1953 vs 1963 breviary comparions Pt 2 - the temporal cycle

As I mentioned in a previous post, through Advent I used a 1953 breviary, adapting it to the 1960 rubrics - a task made easier I should note by the inclusion in the volume I bought, of a 1960 supplement, coupled with a few pencil deletions done by a previous owner of the books!

I've previously posted on the differences to the sanctoral cycle; so today I thought I'd continue on, and take a look at the differences to Advent itself.

Advent and Christmas

When it comes to Advent, the readings and texts in the Benedictine Office (in contrast to the Roman) have not, as far as I can see, changed over the course of the twentieth century.

There are only two differences that I could see.

The first is to extend the use of the special antiphons for the day hours between December 17 and 23 to Vespers in 1960, a change I quite like - it seems odd to me (no matter how traditional it might be) to use a set of special antiphons at Lauds to None then revert to the throughout the year set at Vespers on Class II days.

The second is that under the previous rubrics, the set of special antiphons not used on December 21 because of the feast of St Thomas were used on Saturday.  

In the 1960 office a specific set of antiphons for Saturday are included, so one day's worth of antiphons are not used each year.  The Saturday antiphons are not new inventions however, but rather apparently a relic of Solesmes' own in-house practice, the change brought the Benedictine office into line with practice in the Roman Office following the 1911 reforms.

I assume the main argument for these changes was simplicity, and there is something to be said for that - juggling the multiple moving parts during these days is hard enough as it is.

The temporal cycle

In Advent, then, there are a few minor differences of no great consequence (indeed arguably even improvements).  

And indeed, for most of the year, there are no differences at all in the temporal cycle between the two editions of the monastic breviary.

Epiphanytide

Even during the former octaves of the temporale cycle, for example, one of the worst of the wreckovations in my view, the key texts (such as for the Gospels for the relevant Sunday within the Octave) have been retained, with many of the Office texts have been transformed into the 'Ordinary' of the season.

In the former Octave of the Epiphany, for example, the canticle antiphons of the octave are retained, except where another feast or a Saturday of Our Lady intervenes.  

What a shame, though, that they didn't just make these days Class III, and thus allow us to enjoy a full de facto octave every year.  That said, I suspect the provisions of Cum sanctissima arguably would now authorise this approach.

Holy Week

Apart from January, the other contender for worst wreckovation, as a commenter on another post has noted, is Holy Week.

And when it comes to the Mass and other ceremonies outside the Office, that's certainly true (though mitigated for many these days by the permissions to use the earlier version of Holy Week)..

When it comes to the Office there are, it has to be said, the admittedly peculiar instructions to omit certain Offices if one attends some of the main ceremonies.

But there is surely nothing stopping one from saying these hours if one wishes - outside a monastery these are rarely said publicly in any case, and in a monastery they are mostly all said regardless of the rubrics as far as I can gather!

When it comes to the texts of the Office itself, though, there has been much less tinkering - it is perfectly possible to use the 1928 Triduum book for the office for example (I've done it) - the main difference being a few additional repetitions of Psalm 50 and the times at which certain hours are (supposed to be) said.

The structure of the Office

The case for 'restoring the 54', then, as far as I can see  - though it may well be that I've missed something - does not rest on the temporal cycle (octaves aside), at least in the case of the Benedictine office, but rather on the sanctoral and perhaps other features of the breviaries.

I plan to look at the extra prayers and other changes to the hours themselves in the next post in this series.

Happy New year...and welcome to the most liturgically wreckovated time of the year!

Adoration of the Magi - Roman catacombs c3rd
Source: Giovanni Dall'Orto, Wiki commons

For most of the year, I don't have major problems with most of the calendar changes made in 1960 - if it was up to me (which it isn't!) there are some feasts I'd restore, but octaves aside, the changes to the calendar mostly were not too drastic (certainly not by comparison with those made in 1970, when whole seasons were excised).

But the period January 2 to January 13, is, I have to admit, something of a disaster zone liturgically.

Let's take a look at the key issues.

