It has long been a custom in Catholic churches to sing the Te Deum, the hymn of thanksgiving par excellence, on New Year’s Eve, to thank God for all of the blessings received over the course of the previous year, and then to invoke His blessings for the coming year by singing the Veni, Creator Spiritus on New Year’s Day. In Rome, the Pope and cardinals resident in the city traditionally attended the Te Deum ceremony on December 31st at the church of the Holy Name of Jesus, popularly known as “il Gesù”, the mother church of the Jesuit order. In recent years, however, it has generally been celebrated, even by the first Jesuit Pope, at St Peter’s, together with First Vespers of the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, and Eucharistic Benediction.
Before the Breviary reform of St Pius X, the Te Deum was titled “the hymn of Ss Ambrose and Augustine”, in reference to the tradition that Saints Ambrose and Augustine composed it as if by divine inspiration, immediately after the baptism of the latter at the Easter vigil of 387. (Incidentally, this was one of the extremely rare years on which Easter fell on its terminus post quem non, April 25th.) “Te Deum laudamus!”, exclaimed Ambrose, “Te Dominum confitemur!”, replied Augustine, and so on. For this reason, in many illustrated breviaries the Te Deum is decorated with an image of the two bishops together.
The Te Deum in a Psalter created in the mid-16th century for a canon of the Duomo of Milan. (Bodleian Ms. Canon. Liturg. 275)
This ceremony took place in the baptistery of St John “ad Fontes”, the remains of which can still be visited under the floor of the modern Duomo. (Many years ago, I visited this space and sang the Te Deum together with two priests of the FSSP, while in Milan to attend a traditional Ambrosian Rite Mass in the cathedral in honor of the Blessed Ildefonse Schuster.) A plaque on a wall close to these remains of the ancient font notes that in 1987, the 16th centenary of St Augustine’s baptism, Card. Carlo Maria Martini, the archbishop of Milan, baptized three African converts on Easter night, giving them the names Ambrose, Augustine and Adeodatus; the last was the name of St Augustine’s son, who was baptized alongside him, and died the following year at the age of only 16.
The baptistery of St John “ad Fontes” is seen in the drawing below as the octagonal building between Milan’s two cathedrals. The larger one on the left, dedicated to St Thecla, was also known as the summer church, used from Easter until the 3rd Sunday of October; the smaller one on the right, the winter church, was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and used from that Sunday until the Easter vigil. St Mary’s also had a baptistery, named for St Stephen the First Martyr, which is not seen here, and of which nothing now remains; this would have been where St Ambrose himself was baptized. The modern Duomo is built over and oriented the same way as St Mary’s, but is very much larger; St Thecla was demolished in the 16th century, but its memory is preserved by the presence of an altar dedicated to her in the cathedral’s left transept, and by the fact that the cathedral parish as a corporate entity is named for her.
The Te Deum sung by the Milan-based Nova Schola Gregoriana
The Ambrosian chant version, which is similar to the Gregorian, but not identical.
(This post is largely the work of our Ambrosian writer Nicola de’ Grandi.)
Deus, qui inter summos sacerdótes fámulum tuum Benedictum ineffábili tua dispositióne connumerári voluisti: praesta, quáesumus; ut, qui Unigéniti Filii tui vices in terris gerébat, sanctórum tuórum Pontíficum consortio perpétuo aggregétur. Per eundem Christum, Dóminum nostrum. Amen.
God, Who in Thy ineffable providence, did will that Thy servant Benedict should be numbered among the high priests, grant, we beseech Thee, that he, who on earth held the place of Thine Only-begotten Son, may be joined forevermore to the fellowship of Thy holy pontiffs. Through the same Christ, Our Lord. Amen.
As we pray for the eternal repose of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, who died two years ago today, let us also remember with gratitude the gift of his papacy, his graciousness and good humor, his many wise and well-considered writings, his paternal love especially for priests and religious, but of course above all, his restoration to the Church of the incomparable treasure of the traditional Roman Rite, an act which will continue to bear great spiritual fruit and lead the way for much-needed reform. “What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful.”
Joseph Ratzinger serving an open-air solemn Mass in the town of Buchfelln in 1947, when he was 20. Tradition will always be for the young!
When Augustus reigned alone upon earth, the many kingdoms of men came to an end, * and when Thou wast made man of the pure Virgin, the many gods of idolatry were destroyed. * The cities of the world passed under one single rule, and the nations came to believe in one sovereign Godhead. * The peoples were enrolled by the decree of Caesar, and we, the faithful, were enrolled in the Name of the Godhead, when Thou, our God, wast made man. * Great is Thy mercy: glory to Thee!
In the recording, this hymn is sung in alternation with the original Greek text, changing over at the places marked with an asterisk.
At Vespers of Christmas Eve in the Byzantine Rite, and again at Vespers on December 30th, the first service of the Leave-taking of the feast, this text is sung at the end of the stikhera, the first set of proper hymns. (In Byzantine terminology, “hymn” is the generic word for a wide variety of compositions used in many different ways, similar in form to Roman Office antiphons, but generally much longer.) It was written by one of the most famous composers of Byzantine liturgical poetry, a nun named Kassiani (or Kassia), who lived in the ninth century. Many of her hymns are extant, and still used in the Byzantine Rite to this day; she is one of the very first composers whose original scores are known and useable. I have previously described the charming legend about her most famous piece, a hymn which is sung on Great and Holy (i.e. Spy) Wednesday about the woman who anointed Christ’s feet.
An icon of Kassiani, holding a scroll on which are written the first words of her famous hymn for Holy Wednesday. (Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons, date and artist unknown.)
The Roman Martyrology’s entry for Christmas Eve gives several dates based in sacred history for the year of Christ’s coming “according to the flesh”: 5199 from the creation of the world, 2957 from Noah’s flood, etc. But it also gives three secular dates, one Greek (the 194th Olympiad) and two Roman: “in the 752nd year from the founding of the city of Rome; in the 42nd year of the rule of Octavian Augustus, when all the world was united in peace.” These entries reflect the idea that the achievements of Greek culture, and the peace and stability created by the Roman Empire, served in God’s providence to prepare the world for the arrival of the Savior and the preaching of the Gospel.
The same idea is expressed in Kassiani’s hymn, but there is some interesting historical context related to it to be kept in mind. In the 8th century, the Byzantine emperors had, not for the first time, invented a heresy and attempted to impose it upon their subjects, turning persecutor against their fellow Christians. The essence of this heresy, iconoclasm, was the idea that the veneration of sacred images constituted a form of idolatry. But it also rejected the honor which the Church pays to the Saints, and prayers for their intercession, claiming, just as many protestants do today, that these amount to a kind of polytheism.
The iconoclast heresy was formally condemned by the Seventh Ecumenical Council, the second to be held at Nicaea, in 787. Kassiani was born in Constantinople ca. 805/10; when she was still very young, the heresy was revived by the emperor Leo V in 814, and lasted for nearly 30 more years. Kassiani herself was once presented as a possible bride to the last iconoclast emperor, Theophilus, and later scourged for her opposition to the heresy under his rule.
