Lutheran Dormitionists

During the Reformation in Germany, several Imperial abbeys, formerly Catholic, became Lutheran, such as Herford and Quedlinburg – the canonesses and abbesses of these were all Protestants for centuries; their continued existence was facilitated by the fact that the canonesses, while unmarried, had always been and remained secular canonesses, who took no vows; and it was convenient for noblewomen undesirous of marriage to retreat to such houses.  The devout ladies of these establishments even published books of spiritual writings, as for example did Princess-Abbess Anna Sophia II of Quedlinburg.

Given all this, and the delighted recognition of the unique Dormitionist charism previously expressed in comment from contemporary Lutheran clergy appended to my first posting explaining about the little-known but fascinating Order of the Dormition, it will be unsurprising to note that in Germany, too, some Dormitionist houses (dorters, or dormitories) passed out of Catholic and into Protestant hands, without a total dissolution of these monasteries, particularly those of Dormitionistines, the female branch of this most retiring of Orders – noble and devout women, seeking godly and perpetual rest.

Furthermore, the various revivals of monasticism among the separated brethren that have occurred since the nineteenth century have also included not a few instances of Dormitionist lifestyle being once again adopted and propagated.  The Dormitionist habit, so similar to the secular pyjamas, was more than once taken up by enthusiasts, albeit pairing it with the nineteenth-century smoking-jacket beloved of gentlemen (for incense of sorts, too, came in fashion).  New shoots spring from the old stump...

As Dormitionists seek to live, even in this life, as already in the eschatological state of endless rest, it will at once be apparent how persons more intent on faith than works would find such a fundamental spiritual orientation congenial.  For "faith without works is dead", and so those cleaving to sola fide should appear, if not utterly dead, then at least asleep: their hope, indeed, would be to be as "them which are asleep".

For this reason, Lutheran houses following this mode of existence may be found here and there (I believe there are plans afoot to regularize such a foundation in Australia); rather than using Catholic titles such as "of the Dormition", however (for all that these well-meaning people accept the Dormition as a traditional and catholic pious belief, without dogmatizing about it), they tend to avoid any cause for scandal by naming their establishments "Golgotha Dormitory", or "Soul Sleep Church", or "Family Crypt", or some such.  It is a purely private joke, alluding to the perseverance or otherwise of some would-be monastics, to call such-and-such an establishment "the Empty Tomb".

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This blog being especially interested in matters liturgical, it will not go amiss if some reference is made to the worship of Lutheran Dormitionists.  (Attentive readers will already have realized how the Dormitionist vow to enter into rest, being in fact a Biblical text, was easily admitted as a devout prayer, not a work of supererogation, indeed, not a work at all, by these persons.)

A very plain Easter sepulchre

At Compline (always the principal Hour for sleepers-in-Christ), the only modifications made are to the text of the Confiteor, and replacement of the Marian anthem by a visit to the "Easter sepulchre", that common feature of northern European churches, representing the burial-place of Christ – there, such hymns as In Christi Wunden schlaf ich ein ("I fall asleep in Jesus' wounds") are customarily sung, taking up the rich tradition of vernacular song that is one of the glories of Evangelical piety.  (More modern Evangelical revivals of the Dormitionist charism in the U.S. prefer such ditties as "Rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham.")

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The revision made of the Dormitionist Mass is of particular ecumenical importance.  Given the simplicity of the rite, it will be unsurprising that, following Luther's own first redraftings, nothing at all of the fore-Mass or first part of the Liturgy was changed, while at the Offertory the Dirigatur Domine and Orate fratres alone were retained, the Veni Sanctificator omnium and the In spiritu humilitatis being deleted.  With a fine feeling for liturgical structure, however, the variable Secret of the Catholic Mass was replaced with a fixed epicletic prayer, itself taken in a truly conservative spirit from the mediæval corpus orationum, modifying only the controverted words tibi... oblata:

Munera tua, quæsumus, Domine, sanctifica: ut tui nobis Unigeniti Corpus et Sanguis fiant ad medelam, qui tecum vivit...

