Sacramental Forms in the Dominican Rite

I. The Sacrament of Penance (Confession)

I recently posted on the left sidebar links to the Post-Vatican-II publications of the Dominican Order allowing adoption of various Dominican elements for use with the Rites of the reformed sacraments. I have been asked by friars for some explanation of forms for the sacraments where the traditional Dominican Rite had its own particular forms. This might be of topical interest in the wake of Summorum Pontificum.

The Dominican Rite is a monastic rite and, as such, does not have forms for Baptism, Confirmation, Orders, or Matrimony. Dominican friars, like other religious, are assumed to be adults, and they are celibates, so there is no need for Baptism, Confirmation, or Matrimony. When they become bishops they canonically cease to be members of the Order, so Dominican bishops use the Roman rituals. If a friar is serving in a parish or other place where baptisms are performed, marriages witnessed, or an emergency Confirmation of an infant must be done, they would use the Roman rituals. We do have a form of the Missa Pro Sponsis in our missals, but its readings and collects are borrowed from the Roman Rite and it is a post-Tridentine addition. It is used with the customary forms for marriage.

Aside from the Mass, two sacraments were, and are, regularly performed in monasteries: Penance (Confession) and Extreme Unction (Anointing of the Sick). So the Dominican Rite has its own forms for those sacraments and these were also used in pastoral service to non-Dominicans. Both, like the Dominican Mass, represent ritual practice of the thirteenth century rather than the fifteenth- century usages codified in the Roman Rite after the Council of Trent.

Penance According to the Dominican Rite

The major external difference between the Roman and Dominican rites of Penance is in vesture. Roman priests traditionally heard confessions in cassock and surplice wearing a purple stole. Dominicans heard (and may still hear) confessions wearing the habit (which is white) and the cappa (the black cape), without a stole. The traditional explanation of the absence of the stole is that the scapular (a white apron-like part of the habit) is considered a stole. I think this story unlikely. The lack of church vestments in our rite is probably a vestige of the early medieval practice of using vestments only during administration of Public Penance on Holy Thursday. "Private" sacramental penance was not usually administered with external formalities at the time of the foundation of the Order. The black cappa was penitential enough.

The formula of Dominican Rite Penance is different in text and form from that of the traditional Roman Rite. As not all readers may be familiar with the older Roman form, I will describe it. In the modern period, both rites began with the penitent confessing his or her sins and then proceeded to the absolutions.

The Roman "Common Absolution" began with an invocation of God's mercy (Misereatur tui) similar to the priest's prayer in the modern Penitential Rite at Mass. He then raised his right hand and prayed a two-part absolution prayer. The first part invoked God's pardon, absolution, and remission of sins in the third person; the second part, the formal absolution, is in first person and first absolved the penitent from excommunication, suspension (if in orders), and interdict, and then from sins with a single Sign of the Cross. The priest then added the prayer Passio Domini Nostri, which remains an option in the new Rite of Reconciliation.

In the Dominican form, the priest began by absolving the penitent from excommunication, suspension (if a cleric), and interdict, explicitly stating that this restored the penitent to the communion of the faithful. Putting this first reflects the ancient practice that only those in full communion can pray with the faithful or receive ecclesiastical sacraments and rites. So it begins the rite as a whole. The Dominican priest then recited the Misereatur in a form identical to that used during the Dominican Prayers at the Foot of the Altar.

In thirteenth-century practice, this Misereatur prayer probably followed a ritual now absent from the rite. It was very common for priests to help penitents make confession by using a Formula Confessionis in question and answer form: "Did you take the Lord's name in vain?" "Did you commit adultery" etc. Priests can still do this today, if the penitent seems to have trouble identifying sins; and it is often used when a penitent makes a general confession. What today is relatively uncommon, seems, from my research, to have been nearly universal in the 1200s. After confessing their sins, penitents said a Confiteor (or some other formula of contrition) to which the priest added the Misereatur prayer, which normally followed it, as at Mass.

The priest then pronounced the Absolution. The Dominican form, in comparison to the Roman, because it lacks the absolution from censures, focuses more directly on sins and judgment. This is a remarkable prayer and incorporates not only the typical thirteenth-century focus on God's mercy, but also an explicitly eschatological dimension. Here is my translation of the Dominican formula:

May Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, through his most gracious mercy, absolve you; and by his authority, through which I act, I absolve you of all your sins, so that you be absolved both here and before the tribunal of Our Lord, the same Jesus Christ, and so that you might have eternal life and live forever. In the name of the Father + and of the Son + and of the Holy + Spirit. Amen.

Here, for comparison, is the parallel prayer in the Roman Ritual:

May Our Lord Jesus Christ absolve you, and by his authority I absolve you from every bond of excommunication, suspension, and interdict, to the extent of my power and your need. Finally I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, + and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Note also the triple blessing in the Dominican form, something used in the Roman rite of Penance only by bishops. The Dominican, like the Roman, then concluded with the prayer Passio, which in the Dominican form mentions St. Dominic along with the Virgin, intentions as well as actions, and concludes with a final blessing in the name of the Trinity. Both the Dominican and Roman rituals provided shortened versions for use when penitents were many and a brief absolution for emergencies.

By analogy, in my opinion, as the use by Roman priests of older sacraments is now permitted for pastoral need, this form of absolution might be used by Dominican priests.

Those interested in seeing the whole formula in the original Latin may find it on the sidebar of this blog, "Dominican Liturgy," to the left of this post under "Domincan Rite Resources."

