Tuesday, August 5, 2025

Using the diurnal with older or newer calendars part 2 - A refresher on feasts

In my last post I noted the differences between the Benedictine and modern sanctoral calendars using the example of August, and suggested some possible approaches to dealing with them, particularly when calendar followed in the Mass you attend differs from that of the Office.  

Today I want to elaborate on that a bit, by way of a brief refresher on how feasts are celebrated in the 1960 rubrics, to aid you in adding extra feasts to the calendar set out in the Monastic Diurnal and Breviary.

Levels of feasts in the 1960 calendar and the precedence of feasts

The first point to note is that although the calendar assigns different levels to each feast, viz Class I, Class II, Class III and Memorials (aka commemorations) the key distinctions between these levels in the Benedictine Office, particularly when it comes to the day hours, is not about how the Office is actually said, but rather which feasts take precedence over others.

That is relevant for adding in new feasts to the older calendar under the terms of the decree Cum Sanctissima, since it means that if there is already a feast set for the relevant day, you can't just override it. 

The Rules about which feasts take precedence are summarised in the Diurnal in the 'two tables', but for practical purposes, the key thing is that even if you can't celebrate a feast in full, you may be able to commemorate the newer feast instead, as the table below illustrates.  

Day level

No/type of commemoration permitted

Class I

Privileged only, 1 commemoration

Class II Sundays

Of a Class I or II feast only, 1 permitted

Class II feasts and days

One privileged and one ordinary

Class III or IV days and feasts

Two commemorations

Privileged commemorations are those of a Sunday, Class I feast, days in octave of Christmas, Sept Ember days, Advent, Lent and Passiontide ferias; privileged commemorations are made at both Lauds and Vespers; ordinary at Lauds only.

So the feast of St Edith Stein, for example, normally falls on the (Class III) Vigil of St Lawrence, so can be commemorated only.

The impact of feasts on the hours

The second point to note is that for the day hours, there is very little difference between celebrating a feast as Class I, Class II, or Class III - the major differences only occur at Matins.

In particular, whether a feast is Class I, II or III makes no difference at all to the way that the hours of Prime to None and Compline are celebrated, except for the use of particular chant tones for things like the hymn.

The key distinction between Class I&II feasts in principle was that Class I feasts have first Vespers, while Class II ones don't, but as most of the traditional monasteries have revived first Vespers for Class II feasts, this distinction is now largely moot.

The table below summarises the impact of the different level of feasts on the hour, in order of least impact to most.  

HOUR

Class I&II feasts

Class III feasts with own antiphons

Class III feasts without proper antiphons

Compline

No effect on texts but can use solemn/festal chant tones for psalms, hymn and Marian antiphon.

Prime

Psalms of the day with antiphon for the feast from the proper of the feast or Common; hymn tone appropriate to the feast level.

Terce to None

Psalms of the day with antiphon from the proper or Common; hymn tone appropriate to the level of the feast.

Lauds

Festal psalms with antiphons and all other variable texts from proper or Common. Canticle antiphon Benedicite*.

Psalms and antiphons of the day, with option of festal canticle; all other variable texts from the proper or Common.

Vespers

Festal psalms with antiphons and all other variable texts from proper or Common.

 

Psalms and antiphons of the day, with option of festal canticle; all other variable texts from the proper or Common.

 *I should also note that when it comes to Lauds, practices around the canticle of the day vary and the rubrics around them are ambiguous!

 Celebrating a feast using Propers and Commons

In terms of the actual texts to use, the general the principle is, where a feast has proper texts, use them, and fill in any gaps from the Common of the appropriate category of saint.

The Commons include standard collects for example, which you can simply insert the name of a saint into, but if your (officially approved) Missal or another Office book provides a specific one for the saint, you can certainly use that instead of the one in the Common.

The same principle applies to all the other variable texts of the hours, and indeed almost every feast in the calendar uses at least some texts from the Commons, while the majority of feasts of all levels do not have proper antiphons, but rather use the Commons.