January 2 - 4

For centuries, January 2 - 4 were taken up by the Octave days of St Stephen, St John and the Holy Innocents.

In the Benedictine office, at least in its twentieth century versions, these days were, in my view, very well-designed so as to provide a reminder of the feast without disrupting the Benedictine psalm cursus and reading cycle.   

The psalms of the day were used at all hours, with the antiphons of the feast at Prime to None.  There were only two Nocturns at Matins, with two readings from Romans, and third Patristic reading for the Octave.

I've posted both versions of matins for these days over at Lectio Divina Notes blog for those interested in seeing the differences between the two versions, but on the face of it, I find it hard to see what the rationale for abolishing these very ancient octaves really was.  

Most Holy Name of Jesus (January 2 or the first Sunday of January)

I'm rather less concerned about the abolition, in the Benedictine (but not the Roman) 1960 calendar, of the feast of the Holy Name on January 2.  

Its move to that date in the twentieth century is something of an oddity in my view, since the Gospel is identical to that for January 1, and it cuts across the ancient octave days.  

A better solution than outright abolition, though, would surely have been to move it to an alternative date, or just use it when there is a second Sunday after the Nativity.

Vigil of the Epiphany (January 5)

The Vigil of the Epiphany used to be one of the four especially privileged Vigils to mark the four major feasts of the year.  

Its abolition, I suppose parallels the downgrading of Epiphany itself, but it was actually restored in 2002 (where the feast is not moved to the relevant Sunday!), so there is a strong case for arguing that it is legitimate to restore it also to the 1960 calendars.

You can find a useful discussion of its celebration here.

The feast of the Epiphany and the thirteen days of Christmas?

By far the most bizarre changes, of course, occur in the Novus Ordo calendar in places (such as here in Australia) where Epiphany is celebrated where this year we have not the on January 6, thus marking the end of the twelve days of Christmas, but this year, on January 7, giving us thirteen days of Christmas!

Actually though, it seems some places did have a tradition of thirteen days of Christmas, so maybe this year's outcome is not as odd as some year's!

Less explicable though, is that for reasons I don't understand, the feast of the Baptism of Our Lord is not on the octave day of Epiphany (January 13), but on January 8.

As I've written before, the number of days around these various feasts are not meant to be random, but have a deep symbolic meaning.  Why try so hard to remove this?

Octave of the Epiphany

Last, but far from least, the abolition of the octave of the Epiphany is surely one of the most unwise of the 1960 reforms, since this is one of the most ancient of all octaves, already celebrated at least in the East in the fourth century.

Fortunately, at least in the day hours, all of the texts of the Octave are preserved as the 'Ordinary of Epiphanytide'.

Still, if you want to go a step further and revert to the 1953 rubrics, all you have to do is add back the psalms and antiphons of the feast at the day hours.  At Matins, there are antiphons for each Nocturn for each day, which are used in conjunction with the psalms of the days of the week, as well as Patristic readings.

An alternative solution for the 1960 reformers, if the concern was to preserve the psalm and reading cycles, might have been to use the psalms of the day in conjunction with the antiphons and other texts of the feast, and make the Patristic reading the third of the day....

1953 vs 1963: Monastic breviary comparisons

There is increasing interest, these days, in the use of older breviaries, at least amongst liturgical nerds and in some parts of traddy world.

Accordingly, this Advent I decided to use a 1953 (Latin only) monastic breviary as my main office book, adapting it to the 1963 calendar and rubrics, but reading the texts that differ outside the Office, so I could get a better feel for features of the older rubrics and calendar.

So herewith some reflections on the differences between the books and their respective merits, in the hope that it might spark some debate!

I plan to divide up my comments into a couple of posts, covering:

• the physical books;
• the calendar differences for the sanctoral and temporal cycles;
• differences the structure and content of the hours themselves (things like preces, hymn doxologies, etc).

The books

So first something about the physical books.

None of the monastic breviaries are currently in print, and they are all fairly scarce and expensive to buy secondhand (although the 1930 breviary is available online).