II. Viaticum: Communion of the Dying

As explained earlier, the rituals for the Sacraments in the Dominican Rite, our Rite is a monastic rite and presupposes the context of a religious house (which is commonly referred to by Dominicans as a "convent" even when it is a house of men) for the celebration of the sacraments. In the case of Confession and Mass, there is nothing particularly "monastic" about the rituals that make them more difficult to perform in a parochial or extra-conventual context than their parallels in the Roman Rite. This is not the case for the Dominican rituals for Viaticum and for Extreme Unction, what is called in the new Roman rite the "Anointing of the Sick." These rituals in our Rite properly require the presence of a choir of the friars and a sizable group of ministers. As the rite includes processions and music, it is not surprising that it is found in the Processionarium, which collects music for processions and other rites that are not part of Mass or Office.

In their complexity these rituals reflect those of the Italian/Roman family of liturgical books that I examined in chapter 10 of my Cities of God: the Religion of the Italian Communes, 1125-1325 (University Park PA: Penn State Univ. Press, 2005)--See link on left sidebar. Italian/Roman books of that period envision the presence of a choir and sometimes as many as seven priests. In contrast, however, the Ambrosian books of the period envision no music and could be used by a single priest. This rite also had only two anointings, not seven, just like the modern Roman rite for anointing the sick.

The evidence from saints' lives, chronicles, synodalia, and other sources suggests that in the high middle ages, most lay people did not receive Extreme Unction. The rites of dying focused on Confession and Viaticum. Anointing seems to have been in great part a ritual for religious and for clerics living in community. The development of the Tridentine form of the Roman ritual in the later middle ages, which dropped the music and complex ceremonies so that a single priest could perform it, finally made it available to the laity on a wide basis. The rites I will now explain were pretty much exclusively used with in the monastery. Dominican priests engaged in pastoral work with the laity in the modern period used the Roman Ritual, with its simplified rite, when attending the dying at home or in the hospital.

The term "Last Rites" refers to a complex of three separate rituals, Confession, Communion as Viaticum, and Anointing (or in the modern order: Confession, Anointing, and Viaticum). The old and new Roman rituals include a form for administering all three ceremonies in a single ceremony. This continuous rite was, and is, commonly used. The Dominican "Last Rites," as they are preserved in our Processionale, appear as separate ceremonies. It is not assumed that they will take place in a single event. I have already discussed the Dominican form of Penance, the first rite of the "Last Rites." A sick friar or nun would have confessed, as did the laity, in a private ceremony using the forms I have previously described. When it appeared that the illness was terminal, but while the sick were still well enough to receive Communion, the next rite was final Communion (Viaticum).

When Viaticum was to be administered, the bell for Office was wrung in a special way to indicate that the brothers should assemble in the sacristy for the procession. The friars then went in procession to the tabernacle in this order: two acolytes in surplice carrying lighted processional candles, two friars without surplice holding a lantern and a bell, a friar with the holy water, a friar with cruets and lavabo bowel, friars of the community, friars with candles to escort the sacrament, umbrella or canopy bearer(s), the prior (or, if absent, a senior priest) wearing surplice with stole and humeral veil. All knelt. The prior removed the ciborium or pyx and covered it with his humeral veil. The umbrella or canopy was arranged over him and the candle-bearers around him. The procession then went to the sick room, singing the Gradual Psalms in tono directo.

On arrival at the sick room, the prior said Pax huic domui, and, after the response, intoned the Asperges, which was sung by the friars as he sprinkled the room. This ended, the verses and collect of this rite were sung. The prior then urged the sick friar to be reconciled to any present whom he had offended and to forgive any who had offended him. This done, the sick friar then recited the Confiteor in the Dominican form, with the prior pronouncing the Misereator and Absolutionem. The formula Ecce Angus Dei and Domine non sum dignus was not used as it was not a Dominican practice, although it was added to our Communion Rite at Mass in 1958, one of a number of Romanizations during the 1950s. It was not added to the Viaticum rite.

The prior then presented the Host to the sick friar and asked him: Credis quod hic sit Christus Salvátor Mundi? He responded: Credo. The prior then gave him Communion using the Dominican Viaticum formula: Corpus Dómini nostri Iesu Christi custódiat te, et perdúcat ad vitam ætérnam. The friar with the cruets washed the prior's fingers and the ablution was given to the sick friar to consume. The prior sang the collect Exaudi nos. The community then returned in procession to the sacristy, with umbrella or canopy folded, escort candles extinguished and no bell-ringing (unless there were additional Hosts to return to the tabernacle first).

The same ceremony was used in houses of nuns, with the priest chaplain as the celebrant. In contrast, ordinary Communion of the Sick, even in the monastery, used a much simpler form of the rite. A single priest came with the host preceded by a one acolyte, reciting (not singing) alternately the psalm Miserere. The question Credis was omitted and the normal Communion formula of our Rite (which omits the phrase et perducat from the Viaticum formula) was used.

Later, when the sickness became critical, it was time for Extreme Unction.

III. Extreme Unction: Anointing of the Dying

Like the Rite of Viaticum, the ritual of Extreme Unction in the Dominican Rite begins with the assembly of the community in the sacristy for the procession to the room where the sick friar is dying. The procession consists of the Holy Water bearer, two candle-bearing acolytes in surplice, a lantern bearer and a friar with a hand-cross, then comes the sacristan with the Oleum Infirmorum and a case containing six wool or cotton balls or six strips of linen. Last comes the celebrant followed by the community in order of seniority.

At the sick room the celebrant gives the greeting and sprinkles Holy Water during the singing of the Asperges, as for Viaticum. This complete, he intones the collect Domine Deus, qui per Apostolum tuum Iacobum. This prayer is also found in the old Roman ritual of Extreme Unction (with minor differences of phrasing), but in that rite it follows the Pater Noster after the anointings. As the prayer summarizes the institution of the rite in the Epistle of James, it serves as a scriptural warrant for the rite about to be preformed. In an interesting parallel the Epistle passage itself is now used at this point in the modern Roman ritual.