(Hallow Thy gifts, we beg, Lord: that they may become for us the Body and Blood of Thine Onlybegotten, for our healing: Who with Thee liveth...)

In other words, the essential import of the former Dormitionist offertory prayers was maintained, and a strong stand taken against sacramentarian deviations, just as orthodox Lutheranism ever has.

Most startlingly of all, yet, as alluded to above, most importantly, the Evangelicals who continued to maintain the Dormitionist traditions made a most interesting compromise between Luther's wholesale rejection of the Canon (the Lord's words amongst the oblationary passages therein being in his view "the Ark of God in the temple of Dagon") and the continuance of catholic features thereof.

Combining certain of Luther's earliest liturgical ideas, as expressed in his Formula Missæ, with some of those espoused by his followers in Sweden, and all unawares taking up the early Roman Christian idea of the consecratory Preface, the Canon was most radically reordered, by first of all reversing the usual Dormitionist practice of saying the Preface silently, and inserting the very Verba Domini therein, then by praying quietly a late variant of the Suscipe sancta Trinitas between the Sanctus and Benedictus (the Elevation being made during the latter), and concluding with the Per ipsum aloud:

Vere quia dignum et justum est, æquum et salutare, nos tibi semper et ubique gratias agere, Domine sancte, Pater omnipotens, æterne Deus, per Christum Dominum nostrum.  Qui pridie quam pateretur, accepit panem: tibi gratias agens, fregit, deditque discipulis suis, dicens: Accipite, comedite, Hoc est Corpus meum, quod pro vobis datur. Similiter et calicem, postquam cænavit, dicens: Hic calix est novi testamenti in meo Sanguine, qui pro vobis et pro multis effundetur in remissionem peccatorum.  Hæc quotiescumque feceritis, in mei memoriam faciatis.  Et ideo cum Angelis et Archangelis, cum Thronis et Dominationibus, cumque omni militia cælestis exercitus, hymnum gloriæ tuæ canimus, sine fine dicentes:

Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth, pleni sunt caeli et terra gloria tua.  Hosanna in excelsis. 

Suscipe, sancta Trinitas, hoc sacrificium laudis quam tibi offerimus in memoriam Passionis Domini nostri Jesu Christi: et præsta, ut proficiat nobis et omnibus fidelibus christianis ad requiem æternam.  Per eumdem Christum Dominum nostrum.

Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini.  Hosanna in excelsis.

Per ipsum, et cum ipso, et in ipso, est tibi Deo Patri omnipotenti, in unitate Spiritus Sancti, omnis honor et gloria, per omnia sæcula sæculorum.  Amen.

(Truly worthy and just it is, right and salutary, for us always and everywhere to give thanks unto Thee, holy Lord, Father almighty, eternal God, through Christ our Lord.  Who the day before He suffered, took bread: giving thanks unto Thee, He brake, and gave it to His disciples, saying: Take ye, eat ye, This is My Body, which is given for you.  Likewise also the chalice, after He had supped, saying: This chalice is the new testament in My Blood, which for you and for many shall be shed in remission of sins.  These whensoever ye shall do them, in my memorial ye shall do them.  And therefore with Angels and Archangels, with Thrones and Dominations, and with every company of the heavenly host, we sing a hymn to Thy glory, saying without ceasing:

(Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts, full are heaven and earth with Thy glory.  Hosanna in the highest.

(Receive, O Holy Trinity, this sacrifice of praise, which we offer unto Thee in memorial of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ: and grant, that it may profit us and all faithful Christians unto rest everlasting.  Through the same Christ our Lord.

(Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord.  Hosanna in the highest.

(Through Him, and with Him, and in Him, is unto Thee, God the Father almighty, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, all honour and glory, world without end.  Amen.)

