The Divine Office: A Study of the Roman BreviaryQuigley, Edward J.
Religion
The Divine Office: A Study of the Roman Breviary
Quigley, Edward J.
Catholic Church. Breviary; Divine office
In still later times, the Church added to the list of names on her saint
roll, the names of saints who were honoured neither as Apostles nor as
Martyrs. For these, special Masses, offices and feasts were established.
St. Martin of Tours was the first confessor so honoured in the Western
Church. For the more important feasts, an office of nine lessons was
established and this came to be known as a semi-double office, and later
such feasts were called doubles. Hence, before the thirteenth century,
we find celebrations of simple feasts, of semi-doubles and of doubles.
And Durandus, who wrote in the thirteenth century, tells us of the
existence of doubles major and doubles minor. The Breviary of St. Pius
V., published in 1568, gives three classes of doubles: doubles of the
first class, doubles of the second class, and doubles per annum. But, in
the revision by Clement VIII. the doubles per annum were again divided
into doubles major and doubles minor. In the new Pian Breviary (1913)
doubles are divided into Primary Doubles of the First Class, Secondary
Doubles of the First Class; Primary Doubles of the Second Class,
Secondary Doubles of the Second Class, Primary Doubles Major, Secondary
Doubles Major. The list of feasts under each of these six headings may
be seen in the Breviary.
Do double offices differ specifically from each other? No, the form is
the same in all double offices. What then is the difference between
doubles of different classes? The difference is chiefly in the
preference which is given to them in cases of concurrence or occurrence
of feasts of greater or of lesser rite.
The word "double" (_duplex_) is derived, some authors hold, from the
ancient custom of reciting two offices or saying two Masses on the same
day--one for the current feria and one for the feast (_festa_). Other
authors say that the word is derived from the ancient practice of
chanting twice or in repetition the complete responses and versicles.
And, above all, the recitation of the full antiphons before and after
each psalm, at Matins, Lauds and Vespers, was called "duplication," and
this name, it is said, was given to the office (double, duplex) in which
the practice of duplication took place.
It is often asked why are there different grades of feasts. Three
reasons are given by writers on liturgy. First, to mark the diversity of
merit in God's saints, their sanctity and their different degrees of
service to His Church. Second, to mark their different degrees of glory
in Heaven. "One is as the sun; another, the glory of the moon; and
another the glory of the stars. For star differs from star" (1 _Cor_.).
Third, for some special national or local reasons--e.g., patron of
a country.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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