In light of this, an interesting point emerges regarding the words of the hymn given above as “the many gods of idolatry were destroyed.” A strictly literal translation would be “the polytheism of the idols has been made of no effect.” The perfect tense of the verb “katērgētai” conveys the idea that the result is complete and lasting until the present. (The same is true of the word “kekharitōmenē” in the Gospel of St Luke, which we know in English as “full of grace.”) There are many other ways this could have been said, but Kassiani very cleverly chose a word which states that with the revelation of the Incarnation, idolatry was not merely defeated, but permanently deprived of its power, and therefore, the Church has nothing to fear from the use of sacred images.
An icon of the Nativity by an anonymous Cretan painter, second half of the 15th century.
The hymn in Church Slavonic.
Аѵгусту единоначальствующу на земли, многоначалїе человѣкωвъ преста; и Тебѣ вочеловѣчшусѧ ωт Чистыѧ, многобожїѧ ідωлωвъ оупразднисѧ, подъ единѣмъ царствомъ мїрскимъ гради быша, и во Едино Владычество Божества ꙗзыцы вѣроваша. Написашесѧ людїе повелѣниїмъ кесаревымъ, написахомсѧ вѣрнїи, Именемъ Божества, Тебе вочеловѣчшагосѧ Бога нашегω. Велїѧ Твоѧ милость, Господи, слава Тебѣ.
And a Greek version in traditional liturgical chant.
Adoration of the Shepherds, the theme of today’s Gospel
One might think that the best way to honor the great mystery of the birth of the God-man is to devote eight days exclusively to its celebration. And yet in their inspired wisdom, all of the historic and apostolic liturgies mix the Octave of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ with the cult of some saints. In the Roman Rite, these are Stephen on December 26, John the Evangelist on December 27, the Holy Innocents on December 28, Thomas Beckett on December 29, and Sylvester I on December 31. William Durandus calls these saints the Comites Christi. A comes is a companion, but the word also connotes aristocracy (the title “Count” comes from it).
Christ’s noble companions are honored liturgically in two different ways. They either have a proper Mass of their own on their feast day (Stephen, John, and the Holy Innocents) with a commemoration of Christmas; or, a Christmas Octave Mass is celebrated on their feast day, and they are acknowledged with a commemoration.
There is only one day within the Christmas Octave on the General Calendar that is not also a saint’s day and is therefore exclusively about Christmas. On December 30, the Church celebrates the Mass for the days within the Octave of Christmas (Diebus infra Octavam Nativitatis Domini) without any commemorations. The Mass that is used is identical to the third Mass of Christmas Day except that it has a different Epistle and Gospel.
The twentieth-century liturgist Father Pius Parsch wishes there were more days like December 30:
It would be ideal if we could devote several days of the Christmas octave to quiet contemplation, entering ever more deeply into the sweet and profound mystery of the incarnation; yet most of the time is devoted to the saints. All the more precious, therefore, is this day, an unencumbered Christmas-day. [1]
I do not know the wording of the original German, but the choice of “unencumbered” and the broader sentiment behind it are, in my opinion, unfortunate. Does, for example, the celebration of Childermas encumber my celebration of Christmas or enrich it? Behind Parsch’s lament is an either/or mentality that led to the 1969 calendar, with its vast reduction of sanctoral feast days and its allergy to commemorations, as if the heart cannot sing polyphonically and the mind cannot hold two positive thoughts in its head at the same time. The traditional Christmas Octave is a reminder that the soul of the Blessed Virgin Mary is not alone in magnifying the Lord. Every saint’s life magnifies the Lord, acting like a magnifying glass that allows us to enter more deeply into the sweet and profound mystery of the Incarnation.
Reverend Pius Parsch (1884-1954)
Dom Gueranger has a more satisfactory and, I daresay, more Catholic approach to this issue than Parsch:
This is the only day within the Christmas Octave which is not a Saint’s Feast. During the Octaves of the Epiphany, Easter and Pentecost, the Church is so absorbed in the respective mysteries that she puts off everything that could share her attention; whereas during this of Christmas, there is only one day which does not celebrate the memory of some glorious Saint, and our Infant Jesus is surrounded by a choir of heroes who loved and served him. Thus the Church, or, more correctly, God—for God is the first author of the cycle of the year—shows us how the Incarnate Word, who came to save mankind, desires to give mankind confidence by this his adorable familiarity. [2]
Dom Prosper Guéranger (1805-75)
And so, let us not call this Sixth Day within the Octave of the Nativity of the Lord (December 30) an “unencumbered Christmas day” but a “mere Christmas day.” “Mere” is derived from merum, the Latin word for unmixed wine. (With his concept of mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis draws from the word’s original meaning to great effect). Wine was mixed with water in antiquity because it was so sweet, and the assumption was that anyone who drank unmixed wine was not interested in the taste but only in getting drunk. A drunkard could thus be called a meribibulus or “drinker of merum,” as was a young Saint Monica when she was caught taking sips of the stuff from the family cellar. [3] I am not suggesting that the Christmas days that are mixed with the cult of saints are in any way “diluted,” but I am suggesting that we can savor this mere Christmas day and get a little spiritually drunk on it, and without needing to subscribe to Parsch’s flat binary.
Notes
[1] Pius Parsch, The Church’s Year of Grace: Advent to Candlemas, volume 1, trans. William G. Heidt (Liturgical Press, 1957), 236.
By the end of the fifth century, there were a number of Roman churches dedicated to St Stephen the First Martyr, including a monastery behind St Peter’s in the Vatican, and a large basilica on the via Latina. That which was chosen as the station church of his feast day, St Stephen’s on the Caelian Hill, is the one closest to the ancient Papal residence at the Lateran. It is now often referred to in Italian as “Santo Stefano Rotondo – Round St Stephen’s”, and is the only round church built in ancient times in the Eternal City. (The Pantheon was often called “Santa Maria Rotonda”, but was not, of course, built as a church.)
The Basilica of Santo Stefano Rotondo; watercolor by Ettore Roseler Franz, 1880
The station remained at Santo Stefano Rotondo, even after a portion of the Saint’s relics were brought to Rome and placed within the tomb of St Lawrence, in the basilica of St Lawrence outside the Walls. There are two reasons for this, the first being that, after the long trip around the city for the stations of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, the papal court would probably prefer to stay close to home on the day following. More importantly, the round shape of Santo Stefano was chosen in imitation of the ancient church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, the city of both the Lord’s Passion and the martyrdom of Stephen. The ancient custom of keeping the feast of St Stephen immediately after the birth of Christ serves as a powerful reminder of the mission of the Christ Child, who came into this world to die for our redemption. The eighth responsory of St Stephen’s office expresses this most beautifully when it says that “…he first rendered back to the Savior the death which he, Our Savior, deigned to suffer for us.”
The station on December 27th, the feast of St John the Apostle, is not kept at the basilica of St John in the Lateran, which is officially named the Archbasilica of the Most Holy Savior. The dedication of this church to the two Saints John, Baptist and Evangelist, postdates the fixing of the traditional stations; so does the church of St John at the Latin Gate, where the Apostle was traditionally said to have been thrown into a vat of boiling oil, and miraculously preserved from death. Instead, the Papal court returned to the basilica of Mary Major. The reason for this is first of all the traditional association of St John with the Virgin Mary, whom the Lord entrusted to His beloved disciple, shortly before He died on the Cross. The office of St John refers to this twice: “At last, when He was to about to die upon the Cross, he commended His Virgin Mother to this virgin, (i.e. Saint John.)
