Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament
by Rev. James L. Connolly, Ph.D.
Its History and Present Status1
In its origin, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament is closely associated with the feast of Corpus Christi. But the inspiration of the devotion goes further back and antedates that festival. Already at the beginning of the thirteenth century–known to us for the legends of the Holy Grail–there was evident a pronounced desire to gaze on the Sacred Host, and to show marks of respect for the Eucharistic Presence. That same desire is characteristic of our Benediction today. That same eagerness to honor Christ in the Eucharist is still one of the motives for the frequent expositions and benedictions of the Blessed Sacrament that we witness today. The devotion might be said to have three phases: public exposition, veneration in the form of chant and prayer and incense, and finally the benediction given. These are three separate elements each of which has its own distinct origin. The most ancient of them is exposition.
As far as can be determined, the first public exposition occurred toward the end of the twelfth century. It was of very short duration. It came at the moment of consecration in the Mass when the Host was elevated as it is today. But this was an innovation at that time. The people were not used to the sight of the Host. What happened at the altar had been shrouded in mystery, somewhat as it is still in the Eastern Church where there is no elevation after the consecration of the Host and no emphasis on Benediction. But with all the doubts that had been cast on the Real Presence, and all the controversies that were waging as to the exact moment of Transubstantiation, reason enough was found for the elevation of the Host. Paris was the center of the controversy, and it was at Paris that the growing custom assumed the definiteness of a synodal decree in 1215. Here was set an example that the whole Christian world was soon to follow; for Paris was the theological center of the time and had trained the priests who were mounting to the papal throne. The decree of 1215 marks the beginning of devotion to the Blessed Sacrament exposed, exposed in the course of the Mass.
Special import was attached to the moment of the elevation from this time forward. Bows and reverences were prescribed for the faithful by papal decree and diocesan synod. Indulgences were offered all who assisted devoutly at the consecration, with lighted candle in their hands–just as indulgences were being offered all who reverenced the Blessed Sacrament when It was being carried to the sick. Honorius III made known his will that priests instruct their people to bow down reverently when the Sacred Host is elevated". Gregory X enjoined the faithful that they kneel from the time of the consecration until the communion of the Mass, exception being made for the seasons of Lent and Christmas.2 Religious houses seconded these decrees by regulating the posture and the attitudes taken by the monks when the Host was lifted up by the priest. If one may judge from the spirit of the common prayerbook (the Lay Folks' Mass-book), the attention of the faithful began to turn more and more to the salutary effects of gazing on the Host. The Ancren Riwle comes to us, rich with the devotional life of the thirteenth century, and tells how much it was affected by the sight of the Saving Bread, and with what aspirations the elevation of the Host was greeted.
This was at a time when communions were rare. Contemporary with the instruction given by the synod of Paris as to the elevation of the Host in the Mass came the decree of the Fourth Council of the Lateran binding all the faithful to receive Communion, at least during Eastertide. The Rule of the Poor Clares dating from this same period specifies six of the great feasts of the calendar as communion days. On the advice of his director St. Louis received the Blessed Sacrament six times a year. But if religious and saints were to receive so seldom, the laity and the sinner took a still stranger attitude and shunned the Table of the Lord, unmindful of the words: "Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man you shall not have life in you."
The devotional practice now turned to feasting the eyes on the sight of the Host. Exceptional benefit was attached to it. It was presumed and sometimes preached that no evil could befall a person in body or mind, at home or abroad, if he had beheld the Host uplifted at Mass in the morning. To meet the insistent demand priests prolonged the moment of the elevation and turned from side to side the better to display the Host. We read of one obliging clerk who repeated the elevation of the Host, at Communion time, for the benefit of some of the nobility who had come too tardy to church. This spirit of acquiescence may be noticed in the structural details of many medieval parish churches where provision was made for facilitating the view of the Host to such as could not or would not enter the church. It was a common protest of zealous priests that many people came to church just to witness the elevation. Not infrequently those who judged themselves devout spent their time going from altar to altar so as to be present when the Host was raised. Theologians worried whether infidels should be permitted to gaze at the Eucharistic Presence, and whether those in mortal sin did not incur additional guilt by so doing. Moralists argued as to how the Host should be held, and whether a person who beheld the Blessed Sacrament from the back of the altar had really fulfilled his duty. Many were the dioceses that had miraculous Hosts offered for the veneration of the people and great was the eagerness to secure the assistance to faith that these afforded.