As in Viaticum, the dying friar asks and gives pardon for offenses given or received from community members. He then recites the Confiteor to which the celebrant gives the usual absolutions. The celebrant then offers the dying friar the Cross to kiss. This is a ceremony absent from the Tridentine Roman form, although nearly universal in the high middle ages––it was probably also in the Roman ceremony before its simplification. After the veneration of the Cross, the celebrant intones the antiphon: Intret orátio mea in conspéctu tuo: inclína aurem tuam ad preces nostras, Dómine. The friars of the convent chant the Seven Penitential Psalms. The anointing itself is performed during the chanting of these psalms.

The Dominican, like the old Roman, practice, consists of seven anointings: first the five senses, then the hands and feet (which, although requiring a anointing on both extremities, were considered single anointings for formula purposes). As in the Roman ritual, priests are anoninted on the back of the hands, others on the palms. This is so as not to "repeat" the anointing on the palms that priests receive at ordination. As the celebrant finishes each anointing, an appointed friar uses a different one of the cotton balls or linen strips to clean away the Holy Oil. They will be burned after the rite and the ashes put down the sacrarium in the sacristy, practice also part of the old Roman rite.

When the celebrant has finished, the sacristan washes his hands. The formulas used during for the Dominican anointings parallel the Roman ones, differing only in minor vocabulary choices or word order. In only one case is there a significant difference of meaning: the Dominican anointing of the mouth mentions the sin of taste (gustum) but not of that of speech (locutionem). This shorter form is probably the older one and focused, in parallel to the other formulas, on the corporal sense anointed alone. But the both sets of formula are so close that they certainly derive from a common ancestor.

When the community finished chanting the Penitential Psalms, the antiphon was sung again, and the Pater Noster was recited silently. After a series of verses and responses slightly shorter than the Roman use, the celebrant sings seven collects: Quaesumus Omnipotens Deus; Respice Domine; Deus qui facturae; Deus infirmitatis; Deus qui humano; Virtutum caelestium; and Domine sancte Pater. The Roman ritual has here only the three collects: Domine Deus (which opens the Dominican Rite ceremony); Respice Domine, and Domine Sancte Pater; all of which have minor verbal differences from the Dominican forms but clearly go back to a common source. The seventh collect finished, the priest imparts an absolution using a long prayer, absent from the Roman version, beginning Dominus Iesus Christus qui dixit discipulis suis. The community then leaves in procession to return to the sacristy. As with Viaticum, the same forms were used in convents of nuns when the priest chaplain administered Last Rites to a sister.

Those who know the old Roman ritual of Extreme Unction will notice that the Dominican form is shorter because it lacks a number of Roman elements: two of the three long Roman collects after the Asperges; the reading of Matthew 8: 5-10, 13; the Litany before the anointing; and the final blessing. In spite of these differences, both rites are clearly members of the same liturgical family and resemble and share prayers with the high medieval Italian / Roman forms of the rite I have studied. In practice, they differ most conspicuously in the absence of the Dominican chanted psalms and external formalities from the Roman. This difference, however, is late medieval. In the thirteenth century, Italian/Roman versions of the ceremony would still have assumed music and external formalities.

As I wrote earlier, a number of elements from the old Dominican rite of Extreme Unction, including the kissing of the Cross, were approved in the 1970s for use in the context of the new Roman Rite of Anointing of the Sick. We now have official Latin texts for the approved Dominican forms of the Roman Ritual for Anoiting and for Funerals. They can be downloaded on the left side bar of Dominican Liturgy. Only the Australian Province has produced English translations of the ceremonies. and they may be consulted at the Australian Province Website. They are not yet approved for use, but have been made available "for the sake of study."

Historical Dominican Liturgical Colors

A discussion the proper color for tabernacle veils and antependia at Requiem Masses, moved me to do some investigation about Dominican practices. The result was something of a surprise, and nothing about it is found in Bonniwell's history of our Rite.

Since the edition of 1687 edition of the Dominican Missal produced under the direction of the Master of the Order Antonin Cloche, O.P., Dominican vestment colors have been identical to those of the Roman use. Before that date, however, the practice was different. Use of white, red, and green basically followed the modern Roman use, but there were interesting exceptions. On simplex feasts of confessors, where the Roman use was white, the celebrant had a choice between using yellow or green. This use of yellow for confessors is a well-known aspect of the Sarum Rite.

The use of green assimilates, at least in the time after Epiphany and Trinity, simplex feasts to the ferial. This is not surprising, as the Dominican Rite of Humbert (1256) and the middle ages resisted the early modern practice of introducing so many saints' days and raising them in so much rank as to erase the ferial office and even that of Sundays (as was generally the case before the Pius X calendar reform). Indeed, the number of feasts above simplex was very limited in the ancient Dominican liturgy, even Apostles were only semidoubles. Although I cannot find any rubric on it, I suspect that the use of the ferial color was also at least an option on feasts of three lessons. In the 1200s and 1300s confessor feasts with yellow vestments included, among others, Gregory the Great, Benedict, Ambrose, Bernard, and Francis. All were only simplex feasts. It is also interesting that the vestment for the "highest feasts" was to be "the best one," but "a violet vestment cannot be used on Easter, nor a white one on Pentecost, nor a red one on Christmas."

