Missæ Bifaciatæ et Trifaciatæ

I have already at length discoursed upon that liturgical curiosity, the triple Mass, when discussing the Missa trifaciata offered at Christmas in the Dormitionist Order; for lesser but still prominent feasts, those Canons maintain the antique custom of offering up a twofold Mass, a Missa bifaciata.

Passion Friday, as all men know, is the last Lenten Friday before Good Friday; while in past centuries, throughout the worldwide Church, on this day both a ferial Mass of Lent and a festal Mass of Our Lady of Sorrows would normally be celebrated, the Canons of Our Lady’s Dormition unite these two observances into one.  Having begun Mass with the usual prayers, the Mass Stabant juxta Crucem is begun, and continued down to the end of its Offertory Recordare Virgo Mater; then comes the famed liturgical stutter so named by the learnèd Pickstock – the Introit of the ferial Mass, Miserere mihi Domine, is read, and so the rest of that formulary down to its Offertory, Benedictus es Domine.  Only then, after this twofold Mass of the Catechumens (first one for devout children of Mary Sorrowing, the other for clients of Santa Feria), is the one Mass of the Faithful begun.  The details of this need not detain us, further than to note that a Secret is read from each formulary, and likewise two Communions and two Postcommunions are read, followed by the Lenten Oratio super populum peculiar to the feria.  The Preface, of course, is that of the Holy Cross, ’neath which the Dolorous Virgin took her stand.

Similarly, at the Greater and Lesser Litanies, Missæ bifaciatæ are celebrated – that is, on St Mark’s day (Mass of the Apostle, united with the Mass of Rogation), and, if saint’s feasts occur, on each of the days of Rogationtide.  Moreover, if a saint’s day fall on Rogation Wednesday, Ascension Eve, a Missa trifaciata is celebrated: thrice the Mass of Catechumens is prayed, once for the saint, once for the Vigil of the Ascension, and once for the Rogation.  (While according to the Roman Missal those three Masses would, even down to the 1950's in collegiate churches, have been said after Terce, Sext and None respectively on Rogation Wednesday, the Dormitionist practice of saying all three by aggregation before Compline is plus simple et plus uni.)

Again, ancient Missals of the Roman Church contain multiple Masses for the feasts of St John the Baptist and of St Lawrence: as well as the day Mass of each, there was a matutinal or early morning Mass.  The Dormitionists have conserved the texts of both of these, but unite them with the Mass of the respective day as two more Missæ bifaciatæ.  (After all, how could these religious, devoted as they are to even now pursuing a foretaste of eternal rest, celebrate early morning Masses when their Rule obliges them to evening Masses only?)

As with Christmas, so with Maundy Thursday: just as the Holy Roman Church of old time celebrated three Masses on that day – for the Reconcilation of Penitents, for the Consecration of Chrism, and of the Lord’s Supper (in Cæna Domini) – so the Dormitionists unite all three formularies into one (though of course no chrism is blessed, nor penitents reconciled for that matter).  There is no procession afterward, nor use of an altar of repose (just as the Carthusians refrain from such*); rather, the priest having consecrated a second Host, It is reserved in the usual manner and, Mass ended, the Discourse of Our Lord is read (St John, chapters xiii to xvii) as a most fit introduction to Compline, which follows directly.

* In a similar way (excuse this strange expression), the Dormitionists and Carthusians imitate each other in simply and soberly celebrating Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday and Candlemas: for on none of these days is there any procession held in either Order; rather, the ashes, palms and candles respectively are blessed with a suitable prayer and distributed, whereupon Mass begins at once.  The Dormitionists have but one variant ceremony: for more expedition, the ashes and palms respectively are immediately thrown over the prostrate brethren, themselves resembling mere scattered ashes and bestrewn palms (as those humble religious delight to confess).  The candles, however, are not distributed until after Mass, for they are too large to throw without danger – since it is intended that the brethren carry them as night-lights back to their cells after Compline, and it would be ridiculous and unseemly to carry broken candles, especially if injured by them.  (The two Orders also diverge in their observance of Corpus Christi; while Carthusians hold a Eucharistic procession, Dormitionists – imitating Belgian practices, and what I remember of that feast at the Pro-Cathedral in Perth, W.A. – content themselves with celebrating Mass and Compline of that feast coram Sanctissimo, the Host exposed in a monstrance above the High Altar throughout.)

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How odd, I reflect, it is, that dear Archdale Arthur King, in his Liturgies of the Religious Orders (which I have in facsimile before me) wasted paper on an account of the extinct Gilbertines and their fragmentary remains, and so for want of space neglected to give any decent account of the still-extant and far more intriguing liturgies of the Dormitionists!  At least in my own online musings I have almost covered all the topics he discussed when explicitating the practices of the Carthusians, Cistercians, Premonstratensians, Carmelites, Dominicans, and those unfortunate Gilbertines.  Deo gratias.