These were some of the features connected with Eucharistic piety in the thirteenth century. There were others of more lasting character. It became customary to announce the elevation of the Host by the ringing of the church bell and special blessing was promised those who knelt in their homes or in the fields to honor God's Presence. The faithful were urged to accompany the priest when he carried Viaticum to the dying, and it was not an unusual scene to witness long processions wending their way through the streets as guard of honor to the Blessed Eucharist. Means were sought to encourage greater reverence on the part of the people. Attempts were made to stimulate a pious response to the Heavenly Gift. There was a tendency to bring the Blessed Eucharist nearer to the lives of the faithful. Significant of this movement was the gesture that dispensed with hanging tabernacles and devised wall tabernacles that would permit the sight of the pyx. Significant too was the attempt made to construct pyxes of elaborate design, such as the one used by St. Clare in warding off the attack of the Saracen from Assisi. Another indication of the same zeal is to be had in the processions of the Blessed Sacrament that were solemnized, in the full sense of the word, in Holy Week, on Good Friday and, in some localities, on Palm Sunday. But the most significant step.was taken in the introduction of a special feast in honor of the Holy Eucharist–the feast of Corpus Christi. As is well enough known, Belgium was the country and Liege the diocese that sponsored the new devotion which was inaugurated on the Thursday after Trinity' Sunday in the year 1247. It was not long before the sympathies and the support of the Pope were enlisted in this attempt to "render homage to the adorable Presence of Christ in the Eucharist". St. Thomas Aquinas was commissioned to compose an office for the feast and succeeded so well in grasping the spirit of the devotion that his hymns are still used as the best means of expressing the sentiments of the faithful in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. Subsequent ages have not improved on the expressions of the Pange lingua, the Panis angelicus, and the O Salutaris hostia. Together with the Vesper antiphons: O quam suavis and the O sacrum convivium, these hymns have been expressive of the noblest homage tendered the Eucharistic Presence.
So it was that the end of the thirteenth century found the Church in possession of two of the elements that go to make up our devotion of Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament–the exposition of the Host in the course of the Mass, and the cult of the Eucharist by means of a special feast, special office, and special ceremony. So far as can reasonably be judged it was not customary to celebrate Mass before the Blessed Sacrament exposed on the feast of Corpus Christi. Nor was the procession one in which a monstrance was used. A good reason for that is the absence of receptacles so contrived as to protect at the same time as they displayed the Sacred Host. It was before the Blessed Sacrament concealed in a pyx that Mass was offered. It was with the same metal pyx, covered and veiled over, that the procession was made. But to the minds of the people as well as to those of the priests it appeared that the feast still lacked something. The Eucharist was indeed being venerated. But It was invisible, and the faithful sought to gaze upon It. Although they sang the "et si sensus deficit, sola fides sufficit," there was none the less a growing sentiment that devotion would be helped by the sight of the Host. Various expedients were tried to satisfy this demand. For some time it became the custom to uncover and unveil the pyx during the course of the procession; then pyxes were fabricated with glass windows let into the sides so as to facilitate the view of the Sacrament; finally, it was seen to be better to have the bowl of the pyx made of crystal. The records of some of the processions of the fourteenth century tell of carrying the Sacred Species, "in aperto vasculo positum," "repositum in pyxide crystallina," so that in such wise the object of veneration might be visible to the eyes of the adorers. This same period saw the development of the third feature of the devotion–namely, the giving of benediction with the Blessed Sacrament raised tip above the people. The earliest record we have of such a blessing having been given dates from the year 1301, in Hildesheim, Germany. There the abbot prescribed the ceremonies that were to take place for the feast of Corpus Christi. Clad in a red cope the celebrant was to carry the Host in procession to the main altar. But the procession was to lead him to different stations, at one of which, in the midst of the cloister, he is instructed to mount the steps of the altar and bless those assembled with the pyx containing the Blessed Sacrament, "cum ipsa hostia sanctissima populum benedicens". Those present were instructed to chant the antiphon: O admirabile precium, and to bow down and genuflect during the benediction.3
Here was a new departure. It had been customary to bless objects and persons with the sign of the cross. All kinds of such benedictions were prescribed in the liturgy. But here was the Blessed Sacrament Itself being lifted aloft in token of blessing. Here was the Host Itself used to bless the people. New as it was, it met with almost instantaneous approbation. In some instances a formula was used: "Benedictio Dei Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti descendat super vos et maneat semper." Sometimes but one, sometimes a triple, sign of the cross was made. There are instances of this benediction being given in the course of the procession, and there are other indications that it was retarded to the time of blessing at the end of Mass. But in any case we find the blessing being given with the Blessed Sacrament at the beginning of the fourteenth century.
