Saints and feasts of December

Herewith a few quick notes on the Office for the month, and some calendar comparisons.

Advent

We are once again in the season of Advent, the complex of the period of the year so far as the Office is concerned, so do keep a close eye on your Ordo!

The main thing to keep in mind for the next few weeks is that the antiphons for Prime to None are of the week, while at all the other hours, most of the texts are of the season  - that means that at Lauds and Vespers, after the psalms are said, you need to use the texts at the front of your Diurnal instead of the chapter, hymn and so forth in the psalter section of your book.

 Feasts of the month

The table below compares the calendars for the Benedictine and Roman Office for various dates, and provides links to notes on the saints celebrated. 

1953 vs 1960

For those interested in the earlier calendar, several of the changes made (reduction in rank of the feasts of SS Ambrose and Lucy; abolition of the octave of the Immaculate Conception) were clearly aimed at making the length of Matins more manageable, since in the Benedictine Office, unlike the Roman, three Nocturn feasts are about double the length of ferial Office.  

Feasts generally do not change the length of the day hours, and are celebrated more or less the same way at them more or less regardless of what their rank is (the key differences generally are between Class III feasts without their own antiphons, and those that use their own antiphons or those from the Common).  

But feasts do have a huge impact on Benedictine Matins, already the longest hour of the day (and significantly longer than post 1911 Roman festal and ferial Matins) since they add three extra canticles (as the third Nocturn) and nine extra readings and responsories.

In the pre-1911 Roman Office Office, by contrast, feasts (and typically days within an octave), at least in the post-Trent books, amount to around half the length of the 'ferial' Office. And so, in the interest of avoiding to ever having to say the ferial office, feasts multiplied.  

These work avoidance calendar changes were, alas, foisted on the Benedictine Office as well, even though they had the opposite effect to the Roman schema, until the tidy-up of the calendar in 1960.

It should also be noted that a lot of the extra material (such as the third nocturn readings and responsories for the feasts of SS Ambrose and Lucy) is taken from the Common, so is not unique to these particular feasts.

Date	1960 Benedictine	1962 Roman (where different from the Benedictine)	1953 Benedictine (where different to 1960; ranks are rough equivalents only)	Ben Confed/ 2025 Roman (where extra/different)	Other
1					Blessed Richard, Hugo, John and companions
2	St Peter Chrysologus, Memorial	St Bibiana	St Peter Chrysologus, Class III
3	St Francis Xavier, Memorial
4		St Peter Chrysologus, Class III; St Barbara, Memorial		St John Damascene (see MD 27 March)	Illation of the Relics of St Benedict
5		St Sabbas		St Sabbas
6	St Nicholas, Memorial	St Nicholas, Class III
7	St Ambrose, Class III (not marked in 2025)		St Ambrose, Class II
8	Immaculate Conception, Class I
9			Octave of the immaculate Conception		St Juan Diego
10		St Melchiadis, Memorial	Octave of the immaculate Conception		Blessed Mark Barworth, John Roberts and Companions
11	St Damasus, Memorial	St Damasus, Class III	Octave of the immaculate Conception
12			Octave of the immaculate Conception	St Jane Frances de Chantal (EF : 21 August)	Our Lady of Guardeloupe
13	St Lucy, Class III		St Lucy, Class II; Octave of the immaculate Conception
14			Octave of the immaculate Conception	St John of the Cross (see MD 24 November)
15			Octave of the immaculate Conception
16		St Eusebius, Class III
17	2025: Ember Day At Vespers: O Sapientia
18	At Vespers: O Adonai
19	2025: Ember Day At Vespers: O Radix Iesse
20	2025: Ember Day At Vespers: O Clavis David		Vigil of St Thomas
21	St Thomas, Class II (not marked in 2025). At Vespers: O Oriens			St Peter Canisius (dee MD 27 April)
22	At Vespers: O Rex genetium
23	At Vespers: O Emmanuel
24	Vigil of the Nativity, Class I
25	Nativity of Our Lord, Class I
26	St Stephen; Octave of the Nativity
27	St John; Octave of the Nativity
28	Holy Innocents; Octave of the Nativity
29	Octave of the Nativity	St Thomas Becket, Memorial	St Thomas Becket, Memorial	St Thomas Becket
30	Octave of the Nativity
31	Octave of the Nativity; St Sylvester, Memorial

 

Feasts of November

Saint Mary church - x12th century, restored 1896-1903)
Source: Wolfgang Sauber, Wiki Commons 

Herewith a quick overview of this month's feasts, and a few notes on them.

Month of the Dead

The calendar includes two days of prayer for the dead this year: All Souls is celebrated on November 3 this year, due to the clash with a Sunday; while All Souls OSB is on November 14.  

But it is also traditional to pray for the dead outside of these days this month, and so do consider saying some or all of the Office of the Dead on other days if you can manage it! If you are interested, you can find notes on the psalms used in the Office of the Dead here. 

