedication of a basilica titled to him off the via Salaria, about 7 miles from the gates of Rome. Despite this name, it is really a feast of all the angels, and already in the so-called Leonine Sacramentary, the oldest surviving collection of Roman liturgical texts, there are prayers that refer to this broader understanding of it.

The central panel of The Last Judgment, by Rogier van der Weyden, 1446-52, showing Christ above, and below, St Michael weighing the souls of the dead.

In 1917, Pope Benedict XV raised this feast to the highest grade; it remains so in the 1960 rubrics, and thus, when it falls on a Sunday after Pentecost, as it does this year, it takes precedence over it. In the post-Conciliar Rite, however, it has been downgraded to the second rank, and is impeded by an occurring Sunday of Ordinary Time. Since the post-Conciliar Rite also does not have commemorations, and almost never transfers impeded feasts, this year, it will have no general celebration of the angels at all. (In the many places where one of the three archangels is a principal patronal, it is raised to a solemnity, and takes precedence over the Sunday.)

The Sundays for the rest of the liturgical year, according to the traditional system:

September 29 – the 1st Sunday of October (XIX after Pentecost, commemorated on the feast of St Michael and All Angels)

October 6 – the 2nd Sunday of October (XX after Pentecost)
October 13 – the 3rd Sunday of October (XXI after Pentecost)
October 20 – the 4th Sunday of October (XXII after Pentecost)

October 27 – the 5th Sunday of October (XXIII after Pentecost, commemorated on the feast of Christ the King)

November 3 – the 1st Sunday of November (IV after Epiphany resumed)
November 10 – the 3rd Sunday of November (V after Epiphany resumed)
November 17 – the 4th Sunday of November (VI after Epiphany resumed)
November 24 – the 5th Sunday of November (XXIV and last after Pentecost)

The Sundays for the rest of the liturgical year, according to the 1960 system:

September 29 – the 5th Sunday of September (XIX after Pentecost, commemorated)

October 6 – the 1st Sunday of October (XX after Pentecost)
October 13 – the 2nd Sunday of October (XXI after Pentecost)
October 20 – the 3rd Sunday of October (XXII after Pentecost)
October 27 – the 4th Sunday of October (XXIII after Pentecost, omitted on the feast of Christ the King)

November 3 – the 1st Sunday of November (IV after Epiphany resumed)
November 10 – the 3rd Sunday of November (V after Epiphany resumed)
November 17 – the 4th Sunday of November (VI after Epiphany resumed)
November 24 – the 5th Sunday of November (XXIV and last after Pentecost)

The calculation of the Sundays after Pentecost also calls for a note here. (The discrepancies between the Missals of St Pius V and St John XXIII are very slight in this regard.)

The number of Sundays “after Pentecost” assigned to the Missal is 24, but the actual number varies between 23 and 28. The “24th” is always celebrated on the last Sunday before Advent. If there are more than 24, the gap between the 23rd and 24th is filled with the Sundays after Epiphany that had no place at the beginning of the year. The prayers and readings of those Sundays are inserted into the Mass of the 23rd Sunday (i.e., the set of Gregorian propers.) The Breviary homily on the Sunday Gospel and the concomitant antiphons of the Benedictus and Magnificat also carry over in the Office. This year, therefore, on November 12th, the Mass is that of the V Sunday after Epiphany resumed, and on November 19th, that of the VI Sunday after Epiphany resumed.

If this all seems a little complicated, bear in mind that the oldest arrangement of the Mass lectionary that we know of was even more so. The oldest lectionary of the Roman Rite, a manuscript now in Wurzburg, Germany, dates to ca. 700, and represents the system used at Rome about 50 years earlier. It has a very disorganized and incomplete set of readings for the period after Pentecost; the Sundays are counted as 2 after Pentecost, 7 after Ss Peter and Paul, 5 after St Lawrence, and 6 after St Cyprian, a total of only 20. There are also ten Sundays after Epiphany, even though Septuagesima is also noted in the manuscript, and the largest number of Sundays that can occur between Epiphany and Septuagesima is only six.