The rood screen of the church of Saint Giles in Cheadle, England, by A.W.N. Pugin, showing the Virgin Mary and Saint John at the Cross; 1841-46. (Photograph by Fr. Lawrence Lew. O.P.)
As mentioned previously, the third Ecumenical Council was convened in the year 431 to refute the heresy of Nestorius, who claimed that it was improper to call the Virgin Mary “Mother of God”. The city chosen for this council, Ephesus in Asia Minor, was also the place where St John is traditionally said to have died and been buried; the site venerated as his tomb was enclosed within a basilica by the Emperor Justinian in the sixth century. The station for his feast day is therefore also a reminder of the traditional association of both St John and the Virgin Mary with the city of Ephesus, the ancient church of which was also, of course, the recipient of a letter from St Paul and a divine message in the Apocalypse of John (2, 1-7).
On the following day, the station for the feast of the Holy Innocents is kept at the Basilica of St Paul outside the Walls, the site of the Apostle’s tomb, along the road to the ancient Roman port of Ostia. It may be that this church was chosen because of the relics of the Innocents which were placed there at an uncertain date; on the other hand, the relics may have been placed there because it was already the station church for the feast. (Major relics of the Innocents are also kept at Mary Major in Rome, the Basilica of St Justina in Padua, and the cathedrals of Milan and Lisbon.)
Detail of the Cross in the apsidal mosaic of St Paul’s outside the Walls, with five of the Holy Innocents underneath it. (Photograph by Fr Lawrence Lew O.P.)
The Blessed Ildephonse Schuster notes in The Sacramentary that nearly all of the major solemnities and seasons of the liturgical year include a stational visit to the churches of both St Peter and St Paul; it may be that St Paul’s was chosen with regard to this custom, after the station at St Peter’s on Christmas Day. He also points out that St Paul is the most illustrious son of the tribe of Benjamin, and of Benjamin’s mother, Rachel. When she died in giving birth to Benjamin, Rachel “was buried on the way that leadeth to Ephrata, which is Beth-lehem”; she represents the mothers who wept over the slaughter of their children, as foretold by the prophet Jeremiah. (Genesis 35, 19 and Matthew 2, 18, the conclusion of the Gospel of the Holy Innocents, citing Jeremiah 31, 15.)
There is no station assigned for the feast of St Thomas of Canterbury, who was martyred on December 29, 1170, and whose feast was accepted throughout the Latin church almost immediately after his canonization. By the twelfth century, the church of Rome had long ceased to institute stations for new feasts; even Corpus Christi does not have one. Likewise, the common Sundays and ferias within octaves rarely have stations, with the notable exceptions of Easter and Pentecost.
Pope St Sylvester I, who died on December 31, 335, is one of the very first confessors, (i.e., non-martyrs) to be honored by the Church with a liturgical feast. His feast was originally kept with a station at the place of his burial, a basilica which Sylvester himself had built above the Catacomb of Priscilla, in honor of the martyrs Ss Felix and Philip. Prior to the eleventh century, it was the common custom for the Pope to go the principal church of each major Roman Saint on their feast day; in fact, the oldest Roman liturgical calendar is partly a list of such papal celebrations. We may imagine that the popes of that era welcomed the two days’ rest between the station of the Holy Innocents at St Paul’s outside the Walls, and that of St Sylvester, a few miles in the opposite direction, up the Salarian way. In the year 761, however, his relics were translated to a church dedicated to him in the center of Rome; this church is now much more famous as the resting place of the head of St John the Baptist, for which it is named “San Silvestro in Capite, i.e. where the head is.” His feast, like that of St Thomas, is kept only as a commemoration in the Roman Missals of 1962 and 1970; a memory of its former prominence remains in the custom of calling New Year’s Eve “Sylvester’s night” in German and other languages.
(Pictured above; The Donation of Constantine, from the Chapel of Saint Sylvester at the Basilica of the Four Crowned Martyrs in Rome; roughly 1250.)
The third part of this article will discuss the stations of the Circumcision and the Epiphany.
St Thomas à Becket was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral on December 29th, 1170, less than a month after he had returned from six years of exile in France, where he had been driven by a long persecution at the hands of King Henry II of England. The murder was followed by a wave of revulsion throughout Europe, which did much to promote the reforms within the Church that he had died to defend. Pope Alexander III, who had received him in audience during his exile, canonized Thomas just over two years after his death, in no small measure because of the innumerable miracles that took place at his tomb.
The following piece, composed during his exile, is the earliest known musical composition that refers to St Thomas. As Rachel, the mother of Joseph, mourns for the exile of her children in Jeremiah 31, England mourns for that of Thomas, who is therefore called “the Joseph of Canterbury”, while France becomes Egypt, the place of exile of both the Patriarch Joseph and of Our Lord’s foster father. For the sake of the latter, King Henry is described as “a son of Herod”, because he drove Thomas into exile, as Herod did the Holy Family. But perhaps the unknown author intuited what would eventually come of Henry’s importunity against the Church, since, just as the words of Jeremiah were later revealed to be a prophecy of the Massacre of the Innocents, so also “the son of Herod” would wind up having Thomas killed on the day after their feast.
In Rama sonat gemitus / plorante Rachel Anglie: / Herodis namque genitus / dat ipsam ignominie. / En eius primogenitus / et Joseph Cantuarie / Exulat si sit venditus, / Egiptum colit Gallie.
(Lamentation sounds forth in Rama, as the “Rachel” of England weepeth; for the son of Herod gives her unto ignominy. Behold her first-born, the “Joseph” of Canterbury, as if he were sold, dwells in the “Egypt” of France. ~ On the YouTube channel that posted this, the first word of the 7th line is correctly transcribed “exulat,” but the singers clearly say “exsultat.” This book gives a better reading for the same line “exsul, ac si sit venditus - an exile, as if he had been sold.” Thanks to Dr Jeffrey Morse and Jesson Allerite for this information.)
Here is a very early reliquary of St Thomas, made at Limoges, France in the 1180s, showing the scene of his assassination in the lower part, his burial and the ascent of his soul into heaven in the upper. Devotion to him was incredibly powerful in the Middle Ages and afterwards, especially in England until the Reformation. (It is to his shrine that the pilgrims of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales are making their way.) More than 40 such reliquaries are still extant.
From the Servite church of the city of Siena, Santa Maria dei Servi (click image to enlarge.)
This was painted in the 1330s by Pietro Lorenzetti, along with the brothers Francesco and Niccolò di Segna. The scene is set in Siena itself, the famous cathedral of which is seen at the middle of the top. Below the border is a famous quotation from Macrobius, a writer of the early fifth century, from the second book of his Saturnalia, “Melius esse porcum Herodis quam filium. - It is better to be Herod’s pig than his son.”