It will be seen how daring, and how designedly ambiguous (indeed, how Anglicanesque) is the Suscipe sancta Trinitas of these catholic Lutherans: for the phrase "this sacrifice of praise", while eminently biblical, is used of the Eucharistic oblation in the Roman Canon itself, and to pray "that it may profit us and all faithful Christians unto [gaining] rest eternal", directly after the Consecration of the Eucharist and directly before the Elevation of the Sacrament, is to beg the question, is it but a heartfelt verbal sacrifice that is offered in the hope of benefitting all, or is it the Eucharist that is here offered up?  There is here, too, a hint of prayer for the dead, never entirely excluded by Lutheran orthodoxy, impetrating that all faithful Christians – living and dead – may indeed rest in peace.

Given this not-so-cryptic catholic reference, it is not surprising that any formerly Lutheran Dormitionists, coming into full Catholic communion have (by private rescript, analogous to the liturgical provisions made for incoming Anglicans) the unique privilege of offering Mass either in the usual Dormitionist rite, using the venerable Canon, or, for the sake of brevity (just as, in the Ordinary Form, Eucharistic Prayer II is provided, for utterly the same reason) according to this form, by using the epicletic Secret above, with the Consecratory Preface, Sanctus, Benedictus and Per ipsum with the Suscipe sancta Trinitas, supplementing that brief yet sufficiently expressive prayer of oblation and anamnesis by including mention of the Pope, the dead, and the Saints:

Suscipe, sancta Trinitas, hoc sacrificium laudis quam tibi offerimus in memoriam Passionis Domini nostri Jesu Christi, et in honorem beatæ Mariæ semper Virginis, et omnium Sanctorum: et præsta, ut proficiat nobis et omnibus fidelibus christianis vivis et defunctis, cum Papa nostro N. ac Episcopo nostro N., ad requiem æternam: et illi pro nobis intercedere dignentur in cælis, quorum memoriam agimus in terris.  Per eumdem Christum Dominum nostrum.

(Receive, O Holy Trinity, this sacrifice of praise, which we offer unto Thee in memorial of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in honour of Blessed Mary ever-Virgin, and of all Saints: and grant, that it may profit us and all faithful Christians living and dead, with our Pope N. and Bishop N., unto rest everlasting: and may they deign to intercede for us in heaven, whose memory we keep on earth.  Through the same Christ our Lord.)

To conclude, however, by returning to the actual modifications made in the old Dormitionist rite by the Lutherans, it must simply be observed that few other changes to the Mass were made.  The Lord's Prayer had the usual Protestant doxology added to it, with the old Embolism deleted (again following Dr Martin's prescription), though the administration of communion followed in the normal manner, with the traditional prayers, Agnus Dei and so forth; likewise, either Benedicamus Domino or the uniquely Dormitionist Requiescamus in pace was to be used at the end of the service, never Ite missa est (Luther erroneously deriving missa from a Hebrew word for sacrifice, he found the term unappealing); so too the Placeat was given away (Catholics are, however, required to say it).

The squaring of the circle, by always maintaining an oblationary reference in the Eucharist, remains a strange attractor towards full Catholic communion for all would-be Evangelical Dormitionists.  Please God, may it remain so!

I have often speculated that the Suscipe sancta Trinitas prayers (there were many variants in mediæval times, some few of which survive in extant rites such as the Dominican) derive from the Gallican rite, especially as they bear a curious resemblance to like prayers of sacrificial oblation in the Mozarabic rite.  It is good to see them not utterly abandoned.  Indeed, would it not be far better – and shorter! – to allow more widely this combination of consecratory Preface and Suscipe sancta Trinitas, in place of the untraditional Ordinary Form Eucharistic Prayer II, which, being but a hash made of pseudo-Hippolytus, has become de facto the standard prayer of the Roman Rite?  But I digress...

Isn't it wonderful that, the fruits of all true Christianity being oriented toward Unity in the Una Sancta, even ex-Lutheran Dormitionists can rest in peace, together?

The Dormitionistines

Passing through the sleep of death, the saints enter into eternal rest.  Each night’s sleep and slumber, therefore, ought conduct us closer to meeting the Lord, and entering into His rest.  Sleep is both an image of death, and a foretaste of everlasting repose.  For this reason, it is an eminently Christian and religious pastime to sleep.