Missa Trifaciata

Our friends the Dormitionists, that most retiring of religious Orders, whose charism is to live here and now eternal rest in Christ, awake somewhat rested from the Great Slumber they undertake, from Our Lord's Annunciation until the very Eve of His Nativity, imitating therein the pattern of the Divine Master; and thereupon celebrate the three Masses of Christmas as one.  This, of course, images forth the Trinity, our God Who Is, both Three and One; and also that Christ is born in threefold wise: according to His Godhead, of His Father before all ages; according to His Manhood, of His Mother in Bethlehem of Judæa in the days of Herod the King; and according to His grace, every day and moment in hearts devoted to Him.  The Order of the Dormition, in other words, alone of all hidden corners of the Church conserves the ancient practice of the Missa trifaciata – understandably condemned as an abuse when undertaken for pecunary gain, for such is wicked simony; but, as with other their liturgical peculiarities, entirely licit and praiseworthy when permitted by Papal indult, omitting any reception of stipends under false pretences.  (After all, recent history both sacred and profane demonstrates how almost anything can be forbidden one minute and obligatory the next.)

Gavantus, in any case, relates that Maurice, Archbishop of Paris, and Rotrodus, Archbishop of Rouen, gave their seal of approval to the concession by the Abbot of license to use a Missa bifaciata composed by the Prior of the main monastery, and his friend the priest of SS Gervase and Protase, at Gisors, in the year 1181 (licentiam celebrandi duas Missas sub uno Canone concessit); and, by Divine command, a holy hermit of the diocese of Beauvais celebrated a Missa quadrifaciata in 1191. Here we see the hierarchical and the charismatic aspects in fundamental agreement: moreover, if a four- or two-faced liturgy be acceptable to the Church and to God, respectively, certainly the mean between the two must be pleasing to both, surely?  Later Synods modified this early approbation, it is true, but the Dormitionists, ever arch-conservatives or at least archly conservative, maintained this usage for the night of Christmas – since otherwise, by their Rule only celebrating Mass in the evening, they would be deprived of the merit of the Dawn and Day Masses thereof.

But what a Missa trifaciata?  To use the somewhat barbarous Latin expression of an enemy thereof, one Peter Cantor, it is a three-faced Mass: the priest going to the altar, first celebrates Mass down to the Offertory; then begins forthwith a second Mass, again continuing down to the Offertory; and a third time does the same. O liturgical stutter, beloved of the mystic Catherine Pickstock!  How we see thee thus instantiated!  Only then, whenas out of humility he has hesistated thrice at the anteroom of the Mystic and Divine Liturgy, does he continue with the offertory prayers or Canon Minor, proceeding to read a Secret for each Mass formulary, and then one Preface, with the holy Canon of the Mass and all else until, having received the Sacrament, he reads three Communions, then three Postcommunions, and so ends in the usual manner.  So say the words of Durandus (not exactly a friend to this devotion): Quidam incipiunt Missam de die, celebrantes illam suo ordine, usque ad offerendam postea incipiunt aliam Missam, et eam cantant usque ad eumdem locum: et idem faciunt plures, si volunt:... et exinde procedentes, dicunt tot secretas quot Missas incœperunt, semel tantum canonem dicentes, et consecrantes, et in fine tot orationes dicunt, quot officia Missæ incœperunt.

By so doing, the Dormitionist celebrating the Mass of Christmas for the assembled Canons spares them the tiresome weariness of three back-to-back Masses, with all the fuss of conserved ablutions kept back to consume after the last and whatnot.  First, having mixed the chalice and said the usual apologia as prescribed in the form of Mass proper to the Order, he begins Dominus dixit, the first Introit; and continues with that Mass down to the words of its Offertory, Lætentur cæli.  Immediately, however, he then takes up the second Introit, Lux fulgebit, and proceeds to read the second Mass down to the end of its Offertory, Deus firmavit; and yet a third time (mystically figuring forth the Trinity) begins again with the Day Mass's Introit Puer natus est, continuing with its prayers and readings until he has finished its Offertory, Viderunt omnes.  Only then does the sacrificant proceed to the Sacrifice, the hierophant to the Sacred Oblation.

As the ancients aver, God loves an odd number; and the Church never permitted an even number of orations at Mass, unless joined under one conclusion; for this reason, the commemoration of St Anastasia usually made at the second Mass is omitted, for else there would be an intolerable and unbearable four Secrets and four Postcommunions, a monstrosity indeed that the Canons of Our Lady's Dormition utterly despise and reject.  Similarly, while in mediæval days generally many Sequences were found in the Masses of Christmas, the Dormitionists do not admit their use to their Use, just as the Carthusians entirely spurn them.  For this reason, while the Dormitionists otherwise so closely resemble certain Dominicans in their forms and customs, their Missal contains no Lætabundus.  However, just as in the Dominican and other Missals there are Lessons appointed for use at the three Christmas Masses, so in the Dormitionist do three pericopes from Isaias feature (a curiosity revived in the lectionary of the Novus Ordo).

All this does of course still entail three Kyries, three Glorias, and three Creeds; but then sometimes, as a wise commentator said, "Too much liturgy is barely enough".

The three Lessons, Epistles and Gospels, to the total of nine, of course signify the nine choirs of Angels who sang at Christ's Birth in the flesh.

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A Happy Christmas to all readers!  

Do at least imitate the Dormitionists and their holy charism by enjoying an afternoon slumber or stupor once the wassailing and feasting of Christmas dinner has filled you brim-full of good cheer and soporific meats and drinks...