Here then may be said to have coexisted all the elements that enter into the present devotion of Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. The Blessed Sacrament was being exposed;–hymns, prayers and processions were being held in honor of the Eucharist, and the blessing was given with the Host. It was not to be long before all three features of the devotion would be merged into one, and made a devotion separate from the Mass, separate even from the feast of Corpus Christi.
The first step was taken in the evolution of the monstrance. We have seen how, originally, pyxes that were closed and veiled were used during the procession and Mass of Corpus Christi. In the effort to reveal the Host various expedients were devised. Sometimes the metal dove that had served to hold the Reserve in former times was adapted. Very often reliquaries, especially such as were large enough to be easily distinguishable, were made to serve. Not infrequently, in churches of Belgium and Germany one finds ancient monstrances that are no more than such adaptations.4 Another development was the use of statues representing John the Baptist carrying the Host, or images of our Lord having in the breast a small aperture into which a glass pyx could be inserted. These were used for exposition and procession of the Blessed Sacrament the better to suggest the Real Presence. But they were all found wanting, until finally a style of monstrance was devised that would permit the sight of the Sacred Host. There may have been differences in shape–some of them being fashioned cruciform, others in the form of towers; but by the end of the fourteenth century the Blessed Sacrament was carried in procession, exposed to the gaze of the faithful –and Mass was offered in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament not alone on the feast of Corpus Christi, but on other great feasts of the calendar.
One instance of this is found in the privilege granted the city of Brandenburg by its bishop in the year 1372. A procession and Mass coram sanctissimo was permitted on Easter-day, Pentecost, All Saints', Christmas, and the feast of the Dedication of a Church, as well as on Corpus Christi. So that, as early as 1372, a custom was starting of having Mass before the Blessed Sacrament exposed. There is no express mention of benediction having been given with the monstrance, but it is not too much to presume that it was given, perhaps in the course of such processions, perhaps at the end of the Mass. For in other cities of Germany such blessings were given with pyx or monstrance in connection with the Corpus Christi festival. But whether the benediction was present or not in the ceremonies of 1372, it was not long coming into use. For there was a wave of enthusiasm for having Mass before the Blessed Sacrament exposed. It was thought that through frequent recourse to the devotions that roused religious fervor on the occasion of Corpus Christi, a higher standard of spirituality could be built up. With this end in view, some of the bishops permitted frequent expositions and processions. The enthusiasm of priests and religious went beyond the spirit of the privilege, however, and it was not long before Mass of the Blessed Eucharist became commonplace.
The ceremonies for such Masses, which were occurring on every first Thursday (sometimes on every Thursday) and major festivals of the month, may be described. The celebrant of the Mass, with deacon and subdeacon, carried the Blessed Sacrament in procession from the Sakramentshauschen to the altar where Mass was to be sung. As he proceeded, the congregation, kneeling, sang the O salutaris hostia. The monstrance was placed on the altar and Mass was begun and continued down to the sequence, when the celebrant lifted up the monstrance, turned to the congregation with the Blessed Sacrament thus exposed to the gaze of the congregation, and intoned the Ecce panis angelorum, and the In figuris praesignatus. On their knees, the members of the choir sang the two verses of the hymn, the sacristan ringing his bell the while. This finished, the monstrance was set on the altar again, and Mass continued to the end. Then special prayers were offered and the Tantum ergo was sung. At the words, sit et benedictio, the celebrant again took up the monstrance and blessed the people with a sign of the cross made with the monstrance. Then the Blessed Sacrament was carried immediately to the place of reposition.5
It is interesting to note that until late in the fourteenth century it was not thought to have Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament outside the Mass. Misguided enthusiasm might have exaggerated demands to the point of enlisting the aid of an exposition and a benediction to give added solemnity to feast or to funeral service. In their eagerness to cater to the patronage of the people some of the religious houses secured for themselves the privilege of having the Blessed Sacrament exposed at Mass on Sundays and Thursdays. Others were permitted to have special exposition in the afternoon. Pastors vied with them to the point of matching privilege with privilege, and soon the bishops who had permitted frequent expositions as an aid to devotion began to rescind all privileges. The history of the devotion in the early fifteenth century is one of retrenchment. Some of the authorities insisted, as did Nichola of Cusa, that the Blessed Eucharist had been instituted as Food and not for display. " Sie sei als Speise nicht als Schaumittel eingesetzt." Under such leadership it was forbidden to expose or to have a procession of the Blessed Sacrament at any time other than during the octave of Corpus Christi. A concession was made in the event of some public calamity, in which case the permission of the bishop had to be secured. One would think that with such stringent measures being taken, the devotion would have died out. But it simply adapted itself to the spirit of the prohibitions. If they could not behold the Blessed Sacrament exposed on the altar, the people made Sakramentshauschen with latticed doors that permitted the sight of the pyx containing the Sacred Host. If the exposition was prohibited during the time of Mass, they could transfer it to the afternoon.