This devotion is eminently Trinitarian: as Moses taught us, “The eternal God your refuge, and underneath the everlasting Arms” (Deut. xxxiv) – Which Arms are the Son, Who grants rest to His flock by establishing a new covenant of peace, “that they may rest in the woods” (Ezech. xxxiv, 25), that is, by faith in the power of His Cross; and the Holy Spirit, the Promised Consoler, “a spirit of deep sleep” (Is. xxix, 10).

The Canonesses Regular of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or Dormitionistines, form the second order counterpart to the Dormitionist Canons.  Like them, they are enclosed, contemplative religious, devoted in childlike confidence to the Lord Who will grant His beloved eternal rest, through His Mother, as exemplified by her most holy Dormition.

The Canonesses in their piety love to dwell upon the little maidchild of whom Christ said, “The damsel is not dead but sleeping” (St Matt. ix, 24 and parallels).  The Lord blessed her in her sleep: she was therefore a lively image of the Christian, and of the virgin espoused to Christ, not dead in sin, but sleeping the sleep of the just.  He but woke her again for a time, till in due course she would at last sleep in Him forever.  In their convents, the Dormitionistines strive to live after her model, and observe a sweet and most pious, restful life.

“Tell no man of this” – such Christ commanded the parents of that little child, and hence the Dormitionistines keep themselves very quiet and humble; never before have the secrets of their retired lives been discussed in such detail…

It is their beloved Christ the Lord Who is the Bridegroom, at Whose delayed approach all the virgins “slumbered and slept” (St Matt. xxv, 5).  The Dormitionistines devoutly hope in their lowliness to be numbered among such women entirely consecrated to Him, as it were praying daily, “I slept, but my heart was awake” (Cant. v, 2).  This sums up the entire charism of their holy life.

The eyes of their hearts are directed Godward, in thanksgiving to the Father.  They rejoice to find written in the account of Creation that woman was made from man “when the Lord cast Adam into a deep sleep” (Gen. ii, 21), since the obvious conclusion may be drawn that, at her beginning, Eve, ere she sinned, was created in a state of sleep.  Sleeping Adam must have been the cause of sleeping Eve, for like is formed from like.  How significant is this!

As Christ is the New Adam, His Mother Mary the New Eve, the Dormitionistines hope to imitate her that they may return to Him; as these holy sisters wish to recover the paradisal state lost by sin, they therefore aspire to be as the First Eve, and sleep — as Holy Mary in her Dormition departed this mortal life by falling asleep in the Lord, by reason of her great love, so they wish to be enamoured of Christ the New Adam after the model of the New Eve, and fall asleep in love, perhaps at last to sleep in the Lord Whom they love, for ever.

They pray that a deep sleep from the Lord may fall upon them (cf. I Kings xxvi, 12), and for this they invoke the Holy Ghost.  “There is a great reward for those who fall asleep in godliness” (II Mach. xii, 45), and this must be begged as a grace from the Sanctifier of all.  Mindful that “healthy sleep depends on moderate eating” (Ecclus xxxi, 20) and on observing a prudent temperance in all matters, the canonesses invoke the Spirit of wisdom to guide them in their observance of all tenets of their Rule.

In this, they are assisted materially by their chaplains, Dormitionist Canons deputed to preach and celebrate Mass for them.  As we all know, and as even the great Apostle Paul’s example teaches, long sermons help the faithful to fall asleep, even to die (Acts xx, 9): without prompting, these good sisters repeatedly testify to a like effect gained from the homilies of most priests.

Mass in their chapels of course follows the Dormitionist Rite, very conducive to a spirit of restful piety, with the added help of not only the full prostration of the Canonesses throughout Low Mass required by the rubrics, but moreover the drawing of the great veil across the chapel screen, that nothing whatsoever of the softly murmured service be visible in any case.

The sisters find even their few daily tasks pleasingly soporific, as all necessary tasks have this innate quality by reason of Divine Providence, as everyone knows.  How much more their specifically religious duties, carefully adapted to the particular charism of their state!

