Medieval church service timetable?

[frogbeastegg]

Anyone know what the timetable for medieval church services was? People told the time by the bells ringing to call people in for prayer, a handy thing to know when writing medieval fiction but I have no idea what time each service was. All I know is compline is late, but how late is late? I'd like to know the whole set, along with the relevant times of day.

[DojoRat]

I don't have any answers but you might want to check out "The Name of the Rose" by Umberto Ecco. It is a Medieval murder mystery that takes place in a monastery. I remember it as being well written with a very detailed portrait of monastic life in 13th cent Northern Italy. It was the monks that went to the services around the clock, vespers, matins compline, etc but I have no idea of when mass was held at a standard parish church or town cathedral.

I did a quick search.

Matins: Post Midnight

Lauds: Daybreak

Prime: 6:00

Terce: 9:00

Sext: 12:00

None: 3:00

Vespers: Early Evening

Compline: Before Bed

I'm sure it changed depending upon where you were an what order you belonged to. Good Luck.

[Teutonic Knight]

I'll bet the times haven't changed all that much since the middle ages for most orders. I'll even bet that you could look up the Augustinians or the Benedictines, or even the Franciscans and they'd have their schedules listed for that particular order. Of course you'd have to check that against any available medieval sources....

[frogbeastegg]

Yes, that's the kind of timetable I was thinking of, DojoRat. Incomplete but a good start, thanks. Your thoughts match mine, TK. I do doubt the times of the main services will have altered. Now it's just a matter of searching until I find the last few times, either medieval or modern. So far I've not had much success, but I haven't had much time either.

[DojoRat]

Here's a quick search result for Monastic Divine Office Timetable



The Benedictine Office

St.Benedict of Nursia (c480-547 AD) did not invent the monastic life but organised it in his Rule. This gradually came to be adopted by almost all the monks of the West and in it, in chapters eight to twenty, we find detailed rules for the Daily Office. Such concentration on detail is not surprising as he teaches that nihil operi Dei praeponatur – ‘let nothing be preferred to the Work of God’. This means that in a Benedictine monastery the Liturgy of the Hours dominates the timetable and all the other activities of the day are arranged around it. St. Benedict said that it was not necessary to follow his Office plan as long as the full complement of 150 psalms is carefully maintained each week.

There are 7 offices during the day, a special number which corresponds to the words of the psalmist, ‘seven times a day I praise you’ (Ps 11: 164) and one office during the night, at midnight I rise to praise you (Ps 118: 62 cf RB16:4). It is celebrated in the Abbey Church or Oratory, a sacred place of which St. Benedict says, the Oratory ought to be what it is called, and nothing else is to be done or stored there – ‘oratio’ is the Latin word for prayer.

The words of the Office are mainly taken from Scripture and the Psalms form the core of each Hour. To modern people they can present problems as certain passages express violence and hatred, indeed the whole spectrum of human emotion is found in them. One response could be to say that we come before God as we are and can only be transformed if we are open about our reality, but the Church has always given the psalms a spiritual interpretation. “A blessing on anyone who seizes your little ones and shatters them against a rock” (Ps 136:9) is interpreted by St Benedict as referring to evil thoughts being dashed, as soon as they arise, against the rock which is Christ (cf 1 Cor 10:4). The addition of the short prayer of praise to the Holy Trinity ‘Gloria Patri…’ (Glory be to the Father…) to the end of each psalm emphasises that they are always to be interpreted in a Christian way, indeed they often directly concern Christ himself. St. Benedict stresses the importance of the ‘Gloria Patri’ by saying that during it, all the monks should rise from their seats in honour and reverence for the Holy Trinity.

The psalms also have Antiphons, usually sung before and after each psalm or group of psalms. These are short verses giving a theme from the feast or season, or from the psalm itself. Songs from other parts of the Bible, called Canticles, also have antiphons. The antiphons, and indeed the whole Office, are given to help us fulfil St. Benedict’s invitation, let us stand to sing the psalms in such a way that our minds are in harmony with our voices. The main non-scriptural parts of the Office are the Hymns and Collects (concluding prayers). The former are taken from the Liber Hymnarius (Hymnbook) and are written by authors from St. Ambrose (c 340-397 AD) to the present day.

