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

Ordo for the Benedictine Office 2025 - 2026: now available!

Just to let you know, the Ordo for the coming liturgical year is now available for purchase through Lulu.

I've provided three versions this year:

• paperback
• ebook (EPUB), for use on devices such as kindles; and
• PDF.

1962

As usual, the Ordo is keyed to the '1962' books, which in this case means the rubrics and General Calendar approved for the Benedictine Confederation in 1960.

It includes pages references to the Office books based on this calendar and rubrics, including the St Michael's Abbey (Farnborough) Monastic Diurnal editions dating from 2005 onwards for the day hours; the 1963 Monastic Breviary, newly reprinted by Pax inter Spinas Press (Brignoles); and the Le Barroux Nocturnale Monasticum for Matins. The Matins books published by Gower can also readily be used in conjunction with this Ordo.  

The Ordo includes references to books containing the chants where possible, particularly the Antiphonale Monasticum 1934 (which can readily be used for it).

The ferial vs festal Office

The Ordo basically assumes that you are familiar with the 'ferial' form of the Benedictine Office (ie the hour as set out in the psalter section of your Office book).  If you aren't sure how to say the hours, check out the notes here!

The Ordo, though, helps you find the parts of the Office that change according to the season, feast and day.

For an ordinary weekday during the year, for example, the only 'variable' text is the collect (usually that of the relevant Sunday).  So an entry might look like this, where MD stands for Monastic Diurnal, and AM for Antiphonale Monasticum:

Monday 8 June – Class IV 

All as in the psalter for throughout the year; collect MD 462*/AM 557.

Where there is a commemoration to be made, or a feast adds or changes some of the texts, the Ordo spells out the changes in detail, as the example below illustrates:

Thursday 25 December – The Nativity of Our Lord (Christmas), Class I 

Matins: Three nocturns with invitatory, hymn, psalms, antiphons, twelve readings and responsories all of the feast, MB 92/NM 56/LR 54 ff. 

Lauds: Festal psalms with chapter, responsory, hymn, versicle, Benedictus antiphon and collect of the feast, MD 61*/AM 240 ff. 

Prime: Psalms of the day of the week; antiphon MD 64*/AM 244. 

Terce to None: Psalms of the day of the week; antiphon, chapter, versicle and collect of the feast, MD 64-5*/AM 244-5. 

2 Vespers of the Nativity: Antiphons, psalms, chapter, responsory, hymn, versicle, Magnificat antiphon and collect of the feast, MD 65*/AM 245 ff.

(MB = Monastic Breviary; NM= Nocturnale Monasticum; LR =  Liber Responsorialis)

'1962 Plus'

The Ordo also lists selected feasts of saints that can or should be added into the (admittedly rather stark) 1960 monastic calendar, as well as the main variants in rubrics employed by the traditional monasteries.

Adding in required feasts

In the 'should' be added category, the Ordo lists feasts specific to particular countries and regions.  Individual readers should also check for any specific to their own diocese and associated monastery, as well as adding in the feast of the dedication of the (current) cathedral of their diocese.

Optional feasts

In the 'can' category, the decree Cum Sanctissima permitted almost any feast or saint from the martyrology, as well as saints canonised since 1962, to be said as a Class III feast, provided the rules of precedence allow it, and provided that the Mass of the day is the same as the Office.  

As well as alerting users to the relevant feast, the Ordo provides references to sources for the proper texts where these are available.  The feasts are from:

• the 1962 Extraordinary Form calendar;
• selected feasts specific to some monasteries;
• 1953 and earlier twentieth century monastic breviaries removed in 1960; and
• the newer Benedictine Confederation (Ordinary Form) calendar (note though that this calendar is currently under review and a new version may be promulgated in the near future).

For example:

Tuesday 2 December – Class III; St Peter Chrysologus, Memorial [1953: Class III. EF: St Bibiana, Class III]

 For St Peter Chrysologus as Class III, MB 426*/AM 759.

 Ordinary of Advent; antiphons at Prime to None of week 1; canticle antiphons at Lauds and Vespers, MD 18*/AM 191-2; collect, MD 11*/AM 189; for the commemoration at Lauds, MD [8-9]/AM 759.