Ignorant worldlings may scoff at the Dormitionistines, behaving like the Devil by quoting the Scriptures: “do not love sleep else you will become poor” (Prov. xx, 13) — but these wise women simply smile and agree that therefore poor religious should definitely love sleep, as the Lord has disposed that these two states should go together.

It is the hope of these quiet religious that their feminine example may be of profit to many women, too much distracted by the things of the world, Marthas, forgetful of the one thing necessary.  If more souls rested in the Lord, turning from rushing transience to still transcendence, how much happier would the world be.  "Sleep on, and take your rest."

First Mass of Bl Mary of the Cross

It is 100 years since Bl Mary of the Cross (MacKillop) went to her everlasting reward. In honour of Bl Mary, and in fond regard for two of her daughters in holy religion, Sr Kieran and Sr Bridget - two indefatigable, staunch and very elderly Irish "black Joeys", or Sisters of St Joseph of diocesan rite, that I know from some years back in Hobart, each of whom had even then been seventy-odd years in Tasmania serving the Lord and His people - I would like to retail some interesting details about Australia's sole beata.

(I especially salute Sr Kieran - even in retirement, I have no doubt about stating that, had the Holy Father commanded, she would have gladly taken over running both the Vatican and the Pentagon, and done a sterling job of both. She, just like dear Sr Bridget, had stedfastly rejected any suggestions that she change from her large, starched, traditional habit - "Never heard such a stupid idea!" as she would say; one wonders who would have had the courage to broach the idea with her in the first place...)

Regarding Mother Mary, the modern Josephites don't like admitting three things:

• that their foundress took the title "of the Cross" - it is rather a solecism, and a secularist-tending uncatholic Freudian slip, to dump this and call her Mary MacKillop everywhere and always;
• that she wore a voluminous religious habit (they prefer, again for uncatholic motives, to bring forward a photograph of a young woman in sober secular attire - an image quite possibly not of Mary but of a relative - and base representations upon it);
• that she used the discipline - famously, until but a decade or so ago, one labelled as hers was on display at her shrine and burial place in North Sydney, but the sisters have magicked it away on the grounds that they can't prove its hers (compare this with their sleight-of-hand change of her image).

These same less-than-perfect spiritual daughters of Mother Mary notoriously persuaded a certain recently-deceased Polish Supreme Pontiff to celebrate the beatification Mass with all manner of liturgical nonsense, such as elderly frumpy sisters serving at the altar in lay dress (!), a fake Aboriginal "smoking ceremony", and a very peculiar arrangement whereby large numbers of vessels - I cannot call them ciboria - were not placed on the altar, but held in the hands of those nearby...

Here, however, are three more things that the Josephites would not to-day be so keen on:

• Bl Mary of the Cross all her life long attended the Traditional Latin Mass, and signalled her death in Sydney to a priest-friend of hers in Adelaide by appearing to him at the side of the altar while he was offering the Sacrifice;
• the very first Mass of Bl Mary celebrated was a Traditional Latin Mass: for directly the Holy Father pronounced the words of her beatification, Fr Terence Mary (who'd been listening in on the radio) processed into the Maternal Heart chapel at Lewisham to sing High Mass in her honour;
• and the beata herself has confirmed her preference for the Mass she knew - it has been confirmed to me, that a priest saw her appear at the side of the altar as he celebrated a Traditional Latin Mass: she smiled and walked away through the wall...

It is sad but true that the Josephites, and many another nineteenth century order, have survived just long enough to see their foundress raised to the honours of the altar, but, having fallen away from their observances and loyal Catholicism, are about to die out for lack of vocationsm - whereas, if they had read the signs of the times less facilely and more wisely (not falling into line with the world and losing their raison d'être, but being truly countercultural by keeping committed to orthodox beliefs that alone offer an antidote to modern ills) they could have remained flourishing, as other religious orders have.

It is as the parable of the wise and foolish virgins: five kept awake and trimmed their lamps, but the other five slumbered and slept; their lamps of faith burning out, they ran off to seek from those who sell (the purveyors of spiritual trash), abandoning their vigil and missing their goal.