This is what was done in the latter part of the fifteenth century. In some localities, for the keeping of the octave of Corpus Christi it had been permitted to have the Host exposed at Vesper time. But it was regarded as an exceptional devotion and not solemnized. As limitations were now being put on the external homage accorded the Blessed Eucharist at Mass on Sundays and Thursdays, the obvious thing to do was to transfer the exposition and benediction ceremony to the afternoon. This actually happened in the last half of the fifteenth century.
Rome looked kindly on this devotion. The approbation of the popes was given the confraternities or guilds that were being organized in France, Germany and Italy to assist the devotion shown on the occasion of the feast of the Eucharist, and also at Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. Nicholas V, Callixtus III and Pius II gave proof of their favor by the part they took in Eucharistic processions. Perhaps the best sign of the interest shown at Rome may be found in the fresco painted by Raphael in the Vatican. It was no accident, but an attempt to represent the piety of his day that made Raphael show how the whole Church was attracted to Christ in the Eucharist. The theme of the so-called Disputa is that of devotion to the Blessed Sacrament exposed for veneration. The Host is set in a monstrance and raised on the table of an altar. There is little to suggest the Mass. The altar is quite as it must have been at a time of afternoon devotion. There is nothing to indicate that this is the Bread of Life. All gaze on the Sacred Host; all adore and discuss the mystery of the Real Presence, as doubtless was done in many of the churches of the city in those early years of the sixteenth century.
When the Protestant religious revolt upset Europe, one of the points of discord was the belief in the Real Presence and the consequent adoration of the Blessed Eucharist. Generally speaking, the Lutherans denied the Real Presence, save possibly at the moment Communion was received. Luther expressed himself in no uncertain terms. "There is no feast I detest more than that of Corpus Christi," he said. So there was little room for Eucharistic piety in Protestant Germany. The Calvinists were no less extreme, since in denying the value of the Mass they denied all. Such being the spirit of heresy, the Church did not hesitate to counteract it by giving definite expression, at Trent, to the doctrine of the Real Presence. To make her position the more manifest, the cult of the Eucharist was recommended with exposition and procession of the Blessed Sacrament. The faithful needed no other urging. What with the hostility of heretics and the growing indifference of doubtful Catholics, much irreverence was being done the Blessed Sacrament. So the faithful sought to make reparation for it all by special devotions.