Another surprise is the following rubric in the 1868 Ceremonial that does seem to go back to Humbert: "Violet may be used in place of black." This odd phrase speaks to a thirteenth-century development underway in Humbert's time. Innocent III forty years earlier had spoken of the liturgical colors as only "white, red, green, and black." But he mentions that violet has come into use in certain places. This Dominican rubric seems to reflect that older practice of using black not only for Requiems, but also on all other penitential days. So the friars had the option of conforming to the local use of violet during Lent, Advent, and Ember Days, where this had happened, but the assumption was they were still using black on those days as Innocent had considered normal. In 1869, of course, this rubric would also have permitted violet in place of black at Requiems–a practice that seems to have existed even in the Roman Rite in some places up to that time. Lest there be any confusion as to what the current Dominican practice was, the Caeremoniale of 1869 explicitly states that since the promulgation of the Cloche Missal these old rubrics completely abrogated and not to be followed. That they had to say this causes me a bit of suspicion. Were some Dominicans still following them? Perhaps the nineteeth-century French yellow chasuble decorating this post belonged to some French Dominicans?

The question of the interchangeability of black and violet brings up the issue of what color the paraments would be at a Requiem Mass if the Blessed Sacrament were reserved on the altar. Here what the Caermoniale of 1869 says and does not say is very interesting. About the tabernacle veil we read the following: "The exterior of the tabernacle is to be decently covered by a canopy (conopaeum). The canopy is to be of cotton, woolen, or hemp cloth, and to be white in color or, better, matching the color of the office of the day." The form of this rubric (which is not in Humbert) suggests to me, at least, that the specification "cotton, wool, or hemp" (gossypio sive lana sive cannabe), instead of "silk" (serica), is quite ancient and that the use of material matching the vestments, which would have been in silk, is later. Notice there is nothing to exclude use of any color of the day, including black. And I was unable to find any rubric to forbid a black conopaeum.

So, as of 1869, there was no formal rule in the Dominican Order against use of black tabernacle veils or black antependia on an altar with a tabernacle. But I suspect this was not the practice because of a related rubric. This involves an altar on which there is on-going Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. In that case, the altar paraments are all to be white, "even if that does not match the color of the vestments for a Mass being celebrated at it." This, of course, concerns Mass in the Presence of the Sacrament Exposed. Again, however, nothing is said about violet or black when the Sacrament is not exposed. Nevertheless, although the rubrics are silent, the earlier specification that the conopaeum may always be white, and the association of the Blessed Sacrament with white here, suggests that perhaps the practice in 1869 might have been to use a white conopaeum at Masses using black vestments at an altar with a tabernacle. But finding out what was actually done in our priories will require much more work than I am ready to undertake right now.

As it is my understanding that the debate over use of black or violet antependia at altars with tabernacles in the Roman Rite was only resolved in the mid-twentieth century, I am not surprised about the lack of clarity in the 1869 Caeremoniale. In any case, I suspect in the last century at least, many Dominican parishes probably just followed whatever the local Roman practice was. The medieval rubrics for Dominican vestment color options seem to envision this kind of accommodation to local practice. And I can assure you that not doing something the "Roman Way" can generate unpleasant comments from those who attend Dominican Rite Masses and from those who see pictures of them. The pressure on Dominicans to follow the common practice, alien to our traditions as it might be, will always be great.

New Dominican Liturgical Texts

Readers may now found on the left sidebar links for downloading the following Latin liturgical texts issued by the Liturgical Commission of the Dominican Order in 2006:

Ritus Professionis: the new rite for Dominican professions, vestition with the habit, etc.

Ordo Unctionis Infirmorum: the new rites for Dominican practice in administering Anointing of the Sick and pastoral care of the sick.

Ordo Exsequiarum: the new rites for Dominican funerals and prayers for the dead.

Draft translations into English may be found at the site of the Australian Dominican Province.

Solemn Requiem Mass for the Dead

Our readers have seen still photos of the Solemn High Dominican Rite Mass for the Dead at Blessed Sacrament Church in Seattle last All Souls Day. We now have a very well done video with excerpts from the Mass and the chant of the Dies Irae:



If you liked this video and the Dominican Chant in it, check the new publication of the chants for Compline with the Dominican Rite chants approved for the Liturgy of the Hours, available here.

This Mass was celebrated by priests of the Western Dominican Province.

Medieval Salve Regina

After my posting about the availability of downloadable files for the Antiphonarium for the Liturgy of the Hours in Dominican chant, which I decorated with the page for the Salve Regina from the Poissy Antiphonal, a reader reminded me that the text in that manuscript does not match the version of the Salve Regina in use in the Dominican Order or in the Roman Church today. And I thought some comments on this might be of interest to readers since the Salve Regina is perhaps the most beloved chant of the Dominican Order and much loved by all Catholics.

To the right you can see the folio 935v of the Poissy Antiphonal. This manuscript is accessible on line at Latrobe University in Australia. This manuscript belonged to a convent of Dominican nuns in France. It was transcribed in the period 1335-1345 and is a "certified" Dominican Antiphonal. That means that it was not only written by the medieval Dominican method of painting the neumes using an authorized stencil, but that the music was sung through by two friars or sisters using the "new" book against two other friars or sisters using an older "certified" book. This made sure that all medieval Dominican chant books were absolutely identical. No other medieval chant books of any other musical tradition were so perfectly identical. I have reviewed this so that you can all be sure that this is music is exactly as the medieval Dominicans chanted it.

Even a non-paleographer can see that in the first line of the Salve of this manuscript the modern version's word "Mater" is absent. This is the original form of the Salve Regina, as found in all the medieval chant and manuscript traditions. The word "Mater" was only added in the sixteenth century. Those who know the polyphonic music of Orlande de Lassus (ca, 1532-1594) may have sung his setting of the Salve, where this word is missing. You will notice how smoothly the chant moves from "regina" to "misericordiae." The original form, very medieval in piety, was thus: "Hail Queen of Mercy."