The key difficulty in finding proper texts that can be used with the 1960 rubrics is that even where the modern Liturgy of the Hours has proper texts, it typically does not include a sufficient antiphons for example.  But in many cases at least some officially approved proper texts for them (including Matins readings) do exist. 

I've previously pointed to the Clear Creek supplements; another source is the (Latin-French) Diurnal Monastique (for Benedictine Congregation feasts in particular); and there are supplements specific to particular congregations or dioceses contained in some editions of the breviary.  Good luck hunting them down though!

Matins

I've left Matins to last, as this is the trickiest.

When it comes to Matins there is really only one key distinction between feast levels, namely those with three nocturns/twelve readings and responsories (Class I&II), and those with two Nocturns (Class III).

Class I&II feasts essentially follow the Sunday model, and always have festal psalms and antiphons (either proper or taken from the Common).

By contrast, the moving parts for Class III feasts are the Invitatory antiphon, hymn, reading(s), responsory or responsories, and collect.

In 'summer' (Easter to the end of October), there is generally only one reading and responsory.  The rest of the year at least one of the three readings of the day is specific to the feast, and there is always at least one (but there can be three) responsories for the feast (either proper to it, or taken from the Common). 

The key challenge is that generally speaking, there does need to be an officially approved reading on the life of the saint.  

Adding back feasts from older calendars that were eliminated in 1960 will shortly become much easier, with the publication of the reprint of the Breviary by Brignoles Monastery, as it includes a supplement for this purpose.

In the case of newer feasts, however, tracking down the necessary reading for the saint is not always easy, particularly as the modern 'Office of Readings' sometimes uses a reading from the saints writings instead.  Applying the normal principle though, you could presumably just use the first Patristic reading from the relevant Common in the absence of anything better...

Friday, August 1, 2025

Can you use the Diurnal with the modern or pre-1960 Roman calendars? A guide to August, Pt 1

There has been some discussion in a number of places recently on using the modern sanctoral Roman calendar (or some variants thereof) in conjunction with the Monastic Diurnal, so I thought I might provide some notes on this topic, as well as the related topic of the pre-1960 Benedictine or Roman calendars, using the month of August as an example.

The Office and the Mass

In essence, the problem is this: in an ideal world, the Office of the day should align with the Mass you attend.  

The Office and the Mass are supposed to reinforce each other, and on saints feasts, for example, at a minimum they will usually share the same collect, and the 'proper' texts (whether from the Common of the relevant type of saint, and/or specific to the feast) typically reflect similar themes. 

But there will always be at least some differences.

You might turn up to daily Mass and find that a Requiem Mass is being said that day for example, or perhaps a votive Mass, instead of the Mass of the day, neither of which have any necessary link to the Office required to be said that day (the Office of the Dead being entirely optional).

Moreover, for many feasts, the impact on the Office at the day hours at least (Matins is a different story, since it will typically contain at least one substantive reading on the saint of the day) is relatively minor.

So its arguably not a big deal if you say the Office of a feast, but the Mass you attend doesn't celebrate it, or vice versa.

Differing calendars

It is also important to be aware that unless you attend daily Mass in a monastery following the 1960 calendar, discrepancies between the calendars of the Office as set out in the Monastic Diurnal and the Mass you attend are inevitable. 

If you attend a Roman Extraordinary Form Mass, you will find it includes several feasts either not included in the Diurnal calendar at all, or in some cases, said on different days. 

And the differences are even greater with the Roman 2025 calendar, which moves many feasts to different days, and adds several new ones.

Possible approaches

Accordingly, it is certainly possible to simply use the Diurnal (or Breviary) and ignore any differences in the feasts celebrated in the Mass that you attend.

If you do want to align calendars between the Mass you attend and the Office that you say however, it really isn't actually that hard to do, and doing so is arguably perfectly consistent with liturgical law.  There are a couple of options you can follow.