[MB in this case refers to the supplementary material in the Brignoles reprint of the 1963 Breviary]

Feasts celebrated on different dates

This year's ordo also includes an appendix listing the (large number of) changes in dates for feasts celebrated in both the 1960 and 2002 calendars to assist those who attend Mass in the Ordinary Form and want to say the Office appropriate to the day in that calendar.

1953?

Given the considerable interest in earlier twentieth century versions of the breviary, this year's Ordo provides more extensive notes and references to the 1953 breviary (which largely apply also to the 1930 breviary), though not a full Ordo.

 Corrections and suggestions

As always, if you have any suggestions or comments on the Ordo for the future, or find any errors in the Ordo, please do alert me either by commenting on the blog or email. 

And of course, if you are a monk, nun or a monastery and would like a copy, please contact me and I'll send you a copy!

Coming soon - Ordo for the 2026 liturgical year, and a chant book for Matins....

I've been receiving a steady stream of inquiries asking about the Ordo for the Benedictine Office coming liturgical year, so thought I would reassure readers that yes, it will be available shortly.  

I'm just waiting to see the (hopefully) final printed version of it before making it available in early November.

This year's Ordo

The Ordo will, as usual, provide a full guide to the moving parts of the Benedictine Office, with page references to the Monastic Diurnal and Antiphonale Monasticum (for those who want to sing the Office) for the day hours, as well as cross-references to feasts not included in the 1960 monastic calendar but included in the 1962 Roman; used by particular monasteries (where I've been made aware of them); and specific to selected countries and regions.

I have also added some additional material this year, including:

• an appendix showing the considerable number of feasts included in both the 1960 and 2002 monastic calendars, but whose date of celebration changed.  This should be of assistance to those who attend the novus ordo mass on weekdays, and want to say the relevant office of the day (as well as potentially those who are oblates of a monastery using the modern sanctoral cycle);
• references to page numbers in the 1963 breviary for Matins, given the greater availability of the full breviary following the release of the Brignoles reprint;
• cross-references to sources (such as the Brignoles Breviary and the Creek Creek Enchirion) for both older and newer feasts that can be added to the calendar under the terms of the decree Cum Sanctissima;
• improved notes (though not a full ordo) on the pre-1960 Office, so that readers can assess for themselves the merits or otherwise of the various versions of the breviary.

Watch this space for news on availability!

The Brignoles Nocturnale, Volume 1

And while you are waiting for the Ordo to become available, can I also alert you, in case you are not already aware of  it, to the forthcoming first volume of the Brignoles Nocturnale.

It has long been a source of scandal, in my view, that there is no published full Nocturnale containing the necessary chants for the monastic Night Office.

The monastic Office, after all, is intended to be sung, not said, or even, I would suggest, chanted recto tono.  

Rather, the longer tradition is that it should be sung.

And that is particularly true of Matins, which includes some of the richest chants in the entire repertoire.

Chant books for Matins

There have been books published in the past that have provided some of the necessary chants  for Matins - such as books for the Christmas season and Holy Week; a book containing many of the invitatories; and the Liber Responsorialis, which provided the chants for the Commons and a selection of feasts.

But pretty much all of these are long out of print and so hard to obtain, and none of them provide all of the chants necessary to sing Matins in the Benedictine form throughout the year.

The Brignoles project aims to change that.

Volume 1, which provides the psalter section together with the Ordinary for the various liturgical seasons, is therefore a huge milestone in this regard.

Previous psalters

There are, it should be noted, two previous books which provide monastic psalters with some chants for the the ferial Night Office.  

The first was put out by Solesmes in 1981, but uses the neo-Vulgate texts for the psalms, doesn't include chants for the hymns or ordinary of seasons, and the antiphons frequently differ to those in the 1963 breviary, rendering it effectively useless for those who use the 1960 calendar and rubrics.  

The other is a draft psalter put together by Peter Sandhofe (who published the Nocturnale Romanum) but never adequately proofed or published.  The Sandhofe draft was actually a useful step forward, in that it bought together proposed chants for the antiphons and hymns each day.  The chants themselves though, clearly needed another round of corrections to the transcriptions and scrutiny of some of the choices made.  And the text of the psalms themselves, alas, contained many errors.

This new book, then, which has been carefully road tested, will therefore fill an important gap.  Do consider ordering it if you say Matins!

Benedictines of Mary Matins books review

I mentioned a while back that the Benedictines of Mary have now made publicly available their Matins books.

