The Gothic Missal includes prayers to be performed on rogation (fasting) days at churches dedicated to various named saints. Written in Latin in Gaul, perhaps at Luxeuil for the Christian community of Autun, c. 680/710.
E08236
Liturgical texts - Sacramentaries
Late antique original manuscripts - Parchment codex
The Gothic Missal (Missale Gothicum)
COLLECCIONES IN ROGACIONIBVS PER DIVERSA LOCA SANCTORVM
343. IN SANCTO PETRO NVNC. Deus, refugium pauperum, spes humilium salusque miserorum, interueniente pro nobis beatissimo fundatorem eclesiae tuae Petro, supplicaciones supplecum tuorum in die triduani huius ieiunii clementer exaudi, et tranquillitatem a uiciis pariter et hostibus nostris concede temporibus ut quos iusticia flagellorum tuorum iuste facire potest esse adflictos, habundancia misericordiae tuae ipso beato Petro obtinente faciat consolatus. Per.
344. COLLECCIO. Omnipotens sempiterne deus, qui beato Petro apostulo conlatis clauibus regni caelestis animas legandi atque soluendi pontificium tradedisti, exaudi propicius praeces nostras in die ieiunii huius et intercessione eius quaesomus ut a peccatorum nostrorum nexibus liberemur. Per.
345. COLLECCIO IN SANCTO PAVLO. Vide domine, quaesomus, infirmitatem nostram et in diebus ieiuniorum istorum, quos trina consecracio trino numero facit extensos, interueniente beato apostulo tuo Paulo celere nobis pietate succurre, ut quos iusticia correpis, misericordia consoleris. Per.
346. ITEM COLLECCIO. Exaudi domine, quaesomus, gemitum nostrum in diebus ieiuniorum trino numero trinitate sacratorum, et intercedente beato Paulo magistro nostro atque doctore, quaesomus, ne aput te plus ualeat offensio delinquencium quam miseracio tua semper indulta fletibus supplecancium. Per.
347. ORACIO IN SANCTO STEPHANO. Praesta, quaesomus, omnipotens et misericors deus, ut fragilitati nostrae adflictae in diebus istorum ieiuniorum magnificus leuita ac batus Stephanus auxilium interuencionis exhibeat, qui imitator dominicae passionis et pietatis primus in cruore martyrii enituit et semper sit perfectus suffratur atque te concedente prumptus adiutor. Per.
348. ITEM COLLECCIO. Praeces nostras in hoc ieiunio protentas, quaesomus, domine, beati leuitae et martyris Stephani prosequatur oracio, et ut adsit nobis adflictis misericordia tua, eius praecibus adiuuemur. Per.
349. ORACIO IN SANCTO MARTINO. Porrege dexteream tuam, quesomus, domine, plebi tuae in die ieiuniorum suorum misericordiam postulanti, et intercedente beato Martino terrores inminentes declinemus et solacia uitae inmortalitatis accipiamus et sempiterna gaudia conpraehendamus. Per.
350. ITEM ALIA. Deus, auctor ieiunii, institutor abstinenciae, qui ieiunii forma conplectens submouisti ingluuiem saturitatis, ut in nobis castimoniae subrietas regnaret, respice, domine, propicius super hos supplices tuos ieiunio triduanae abstinenciae uacantes, et intercedente summo uiro beato Martino graciam tuam benedictionis tuae nobis omnibus ab exoratus infunde ut sicut hoc ieiunium ad cultus tui timore constitutum uincit ingluuiem gulae, ita inluminacio tua in sensibus nostris superet omnem nostrorum fomitem uiciorum. Per.
351. ORACIO IN SANCTO GREGORIO. Omnipotens sempiterne deus, ieiuni de tuis etiam donis saciati uel qualibet maceractione confecti, maiestatem tuam supplices exoramus ut expulsis de cordibus nostris peccatorum tenebris in die hac ieiunii intercedente summo antestete nostro et diuinorum mysteriorum capacem Gregorio ad ueram lucem, quae Christus est, nos facias peruenire.