Using the modern sanctoral calendar

The first option, which I understand is followed by the Solesmes Congregation traditional monasteries, is to move the sanctoral calendar around so that feasts are said on the same date as they are in current Roman calendar.  

In essence, when the Benedictine Confederation effectively deregulated control of the Office to individual monasteries and/or forced certain monasteries to use something other than the 1962 Mass, it required monasteries to use the Roman sanctoral calendar as it then stood together with a list of supplemental feasts for the Confederation. So, particularly if you are an oblate of one of those monasteries and attend a Novus Ordo Mass, you should ideally say the Office of the saint of the day in the 2025 calendar, not the monastic 1960 one.

Clear Creek Monastery has actually published two supplements, one for the Antiphonale (day hours) and one for the Night Office, available through Lulu, to assist this (it is worth noting though, that these books use older terminology for feast levels, and their calendar of saints does not always entirely align with the Roman 2025 one).

But you can get most of the way yourself without these if necessary.

In August, for example, as the table below shows, if you compare the current Roman calendar with the 1960 Benedictine one, there are ten feasts that are said on exactly the same day (highlighted in yellow), so you can just follow the Diurnal for them.

There are also a further five feasts celebrated on a different date (highlighted in green), so simply a matter of looking the saints name up in the index of saints names in the Diurnal, and using the texts on the appropriate date.

The 2025 calendar also contains several saints canonised since 1960 (highlighted in blue), most notably SS Peter Eymard (canonised 1962); St Teresa Benedicta (canonised 1998); and St Maximilian Kolbe (canonised 1982).  In these cases, the decree Cum Sanctissima gave permission for their Offices (and Mass) to be said with the 1962 books as Class III feasts.  Simply use the Common for the relevant type of saint - confessor for St Peter Eymard, Virgin martyr for St Teresa Benedicta and so forth.

That then leaves you with nine saints whose feasts were included in the 1962 Roman (EF) calendar, but not in the 1960 monastic one (although in a few cases they were in the 1953 and earlier calendars), highlighted in orange.  In some, but by no means all, cases the Solesmes Congregation has included these and you can find the necessary texts in the Supplements, use the Commons, or use an EF 1962 Office book to provide the necessary texts.

Adding feasts to the 1960 calendar

The other (and rather simpler) approach you can take is, consistent with Cum Sanctissima, simply to add any 'missing' feasts - newer or older (see purple highlighted) to the calendar set out in the Diurnal, and use normal principles where clashes occur.  If you want to say the Office of the Vigil of  St Lawrence, for example, you could mark the feast of St Teresa Benedicta as a commemoration.  It is not a perfect solution, but will get you 90% of the way...

DAY

ROMAN 2025

Benedictine 1960

Benedictine 1953

1

St Alphonsus Liguori, M, MD [210]

(1960: Aug 2)

The Holy Maccabees, Memorial

St Peter in Chains; coms of St Paul, Maccabees

2

St Eusebius of Vercelli, Opt M (Roman 1962, commemoration; Benedictine 1953, Aug 14)

St Alphonsus Liguori, Memorial

St Alphonsus Liguori; St Stephen

2

St Peter Julian Eymard, opt m

 

 

3

St Dominic, MD [211] (1960: Aug 4)

 

 

3

St Germanus of Auxerre (Wales)

 

 

4

St John Vianney M (Roman 1962: Aug 8)

St Dominic, Cl 3

St Dominic

5

The Dedication of the Basilica of St Mary Major, MD [211 – Our Lady of the Snow]

Dedication of Our Lady of the Snows, Memorial

Dedication of Our Lady of the Snows

6

The Transfiguration of the Lord, MD [212

The Transfiguration of the Lord, Cl 2

The Transfiguration of the Lord; SS Sixtus II, Felicissimus and Agapitus (1960 – Aug 7)

7

SS Sixtus II & companions, MD [219]

SS Sixtus II, Felicissimus and Agapitus, Memorial

St Cajetan

8

St Cajetan (Roman 1962: Aug 7)