The sixteenth century is the century of the Forty Hours' Adoration. It marks also the beginning of leagues for perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. While, at the first, public exposition was discouraged, it was not long before the Church in Italy and France had associated with these new devotions all that the Corpus Christi ritual put into practice. Amongst these was the benediction bestowed with the Blessed Sacrament. Not much is said of it, the attention of the people during the time of the wars of religion being too distracted to record familiar details of their devotional lives. But if the use of Benediction became quite common in the seventeenth century, it was not without a basis in an earlier time. Such things do not appear spontaneously. They are the fruit of gradual growth, and the outburst of enthusiasm that came in the seventeenth century must have been prepared for in the century preceding. The devotion was cultivated particularly in convents and monastery churches, and usually took place on Sunday–for the most part but once a month, and that at Vesper time. It was of common practice during the octave of Corpus Christi. In France, it was called Salut, after the O salutaris. The ceremonies may have varied according to the locality, but in essentials they were practically the same. The Blessed Eucharist was exposed, hymns and prayers suitable to the devotion were sung and at the word benedictio in the Tantum ergo the blessing was given. Incense was used, but no special incensations were required. Frequently the priest would stand with the monstrance in his hands facing the people, while the Ecce panis angelorum was sung through. In many localities the imparting of the blessing was accompanied by the words: "Benedictio Dei Patris. . . ." or the "Benedicat vos omnipotens Deus, Pater et Filius et Spiritus Sanctus."6
Rome's concern was directed toward Eucharistic devotion at this time. In order to prevent the exposition of the Sacrament being an extra in the solemnizing of local feasts, the Congregation of Rites declared against the practice of offering the Sacrifice of the Mass on the altar where the Blessed Sacrament was exposed. In the same spirit, it was forbidden to expose the Blessed Eucharist for veneration at Forty Hours' Adoration during the last three days of Holy Week. Religious were to be subject to diocesan regulation in the matter of expositions and benedictions of the Blessed Sacrament. The Ordinary's permission had to be secured for all churches, even those of regulars. And it was counseled that there should not be too frequent exposition of the Blessed Sacrament ("nimis frequens esse non debet in ecclesiis regularium"). All these decisions may have been due in part to the caustic criticisms which the Jansenists were bringing against the sensible satisfaction that was found in this devotion, with lights, incense, and singing. Whatever the occasion, it was certainly out of a desire to insure the reverence due the Holy Eucharist that these decisions were handed down.7
Other decisions of the Congregation, dating from the same period, were of directive rather than prohibitive character. As early as 1639, it was specified that the benediction be not given at the words of the Tantum ergo, "sit et benedictio," but that the hymn be finished, the versicle and the oration sung before the blessing was imparted. There was to be no Dominus vobiscum said or sung before the oration. Triple benedictions were ruled out for secular priests and religious. A simple sign of the cross, such as is used nowadays, was prescribed. There was to be no singing at the moment of benediction, and no formula was to be used. The faithful were to genuflect on one knee in passing before the tabernacle, and on both knees in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament exposed. Wherever these directions were followed, the devotion was conducted in the last part of the seventeenth century quite as it is today. But local customs prevailed in many localities and the Congregation had, time after time, to reiterate its rulings–"non obstantibus quibuscunque contrariis consuetudinibus".8
The devotion to the Sacred Heart has since its rise in the seventeenth century been intimately associated with Eucharistic devotion. It was before the Blessed Sacrament exposed, and during the octave of Corpus Christi, that St. Margaret Mary received the revelations. One of the instructions she received, the so-called "Great Promise", stresses the need of monthly Communion. There is no direct recommendation of the cult of the Eucharist as an end, in the text of the revelations. But the spirit of a feast that was inspired before the tabernacle has been tending more and more to the devotion to the Blessed Sacrament under the theme of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus. The devotion was approved by the Holy Office as late as 1915, and the feast which occurs on the fifth day within the octave of the Sacred Heart was instituted by Pope Benedict XV. The feast is kept quite widely in Europe and America and serves to indicate the intimate association that may be made between devotion to the Sacred Heart and to the Holy Eucharist. Certainly, if one may judge from the use of Benediction in connection with First Friday devotions, a basis was laid, long since, for this new feast; for, since its foundation, the League of the Sacred Heart or the Apostleship of Prayer has emphasized evening devotion to the Blessed Sacrament as well as the "communion of reparation".
In our own day (1931), Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament holds an honored place in the devotional life of the Church. With our prospering congregations and societies of devout men and women who make it their aim to honor the Eucharistic Presence, there could not but be a new impetus given the devotion that comprises exposition, veneration and benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. This is reflected, at its best, in the Eucharistic Congresses which unite to pay reverent homage to the Blessed Sacrament and which occasion sincere and impressive manifestations of faith amongst the people. At its worst, it is seen in the misguided zeal which disregards the decrees of the Congregation and those of the Code to use frequent expositions and benedictions–sometimes Missa coram Sanctissimo–for reasons that are more of private than of public necessity. No one can deny the devotion that exists in communities that dedicate themselves to perpetual adoration. No one can belie the effect that their example has on the faithful. At the same time none can deny that it is a sad experience to enter a church on a Sunday or weekday evening and find a small handful of people in attendance at Benediction. In itself, the ceremony as well as the purpose of Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament can be the vehicle of pious affection; but to cram the service in after the Sunday Mass savors neither of reverence nor of piety.