352. COLLECCIO. Omnipotens sempiterne deus, cuius iussu caro a uoluptatibus ieiunii maceracione restringatur et satorem suum caro nostra per subrietatem restricta conguscit, per intercessionem ummi apostolici patris nostri Gregorii in hoc ieiunio tribue cunctis inmaculatum in te credentibus exercere cultum, ut etiam si ieiunantibus uicia succedunt et deserunt uirtutes, tua erga eos, pater omnipotens, custodia perseueret. Per.
'Collects for the Rogation Days in Various Saints' Churches
343. Now in Saint Peter's. God, Refuge of the poor, Hope of the humble and Salvation of the wretched, mercifully hear, through the intercession of the most blessed Peter, the blessed founder of your Church, the prayers of your supplicants on the day of this three-day fast. And grant to our times tranquillity from sin and likewise from [our] enemies, so that the abundance of your mercy comforts those who may rightly be afflicted through the justice of your scourges, because the blessed Peter obtains this [for us.] Through [...]
344. Collect. Almighty and everlasting God, who gave the office of bishop to the blessed apostle Peter, [by] giving him the keys of the heavenly kingdom to bind and loose souls, mercifully hear our prayers on the day of this fast and [grant], so we ask, that through his intercession we are delivered from the bonds of our sins. Through.
345. Collect in Saint Paul's. Look, O Lord, so we ask, upon our infirmity, and come quickly to our help with your love in the days of this fast, which the threefold consecration has extended with the number three, through the intercession of your blessed apostle Paul, so that your console with your mercy those whom you correct through your righteousness. Through [...]
346. Likewise a collect. Hear our lament, so we ask, O Lord, in the days of fasting, through the threefold number consecrated to the Trinity, and we ask you through the intercession of the blessed Paul, our master and teacher, that for you the offence of the sinner does not prevail over mercy, which you always grant to your repentant supplicants. Through [...]
347. Prayer in Saint Stephen's. Grant, so we ask, almighty and merciful God, that the great and blessed deacon Stephen gives the help of his intercession to our weakness, afflicted in the days of these fasts, who as imitator of the Passion and love of the Lord was the first to excel through the bloodshed of martyrdom, and that he always be a perfect mediator and, by your grace, a willing helper. Through [...]
348. Likewise a collect. May the prayer of your blessed deacon and martyr Stephen, so we asj, O Lord, accompany our supplications, extended in this fast, and may we be supported by his prayers so that your mercy protects us in our weakness. Through [...]
349. Likewise a prayer in Saint Martin's. Extend your right hand, so we ask, O Lord, to your people who on the day of their fasts pray for your mercy, that through the intercession of the blessed Martin we avoid imminent terrors, receive the solace of everlasting life, and obtain eternal joy. Through [...]
350. Likewise another [prayer]. God, Author of the fasts, Institutor of abstinence, who by embracing the outer form of fasting expelled the gluttony of abundance, so that the soberness of chastity would rule in us, look mercifully on these your supplicants, O Lord, who dedicate themselves to the fasting of a three-day abstinence. And through the intercession of the most high and blessed man Martin, [and] entreated through him, pour out upon us all the grace of your blessing, that as this fast, instituted to the fear of your cult, overcomes the gluttony of appetite, so your illumination of our sense overcomes all conflagration of our sins. Through [...]
351. Prayer in Saint Gregory's. Almighty and everlasting God, we humbly pray to your majesty, satisfied by your gifts of fasting and exhausted by all kinds of mortification, that when the darkness of sin is expelled from our hearts, you make that on this day of fasting, through the intercession of our most high bishop Gregory, who is receptive to divine mysteries, we come to the true light that is Christ.
352. Collect. Almighty and everlasting God, at whose command the flesh is restricted from pleasure through the mortification of fasting and our restricted flesh knows its Creator through moderation, grant in this fast to all who believe in you, through the intercession of our most high apostolic father Gregory, that they exercise unblemished service, so that, even if sin approaches those who fast and strength deserts them, your protection, almighty Father, perseveres for them. Through [...]'