The full citation is as follows: “Cum audisset inter pueros quos in Syria Herodes rex Iudaeorum intra bimatum iussit interfici, filium quoque eius occisum, ait: Melius est Herodis porcum esse quam filium. - When (Augustus) heard that among the children whom Herod, the king of the Jews, ordered to be killed in Syria, within the age of two years, his own son was killed, he said, ‘It is better to be Herod’s pig than his son.’ ” As a Jew, King Herod would have no reason to kill a pig which he could not eat (a Jewish dietary custom which Roman writers often remarked upon,) but did not scruple to massacre the children in Bethlehem, and several of his own relatives. (The Wikipedia article about King Herod cites the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia to the effect that he was “prepared to commit any crime in order to gratify his unbounded ambition.”) In Greek, which Augustus knew well, these words would make a pun, since the word for “pig” is “hus (ὗς)”, while the word for “son” is “huios (υἱός).”
This post is kind of a follow-up on the series which we concluded yesterday on the twelve Romanesque basilicas of Cologne, Germany. I say “kind of” because it is generally believed that this magnificent tabernacle comes from the basilica of St Pantaleon in Cologne, but this is not completely certain. (All images from Wikimedia Commons: 1, 3, 4, 7 and 11-13 by Fæ, CC BY 2.0; 2, 5, 6, 8-10 and 14 by Marie-Lan Nguyen, CC BY 2.5)
The tabernacle was made ca. 1180, and consists of a core of oak, covered over with gilt copper and enamel, and decorated with 32 pieces of carved ivory, both elephant and walrus. (Some of these ivories are modern restorations, as are the knot on top of the dome, and two of the griffins on which it rests.) It stands at about 1’, 9½” tall, roughly 1’, 8½” square at the base, and weighs 58 pounds. It was acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 1861, and has been there ever since. (See this link for more detailed information.) Beneath the dome, Christ sits with eleven of the Apostles; the sixteen standing figures on the lower part are prophets, while each side has a “door” with an ivory plaque of an event in the life of Christ. The first two of these are modern (i.e. 19th century) copies made from a reliquary in a museum in Berlin which is contemporary to this piece. On this side is Christ Child with the Virgin Mary and St Joseph.
The Station Churches of Rome are nowadays perhaps thought of as a particular feature of Lent, since that season is the only one that has a station for every day, and the Lenten stations are the only ones which are still kept in Rome itself. However, the Missal of St Pius V, preserving the ancient traditions of the Roman Church, lists stations for several other periods of the liturgical year, such as the Sundays and Ember days of Advent, the pre-Lenten Sundays, and the octaves of both Easter and Pentecost. Prior to the 70-year long removal of the Papacy to Avignon, it was still the custom for the Pope to personally celebrate the principal liturgies at the stations, although one safely assume that this was kept more assiduously by some and less so by others. The following article in three parts will examine the station churches of the Christmas season, from the vigil of Christmas to the feast of the Epiphany.
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day
According to a very ancient custom of the Church of Rome, Christmas Day is celebrated with three Masses: one at midnight, preceded by Matins and followed by Lauds; one at dawn, after the hour of Prime; and a third during the day, to be celebrated, as on all major feasts, after Terce. In the Roman Breviary, we still read a homily of St Gregory the Great (590-604) at Christmas Matins, which begins with the words “Because, by the Lord’s bounty, we are to celebrate Mass three times today…” Like most of the great solemnities, Christmas is also preceded by a vigil day, particularly dedicated to fasting and penance in preparation for the feast. Thus, there are in fact four Masses on the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth of December.
Of these four Masses, three currently have the same station listed, the great Basilica of Saint Mary Major. This is, of course, the oldest church in the world dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, and the most important of the many Marian churches in Rome. It was built by Pope St Sixtus III (432-440) to honor Her after the third Ecumenical Council at Ephesus had rejected the heresy of Nestorius, and formally defined Her title “Mother of God.” It is the traditional home of the famous icon known as the “Salus Populi Romani – Salvation of the Roman people”, one of the oldest icons in existence. Almost directly above the main altar of the church, the great arch still preserves the original mosaics of Pope Sixtus’ time, depicting events from the life of the Virgin. The Nativity of Christ, however, is not shown among them; it seems that the Annunciation and Epiphany, prominently depicted one above the other on the left side, were felt to contain between them the whole of the Nativity story.
Santa Maria Maggiore in an 18th century engraving by Giuseppe Vasi.
It is almost certain that already in St Gregory’s time, on the twenty-fourth of December, the canonical hour of None and the vigil Mass of the Nativity were both celebrated by the Pope and his court in the main basilica of Mary Major, to be followed by solemn First Vespers of Christmas. After a rest of some hours, the Pope and clergy would arise in the early part of the night for Matins, the first Mass of Christmas, and Lauds; thus, the Church kept watch for the Nativity of the Lord alongside the Virgin Mary in the stable at Bethlehem. By the middle of the seventh century, however, a small oratory had been built on the right side of the basilica, called “Sancta Maria ad Praesepe”, that is, Saint Mary at the Crib. This chapel was for many centuries the home of the relics reputed to be those of the Lord’s Crib, first attested in Rome in the reign of Pope Theodore (640-49). From roughly that time, the station of the Midnight Mass was kept in the chapel, while the services properly belonging to the Vigil of Christmas remained in the main basilica.
The second Mass is kept at the church of St Anastasia, located at the base of the Palatine hill, very close to the site of the great chariot racing stadium of Rome, the Circus Maximus. The standard opinion among liturgical scholars has long been that this was originally not part of the celebration of Christmas at all, but a Mass in honor of the church’s titular Saint, who was martyred during the persecution of Diocletian in the city of Sirmium, the modern Mitrovica in Serbia. (See the article on St Anastasia by J.P. Kirsch in the Dictionnaire d’archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie, vol. 1.2, col. 1923, and Bl. Ildephonse Schuster’s The Sacramentary, vol. 1, p. 368.) This strikes me as extremely improbable, since her feast is not included in the oldest liturgical books of the Roman Rite. The so-called Leonine Sacramentary gives her name last among a group of seven martyrs whose feast is on December 25th, but there is no mention of her (or any of the others) in any of the nine different Mass formulae for Christmas that follow; she is completely absent from the Gelasian Sacramentary. The lectionary of Wurzburg, the oldest of the Roman Rite (ca. 650 AD) lists the Gospel for the second Mass as Luke 2, 15-20, the account of the shepherds coming to Bethlehem, which continues the Gospel of the first Mass, Luke 2, 1-14. This does not exclude the possibility that the station was chosen because the day was also St Anastasia’s feast; in the later Gregorian Sacramentary, her Mass and that of Christmas are given together, with the proper texts of the martyr first. In the Missal of St Pius V and its late medieval predecessors, she is kept as a commemoration at this second Mass.
The third Mass of Christmas was originally celebrated not at Mary Major, but at Saint Peter’s in the Vatican. This would certainly be because the sheer size of the church, just over 100 meters long, would allow for a greater crowd to attend the most solemn of the three Nativity Masses, that which commemorates the eternal birth of God the Son from God the Eternal Father. St Ambrose tells us in the De Virginibus that his sister Marcellina was veiled as a nun by Pope Liberius in St Peter’s on Christmas Day; it is also known that Pope St Celestine I (422-32) read the decisions of the Council of Ephesus to the faithful on the same occasion. One of the most important events in the history Christendom is also connected with this stational observance; on Christmas Day, 800 A.D., Charlemagne was crowned as the Emperor of Rome by Pope St Leo III, before the celebration of the Mass.