St Cyriacus

St Cyriacus

8

St Mary of the Cross, F (Aust)

 

 

9

St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

Vigil of St Lawrence, Cl 3

Vigil

10

St Lawrence, F, MD [220]

St Lawrence, Cl 2

St Lawrence

11

St Clare, M, MD [228] (1960: Aug 12)

St Tibertius, Memorial

St Tibertius and Susannah

12

St Jane Frances de Chantal (1960 Roman: Aug 21)

 St Clare

St Clare

13

SS Pontian and Hippolytus, MD [228]

SS Pontian and Hippolytus

SS Pontian and Hippolytus

 

St Fachtna (Ireland)

 

 

 

St Radegunde (France)

 

 

14

St Maximilian Kolbe, M

Vigil of the Assumption, cl 2

Vigil; St Eusebius

15

Assumption of the BVM, S. MD [230]

Assumption of the BVM

Assumption of the BVM

16

St Stephen of Hungary (Roman 1962: Sept 1)

 

Octave of Assumption

17

 

 

Octave, St Lawrence

18

 

St Agapitus, Memorial

Octave; St Agapitus

19

St John Eudes (Roman 1962)

 

Octave

 

St Bernard Ptolemy

 

 

20

St Bernard, M, MD [245]

St Bernard

Octave; St Bernard

21

St Pius X, M, MD [258] (1960: Sept 3)

St Bernard Ptolemy, Memorial

Octave; St Bernard Ptolemy

22

The Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary, M (Roman 1962: May 31)

St Timothy, Memorial

Octave day, SS Timothy and Symphorianus

23

St Rose of Lima (Roman 1962: Aug 30)

 

Vigil

24

St Bartholomew, F, MD [250]

St Batholomew

St Batholomew

25

St Joseph Calasanz (Roman 1962 : Aug 27)

 


 

St Louis, MD 42**

 

 

26

St Caesarius of Arles, (France)

 

 

27

St Monica, M (Roman 1962: May 4)

 

 

28

St Augustine, M, MD [251]

St Augustine, cl 3

St Augustine

29

The Passion of Saint John the Baptist, M, MD [252 – The Beheading of St John the Baptist]

The Beheading of John the Baptist, Cl 3

Beheading of John the Baptist

30

SS Margaret Clitherow Anne Line and Margaret Ward, martyrs (England)

SS Felix and Adauctus, Memorial

SS Felix and Adauctus

31

St Aidan (England and Ireland)

 

 

(Key: S-Solemnity, broadly equivalent to Class I; F=Feast/Class II; M/OptM = Memorial or Optional Memorial/Class III).

In the next post, I'll provide a few more notes on how to say some of these additional Offices, and I'll consider doing a version of this exercise for all months and providing page numbers and or references to the relevant Common if there is enough interest.  

I understand, though, the Benedictine Confederation are actually considering a revised calendar at the moment, so it may be worth waiting a while to see what emerges...

Sunday, April 20, 2025

Resurrexit sicut dixit!

 

 
c XVI, Image by Saiko,
Musée d'art et d'histoire de Genève

Just to wish everyone a joyous Easter!

And a reminder that the Benedictine Office reverts, this week, to its Benedictine form, so that the psalms at Matins on Sunday, Lauds and Vespers are festal, but those at the other hours are of the day of the week as usual (with the antiphons and other texts of the Octave however).

I have to say that the reasons for this are obscure to me: from ancient times until the post Trent books, most Benedictines seem to have continued the practice of the Triduum and followed the Roman Office this week, most notably in its truncated three psalm version of Matins, a practice attested to as ancient by a seventh century instruction to the monks recorded in the Liber Pontificalis. 

Even odder, in my view, is the use of the (Roman origin) 'festal' psalms of Matins and Lauds (including through Eastertide on Sundays) in imitation of the Roman Office's avoidance of Psalm 50 on feasts, since the actual psalms of the Benedictine ferial Office are, in my view, rather more appropriate to the season than the festal psalms.  In particular, use of Psalm 92 and 99 means that Psalm 117, the quintessential Resurrection psalm, is not sung in the Benedictine Office at all in Eastertide!