The Dormitionists - Taking the Vow

I have been in receipt of further communications regarding that obscure, little-known, yea, self-effacing and most retiring Order, the Canons Regular of the Dormition (not to mention their parallel Second Order for women, the Dormitionistine Canonesses).

Having handled enquiries on their behalf some time ago regarding the question of layfolk affiliating with them as Third Order Oblates, now I am in a position to pass on some details relevant to their holy charism, suitable even for those condemned to live in this miserable and naughty world earning their keep by the sweat of their brow (for as a wise man told me in New Zealand, we only work for fear of poverty)...

TAKING THE VOW

Some taste of their contemplative vocation may be gained from considering the outwardly simple yet significant ritual marking their reception of new members, who have, as it were, said in gratitude to the Lord, Convertere, anima mea, in requiem tuam, quia Dominus benefecit tibi ("Turn, O my soul, into thy rest: for the Lord hath been bountiful to thee") – Ps 114:7.

In a Dormitionist chapel, after the period of novitiate has expired, at the nod of the superior testifying to their worthiness, those to take the vow (for like Dominicans they take only one, considered as summing up their entire gift of self in obedience to God, as a whole burnt offering) come forward, prostrate themselves before the chapel altar, and pronounce in a low, humble mumble:

Introibo in tabernaculum domus meæ, ascendam in lectum strati mei: dedam somnum oculis meis, et palpebris meis dormitationem, et requiem temporibus meis: quoniam inveni locum Domini, tabernaculum Dei nostri.

("I shall enter into the tabernacle of my house: I shall go up into the bed wherein I lie: I shall give sleep to my eyes, and slumber to my eyelids, and rest to my temples: for I have found the place of the Lord, the tabernacle of our God" - cf. Ps 131:3-5a)

The vow speaks of "my house" because Dormitionists include in their vow the promise of stability, nevermore to leave their chosen tabernacle unless to enter the adjoining cemetery: it speaks of their rest in the Lord there as their freely chosen share in God's blessings as a holy religious, just as the priests and Levites of old had no share in the Promised Land but for their habitations, the Lord Himself being their heritage.

The vow made (to God Alone), thereupon the choir of canons sings Hæc requies mea in sæculum sæculi: hic habitabo quoniam elegi eam ("This is my rest for ever and ever, here I will dwell, for I have chosen it" - Ps 131:14), signifying that God deigns not merely to rest in His holy place, but in his holy temple, the heart of the just man.  (In passing, it may be noted how the prophetic Psalm 131 is here realized in concrete terms in these days of the New Testament, the Church being the New Israel.)

Solemn Vows

May I extend my congratulations and friendly prayers to Br Paul Rowse, O.P., who has just made his lifelong solemn vows as a Friar Preacher on the Feast of the Sacred Heart last Friday.

I look forward to soon seeing him a deacon, and, please God, a priest.

St Dominic, pray for him.

The Dormitionists

The Canons Regular of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary (O.Dorm.) are that rarity, an enclosed, purely contemplative order of men.  While they naturally hide from the world, some description of their unique vocation, according to the Regula Patrum Soporificum, may be of interest.

(The Order ought not be confused with the Assumptionist Fathers, who follow the Augustinian Rule, and are named for Our Lady's transferral body and soul into heavenly bliss.  The Falling Asleep (dormitio, koimêsis) of the Blessed Virgin is the older name, common to East and West, for Holy Mary's sacred and everlasting repose in the Lord.)

Their charism? to be harbingers of the eschatological state of eternal rest proper to the saints ("to sleep the sleep of the just").  As St Dominic pioneered the principle of dispensation – that is, any and all observances may be dispensed by the superior, that the overriding goal of his Order of Preachers be achieved – so the Dormitionists likewise adopted the same wise and prudent policy: insofar as human frailty permit, the minutiæ of the R.P.S. may be dispensed, that the brethren commit ever more whole-heartedly to their most high calling.

Did not our Lord ask, "Could ye not stay awake with me one hour?" (cf. S. Matthew xxvi, 40 & parallels) – signifying that he wished his disciples to sleep for the other 23 hours.  It is the humble glory of the Dormitionists that they, even above and beyond the secular clergy, aspire to the fulfilment of this evangelical counsel.