The Daily Office should ideally be sung and the use of Latin means that one can sing the office in Gregorian Chant. This music developed with the Roman and Benedictine liturgies, and goes back beyond the time of Pope Gregory the Great (c 540–604), after whom it is named, to the very origins of the Church and to the chant of the Synagogues. Its spiritual character is closely linked to the biblical language of the liturgy and today it has become very popular, as is shown by the large sales of chant tapes and discs. The music of the chant should always lead one into the silence of prayer whether one joins in the singing, which is encouraged, or just participates by listening.

Vigils, often called Matins, is the night office and is now usually celebrated at the end of the night. To pray at night is an ancient Christian custom – cf Acts 16:25. The Lord said that he would come again at an unexpected hour, so his servants keep vigil, waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet (Lk 12:36). The silence of the night is the great time for God’s saving acts, the Exodus from Egypt and Christ’s Birth and Resurrection, and its darkness is a powerful symbol of sin and evil. Those who keep vigil thus take their place with their victorious Lord in the cosmic battle against Satan and the powers of darkness.

Vigils begins the day with the thrice-repeated call to the Lord to open our lips that we may praise him (Ps 50: 17). The Invitatory psalm 94, is also a call to worship and then, after the hymn, follow two Nocturns each of six psalms and a reading followed by a responsory. On Sundays and Feasts a third nocturn is added with three canticles. These are followed by a reading commenting of the day’s Gospel passage, which itself follows between the two hymns of praise Te Deum and Te decet laus.

Each of the Day Hours begins with the verse ‘O God come to my aid…’(Ps 69:1) followed by the Gloria Patri. The two main Day Hours are Lauds, morning praise, and Vespers, evening prayer. Each consists of psalmody, a short reading and a hymn followed by a Canticle from the Gospel: The Benedictus (Song of Zachariah, Lk 1: 68-79) at Lauds and the Magnificat (Our Lady’s song, Lk 1: 46-55) at Vespers. On Sundays and Solemnities incense is offered during the Magnificat, which reminds one of the evening incense offering in the Temple at Jerusalem. Each also has a Litany – prayers of intercession sung by a Cantor to each of which all sing a brief response. These are taken from ancient Greek and Latin liturgies including the celtic ‘Stowe Missal’. The Lord’s Prayer is sung in full at these two Offices whereas in the others it is said silently. With the Our Father at the Eucharist this means that it is publicly sung three times a day - a custom going back to the very beginning of the Church and mentioned in the ‘Didache’ (8: 3) – a document may be of the same date as the New Testament writings.

Although Lauds now follows directly on from Vigils, it is traditionally sung at dawn when the world comes out of darkness into light and thus it is the time of resurrection.

The main part of the day is sanctified by Offices at the third (tertia) hour – Terce – the sixth (Sexta) hour – Sext and the ninth (nona) hour – none. These Little Hours all have the same structure. On Sundays and Mondays each has three sections from Psalm 118 whereas for the rest of the week the same psalms – 119-127 – are sung, three at each Hour. These are from the Psalms of Ascent, sung by those on Pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

The Little Hours have traditionally been linked to certain mysteries of the New Covenant: Terce is the time of the Crucifixion (Mk 15: 25) and the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2:15). Sext, midday, is when Christ hung on the cross and the whole world became dark (Mk 15: 33) and when God’s saving will for the gentiles was revealed to St Peter (Acts 10: 9). None is when Christ died on the cross and the veil of the Temple was rent in two (Mk 15: 34-39).

Prime, the first (prima) hour, and Compline, which completes the day hours, are Offices at the beginning and end of the day, following Lauds and Vespers respectively. Compline begins with a confession of sin, the confiteor, which always has the same three psalms. It can thus be sung from memory in the dark. It also has a Gospel Canticle, the Nunc Dimitis (Lk 2: 29-32), which has been borrowed from the Roman Rite. As the last act of the day an Anthem to Our Lady is sung and then, after the Abbot has blessed all with holy water, the Great Silence begins which lasts until after Prime the next morning.

[frogbeastegg]

Very nice, thank you