The Coronation of Charlemagne, from the Grand Chronique de France, ca. 1455
In about 1140, a canon of St Peter’s Basilica named Benedict records in his account of the ceremonies held in his church, now known as the eleventh Ordo Romanus, that the station of this third Mass was still kept there, but a half a century later, the twelfth Ordo tells us that it is at Mary Major. For most of the Middle Ages, the population of Rome was roughly 20,000 people, living in a city built for a million and a half, and a large church was no longer necessary for the papal Mass of Christmas. Furthermore, for much of the period, the city was ruled by military strongmen, and the Pope, though nominally temporal sovereign of the city, had little or no control over it. For these practical reasons, the station was sometimes kept in the 12th century at Mary Major, which is very much closer than St Peter’s to the Pope’s residence at the Lateran Basilica, and would have been easier and safer for the Papal court to reach. There were in fact several such “double stations” at various periods, and the definitive transfer of this one was probably not made until the later 14th century. The liturgical writer Sicard of Cremona still speaks of the station at St Peter’s in roughly 1200, and explains that “in the Communion of this Mass… ‘All the ends of the earth (have seen the salvation of our God.’); and because the blessed Peter saw this, and confessed it more than the others, as the Father that is in Heaven revealed it to him, therefore the station is at St Peter.”
On the mosaic arch over the altar of Mary Major, the lowest part of the right side depicts the city of Bethlehem, and the left side the city of Jerusalem; this pairing of the two holy cities is a common motif in early Christian art. It is interesting to note that the oratory of the Crib was also frequently called “Sancta Maria in Bethlehem”, and represented, as it were, the city of Christ’s Birth within the Eternal City. For this reason, when the relics of Saint Jerome were moved to Rome from the real Bethlehem, where he died, they were placed once again “in Bethlehem.” In like manner, the church which housed the relics of the True Cross was called “Holy Cross in Jerusalem.” The union of the two holy cities was further shown by the fact that the relics of the Crib of Christ, who was born in this world so that He might die for our sakes, were formerly arranged in the shape of a cross.
(Pictured right: the relics of the Lord's Crib in a reliquary of 1830.)
This chapel also has a special connection with two of the great Saints of the Counter-reformation. St Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Company of Jesus, celebrated his first Mass on the principal altar of the Crib chapel; so great was his devotion to the Mass that he deemed a full year necessary to prepare himself properly to celebrate it. In the same place, St Cajetan of Thiene, founder of the first order of Clerks Regular, was graced on Christmas Eve with a vision, in which the Blessed Virgin appeared to him and handed him the Infant Jesus to hold. Both of these events are still commemorated by marble plaques near the altar of the now rebuilt Sancta Maria ad Praesepe.
The chapel was severely damaged during the sack of Rome in 1527, and almost entirely rebuilt in the later 16th-century; it is now often called “the other Sistine Chapel” in honor of the Franciscan Pope Sixtus V (1585-90), under whose auspices the rebuilding was carried out. Like many of the Popes of this era, he was not buried at St Peter’s, which was still under construction during his pontificate. The place which he chose for his monument, therefore, was the great chapel of the Crib, placing opposite himself the monument of his now sainted predecessor, Pius V. To this day, their spiritual brothers are still present in the Virgin Mary’s most ancient church; Dominican friars hear confessions in several languages through most of the day, and Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate serve as sacristans and chaplains. The relics of the Crib have long since been moved to the main altar, so that they may be seen more easily by the many pilgrims who come to church each day.
The second part of this article will discuss the Station churches of the feast days within the Christmas Octave.
We finally conclude this series on the twelve Romanesque basilicas of Cologne, Germany, with the church of St Pantaleon, which I have saved for last in order to end on an artistic high note, namely, its very beautiful and well-preserved rood screen. (All images from Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 unless otherwise noted.)
A church is mentioned on the site in a document dated to the year 866, but the current building was founded as a Benedictine monastery by St Bruno, archbishop of Cologne, the younger brother of the Holy Roman Emperor Otto the Great, in 955; the central nave dates to this period.
This is the oldest church anywhere in the west of Europe dedicated to Pantaleon, a Christian doctor martyred in the first years of the fourth century, during the persecution of Diocletian, at Nicomedia, a town about 65 miles to the east of Constantinople. St Bruno’s successor-but-one as archbishop, Gero, obtained his relics while on embassy to Byzantium in 971, during which he negotiated the marriage of Emperor Otto II with Theophanu, a niece of the Eastern Roman emperor John I Tzimiskes (969-76). When her husband died, Theophanu became regent of her son Otto III. She often visited Cologne, and the church’s westwork was built ca. 980 at her behest; in accordance with her own request, she was buried here when she died in 991. (Her modern sarcophagus is in the narthex of the westwork.)
Around 1160, the single-nave Ottonian church was expanded into its current form as a three-nave basilica. The late Gothic rood screen, which is by far the church’s most interesting feature today, was built at the beginning of the 16th century.
In the Roman Rite, the Gospel of the feast of St Stephen is St Matthew 23, 34-39, as attested in the very oldest surviving lectionaries.
“Behold I send to you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them you will put to death and crucify, and some you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city: That upon you may come all the just blood that hath been shed upon the earth, from the blood of Abel the just, even unto the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias, whom you killed between the temple and the altar. Amen I say to you, all these things shall come upon this generation. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered together thy children, as the hen doth gather her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldest not? Behold, your house shall be left to you, desolate. For I say to you, you shall not see me henceforth till you say: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”
This passage was perhaps chosen because of what St Jerome writes about it in his commentary on the Gospel of St Matthew, as read in the Breviary, that among the prophets, wise men and scribes named by Christ, “Stephen was stoned, Paul killed, Peter crucified, and the disciples scourged (as stated) in the Acts of the Apostles.” (Commentary on Matthew, book 4)
In the Ambrosian liturgy, on the other hand, a completely different passage is used, Matthew 17, 23-26. This is the only Milanese Gospel of the Christmas octave which diverges completely from the Roman lectionary tradition. [1]
“When they were come to Capharnaum, they that received the didrachmas, came to Peter and said to him: Doth not your master pay the didrachmas? He said: Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying: What is thy opinion, Simon? The kings of the earth, of whom do they receive tribute or custom? of their own children, or of strangers? And he said: Of strangers. Jesus said to him: Then the children are free. But that we may not scandalize them, go to the sea, and cast in a hook: and that fish which shall first come up, take: and when thou hast opened its mouth, thou shalt find a stater: take that, and give it to them for me and thee.”
The Tribute Money, by Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Simone (1401-28), better known as Masaccio, 1425; in the Brancacci Chapel of the church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence.
St Hilary of Poitiers (ca. 310-365, bishop ca. 350) interpreted the fish in this episode as a figure of St Stephen, the first to be caught by the hook of St Peter’s preaching, (Commentary on Matthew, cap. 17, 13), who then “preached the glory of God, beholding the Lord Christ in his passion.” St Ambrose, who became bishop of Milan roughly a decade after St Hilary’s death, repeats this interpretation in three different places.
