The Gothic Missal includes prayers for the celebration of mass on the feast day of *Leudegar (bishop and martyr of Autun, ob. 677/9, S00339). Written in Latin in Gaul, perhaps at Luxeuil for the Christian community of Autun, c. 680/710.
E08249
Liturgical texts - Sacramentaries
Late antique original manuscripts - Parchment codex
The Gothic Missal (Missale Gothicum)
MISSA SANCTI LEVDEGARII MARTYRIS
425. Summe omnipotens aeterne deus, qui uitam beati antestetis tui Laudegarii martyris per istius saeculi aerumnas transire iussisti, cuius annua festa deuota mente celebramus, quaesomus ut per eius intercessionem plebi tuae clementiae famulantem, ita in praesenti foueas, ut ad caelestia regna perducas. Per dominum.
426. COLLECTIO SEQVITVR. Deus, qui beatum martyrem tuum Laudegarium in agone probasti et probatum in dolore sustentasti, quem hodierna die in caelestibus gaudiis recipere dignatus es, praesta nobis famulis tuis ut qui gloriam non meremur, indulgentiam peccatorum ipso interueniente adepisci mereamur. Per.
427. COLLECTIO POST NOMINA. Auditis nominibus offerentum, fratres karissimi, domini maiestatem depraecemur ut qui uitam summi antestites sui Laudegarii martyris transtulit ad coronam, per interuentu sanctorum patriarcharum, prophetarum, apostulorum et martyrum, anachoritarum et uirginum omniumque sanctorum concidere dignetur ut sacrae praesentis bolatio, quae offeritur, uiuentibus emendationem et defunctis remissionem obteneant peccatorum, et quorum nomina hic recitatione patefacta sunt, in caelestibus paginis conscribantur. Quod ipse praestare.
428. COLLECTIO AD PACEM. Pacem tuam, domine, nostris inlabere pectoribus, qui beatum martyrem tuum Leudegarium in hoc saeculo commorantem per pacis studium hodie caelestis aula suscepit, nobis quoque peccatoribus pacis uinculum et caritatis studium eius meretis suffragantibus largire iubeas in euum. Per dominum.
429. IMMOLATIO MISSAE. Dignum et iustum est, uere aequum et pulchrum est nos tibi hic et ubique smper laudes et gratias agere laudesque adtollere, domine, sancte pater, omnipotens aeterne deus, per Iesum Christum filium tuum dominum nostrum, ab inicio saeculi procreatum, uerbum editum patris principia saeculi istius conlocatum per totum orbem terrarum contulisti. Vbi beatus martyr tuus Laeudegarius episcopus de altitudinem saeculi huius per alternas musitationis discerptus pompas saeli fragilitatisque calcauit. Cuius, tu domine, auxilium ferre dignatus es, ut praesentis saeculi amorem dispicerit et caelestia adepiscere promererit. Verumtamen crucem suam tollens te pastorem sequens, ut paradysi dilicias possideret, praesentia omnia dereliquit. O beatum uirum Leudegarium antestitem, qui per nefandorum consilia corpus nexibus absolutum, ora labiis minuatum oculisque orbatum, exilium perpetratum, lubricitatis saeculi postpositum, diuersis tormentis passum, exemplum reliquit episcoporum per suam passionem uel pacientiam et ad extremum uitae perpetuae restitutis caelestia regna penetrauit, angelorum choro sociatur, coronam inmarciscibilibus floribus remuneratur, unde post multae reliquiae floruerunt in Galleis. Praecamur ergo te, domine, ut nos famulos tuos omnemque plebem reminiscentes talem pastorem eius meretis suffragantibus ueniam mereamur obtenire peccaminum. Per Christum dominum nostrum, cui omnes angeli.
430. POST SANCTVS. Osanna excelsis. Benedictus qui uenit in nomine domini. O uere beata uox, quem angelorum et archangelorum concinunt uirtutis, quae nos hodie in passione beati martyris tui Leudegarii uox una prorumpit in laude, ut tu, deus pater omnium, qui nobis ueniam tribuas de peccatis, quaesomus, da obliuione praeteritorum facinorum, qui dedisti martyribus post triumpho corona. Per dominum nostrum. Qui pridie.
431. POST SECRETA. Haec facimus, domine, passionem tuam commorans, haec facimus, pater Iesu Christi, qui nobis de lege ueteris nouam tradedisti. Concide nobis intercidente beato antestite tuo Leudegario martyre, cuius hodie annuae commemoratione celebramus, ut discendat hic benedictio tua super hunc panem et calicem in transformatione spiritus tui sancti, uti haec benedicendo benedicas, sanctificando sanctifices, ut quicumque ex ultraque benedictione sumpserimus, aeternitis praemium et uitam consequi mereamur aeternam. Per.
'Mass for the Holy Martyr Leudegar
425. Most high, almighty and everlasting God, who has commanded that the life of your blessed bishop [and] martyr Leudegar, whose annual feast we celebrate with devout hearts, would go through the afflictions of this world, we ask that you, though his intercession, serving the people of your grace, cherish the faithful in this time in order to lead them to the heavenly kingdom. Through the Lord.