At the right, we see the next page of the manuscript, folio 936r. Here you can see another place were the medieval version differs from both the modern Roman and the Dominican versions. The word "Virgo" is absent, and so the last line of the antiphon reads simply: O dulcis Maria. The immediate focus on the Holy Name is also very medieval. The alleluia, which has exactly the same chant as the version sung by modern Dominicans during Easter Time, follows. This addition of "Virgo" to the original chant of the Salve seems to have appeared in the thirteenth century, but, again, the Dominicans, typically traditional about chant and text, did not add it until much later. In fact, this manuscript, where as you can seen in faint addition on the previous page's left margin has "Mater" and the altered music added in a sixteenth-century hand, does not have any suggestion that "Virgo" should be added at this point. A comprehensive study of the manuscripts and early printed editions of the Dominican Salve would have to be done, but I suspect that the medieval version of the Dominican Salve did not receive these textual and musicial changes until the 1600s. Perhaps during the Romanizing reforms of 1604.

A PDF file with this medieval version of the Salve may be downloaded here. I would wonder if Dominican readers think that we should restore, at least for occasional use, the Salve as it was sung from the time of Humbert's standardization of the liturgy in 1254 until the Post-Reformation period, which was also the way that St. Thomas, St. Catherine, and St. Vincent Ferrer, and probably Our Holy Father Dominic actually sang it?

Dominican Antiphonal Completed

The Antiphonarium pro Liturgia Horarum iuxta Usum Ordinis Praedicatorum, is now complete for the entire liturgical office of the year. The six PDF files of this music are available gratis for download on the left sidebar. Readers are reminded that these are large files (about 9 megabites, over a 1000 printed pages each). So be patient when downloading.

This antiphonal, created for singing the Divine Office in Gregorian chant according to the Dominican musical tradtion, has all the chants needed for Office of Readings (including the Invitatory Psalm), Lauds, the Midday Office (including Terce, Sext, and None), Vespers, and Compline.

The only chants lacking are the Prolix Responsories for the Office of Readings, although references to where to find these in the Dominican chant books are inserted, and these responsories are included for all days of Holy Week and the Triduum. According to Dominican tradition, preserved for use with the new office in the 1982 Proprium approved for the Order, many other Prolix Respsonsories are inlcuded for optional use at Vespers. The Dominican chants for the Lamentations and the prayer of Jeremiah, as well as the Litanic Prayers, are found in the section for Holy Week. Thus, that music of Tenebrae approved for use with the Liturgy of the Hours is complete. Compline may be downloaded in a separate file.

This project began three years ago. The music was transcribed from Dominican (available for download on the left sidebar) and Roman sources, and, in the case of the Dominican music, corrected from the Poissy Antiphonal, a "certified" fourteenth-century manuscipt. The chants have been sung and corrected by the cloistered Dominican Nuns of Marbury Alabama. As they continue to sing through the music, corrections will certainly be made in these files.

The page of the Poissy Antiphonal with the Salve Regina decorates this post.

New Dominican Rite Resources

Through the kindness of contributors, I can now announce several new resources for the Dominican Rite.

The first is James Harrison's How to Sing Plainchant: Chiefly for the Use of Dominican Choirs (Ditchling: St. Dominic's Press, 1920). This is more extensive than my post on how to read Dominican notation and interpret the rhythm. Note, however, two oddities in this text. First, the author discusses the smaller version of the quarter bar, which was found in editions of our chant from 1910-1933. Unlike the regular quarter bar, this was NOT a sign to lengthen the preceding note, but merely a phrasing mark. It seems to have been added in 1910 to imitate the quarter bar found in the Solesmes-Roman system. Post-1933 books don't have this mark. Also, he mentions, merely in passing, the quilisma. As readers know, our books do not mark this. I assume that he thinks that choirs will add the interpretation where it would found in the Roman books, but he never explains how to do this. One can download a PDF file of this book from from the link on the left sidebar under "Dominican Chant Books" or consult it online here.

Next is a PDF file of Ceremonies of the Dominican Rite (New York: McBreen, 1877). This is a useful book for those who cannot read Latin. Although it does not reflect the practice of 1962 exactly, it is an excellent resource and covers many things not mentioned in Bonniwell's Ceremonial. The book includes rubrics for choir office and other rites besides Mass. It can be downloaded on the left sidebar under "Dominican Rite Texts."

Next is the new Liturgical Calendar of the Dominican Rite for 2010. I have compiled this for use in the Western Province, so it has a number of feasts proper to my province in it. I have also added the page numbers for the feasts along the right margin for those celebrations whose old date was changed and therefore are a bit hard to find in the 1936 Traveling Missal. The numbers indicate the page in that Missal. At the end, is found a list of the local celebrations in dioceses served by my province. Also, as this always seems to come up, the date of the September Ember days follows the reform of Pope John XXIII, which is proper for the usage of 1962. That is why they are a week later than some "Tridentine" calendars that you can find on the web. The Calendar has the days on the correct dates. You can find the link for download on the left sidebar under "Dominican Rite Texts."

Finally, thanks to Sister Mary Catherine of the Summit NJ monastery of our cloistered nuns, a new font can now be downloaded from our sidebar. If you insert the font in a document and type a capital F you will get the traditional Dominican Flex Mark whenever you need it for any psalter project. You can download it at the link under "Other Useful Links." The just copy it into the fonts directory under Windows. Although I cannot reproduce the mark here, due to limitations on fonts in the blogger program, this nice character will look much better than the usual substitutes, an upside down 2, or the † character.

I thank all who have contributed to these new resources.