“Therefore, he cast the nets, and seized hold of Stephen, who was the first to arise from the Gospel, having the stater of justice in his mouth.” (Hexameron, 5, 6, 16)
“And perhaps this first fish is the first martyr, having the didrachma, that is, the price of the census, in his mouth. Christ is our didrachma. Therefore, the first martyr, Stephen, had in his mouth the treasure, when he spoke of Christ in his passion” (Exposition of the Gospel according to Luke, 4, 75)
“In this ship, Peter is fishing, and is ordered to fish now with the net, now with a hook. A great mystery! For this seems to be a spiritual fishing, by which he is ordered to cast the hook of teaching into the world, so that he might raise up the first martyr, Stephen, from the sea, who contained the price of Christ within himself; for Christ’s martyr is the Church’s treasure. Therefore, that Martyr who was the first to come up to heaven from the sea, captured as a minister of the altar by Peter, is lifted up not with a net, but with a hook, so that by the stream of his blood he might be lifted up to heaven. And in his mouth was the treasure, when the spoke of Christ in his confession.” (On Virginity 120)
We see, therefore, that St Ambrose was well aware of the tradition that linked this Gospel to the passion of St Stephen. As in many other cases, he bears witness to the earliest stage of the codification of a liturgical tradition, which he receive from his predecessors, and from which he then draws inspiration for his own theological and catechetical reflections. And indeed, this tradition is also attested in the very oldest liturgical books of both the Ambrosian and Gallican rites, although they date from several centuries later.
In yet another example of the false irenicism so predominant among the post-Conciliar reformers, the traditional Roman Gospel for St Stephen was not just changed on the feast itself, but deleted from the lectionary entirely. When the time comes to reform the liturgy correctly, and fix the innumerable mistakes of this sort which plague the new lectionary, we would do well the follow the example of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, who received what was passed on to them, and faithfully transmitted it to the generations that followed, rather than change liturgical tradition to chase after the approval of the passing age.
The lighting of the “faro” at the parish church of St Stephen in Santo Stefano Ticino (west of Milan) in 2018.
[1] At the three Masses of Christmas, the Ambrosian Rite reads the same Gospels as the Roman, but exchanges the places of those of the Midnight and Day Masses. At the Midnight Mass, the Prologue of St John is shortened to just five verses (9-14), but the complete passage is read at the Mass within the octave on December 31. The Ambrosian Gospel of St Thomas of Canterbury is longer by two verses (John 10, 11-18).
This article is partly taken from an item written by Nicola de’ Grandi.
The Roman Breviary traditionally has only two proper hymns for Christmas, Jesu Redemptor omnium, which is said at Vespers and Matins, and A solis ortus cardine at Lauds. The church of Rome took a long time to accept the use of hymns in the Office at all, and in its habitual liturgical conservatism, adopted fewer of them than other medieval Uses did; although the major liturgical seasons have three proper hymns, one for Matins, one for Lauds and one for Vespers, most feasts have only two, that of either Vespers or Lauds being sung also at Matins.
One of the gems which is therefore not found in the historical Roman Use is the Christmas hymn Veni, Redemptor gentium, which is attributed on strong evidence to St Ambrose himself. It is quoted by Ss Augustine and Pope Celestine I (422-32), both of whom knew Ambrose personally, the latter attributing it to him explicitly, as does Cassiodorus in the following century. It was sung at Vespers of Christmas in the Ambrosian Rite, of course, in the Sarum Use, and by the religious orders which retained their proper liturgical Uses after Trent, the Dominicans, Carmelites, and Premonstratensians.
In many parts of Germany, it was sung in Advent, rather than Christmas; the last stanza before the doxology “Praesepe jam fulget tuum – Thy cradle here shall glitter bright” was omitted, however, until it was sung for the last time at First Vespers of Christmas. In the post-Conciliar Office, it is sung in Advent without the German variant, and without the stanza “Egressus ejus a Patre.”
Here are two versions, one in plainchant, and a second in alternating chant and polyphony. The English translation by John Mason Neale (1851) is one of his finest such efforts, both for its literary merit as English and its exactitude as a translation.
Veni, Redemptor gentium, Come, Thou Redeemer of the earth,
Ostende partum Vírginis: And manifest Thy virgin birth:
Mirétur omne saeculum: Let every age adoring fall;
Talis decet partus Deum. Such birth befits the God of all.
Non ex viríli sémine, Begotten of no human will,
Sed mýstico spirámine But of the Spirit, Thou art still
Verbum Dei factum caro, The Word of God in flesh arrayed
Fructusque ventris flóruit. The promised Fruit to man displayed.
Alvus tumescit Vírginis, The virgin womb that burden gained
Claustra pudóris pérmanent, With virgin honor all unstained;
Vexilla virtútum micant, The banners there of virtue glow;
Versátur in templo Deus. God in His temple dwells below.
Procédens de thálamo suo, Forth from His chamber goeth He,
Pudóris aulo regia, That royal home of purity,
Géminae gigans substantiae A giant in twofold substance one,
Alácris ut currat viam. Rejoicing now His course to run.
Egressus ejus a Patre, From God the Father He proceeds,
Regressus ejus ad Patrem: To God the Father back He speeds;
Excursus usque ad ínferos His course He runs to death and hell,
Recursus ad sedem Dei. Returning on God’s throne to dwell.
Aequális aeterno Patri, O equal to the Father, Thou!
Carnis trophaeo accíngere: Gird on Thy fleshly mantle now;
Infirma nostri córporis The weakness of our mortal state
Virtúte firmans pérpeti. With deathless might invigorate.
Praesépe jam fulget tuum, Thy cradle here shall glitter bright,
Lumenque nox spirat novum, And darkness breathe a newer light,
Quod nulla nox intérpolet, Where endless faith shall shine serene,
Fidéque jugi lúceat. And twilight never intervene.
Gloria tibi, Dómine, O Jesu, Virgin-born, to thee
Qui natus es de Vírgine, Eternal praise and glory be,
Cum Patre et sancto Spíritu, Whom with the Father we adore
In sempiterna sæcula. Amen. And Holy Spirit, evermore.
Beáta víscera Maríae Vírginis, quae portavérunt aeterni Patris Filium: et beáta úbera, quae lactavérunt Christum Dóminum: * Qui hodie pro salúte mundi de Vírgine nasci dignátus est. V. Dies sanctificátus illuxit nobis: veníte, gentes, et adoráte Dóminum. Qui hódie... (The seventh responsory of Christmas Matins.)
The Adoration of the Shepherds, by Domenico Ghirlandaio, 1483-5, from the Sassetti Chapel at the church of the Holy Trinity in Florence. The artist portrayed himself as the shepherd closest to the Christ Child, pointing Him out to the others; his hand is also right next to the garland sculpted on the sarcophagus being used as a manger, since his name derives from the Italian word for ‘garland.’ The Latin inscription on the sarcophagus refers to a legend that when the Romans captured Jerusalem in 63BC, an augur named Fulvius, who was killed in the siege, had prophesied the coming of Christ: “As he fell by Pompey’s sword in Jerusalem, the augur Fulvius said ‘The urn that covereth me shall bring forth a god.’ ”
R. Blessed be the womb of the Virgin Mary, which bore the Son of the Eternal Father, and blessed be the breasts which give milk to Christ the Lord, * Who on this day hath deigned to be born of a Virgin for the salvation of the world. V. A hallowed day hath dawned upon us; o come, ye nations, and worship the Lord. Who on this day...