As I've seen a few questions about them in various places, I thought a fuller review might be useful!

Matins

Matins in the Benedictine Office is not an hour most laypeople will be in a position to say - it is easily the longest of the hours in the Office, generally taking a minimum of around an hour to say (with some variation by day), and is significantly longer on Sundays and feasts.  And it includes not only a lot of psalms (14 each night, of which two are fixed), but also a lot of readings.  

But if you do have the time, and are intent on saying it at least on occasion, but don't (yet) have enough Latin to use the Latin only Monastic Breviary or Nocturnale, this is the set of books for you!  

They contain everything you need to say the Night Office as said according to the 1960 calendar and rubrics, in both Latin and English.  

The books will also be useful as a reference document for breviary users, for those cases where the meaning of the hymns or readings seem particularly hard to grasp.

Accordingly, you can now throw out your English only copy of  'Monastic Breviary Matins' with its dodgy translations, changes to some readings and feasts!

The books

There are four volumes to the set.  All are printed on solid white paper, in black and red.  The books are  spiral (coil) bound, and paperback book size (8.5 in × 6.5 in × 1 in).

As such, they are clearly intended as working books used for study purposes, and will withstand robust treatment for study. They are not, however, exemplars of the 'liturgical arts' (though perhaps the sisters will consider having them printed properly down the tack if there is enough interest?).

The text size is similar to the Breviary, but smaller than the Nocturnale.

Volume 1

Volume 1 provides the psalter for each day of the week, as well as the fixed sections of the 'of time' and 'of saints' sections of the breviary necessary for Class III feasts and days.  

For the psalter book, it lays out the psalms and canticles in the standard two columns, left side Latin, right side English, as illustrated below (apologies for the quality of the scans, the actual pages are quite clear!).

The layout makes several smart changes to the ordering of texts in the breviary which makes it much easier to use, such as putting the 'throughout the year' Sunday canticles (used much more frequently) before the other seasonal versions, and integrating the Office of Our Lady into Saturday.

This volume also includes the Ordinary for the seasons, so you don't have to go hunting elsewhere for the propers for Sundays and Class III days during Advent and Lent for example (though you will still need to consult one of the other books for the readings of the day).

One of the particularly nice features is the inclusion of the key sections of the Commons for Class III feasts (the Invitatory antiphon, hymn, chapter), which again is a great time saver.  I would note that the responsory for Class III feasts is generally a fixed one from each Common so they could have been included as well, but in text at least they don't take up much space and relate to the reading, so I can see why they didn't include them.

Volumes 2 - 4

The remaining three volumes provide the proper texts for feasts and days throughout the year. The volumes are divided by:

• Easter to September (end of August); 
• September through Christmas (to December 24);
• and Christmas through Lent.

Each of these volumes starts with the temporale (of time) section, then the sanctorale (of saints) and then provides the necessary Commons for feasts, as well as the readings for the Office of Our Lady on Saturday.

The translations

The Scriptural translations are in suitably archaic in language, and seem to be taken from the Douay-Rheims.

The translations of the patristic texts, though generally avoid archaisms and are admirably clear while retaining a formal tone.  Here is a sample from the Feast of the Maternity of the BVM:

Extra feasts

The books include a few bonus feasts specific to the US and the Benedictines of Mary, as well as ranking a few feasts in the General (Benedictine) calendar more highly.  You can obviously choose whether or not to say these as you prefer!

Several of these are feasts included in older versions of the Benedictine calendar, but excluded from the 1960.

And for those fans of 1953 or earlier, this is still a very useful reference set of texts to obtain given that the readings and responsories generally has not changed (except in a very small number of very minor instances).  Most of the 'missing' texts for feasts whose ranking was reduced can be found in the relevant Commons (check the Latin versions in the new reprint of the breviary).

The only differences in the rubrics for Matins as far as I am aware relate to:

• the opening of the hour, where the 1960 rubrics open the hour in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict's specifications, and so eliminates the Pater, Ave, Creed and Deus in adjutorium);
• the use of seasonal doxologies for the hymns (which you can find in the new reprint of the 1963 breviary); and
• commemoration of feasts through the twelfth reading in some cases in 1953 and earlier.

All up, this is a very useful, well thought through set of books, and the price is very good indeed - do consider adding a donation to the monastery with your purchase!