1965 Dominican Holy Week Available

As readers know, one of my goals is to make the chant books of the Dominican Order accessible to the public in PDF format for download. Through the work of Fr. Gregory Schnakenberg, O.P., a contributor to Dominican Liturgy, we can now make available the last, 1965, edition of the Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae iuxta Ritum Ordinis Praedicatorum, that issued by order of the Master of the Order Aniceto Fernandez. It is now found linked for download on the left side bar under Dominican Chant Books. We already had made available the 1965 Regulae Chantus, and hope eventually to have available the 1965 edition of the Completorium.

This edition is of considerable historical interest. It integrated the selection of chants published in 1959 to bring the Dominican liturgy of Holy Week into conformity with the Roman Rite. In addition, this version of Holy Week abandoned the traditional Dominican notation and imposed on our music the Solesmes method of execution and its system of interpretive marks. Those interested in how this revision affected the music may the chants in this book with those in the older versions, as exemplified by the 1927 edition also available on the side bar.

All Souls at Blessed Sacrament Parish, Seattle WA

I apologize for the delay in posting these images of the Solemn Requiem Mass according to the Dominican Rite celebrated at the Church of the Blessed Sacrament in Seattle WA on All Souls last. It has taken me some time to get them together. This is just a selection from the photographs taken and posted by Mr. Pat Bucy at this photo album.

The minsiters for the Mass were: Fr. Daniel Syverstad, O.P., Pastor and Former Provincial of the Western Dominican Province, priest; Fr. Augustine Thompson, O.P., S.T.M., professor of Church History at Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, deacon; and Mr. Jesson Mata (an installed lector and acolyte), director of liturgy and music at Blessed Sacrament, subdeacon. Music was provided by the Tudor Choir, resident at Blessed Sacrament, under the direction of Mr. Doug Fullington, which sang the Requiem and Libera of Tomas de Vittoria. The church, which holds just over 700 was almost completely full, so attendence is estimated at about 650.


The High Altar of the church, dressed for the Mass; notice the black humeral veil for use later by the subdeacon, and the unbleached candles. Funds need to be raised for a violet tabernacle veil and for a proper black altar frontal; the vestments you will see in the coming photos were a kind loan from Holy Rosary Dominican Parish in Portland; the catafalque candle sticks were from the attic of the local Episcopal parish. If you would like to help Blessed Sacrament purchase what is needed needed for regular celebration of Dominican Rite Masses, contact Mr. Jesson Mata at the parish about how to make a donation.


The catafalque, covered with a black pall, where the Absolution of the Dead will be performed during the singing of the Libera, following the Mass.


Members of the Dominican Community of Blessed Sacrament, in choir awaiting the beginning of Mass: from left to right: Fr. Raphael Mary Salzillo, O.P., parochial vicar (ordained last spring); Fr. Jordan Bradshaw, O.P., Director of the Catholic Newman Center, University of Washington; and Fr. Augustine Hartman, O.P., in residence and chaplain.


Prayers at the Foot of the Altar in the Dominican form. Note the very simple apparels on the albs. The acolytes were Lawrence Lam and Thomas Fetz.


The ministers in the cross formation, waiting for Fr. Daniel to turn for the Dominus Vobiscum.


The priest and deacon read the Epistle, Responsorium, Tract, and Sequence quietly at the sedilla; they will stand in a moment to read the Gospel. Note the black "mappula" or "mappa" on their laps, the Dominican form of the Roman gremial.


The subdeacon has taken the black humeral veil and is about to bring the chalice to the sedilla where it will be prepared. The choir is singing the chants between the readings.


The Gospel Procession goes to the lectern.

The Offertory: the subdeacon has unveiled the already prepared chalice and the deacon has just passed it to the priest, saying "Imola Deo sacrificium laudis et redde Altissimo vota tua." The priest will offer up the host and chalice in a single oblation. Note the very simple apparels on the amices.

The Preface: the ministers are in this position for the dialogue (they are coming up from bowing for "Gratias agamus Domino Deo nostro"). They will also take this position for their reading of the Sanctus and Agnus Dei.

Ministers in position for the first part of the Canon. They will kneel in the triangular formation on the steps for the Consecration. The catafalque is visible in front.

The Elevations were not photographed out of respect for the Blessed Sacrament. This photo shows the deacon returning from placing the pall on the chalice and the priest with his arms extended in the cross position used by Dominicans after the Consecration.

Display of the Host for the Ecce Agnus Dei. This ceremony is not actually proper to the Dominican Rite. It is a Romanization imposed on the Rite in 1960 when our use of our Communion Confiteor was also suppressed by the Sacred Congregation of Rites.

Fr. Daniel was recovering from back surgery a little over two weeks before the Mass -- as those present could clearly see. He did not distribute Communion. Here Fr. Raphael is assisted in distribution by the deacon.

Fr. Jordan is assisted by the subdeacon.

The senior acolyte assists Fr. Hartman.

The priest consumes the ablution of water and wine at the side of the altar, deacon and subdeacon hold the cruets, servers wait to retrieve them.

The Choir has chanted the Libera. As he silently recites the Pater Noster, Fr. Daniel, wearing the cope, sprinkles the catafalque with Holy Water. He will then incense it and sing the verses and collects. For this ceremony, Chris Hanzeli served as crucifer (in front), and James Bronoske was thurifer.

The procession departs. You can see the full pews on either side of the church.

I thank Mr. Jesson Mata for forwarding the link and photographs.

New Holy Week Chants now available for download

I am pleased to announce that, through the kindness a friar reader of this site, we can now make available in PDF format for download the chant book Cantus Gregoriani ad Ordinem Hedomadae Sanctae Iuxta Ritum Ordinis Praedicatorum (Rome: Santa Sabina, 1959).

