The Gothic Missal includes prayers for the celebration of mass on the feast day of *Martin (ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397, S00050). Written in Latin in Gaul, perhaps at Luxeuil for the Christian community of Autun, c. 680/710.
E08251
Liturgical texts - Sacramentaries
Late antique original manuscripts - Parchment codex
The Gothic Missal (Missale Gothicum)
MISSA SANCTI MARTINI EPISCOPI
472. Summi sacerdotis tui patris nostri Martini episcopi hodie deposicione celebrantis tribue nobis, domine, ut sicut commemoracionem eius deuotissime colimus, ita et opus fideliter imitemur. Per.
473. COLLECCIO. Deus, qui sanctam nobis diei huius sollempnitatem praedicandi ac uenerabilis sacerdotis tui desposicione Martini episcopi praestare dignatus es, tribue quaesomus, ut quod nostris obtinere praecibus non possumus, ipsius meriamur obtinere suffragiis. Per.
474. POST NOMINA. Auditis nominibus offerentum, fratres karissimi, omnipotentis dei ininnarrabilem misericordiam supplices postulemus ut nomina nostra, qui in hunc celeberrimum diem in honorem sancti antestitis sui Martini offerimus, benedicere et sanctificare ipso suffragante dignetur, et quod illi hodie conlatum est ad gloriam nobis quoque proficiat ad salutem. Per.
475. AD PACEM. Inclina, domine, aurem tuam ad praeces familiae tuae et da pacem, quam permanere iugiter praecepisti, illut etiam specialiter praestare digneris ut parem caritatem teneamus, quam pontifex tuus Martinus in hoc saeculo te opitulante meruit obtenere. Per.
476. IMMOLACIO. Dignum et iustum est nos te, domine deus noster, in laudibus sancti Martini honorari, qui sancti spiritus tui dono succensus ita in ipso tyrocinio fidei perfectus, ut Christum texissit in pauperum et uestem, quam egenus acceperat, mundi dominus induisset. O filex largitas, qua diuinitas operitur. O clamides gloriosa diuisio, quae militem texit et regem. Inaestimabile donum est quod uestire deum meruit deitatis. Digne huic confessionis tuae praemium commisisti. Digne Arrianorum non subiacuit feritate. Digne tanto amore Martinus persecutores tormenta non timuit securus, quia tanta erat gloriacio passionis, ut per quantitate uestis exiguae et uestire deum meruit et uidere. O animi imitanda benignitas, O uirtutum ueneranda potencia. Sic egit suscepti pontificatus officium, ut per formam probabilis uitae obseruanciam exegerit disciplinae. Sic apostolica uirtute sperantibus contulit medicinam, ut alios supplicacionibus, alios uisu saluaret. Haec tua, domine, ueneranda potencia, cui cum lingua non supplet meritis exorare, operibus sancti Martini te opetulante mereamur imitari. Per Christum dominum nostrum.
'Mass for the Holy Bishop Martin
472. O Lord, grant us, who on this day celebrate the burial of your most high priest, our father bishop Martin, that as we most devotedly celebrate his commemoration, we likewise faithfully follow his work. Through.
473. Collect. God, who has deigned to give us today's holy celebration by reason of the burial of your praiseworthy and venerable priest and bishop Martin, grant, so we ask, that what we cannot obtain through our prayers, we are deemed worthy to acquire through his intercession.
474. After the names. Now that the names of those who offer have been heard, let us humbly pray to the ineffable mercy of almighty God, most blessed brothers, that he deigns to bless and sanctify the names of us, who on this celebrated day bring the offering in honour of the holy bishop Martin, because he helps us, and that what has been ggathered today to [his] honour also served to our salvation. Through.
475. At the kiss of peace. Incline, O Lord, your ear to the prayers of your people and give that peace which, according to your command, is enduring, [and] may you also deign to give this in particular, that we keep that same love which, through your help, the blessed Martin deserved to obtain in this world. Through.
476. Prayer of sacrifice. It is worthy and just, O Lord our God, that we honour you in hymns of praise for the holy Martin. For already when he was a catechumen, set on fire by the gift of your Holy Spirit, he was so perfect that he clothed Christ in the poor, and that the Lord of the world put on the garment that the poor man had received. O blessed bounty with which God was clothed. O glorious division of the cloak that has clothed a soldier and a king. To clothe the God of the godhead is an inestimable gift that he has deserved. Rightly have you entrusted him with the reward of the confession of your [name]. Rightly was he not subjected to the savagery of the Arians. Rightly, confident through such great love, Martin did not fear the torments of the persecutor, for the glory of his martyrdom was so great that, with the small size of his cloak, he merited not only to clothe God but to behold [him]. He so carried out the office of the episcopate which he had accepted, that through the model of his commendable life he enforced obedience to doctrine. Through his apostolic strength he has granted a medicine to those who believed, such that he saved some through his prayers and others through his appearance. May we be deemed worthy, O Lord, through this your venerable strength to which the tongue, with its merits, does not suffice to pray, to imitate with your help the works of the holy Martin. Through Christ our Lord.'
Text: Rose 2005, 526-8.
Translation: Rose 2017, 290-93.
Service for the saint
Eucharist associated with cult
Liturgical invocation
Chant and religious singing
Other liturgical acts and ceremonies
FestivalsSaint’s feast
MiraclesMiracle during lifetime
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
The socially marginal (beggars, prostitutes, thieves)
Heretics
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 Martin is the final office for a saint in the sequence of the Gothic Missal, and thereby closes its cycle of the liturgical year, which began with the Christmas season, with Martin's winter feast day of 11 November (commemorating his burial: see the opening of this entry, no. 472). This service's prayer of sacrifice (no. 476) would go on to have a wide circulation over the course of the middle ages: it also appears in the Bobbio Missal (E08335), and would eventually feature in the famous 13th-century Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine (Rose 2005, 316-24).
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 | S00050 | Martin, ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397 | Martinus | Certain |
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