Four volumes vs two

The 1963 breviary (and the 1930) comes in two volumes, but the 1953 edition follows the Roman by being spread over four volumes, thus increasing the cost.  

The need for four volumes is presumably because of the slightly smaller size  - 1953 book is two centimeters in length shorter - but I don't personally find that any more convenient than the slightly bigger book.

The type size and fonts seem to be the same.

Psalter placement

Secondly, the 1963 breviary places the psalter at the middle of the book.  Personally I prefer that - it helps to prolong the book's life a bit, but also makes it easier to see where the temporale vs sanctorale are.  By contrast, the 1953 follows the older structure of putting the psalter at the beginning.

Repeated texts

Perhaps the most annoying feature of the 1953 book is that, like the Diurnale, it doesn't bother repeating key fixed part of the hours such as the Prime hymn and the Benedictus and Magnificat each day - with four volumes to spread it over, it seems to me that more concession to convenience could have been made.

I guess part of the rationale is that monks will tend to know these parts by heart - and yes I do know them too, but I like having them in front of me all the same! 

More importantly perhaps, breviaries were presumably mostly only used when a monk was out of the monastery, for the Matins readings (with a psalter or the Antiphonale for the psalms), and as a reference document for rubrics and planning purposes.  But it is still annoying.

Sanctoral calendar

When it comes to the sanctoral calendar, the changes are in my view, a bit of a mixed bag. The changes were that:

• the feast of St Peter Chrysologus on December 2 (a fifth century bishop of Ravenna) was reduced to a commemoration in 1963 (previously the equivalent of Class III);
• the feasts of St Ambrose and St Lucy are reduced from being a Class II equivalent, with three Nocturns, to Class III; 
• the Octave of the Immaculate Conception was abolished;
• the second and third class equivalent feasts (St Lucy and St Thomas in December) no longer have a first Vespers; 
• the commemorations of St Melchiadus (Pope 311-313, December 10) and St Thomas (Beckett, December 20) were abolished; and
• commemorations were generally previously made at both Vespers and Lauds; under the 1960 rubrics they occur at Lauds only.

The Octave of the Immaculate Conception

The biggest change is clearly the abolition of the Octave of the Immaculate Conception, and in my view that was a positive step.  

The effect of the Octave (introduced to the Roman office in the eighteenth century) was to displace the ancient texts of Advent, including the antiphons set for the day hours each week, and replace them with the same repeated texts each day in the day hours; and to replace the reading of Isaiah, a tradition dating back to St Benedict's time, with readings from the Papal Bull of Pius IX.  

In a year when the feast of the Immaculate Conception falls on a Sunday, the antiphons wouldn't be said at all. 

I really can't see a strong case for the suppression of the seasonal texts, particularly as the season already has a strong Marian flavour in its readings and the responsories.

It has been pointed out to me though, that the monks of Norcia have come up with a sensible compromise approach to this problem for those keen on octaves, namely commemorating the Octave at Lauds and Vespers but privileging the Advent days.

Class III vs Class II?

Similarly, I don't mind the reduction of St Ambrose and St Lucy to Class III feasts - Class II feasts in the Benedictine Office are not very different when it comes to the day hours, but festal Matins is very very long indeed compared to both the Class III structure (3 vs 12 readings and responsories, plus extra three canticles, Te Deum and Gospel) and the Roman Office version.

It is not obvious though, why St Peter Chrysologus was demoted, or the two commemorations abolished - they all represent quite important saints on the face of it.

First Vespers

One of the most important rubrical changes between the 1953 Office and the 1963 was the abolition of First Vespers for most feasts.

It was a mistake I think, as it means that Class III feasts regularly don't have any Vespers at all, such as when they fall on a Saturday.

Most monasteries have restored them for class II feasts, but I think there is scope to go further.

If the concern is the displacement of the ferial psalm cursus in favour of the festal, a concern I agree with in principle, the simple solution would surely be to specify the use of the ferial psalms in conjunction with the antiphons of the feast at either First and/or Second Vespers.

But anyway, more anon...