Matins reading cycle

November marks the resumption of weekday Scriptural readings in the Benedictine Office, with readings each day of the week from the book of Ezekiel (unless of course you are using an earlier breviary, in which case the Scriptural readings are supplanted by patristic readings on All Saints for the next week or so).

In the traditional Office, Matins is the main vehicle for reading of at least some (originally likely pretty much all) of most books of the Bible over the course of the year.  In St Benedict's original conception, the length of the readings steadily increased as the nights grew longer, as well as during Lent.  But from Easter until November, the Scriptural reading cycle was carried out on Sundays only, with only very short, fixed readings during summer and the months around it, in order to ensure the monk's got enough sleep.

Over time, however, the Scriptural reading cycle has been progressively squeezed out in favour of patristic readings either for particular seasons (such as Lent) or for feasts, Octaves  and Vigils. St Benedict did of course, prescribed patristic readings in the Office - but by way of commentary on the Scriptural readings, not as something separate from that.

One of the positive virtues of the 1962 breviary, in my view, is that it has pared back these incursions, many of which recycle the same short readings several times across the course of the year, at least somewhat, and given greater prominence to the ferial psalm and reading cycle as St Benedict intended it.

But those who wish can make their own judgments by reading through the assorted Patristic readings!

OSB Feasts

This month's calendar also includes an example of one of the more bizarre 'reforms' of 1962: the feast of a Benedictine saint, St Sylvester (founder of the Sylvestrine Congregation) with a lower ranking in the Benedictine calendar than the Roman!

There is an obvious rationale for reducing three Nocturn feasts to two Nocturn ones in the Benedictine Office.

But rather less of one, I think, for reducing some eighteen Class III equivalent feasts to memorials in 1962, particularly given that three of them related to Benedictine saints!

Fortunately the decree Cum Sanctissima allows for such feasts to be celebrated as Class III, and you can find the feasts for St Sylvester in the Brignoles version of the 1963 breviary on page 552*. 

Date	1960 Benedictine	1962 Roman (where different from the Benedictine)	1953 Benedictine	Ben Confed/ 2025 Roman (where extra/different)	Other
1	All Saints, Class I		All Saints	All Saints**
2	All Souls**(transferred to 3 November this year).	All Souls**	Octave of All Saints; Commemoration of All Souls
3	**	**	Octave of All Saints	St Martin de Porres
4	St Charles Borromeo, Memorial	St Charles Borromeo, Class III	Octave of All Saints; St Charles, Memorial
5			Octave of All Saints	St Willibrord OSB
6	Four Crowned Martyrs, Memorial		Octave of All Saints		Wales: All Saints of Wales
7			Octave of All Saints
8			Octave Day of All Saints; Four Crowned martrys, memorial
9	Dedication of the Lateran, Class II		Dedication of the Lateran; St Theodore, memorial
10	St Theodore, memorial	St Andrew Avellino, Class III		St Leo I (see 11 April in MD)
11	St Martin of Tours, Class II	St Martin of Tours, Class III	St Martin of Tours; St Mennas, Memorial
12	St Mennas, Memorial	St Martin I, Class III		St Theodore of Studis or St Josaphat
13	All Saints OSB, Class II	St Didacus, Class III			US: St Frances Xavier Cabrini, Class IIIAll
14	All Souls OSB, Class II	St Josaphat, Class III
15	St Albert the Great, Memorial	St Albert the Great, Class III	St Albert the Great, Class III (Duplex)
16		St Gertrude, Class III**	St Gertrude (see 17 November in MD)		St Margaret of Scotland
17	St Gertrude, Class II/III	St Gregory Thaumaturgis, Class III	St Margaret of Scotland or St Elizabeth of Hungary
18	Dedication of the Basilicas of SS Peter and Paul, Class III
19		St Elizabeth of Hungary, Class III	St Pontianus, Memorial	St Mechtilde
20		St Felix of Valois, Class III			St Edmund
21	Presentation of the BVM, Class III; St Columba, Memorial	Presentation of the BVM, Class III
22	St Caecilia, Class III		St Caecilia, Class II
23	St Clement, Class III: St Felicitas, Memorial**	St Clement, Class III: St Felicitas, Memorial**	St Clement, Class III: St Felicitas, Memorial
24	St John of the Cross and Chrysogonus, Memorials	St John of the Cross, Class III	St John of the Cross, Class III (duplex); St Chrysogonus, Memorials	SS Andrew Dung-Lac and the Vietnamese Martyrs or St Columba
25	St Catherine of Alexandria, Memorial	St Catherine of Alexandria, Class III
26	St Slyvester OSB, Memorial	St Slyvester, Class III	St Slyvester, Class III
27					Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal
28
29	St Saturninus, Memorial		Vigil of St Andrew; St Saturninus, Memoria		Blessed Andrew Whiting and companions OSB
30	St Andrew, Class II**		St Andrew

 **Not in 2025