A case perhaps for some judicious reform!

The Ordo

But in any case, here are the detailed rubrics for the week so far as the official rubrics go.  

Sunday 20 April – Easter Sunday, Class I with a Class I Octave

 Note: Matins and Lauds are included in the Vigil, so do not need to be said by those who attended it. 

Matins (if said): Three Nocturns, all of the feast, for the chants, LR 82/NM 334 ff. 

Lauds (if said): Festal psalms (MD 44 ff) with antiphons, chapter, responsory, hymn, versicle, Benedictus antiphon and collect of the feast, MD 328*/AM 453 ff. 

Prime: Antiphon 1 of Lauds, MD 328*/AM 453. 

Terce to None: Antiphon, chapter, versicle and collect of the feast, MD 331*/AM 457 ff. 

2 Vespers: Antiphons of Lauds (omitting the fourth) with psalms of Sunday, chapter, responsory, hymn, versicle, Magnificat antiphon and collect of the feast, MD 332*/AM 458 ff. 

Compline: Marian Antiphon, Regina Caeli, MD 267-8/AM 176 or 179-80, henceforward. 

Monday 21 April – Class I 

[The feast of St Anselm is not marked in the Office this year.] 

Matins:

Option 1: Two nocturns with the invitatory antiphon and hymn of Easter Sunday, MB 568 ff; psalms and antiphons for Nocturns I & II of the feast, readings, responsories, chapter and collect, MB 586 ff.

Option 2: Two nocturns with psalms of the day, one antiphon for each Nocturn (Iesum qui crucifixus est/Venite et videte) with readings and rest, MB 586 ff.

Option 3: All of the feast except the readings, responsories and collect, NM 346 ff. 

Lauds to Compline: All as for Easter Sunday (with festal psalms at Lauds and Vespers), except for the canticle antiphons and collect, MD 335*/AM 460-1.

Tuesday 22 April – Class I 

Matins: See above, Option 1&2: MB 589 ff; Option 3: NM 351 ff. 

Lauds to Compline: All as for Easter Sunday (with festal psalms at Lauds and Vespers), except for the canticle antiphons and collect, MD 336*/AM 462. 

Wednesday 23 April – Class I 

[The feast of St George is not marked in the Office this year.] 

Matins: Two nocturns with Invitatory antiphon and hymn of Easter Sunday; antiphon for each Nocturn with psalms of the day of the week; versicles, three readings, responsories, chapter and collect, MB 593/NM 355 ff. 

Lauds to Compline: All as for Easter Sunday (with festal psalms at Lauds and Vespers), except for the canticle antiphons, and collect, MD 336-7*/AM 462-3. 

Thursday 24 April – Class I 

Matins: Two nocturns, NM 357 ff. 

Lauds to Compline: All as for Easter Sunday (with festal psalms at Lauds and Vespers), except for the canticle antiphons and collect, MD 337*/AM 463-4. 

Friday 25 April – Class I

[The feast of St Mark is not marked in the Office this year.] 

Matins: Two nocturns, NM 359 ff. 

Lauds to Compline: All as for Easter Sunday (with festal psalms at Lauds and Vespers), except for the canticle antiphons and collect, MD 337-8*/AM 464-5. 

Saturday 26 April – White Saturday, Class I 

[The feast of St Cletus is not marked in the Office this year.] 

Matins: Two nocturns, NM 360 ff. 

Lauds to None: All as for Easter Sunday (with festal psalms at Lauds and Vespers), except for the Benedictus antiphon and collect, MD 338*/AM 465. 

1 Vespers of Low Sunday: Psalms of Saturday under one antiphon (Alleluia); chapter, responsory, hymn, versicle, Magnificat antiphon and collect, MD 339*/AM 473 ff.