As many of our readers know, and as I have explained in my history of the Dominican Liturgy post on this site, the Dominican Rite Holy Week rituals underwent extensive revision in the 1950s to make them conform to the reformed Roman Liturgy. As our rite is a monastic rite and did not have any provisions for blessings of the font (non-existant in monastic churches), baptisms, and other aspects of the secular liturgy, this was a major revision. To supply chants for the reformed rites presented great challenges. The editors of the Cantus Gregoriani sought out as many authentic medieval versions of the chant as they could find and adopted others from the modern Roman tradition.

This set of chants represents the last effort to conform the Dominican Rite Holy Week to Roman practice using medieval music. In 1965, this material would be consolidated into the last edition of the Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae, but in that edition they music would be drastically revised to conform to the Solesmes methods of execution and notation. Those interested in the music of the Dominican Rite before accomodation to the Solesmes regime will find this download especially useful.

The music may be downloaded on the side bar under Hebdomadae Sanctae Cantus Novi.

Solemn Requiem Mass at Seattle WA

I am pleased to announce:

ALL SOULS DAY
November 2, 2009
7:00 p.m.

SOLEMN MASS OF THE DEAD
According the the Dominican Rite


V. Rev. Fr. Daniel Syverstad, O.P., Pastor and Former Provincial
Celebrant
V. Rev. Fr. Augustine Thompson, O.P., S.T.M.
Deacon
Mr. Jesson Mata
Subdeacon

Music Program

Tomas Luis de Vittoria
REQUIEM MASS
and
LIBERA
(Absolution of the Dead)

Propers from the Graduale Sacri Ordinis Praedicatorum

TUDOR CHOIR OF SEATTLE
under the direction of
Mr. Doug Fullington

CHURCH OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT
Dominican Parish
5041 Ninth Avenue N.E.
Seattle, WA 98105
206-547-3020

Dominican Nuns of Marbury Alabama

I promised the Dominican nuns of the Monastery of St. Jude in Marbury, Alabama, that I would mention them to our readers and emphasize their dedication to Dominican Chant. But I also want to pay tribute to the community's commitment to racial justice. At the time of their founding in 1944, they were among the first cloistered nuns to break the color line in the Deep South, something very difficult at that time. To the right you can see a picture of the some of the youngest and oldest members of the community.

I have often been asked whether there are any houses of cloistered Dominican nuns in the United States who are dedicated to preserving the chants of the Dominican Order, and I have always answered that all the monasteries of nuns preserve the chant to a greater or lesser degree. But my friends, the sisters of Marbury, are especially dear to my heart because I have been collaborating with them for almost two years in the revision of their music.

Like most of the Dominican monasteries in the U.S., the sisters at Marbury were then using the "Neo-Gregorian" music produced back in the 1970s in the monastery of Buffalo N.Y. When the Dominican nuns, following the friars, adopted the new Roman Liturgy of the Hours back in 1970, they discovered that many, if not most, of the antiphons and other chants of the Liturgia Horarum were new creations and had no music in the medieval chant tradition. In a heroic project old melodies were adapted to fit the new texts. Monasteries of our nuns adopted this music around the world, when they did not convert to vernacular chants.

About two years ago, the sisters of Marbury contacted me asking if there were any way to replace the Neo-Gregorian music with authentic Dominican chants. I assured them that it was possible and we began the project of compiling a new Antiphonal using the order of authentic antiphons given in the Ordo Cantus Officii published by the Sacred Congregation in 1983. Almost all these antiphons have Dominican variants and the substitutions were made. Parts of this project were already in use by the nuns last spring, and when I visited Marbury to celebrate a Missa Cantata in the Dominican Rite for Ascension Thursday. I was then able to hear the Paschal Time Office, with its traditional Alleluia antiphons, in use with the Liturgia Horarum for the first time in my life. The chants for that Mass were those from the Dominican Gradual, which the nuns also use at their regular Extraordinary Form Masses according the Roman Missal of 1962.

The Marbury sisters have always maintained the chant as part of their life of prayer, and it is central to their daily Horarium. When complete, the Advent-Christmas volume of the new Antiphonal will contain the complete music for all the Hours, not just Vespers as at present. The sisters plan to begin introducing this restored music on the First Sunday of Advent. The only thing lacking will be the "prolix responsories" for use at the Office of Readings, but I have included those responsories appointed for use in place of the short responses at First Vespers of Solemnities by the 1983 Proprium Ordinis Praedicatorum. And page references are will be provided for those not included. They can be found in the Dominican Antiphonals of 1863 and 1933, both available for dowload in PDF format on the side bar here at Dominican Liturgy. When complete this new Antiphonal will be available there too.

The Marbury sisters are a small community, but they have been blessed recently with an increase in vocations. They have asked me to call their community to the attention of young Catholic women who feel called to the Dominican spiritual tradition of study and prayer in the form of the Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, but especially to those women who have a love of Gregorian Chant. Those interested may find the vocation page here. Even if you are not thinking of a vocation to the sisters, their web page is still worth a visit.

Note to readers

The analysis of the "Canonical Status of the Dominican Rite" on the side bar has been updated.

Dominican Libellus Precum Available On-Line

I have been asked many times about collections of Dominican prayers and devotions in Latin. So it may please readers to know that the Libellus Precum ad Usum Fratrum Ordinis Praedicatorum ["Booklet of Prayers for Use by the Friars of the Order of Preachers"], has been made available on-line for down-load in PDF format on our left sidebar or here.