The habit of the canons regular, supplemented with monastic scapular, as worn by the Order has been refined over time, to now appear as the sacred counterpart to white pyjamas (alone worn in the cell) and black dressing gown and slippers (worn in addition outside the cell).  (Since the Dormitionist vocation is exclusively contemplative, and the Office is mainly said, if at all, individually in the cell, the use of the rochet has fallen into desuetude.)

There is something Carthusian in the manner that their (black) scapular from the first had two bands of cloth joining back and front at the waist, tho' over time this vesture has diminished in size to but a single band, now knotted at the front, and worn over the (black) cappa: hence the "dressing gown" effect.  Similarly the tunic, under the influence of Teutonic fashion, bifurcated, to resemble shirt and trousers.  The simple heavy fabric of the tunic, peculiar to this Order, resembles that of flannel – hence the apparent resemblance to pyjamas; tho' no outsider would ever behold one of the brethren in such a state outside the cell; indeed, no one ever does behold a Dormitionist, this being contrary to their Rule.

To sleep in the Lord (Acts vii, 59) is the noble aim of the O.Dorm.'s: or, as their three mottoes have it: Requies – rest – is the goal; Dormire, Requiescere, Somniare ("to sleep, perchance to dream"); and Dormire est orare.  As the Royal Prophet foretold, Si dormiatis inter medios cleros, pennæ columbæ deargentatæ, et posteriora dorsi ejus in pallore auri (Ps 67:14):  "If ye sleep among the midst of clerics, ye shall be as the wings of a dove a-silvered, and as the hinder parts of her back with the pallor of gold".  How blessed he who aspires to this state, compared in Holy Writ to most precious metals!  

Again, the Holy Ghost proclaims plainly, Vanum est vobis ante lucem surgere (Ps 126:2a) – "Vain 'tis for ye to arise before the light" – while Dederit dilectis suis somnum (Ps 126:2c): "He shall give sleep to His beloved'.  Worldlings, hasting to run into action, may scoff, but the Dormitionists know that they, bound to quiet contemplation, in all humility and truth, are among the Lord's beloved.  For this reason, rigid in their observance of Scriptural tenets, they never feign holiness by arising early (strange corruption!), nor ever answer the telephone or doorbell.

Therefore, before giving themselves over to God's will for them, they cry, In pace in idipsum dormiam et requiescam (Ps 4:9) – "In peace in the selfsame I will sleep and I will rest" – and while sleeping in the Lord as it were they confess with happy soul, beloved of Christ (even exteriorly, should they have the gift of somniloquy), Ego dormio, et cor meum vigilat (Cant. v, 2) – "I sleep, and my heart watcheth".  Arising, as a cruel necessity of fallen nature in this mortal vale of darkness, sighing and tears, at least the brethren may declare, Ego dormivi, et soporatus sum (Ps 3:6) – "I have slept and taken my rest".

Sacred leisure is a precious gift and grace.  Among the virtues especially beloved of the Order are detachment from worldly things (e.g. alarm clocks), abstractedness at community exercises (tending to the higher things), sleepiness (somnulentia), dreaminess (a mystic state), somnambulism (to be as it were asleep even while perforce attending to necessities), somniloquence (to speak, nay, even to preach, while asleep), and hibernation.  Cats, and, in northern climes, bears, are kept as pets suitably exemplifying these qualities, and are often seen in Dormitionist art.