426. Collect follows. God, who have tested your blessed Leudegar in combat, and have sustained the tested in anguish while you deigned to take him up this day in the heavenly joys, grant to us your servants that we who do not deserve glory may through the intercession be deemed worthy to receive forgiveness of sins. Through.
427. Collect after the names. Now that the names of those who offer have been recited, most beloved brothers, let us pray to the majesty of the Lord, that he who transferred the life of his most high bishop [and] martyr Leudegar to the crown deigns to grant through the intercession of the holy patriarchs, prophets, apostles and martyrs, hermits and virgins and all the saints that the oblation of this sacred [feast] which is offered obtains correction for the living and remission for the sins of the dead. And may their names, which are made public here through he recitation, be inscribed in the heavenly Book. May he deign to grant this [...]
428. Collect at the kiss of peace. Let your peace, O Lord, flow into our hearts, and [as] today the heavenly court has taken up your blessed martyr Leudegar because of his pursuit of peace when he abided in this world: let the bond of peace and the pursuit of love be also mildly given to us sinners in [this] time because his merits support us. Through the Lord.
429. Prayer of sacrifice. It is truly worthy and just, truly fair and beautiful, that we always bring praise and thanks to you and extol your praises here and everywhere, O Lord, holy Father, almighty and everlasting God, through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who was begotten from the foundation of the world. You have spread the revealed Word of the Father, established from the beginning of this world, throughout all the earth, where your blessed martyr bishop Leudegar, from the depths of this world, torn by various mutilations, trod on the pomp and splendour of the world and its fragility. And you deigned, O Lord, to help him, so that he would despise the love for this world and deserved to acquire the heavenly things. Carrying his cross (cf. Matth. 16, 24) and following you as his shepherd (Ier. 17, 16), however, he relinquised all present things to possess the delicacies of paradise. O blessed man, bishop Leudegar, who, after his body was released from bonds through the designs of the godless, his countenance stripped of lips and deprived of eyes, when exile was brought to an end and after he had left behind the inconstancies of the world and had suffered diverse torments, bequeathed an example for the bishops through his suffering and through his patience. Finally set free in life perpetual, having penetrated into the heavenly kingdom, he is united with the choir of angels and rewarded with the crown of flowers that never fade away (I. Petr. 5, 4), from which many relics later flowered in Gaul. We therefore pray to you, O Lord, that we your servants and all your people, who remember such a great shepherd, will be deemed worthy to obtain forgiveness of sins because his merits support us. Through Christ our Lord, to whom all things [...]
430. After the sanctus. Hosanna [in] the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord (Matth. 21, 9). O truly blessed voice, with which the powers of angels and archangels sing together, which today, at the passion of your blessed martyr Leudegar, prompts us to come out in one voice in praise. And you, God, Father of all, who gives forgiveness of sins, we ask: grant the oblivion of past sins, you who have given the crown to the martyrs after their victory. Through our Lord. Who on the day [...]
431. After the consecration. We do this, O Lord, to commemorate your Passion, we do this, Father of Jesus Christ, who has given us a new law instead of the old one. Grant us, through the intercession of your blessed bishop [and] martyr Leudegar, whose annual celebration we celebrate today, that this your blessing descends upon this bread and this cup through the transformation of your Holy Spirit, that you bless these things by blessing them and sanctify them by sanctifying, so that all we who will have partaken of both these blessings are deemed worthy to acquire the reward of eternity and everlasting life. Through.'
Text: Rose 2005, 512-15.
Translation: Rose 2017, 278-81.
Service for the saint
Eucharist associated with cult
Liturgical invocation
Chant and religious singing
Other liturgical acts and ceremonies
FestivalsSaint’s feast
Non Liturgical ActivityPrayer/supplication/invocation
Transmission, copying and reading saint-related texts
RelicsUnspecified relic
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Angels
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 Leudegar can only have been composed within a maximum of about thirty years of the saint's death. He is the 'youngest' saint with his own entry in the Missal by almost 300 years (the second most recent is Martin, ob. 397: E08250; but note that Gregory the Great, ob. 604, appears alongside Martin in the rogation liturgy, E08236). It is especially interesting that this entry's prayer of sacrifice (no. 429) makes an unusually explicit reference to his 'many relics (which) later flowered in Gaul,' since the early dissemination of Leudegar's relics is attested elsewhere in our database (see E08315).
Els Rose (2005, 312-16) notes that, while this entry shows some influence from Leudegar's first Martyrdom (E06462), it does not for the most part supply many specifics about this saint - perhaps surprisingly, since he had died within living memory.
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.
Benjamin Savill
04/09/2022
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S02098 | Leudegar, bishop and martyr of Autun, ob. 677/9 | Leudegarius, Laudegarius, Laeudegarius | Certain |
|---|
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Benjamin Savill, Cult of Saints, E08249 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E08249