Text: Rose 2005, 482-5.
Translation: Rose 2017, 251-3.
Service for the saint
Liturgical invocation
Chant and religious singing
Other liturgical acts and ceremonies
Cult PlacesCult building - independent (church)
Non Liturgical ActivityFast
Prayer/supplication/invocation
Transmission, copying and reading saint-related texts
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Source
The Gothic Missal (Missale Gothicum) is the standard editorial name used for Vatican City, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, Reg. Lat. 317, a liturgical manuscript (sacramentary) compiled in Burgundy at the turn of the eighth century. It provides an exceptionally rare witness to late antique liturgical practice in Gaul. The inclusion of an entry for the late Merovingian political martyr Leudegar of Autun (eastern Gaul) (ob. 677/9) gives both an earliest possible date for the manuscript's compilation, and, since it appears alongside an entry for the earlier Autun martyr Symphorianus, an indication of the community for which the codex might have been made. On palaeographical grounds, E.A. Lowe located the Missal's production to the scriptorium of Luxeuil (c. 130 miles northeast of Autun), at a date no later than c. 710.The full manuscript is now available to view online: https://spotlight.vatlib.it/it/latin-paleography/catalog/Reg_lat_317
Discussion
The codex as it survives includes entries for nine biblical saints and nine from the city of Rome (plus Cyprian of Carthage, commemorated with Pope Cornelius), alongside six Gallic feast days and one from Spain (Saturninus, Eulalia, Ferreolus and Ferrucio, Symphorianus, Maurice and the Theban Legion, Leudegar, and Martin). The Missal covers most feasts in roughly chronological order, beginning after Christmas with the feast of Stephen (usually 26 Dec.). The manuscript does not, however, provide any dates for the celebration of these feasts: presumably, its users would have also had a separate liturgical calendar at hand.For an overview of the contents of the Gothic Missal, see E08222.
This entry for the 'Rogation Days' appears to designate a stational liturgy during a designated period of fasting, which would normally have taken place in the final phase of the Easter season, across the three days before the feast of Christ's Ascension (Rose 2017, 35-6). This practice appears to have begun in later fifth-century Vienne (south-east Gaul), and to have spread out from there (Wood 2004, 207-8).
The stations listed in this entry have not been convincingly identified. However, the naming of a cult site of Pope Gregory the Great (nos. 351-2) is very rare. If this refers to a church primarily dedicated to Gregory, then it is unique in our database; previously, this evidence had been used to locate the original composition of these prayers (and by extension, even the community for whom the entire Gothic Missal was intended) to Gregorienmünster in Alsace, although this hypothesis is not widely followed (Rose 2005, 16-17). However, it is possible that the prayers refer only to an altar (or perhaps apse, or doorway) dedicated to Gregory: if so, it is interesting that there is a contemporary parallel to be found at the monastery of Whitby (north-east Britain), where an altar dedicated to Gregory, within a church primarily dedicated to Peter, is mentioned at just about this time (The Whitby Life of Gregory the Great, ch, 19: E05961).
Bibliography
Edition and study:Missale Gothicum e codice Vaticano Reginensi latino 317 editum, ed. Els Rose (Turnhout, 2005).
Translation:
The Gothic Missal, trans. Els Rose (Turnhout, 2017).
Further reading:
Lowe, E.A., Codices latini antiquiores, 11 vols (Oxford, 1937-71), i. 32.
Wood, Ian N., 'Liturgy in the Rhône Valley in the Bobbio Missal,' in Yitzhak Hen and Rob Meens, eds., The Bobbio Middal: Liturgy and Religious Culture in Merovingian Gaul (Cambridge, 2004), 206-18.
Benjamin Savill
04/09/2022
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00008 | Paul, the Apostle | Paulus | Certain | S00030 | Stephen, the First Martyr | Stephanus | Certain | S00036 | Peter, the Apostle | Petrus | Certain | S00050 | Martin, ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397 | Martinus | Certain | S00838 | Gregory I, 'the Great', bishop of Rome, ob. 604 | Gregorius | Certain |
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