Since the inception of the devotion there have not been wanting critics who cried out against too frequent expositions. The concern of the German bishops in the fifteenth century was to check a tendency to make the Blessed Sacrament an extra feature in some local devotion. The spirit of the Congregation of Rites has been to safeguard the Blessed Sacrament against irreverence and misuse. With this same end in view, the Code repeats in almost the same words the ruling which Nicholas of Cusa and the synod of Cologne made in 1452, namely, that " public expositions of the Blessed Sacrament may be held in all churches during the octave of Corpus Christi, but not on any other occasion without there being a grave reason, and with the express permission of the bishop.9 Cologne stipulated that by grave reason was meant one that approximated a public calamity.
That there can be a grave reason for all the .services of Benediction that are held in our convents and churches we do not question. That priests and pastors may with reason conduct the devotion on all Sundays and holidays of obligation–during Lenten, October and May devotions, in times of missions or retreats, and during the octave of Corpus Christi or at Forty Hours' Adoration–we do not doubt. But we wonder sometimes whether there is not a tendency to make a duty of what has been granted as a privilege. Many well-intentioned priests will conduct Benediction service after the last Mass all summer long in order to guarantee a sufficient attendance. There is a feeling that Benediction has somehow to be brought into the scheme of the day's exercises, and we are all concerned when the people seem to slight Benediction. But there is no obligation in the matter. The people are not bound to attend. We are not bound to profit by every opportunity of giving Benediction. If all possible occasions were added, it would be possible to have the devotion well over a hundred times in the course of the year. Such a procedure may be defended on the grounds of its being an aid to devotion. That is not, and never has been the spirit of the Church.. Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament is an answer more than an aid to devotion. So, at least, it seems to be in its beginning. It was as an act of faith that the Sacred Host was elevated in the Mass for the first time; the feast of Corpus Christi was instituted and the office written as a proof of faith; the accentuation given Eucharistic piety in the sixteenth century was due in part to the fact that faith in the Real Presence was questioned. Where there exists an ardent faith in Christ, there will always be an outpouring of love to Him in the tabernacle as well as in the Mass. Where this faith does not exist, or where it is waning, it will hardly be cultivated by multiplying Benediction services in our churches.
Not infrequently, nowadays, one hears rumors of differences between the exponents of liturgical piety and those who are attached to visiting and adoring the Holy Eucharist. There need be none if proper proportion is observed. Neither group would exclude or oppose what is advanced by the other. There is room for both. There is need for both. Alongside the two, comes the great body of the faithful whose attitude toward the Mass needs to be improved and whose devotion to the Blessed Sacrament could well be strengthened. That this will be accomplished by begging them to attend Benediction may be doubted. At all events, it can do no harm to indicate what has been the history of the devotion and what the attitude of the Church in the matter.
Endnotes
1 There are few books that treat of this subject directly. Information may be secured from Kramp, J., – Busch, W., Eucharistia, St. Paul, 1926, articles in the Month (June to September, 1901, and October, 1905), and in The Tablet (19 Oct. Ito 2 Nov., 1907) by Father Thurston. The Decreta Authentica of the Sacred Congregation of Rites and the Codex juris canonici have been used. An article in the Jahrbuch fur Liturgiewissenschaft, 1927, pp. 83-103, entitled " Die Entstehung der Sakramentsandachten ", and written by P. Browe, S.J., has been particularly serviceable.
2 This was likely prompted by the ancient tradition in virtue of which Christians stood during their prayers on the vigils of Easter and Christmas.
3 Browe, op. cit., p. 85.
4 Liturgia, Encyclopedie populaire des connaissances liturgiques, Paris, 1930, pp. 290-292.
5 Browe, op. cit., p. 92.
6 Corblet, J., Histoire de l'eucharistie, Vol. II, P. 430.
7 Decreta authentica S.R.C., nos. 1190, 1450 and 1529.
8 S. R. C. nos. 665, 1265 ad 7, 1540, 1563 and 2464.
9 Codex juris canonici no. 1274.
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