A polyphonic setting by the Portuguese composter João Rodrigues Esteves (ca. 1700-51).On behalf of the publisher and writers of New Liturgical Movement, I wish all of our readers a Merry Christmas, and every blessing from the Child that is born unto us! By the prayers of the Holy Mother of God and all the Saints, may God grant peace and healing to the Church and to the world in the coming year.
The following post is largely based on notes written by our Ambrosian writer Nicola de’ Grandi.
Christmas Eve is one of three occasions, along with Epiphany and Pentecost, on which the Ambrosian Mass is celebrated in a special form in the middle of First Vespers of the feast. (An analogous custom is followed on Holy Thursday, but with some significant differences.) This is one of the oldest traditions of the Ambrosian Rite, and long predates its adoption of the Roman custom of having three different Masses for Christmas. Although the service shares some of penitential character of the Roman vigil of Christmas, it is celebrated in white, and was originally the Milanese equivalent of the Roman Midnight Mass.
The beginning of the Mass of Christmas Eve in an Ambrosian Missal printed in 1594.
In the Ambrosian Office, almost every feature is introduced by “Dominus vobiscum”; I will omit the frequent repetition of it from this description. Vespers begins with a responsory which is called a lucernarium; the repertoire of these is very limited, but Christmas does have its own.
R. (Psalm 131) Paravi lucernam Christo meo: inimicos ejus induam confusione; * super ipsum autem florebit sanctificatio mea. V. Memento, Domine, David et omnis mansuetudinis ejus: Super ipsum... Paravi lucernam… sanctificatio mea.
(I have prepared a lamp for my anointed one; his enemies I will clothe with confusion, but upon him will my sanctification flourish. O Lord, remember David, and all his meekness.)
There follows the hymn Intende qui regis Israël, which was composed by St Ambrose himself. This is not found in the Breviary of St Pius V or its medieval predecessors, but was sung in many other Uses of the Roman Divine Office, omitting the first stanza (a paraphrase of some verses of Psalm 79.) It is therefore more commonly known by the opening words of the second stanza, Veni, Redemptor gentium. (Full text at this post: https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2019/12/st-ambroses-christmas-hymn-veni.html)
A recording of part of the Ambrosian version by the mighty Schola Hungarica:
The hymn is regularly followed by another responsory, call “in Choro”, since in the cathedral it was sung by the clergy standing around the throne of the archbishop, who led the chanting of it. (Many features of the Ambrosian Office are assigned to specific offices within the cathedral chapter.) The text is repeated from parts of the preceding hymn.
R. Praesepe jam fulget tuum, lumenque nox spirat novum. * Veni, Redemptor gentium, ostende partum Virginis. V. Non ex virili semine, sed divino spiramine. Veni…
(Thy cradle already shines, and the night breathes a new light: come, Redeemer of the nations, show forth the Virgin’s childbirth, not from the seed of man, but by the breath of the Spirit.)
At this point, Vespers is interrupted, and four prophecies from the Old Testament are sung, each concerning the promise of the birth of a child. Each of these is followed by a chant called a Psalmellus, similar to a Roman gradual, and then a prayer.
1. Isaiah 7, 10-17; 8, 4 (Emmanuel, i.e. God is with us, the prophecy of the Messiah and the Virgin Birth, cited in the Gospel of this Mass.)
Psalmellus Tui sunt caeli, et tua est terra: orbem terrarum, et plenitudinem ejus * tu fundasti. V. Misericordias tuas, Domine, in æternum cantabo: in generatione, et progenie pronunciabo veritatem tuam in ore me. Tu fundasti.
(Thine are the heavens, and thine is the earth; the world and the fullness thereof didst Thou found. V. Thy mercies, o Lord, forever will I sing; to generation and generation I will speak forth Thy truth with my mouth.)
Oratio Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui in Filii tui Domini nostri Jesu Christi Nativitate tribuisti totius religionis initium perfectionemque constare: da nobis, quæsumus, in ejus portione censeri, in quo totius salutis humanæ summa consistit. Qui tecum.
(Almighty and everlasting God, who in the birth of Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, did grant that the beginning and perfection of all religion should be established; grant us, we ask, to be counted among His portion in whom the fullness of all human salvation consists, even Him who with Thee…)
2. Judges 13, 2-9 (Sampson, who like Christ is called a “Nazarene”, i.e. one consecrated to God.)
Psalmellus Nascetur nobis parvulus, et vocabitur Deus fortis: * ipse sedebit super thronum David, et imperabit. V. Magnus Dominus, et laudabilis nimis in civitate Dei nostri, in monte sancto ejus. Ipse sedebit…
(A child shall be born to us, and he shall be called the mighty God: he shall sit upon the throne of David and rule. V. Great is the Lord, and exceedingly to be praised in the city of our God upon his holy mountain. He shall sit…)
OratioDeus, qui populo tuo integrum præstitisti redemptionis effectum, ut non solum Unigeniti tui Nativitate corporea, sed etiam Crucis ejus patibulo salvaretur: hujus, quæsumus, fidei famulis tuis tribue firmitatem; ut usque ad promissum gloriæ tuæ præmium, ipso gubernante, perveniant. Qui tecum.
(God, who granted to Thy people the complete effect of redemption, so that it might be saved not only by corporeal Birth of Thy only-begotten Son, but also by the gibbet of his cross; grant, we ask, to thy servants constancy in this faith, that they may come unto the promised reward of Thy glory, under the governance of Him who with thee…)
3. Genesis 15, 1-10 (Isaac)
Psalmellus Salvator noster descendit de coelo, per Mariæ Virginis uterum: ab Angelis collaudatur, * et vocatur admirabilis Deus. V. Regnum teneo virginitatis, et Regem genui. Et vocatur admirabilis Deus.
(Our Savior has come down from heaven through the womb of Mary the Virgin; He is praised by the angels, and is called the wonderful God. V. I hold the kingdom of virginity, and I have begotten the king, and he is called…)
Oratio Exaudi nos, Domine Redemptor noster, beata tempora celebrantes, quibus tua caelestis æternitas humanis infusa pectoribus assumpsit hominem liberandum. Qui cum Patre.
(Hear us, o Lord our Redeemer, as we celebrate these blessed times, in which Thy heavenly eternity, poured forth upon the breasts of men, took up the liberation of man. Who with the Father…)
Hannah Presents Samuel to Eli, 1665, by the Dutch painter Gerbrand van den Eeckhout (1621-74).
4. 1 Samuel 1, 7-17 (Samuel)
Psalmellus Obsecro, Domine, ut Angelus, quem misisti, veniat iterum, et doceat nos, quid operemur in puerum, * qui nasciturus est nobis. V. Tollite portas Principis vestri, et elevamini, portæ æternales; ut introeat Rex gloriæ, qui nasciturus est nobis.
(I beseech Thee, o Lord, that the Angel whom Thou sent they come again, and teach us what we should do for the boy who is to be born unto us. V. Lift up the gates of your Prince, and be lifted up, you everlasting doors, that the king of glory may come in who is to be born unto us.)
While this last psalmellus is being sung, the celebrant changes from cope to chasuble, and approaches the altar for beginning of the Mass, the first prayer of which serves as the prayer to this last prophecy.