This small prayerbook contains the Latin texts of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin in its Dominican Rite form, the Daily Office of the Dead, and many other prayers and devotions popular in the Dominican Order. It also contains special Dominican forms for blessings, including that of the Rosary, as well as the daily Examination of Conscience and the Thanksgiving after Communion. The first edition was produced in 1911 and the last in 1957. This is the edition printed under the Master of the Order Fr. Emmanuel Suarez, O.P., in 1952.

A new version of the Libellus was created and published in 1983 as part of the Proprium Ordinis Praedicatorum, which adapted chants and texts of the traditional Dominican Rite for use with the new Roman Liturgia Horarum. Sadly this section of the Proprium was never published independently.

I know of no translation of the Libellus Precum. Should anyone do one, I would happy to post it for download. I think my collaborator Bro. Corwin Low, O.P., for providing this excellent quality scan.

Dominican Missal of 1521

It may interest our readers to know that the Dominican Rite Altar Missal of 1521 is now, in part, available on-line at Gonzaga University in Spokane WA. It is published electronically by their Rare Books Collection. This is a beautiful and informative presentation, with excellent digital images, one of which decorates this post.

Of special interest artistically are the woodcuts with which it is decorated. This missal, although heavily overburdened with saints days (almost to the exclusion of the Sundays of the Year!) is important because it is one of the last editions before the Romanizing reforms mandated by the Dominican General Chapter of Salamanca in 1551. Most famously, the Salamanca reforms changed the Dominican (and Sarum) practice of counting Sundays after Trinity to "Sundays after the Octave of Trinity," an oddity preserved until the change to the Roman form of "Sundays after Pentecost in the Missal of 1965.

I thank Mrs. Jamie Ballanger for calling this publication to my attention.

Easter Vesperal for Dominican Use Available

The Easter Season Vesperal for the modern Liturgy of the Hours following the Dominican Use is now available on our left side-bar or here for download in PDF format. This Vesperal gives the Dominican Versions of the Gregorian music assigned for use with the Latin Liturgia Horarum according to the Ordo Cantus Officii (1983) issued by the Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship. Also included are additions and variants provided in the Proprium Officiorum Ordinis Praedicatorum (1982).

In addition to Vespers, the Alleluias that may replace the psalm antiphons of the Liturgia at Office of Readings, Lauds, and the Little Hours are also included, along with the Antiphons at the Benedictus. The music for Vespers of the feasts of the Annunciation and St. Joseph follows the Psalter.

I apologize for the lateness of this posting, especially to those who have been waiting for this material for personal use. A computer problem had to be rectified before I would edit the music for this project and create PDF files. In order to make this available as quickly as possible, I have posted this Vesperal without the Commons of the Saints. I need to complete the revision of the antiphons and responsories to include alleluias. Once this is done an updated version will be posted.

Anchorage Chant and Dominican Rite News

The Catholic Anchor, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Anchorage AK, has recently run a nice story on the revival of Gregorian chant there. As this article also mentions the regular celebration of the Dominican Rite Mass in the Cathedral each First Saturday of the month at noon, readers might be interested in reading it.

It has been posted, with premission of the newspaper here.

William Bonniwell, History of the Domincan Liturgy 1215-1945

We are delighted to announce that, through the kindness of Bro. Gregory Schnakenberg, O.P., a downloadable PDF copy of

Fr. William Bonniwell, O.P.'s History of the Dominican Liturgy, 1215-1945, 2d. rev. ed. (New York: Wagner, 1945)

is now available on our sidebar under "Dominican Rite Texts."

This book is the only history ever completed in English for the liturgical tradition of the Dominican Order. Father Bonniwell covers both the Mass and the Office. For the period from 1945 to 1970, one may consult my essay published on this blog and linked through the index on the lower left.

The image of St. Dominic to the right is from the Dominican Breviary of 1699 and was used by Fr. Bonniwell opposite the title page of the book.

Dominican Nuns of Summit Discovered by Time-CNN

Dominican Liturgy is delighted to hear that the Dominican Nuns of Summit NJ have been made the subject of a beautiful photo essay by Time-CNN.

It includes novices and professed sisters speaking in a simple way about their vocations. Here is the link:

Radical Love

After watching this, our readers might want to visit the sisters website, or perhaps their vocations page.

And don't forget their Cloister Gift Shoppe!

Holy Rosary Church: Palestrina Mass of Dedication

Fr. Anthony-M. Patalano, O.P., pastor of the Dominican Parish in Portland, Holy Rosary Church, has asked that I advise our readers of an up-coming event there.

Holy Rosary Church will mark its 115th Anniversary on Sunday, 25 August, at the 11:00 A.M. Mass. The V. Rev. Gerald A. Buckley, O.P., Prior of the Western Dominican Province House of Studies, Saint Albert the Great Priory in Oakland CA, who was pastor at Holy Rosary from 1981-83, and who brought Cantores to this parish will celebrate Mass in Latin according to the Ordinary Form.

Cantores in Ecclesia will sing Palestrina's Missa Emendemus and the Plainsong Propers for the Feast of the Dedication of a Church. Holy Rosary is a dedicated church, and the date of the consecration was 28 January 1894, then the feast of the Translation of the Relics of St. Thomas. In the new calendar, so as not perpetually to impede the Feast of the Angelic Doctor, Holy Rosary Parish celebrates the dedication on the closest Sunday. Fr. Patalano invites any readers in the Portland area to attend the celebration and introduce themselves.

I might add that Fr. Patalano is the conference chair for The Living Tradition: The Dominican Rite in the Twenty-First Century, which will be held at Saint Albert the Great Priory in Oakland CA, 5-9 August 2009. This event is open to anyone interested in the Rite, not just Dominicans. The Program and registration forms may be found here.