"To sleep in the Lord" – the Rule expands upon this central focus, specifying that the brethren do so in honour and imitation of the following great exemplars: 

1. God's eternal changelessness, peace, and tranquillitas ordinis (hence their alternative name of Ordo tranquillitatis);
   
2. Our Lord's Three Days' Burial, and His Holy Sepulchre;
   
3. Our Lord asleep in the boat (a figure of the Church);
   
4. Christus Somnifer (Christ the Bringer of Sacred Sleep and Holy Dreams);
   
5. The Dormition of Our Lady (her peerless falling asleep in the Lord), under the which title she is Patroness of the Order;
   
6. The Four Days' Burial of St Lazarus, secondary Patron of the Order (it is piously held by Domitionists that this was from Monday to Thursday, so that, as Our Lord Himself rested in the tomb from Friday to Sunday, all days have been and are to be sanctified by sleep);
   
7. The Saints' falling asleep in the Lord, and their eternal rest (as is written of St Stephen in Acts vii, 59);
   
8. The Saints receiving God's communications to them in their dreams – e.g. Jacob (Gen. xxviii, 11-18), Joseph "the Dreamer" (Gen. xxxvii; xl-xlii), the Magi (S. Matthew ii, 12) and St Joseph (S. Matthew i, 19-24; ii, 13-14, 19-21, 22);
   
9. All the just, having the peace of a good conscience (to be achieved thro' frequent confession to one's soporific father, and an entire acceptance of the soporific state).

The feast of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus (27th July) is kept with solemnity in the Order, of which they also are secondary patrons, together with St Lazarus (whose feast falls on the 17th of December).  For did they not disperse their property to the poor (cf. Ps 111:8) and retire into a sealed cave, there to rest and theirs to rest in the Lord, in peace, for centuries?  There they would pray and prepare for death, so as to enter into eternal rest evermore.  (The many varying lists of their names happily supply all needful religious names for the brethren.)  A practised member of the Dormitionists is sometimes styled a "seven-sleeper"; which usage has passed into several European languages (siebenschläfer, syvsover, hétalvó).

Within each Dorter, that is, Dormitory (as the houses of the Order are denominated), the novice and student dormitors are trained up by the Somnifers ("dream-bringers" – their respectful term for formators and professors; for as the Spirit testifies in both testaments (Joel ii, 28; Acts ii, 17), seniores vestri somnia somniabunt, "your seniors shall dream dreams").  Those more proficient in the charism of the O.Dorm.'s are styled Somniators; while the superior of each Dormitory (chosen for his model adherence to the Rule of the Soporific Fathers) is of course the Somniac.

In imitation of the holy behaviour of Christ and His Apostles, and of the whole body of the Primitive Church, the brethren always recline at table.  While sorrowing at their weakness, they needs must be awake at least some of the time, yet as if not awake at all (this is the sad curse of insomnia).  As the Dormitionist prayer has it, Requiem æternam dona nobis, Domine.  Requiescamus in pace.  Amen.  (Eternal rest grant unto us, O Lord.  May we rest in peace.  Amen.)  The brethren only ever venture outside to visit their own cemetery (koimêtêrion, sleeping-place), that, inspired, they the better aspire to that everlasting rest which is their entire goal. 

For utterly the same reason meditation, and lectio divina, together with study of Latin, Greek and Hebrew, is undertaken while lying down.  As the Imitatio Christi avers, "the cell, continually dwelt in, groweth sweet"; how much more so the bed therein, place of rest foreshadowing that rest which, please God, shall prove eternal!  As an aid to this, the Mediatrix of all graces is invoked: the brethren are much enamoured of Our Lady's somniferous Rosary; recited in bed, with much drowsiness.  

At the Eucharistic Sacrifice (always Low, even if conventual, by indult – as with the Capuchins), the brethren prostrate in prayer throughout the whole sacred mutter of the Mass.  The Dormitionist claim to have maintained unbroken the apostolic custom of evening Mass, long before its present Church-wide revival, is of keen interest to liturgiologists.  The Order has also maintained the French custom of Prône.  

Of especial delight to the Dormitionist brethren is that most soporific of the Hours, Compline.  While the Office is customarily prayed in the cell, if not dispensed from, Compline alongside Mass is prayed in church.  Their proper Nunc dimittis anthem is instructive:

Salva nos, Domine, custodi nos dormientes in Christo, ut requiescamus in pace.

(Save us, Lord, protect us, the sleepers-in-Christ, that we may rest in peace.)

[Many thanks to Reverend Fathers Christopher and Bernard for their input into this article.]