The Mass is celebrated in a form which is particular to these vigils, in which all the antiphons are omitted, with the exception of a brief chant called a cantus between the Epistle (itself only two verses long, Hebrews 10, 38-39) and the Gospel, Matthew 1, 18-25. The Ambrosian Mass has no Kyrie or Agnus Dei, and the Gloria and Creed are omitted, so the Sanctus is the only part of the Ordinary which is used.
Oratio super populum (the equivalent of the Roman Collect) Deus, qui hunc diem sacratissimum per Incarnationem Verbi tui, et partum Mariæ Virginis consecrasti, da populis tuis in hac celebritate consortium : ut, qui tua gratia sunt redempti, tua sint protectione securi. Per eundem…
(God, who consecrated this most sacred day through the incarnation of Thy word and the childbirth of the Virgin Mary; grant to thy peoples a share in this celebration, that they who have been redeemed by Thy grace maybe safe under Thy protection. Through the same…)
Cantus Qui regis Israel, intende: qui deducis, velut ovem, Joseph. (Thou who rulest Israel hearken, who leadest forth Joseph like a sheep. Ps. 79, 1)
Oratio super sindonem (i.e. ‘over the shroud’ said after the deacon has spread the corporal on the altar at the beginning of the Offertory rite.) Deus, qui humanæ substantiæ dignitatem mirabiliter condidisti, et mirabilius reformasti: da nobis, quæsumus, Jesu Christi Filii tui divinitatis esse consortes, qui humanitatis nostræ dignatus est fieri particeps. Qui tecum…
(O God, who did wonderfully create human nature, and more wonderfully reform it; grant us, we ask, that we may have a share in the divinity of Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who deigned to become a partaker of our humanity. Who with Thee…)
This very ancient prayer for Christmas is found in the oldest surviving collection of Roman liturgical texts, the so-called Leonine Sacramentary, and was, of course, later added to the Offertory prayers of the Mass.
Oratio super oblatam (i.e. the Secret, but sung out loud in the Ambrosian Rite.) Præ cæteris solemnitatibus gloriantes, hodie tibi, Domine, vota persolvimus: quia ipse, cujus corpus immolamus, immaculatus Agnus est editus Jesus Christus Dominus noster. Qui tecum.
(Glorying more than on the other solemn feasts, today, o Lord, we offer Thee our prayers, because He himself whose body we sacrifice, the immaculate Lamb, is brought forth, Jesus Christ our Lord, who with Thee…
The Preface Per Christum, Dóminum nostrum: Cuius hodie faciem in confessióne praevenímus, et voce súpplici exorámus, ut superventúrae noctis officiis nos ita pervígiles reddat: ut sincéris méntibus eius percípere mereámur Natále ventúrum. In quo invisíbilis ex substantia tua, visíbilis per carnem appáruit in nostra. Tecumque unus non témpore génitus, non natúra inferior, ad nos venit ex témpore natus. Per quem maiestátem tuam…
Truly... Through Christ our Lord. Before whose presence we come today in thanksgiving, and pray with humble voice, that by the offices of the coming night, He may make us ever watchful, such that we may merit to receive the feast of His Birth that is to come with all our heart. On which feast, though of Thy substance invisible, through the flesh He appeared as one visible in ours; and being one with Thee, begotten, but not in time, nor less than Thee in nature, was born in time and came to us. Through whom the Angels praise Thy majesty etc.
Oratio post Communionem Sacrosancti Corporis et Sanguinis Domini nostri Jesu Christi refectione vegetati, supplices te rogamus, omnipotens Deus: ut hoc remedium singulare ab omnium peccatorum nos contagione purificet. Per eundem…
Quickened by the refreshment of the most holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, we humbly ask Thee, almighty God, that this singular remedy may purify us from the contagion of all sins. Through the same…
When the Mass is completed, Vespers resumes with the psalms and Magnificat, which are arranged in a very ancient manner unique to the Ambrosian Rite. The first psalm is verses 2-7 of Psalm 84 (verse 1 is the title), to which are attached psalms 133 and 116, all sung together as if they were a single psalm, with the following antiphon, “Veniet ex Sion qui eripiat et avertat impietatem ab Iacob.” (He shall come from Sion to deliver and turn away impiety from Jacob. ~ It begins at 4:42 in this recording.)
This is followed by a prayer: “Tribue nobis, quaesumus, omnipotens Deus: ut, qui Unigenitum tuum manentem in tua gloria Deum, in carne nostri corporis natum per sacrosanctam Mariam Virginem confitentur, nulla possint adversa schismaticorum opinione perverti. Per eundem...” (Grant to us, we ask, almighty God, that they who confess that Thy only-begotten Son, God abiding in Thy glory, was born in the flesh of our body through the most holy Virgin Mary, may not be able to be led astray by any contrary opinion of schismatics. Through the same Christ our Lord...).
Next is the rest of Psalm 84 (verses 8-14), with the antiphon “Veni, Redemptor gentium, ostende partum Virginis”, and another prayer in a very similar vein to the previous one. “Da, quaesumus, Domine, populo tuo inviolabilis fidei firmitatem: ut, qui Unigenitum tuum in tua gloria tecum sempiternum, in veritate nostri corporis natum de Matre Virgine confitentur, et a praesentibus liberentur adversis, et mansuris gaudiis inserantur. Per eundem...” (Grant to Thy people, we ask, o Lord, the firmness of inviolable faith, that they who confess that Thy only-begotten Son, everlasting with Thee in Thy glory, was born in the reality of our body from the Virgin Mother, may be delivered from present adversities, and be brought unto abiding joys. Through the same Christ our Lord...)
Finally, the Magnificat is sung (7:08 in the video above), followed by yet another prayer. The antiphon is one of a handful of Ambrosian “double” antiphons, which are sung in full before and after their psalm or canticle. The text is the same verses of Exodus (16, 6 and 17) used for the invitatory and Mass Introit of Christmas Eve in the Roman Rite, and the concluding prayer is that of the Roman vigil Mass.
Aña Hodie scietis, quia veniet Dominus, et mane videbitis gloriam Dei. (Today ye shall know that the Lord will come, and in the morning, ye shall see His glory.)
Oratio Deus, qui nos redemptiónis nostrae ánnua exspectatióne laetíficas: praesta; ut Unigénitum tuum, quem Redemptórem laeti suscípimus, venientem quoque Júdicem secúri videámus, Dóminum nostrum Jesum Christum, Fílium tuum... (O God, Who dost gladden us with the yearly expectation of our redemption, grant that we, who now welcome with joy Thy only-begotten Son as our Redeemer, may also gaze upon Him without fear when He comes as our judge, even our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son...)
The baptistery of St John “ad Fontes” is seen in the drawing below as the octagonal building between Milan’s two cathedrals. The larger one on the left, dedicated to St Thecla, was also known as the summer church, used from Easter until the 3rd Sunday of October; the smaller one on the right, the winter church, was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and used from that Sunday until the Easter vigil. St Mary’s also had a baptistery, named for St Stephen the First Martyr, which is not seen here, and of which nothing now remains; this would have been where St Ambrose himself was baptized. The modern Duomo is built over and oriented the same way as St Mary’s, but is very much larger; St Thecla was demolished in the 16th century, but its memory is preserved by the presence of an altar dedicated to her in the cathedral’s left transept, and by the fact that the cathedral parish as a corporate entity is named for her.
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