Disclaimer
This web site and these programs were developed, managed,
and maintained by Laszlo Kiss, as his own work, until his death in 2011.
It is now maintained by The Divinum Officium Project
(email canon DOT missae AT gmail DOT com).
It represents no official order,
nor the view or opinion of any group. Laszlo wrote: I tried to follow my sources,
but naturally the more I work on this project the more mistakes I make.
Such a project can be done only by teamwork. I keep doing this in the hope
that a team will pick up the idea, and will use the computers in their entirety
to worship God. Since August 2011, The Divinum Officium Project
continues Laszlo Kiss's work and keeps his hope alive.
Words of caution:
Those who are obliged to recite the office should do so from canonically
approved books (cf. 1983 CIC 276). According to the motu proprio Summorum Pontificium Cura of Pope Benedict XVI (7 July 2007),
the liturgical books in use from 1 January 1961 to 7 March 1965 are accepted as the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.
The Project makes every reasonable effort to maintain the Rubrics 1960
version of the website to be substantially harmonious with the 1962 typical edition. Previous versions of the Divine Office anterior to the 1960 rubrics are provided for historical and educational documentation purposes only, in light of the Commonitio of Alfredo Cardinal Ottaviani dated 14 February 1958. The website is seeking ecclesiastical approbation as such.
- The Project consults written sources for the different versions and follows them as carefully as possible. Please see Credits for details.
- The Monastic version is in the process of being conformed to the 1963 Breviarium Monasticum. Thank you for your patience.
- The Rubrics 1960 - 2020 USA version adapts the 1960 Code of Rubrics to the local propers of the United States of America and implements some new saints per the decree Cum Sanctissima.
Historical versions of the Divine Office
The Divinum Officium was the official prayer of the Roman Catholic Church for
at least 1500 years, until 1 November 1970, when it was significantly changed to
The Liturgy of the Hours by the Apostolic Constitution of Paul VI Laudis canticum. This website and program, as conceived by Laszlo Kiss,
is partially a device enabling one to pray the Office easily, and partially a historical and educational document to visually show the liturgical changes in recent centuries. These purposes are
maintained by The Divinum Officium Project since August 2011, with the intent that the website should be usable, didactic, and historically and theologically accurate.
In sum, this Project shows how the daily Divine Office was collected from the same psalms, lections, hymns, versicles and responsories for the different versions:
- The Monastic version is the Benedictine Monastic Breviary, as it is described in the Regula of St. Benedict. We are in the process of implementing this version as the 1963 Breviarium Monasticum.
See details below.
- The version ordered after the Council of Trent by Pope St. Pius V,
which, except for the ever increasing number of feasts in the Proprium Sanctorum, was virtually
unchanged until the 20th Century. This Tridentine version was based essentially on the Roman Rite in use at this time.
Therefore, the majority of psalms were prayed in Matins, Lauds, and Vespers. The little hours contained the same Psalm 118 everyday at the little hours. Sunday Matins contained
18 psalms, and the weekday Matins contained 12 psalms. Lauds and Vespers were considerably
longer, due to the length of of the psalm and their suffragia. The Feasts of Saints offered
some relief in the number of psalms. Those Matins consisted of 9 psalms only, which broke the
rule of the required 150 psalms a week. The number of Festive Offices came to exceed
the number of ferial Sunday Offices, when more than two thirds of the days were Festive
Offices.
- The Tridentine 1570 version uses the original
1570 calendar; the Tridentine 1910 version uses the calendar from the
1888 Pustet edition Hiemalis volume. Both the 1570 & 1910 versions use the same rubrics; the two differ in their calendars and that the 1570 edition uses the pre-Urban VIII hymnody.
Missing offices are updated as sources allow.
See details below.
- The Divino Afflatu version is named from the
Encyclical of St. Pius X, and was the official version from 1911 to 1960. St. Pius X formulated
two main changes:
- The version uses the ferial psalms for the festive offices except for the
1st and 2nd class feasts, and for a few others which antiphons are used for a feast.
- Also, psalms are divided into a weekly cycle without significant repetition
of the psalms (9 psalms for Matins, 5 each for the major hours, 3 each for the minor
hours). The encyclical also shortened significantly the suffragia, and other parts of the office,
reducing the time at prayer by about 20%.
- This version previously used the calendar as found in the 1943 Pustet breviary; it now uses the permanent calendar from the printed 1954 Maison Mame
edition divided into two volumes, Horae Omnes Breviarii Romani and Lectiones Breviarii Romani, which allow users to celebrate almost all feasts as they were immediately prior to the 1955 reforms.
- The version Reduced 1955 is based on the decree
Cum Nostra Hac Aetate.
- The version Rubrics 1960 ordered by the Motu Proprio
Rubricarum Instructum 1960
of John XXIII. These changes further shortened the prayer time by an additional 5% and 15% respectively. This version uses the permanent calendar from the 1960 Codex Rubricarum.
See details below.
- The version Ordo Praedicatorum will implement the 1962 version of the Dominican Rite.
- The 1960 New Calendar version implements various saints from the United States propers as well as various recently canonized saints according to the 1960 rubrics. See details below.
A principal purpose of this project was and is to show that the changes published in 1955 and 1960 were not more than the changes which were made in 1911 by Divino Afflatu. In all changes, the reason was to simplify and shorten
the Office.
Implemented Monastic changes:
- Matins starts with Domine labia and Psalm 3.
- First Nocturn is always 6 psalms.
- First Nocturn has 3 lessons with responsories from Scriptures from November to Low Sunday,
with one short lesson in summertime.
- Second Nocturn is always 6 psalms.
- Except for Sundays and Feasts (Duplex majus, 2nd class, 1st class), the second nocturn
has a scriptural capitulum with responsory only, and there is no third nocturn.
- For Sundays and Feasts (for lack of resources, only 3 * 3 instead of 3 * 4 lessons)
there are three nocturns. The third nocturn has Old Testament canticles under one antiphon.
- There is also a responsory after the last lesson, followed by the Te Deum, the reading of the full
passage of Gospel, and the short hymn "Te decet".
- Lauds starts with Psalm 66.
- Lauds has 3 psalms, a canticle and psalms 148-149-150 as one unit. Responsory is added
to Capitulum.
- Prime has 4 or 3 psalms (parts). Preces, reading of the Regula and Commemoration
of the Dead (which was not part of Prime) is added to the office.
- Minor Hours have a psalm scheme only for Sunday, Monday and the rest of days.
Capitulum is followed only by Verse.
- Vespers has 4 psalms, Responsory is added to Capitulum.
- Compline has always the same psalms without antiphons; also without Nunc dimittis.
- The pre-Urban VIII hymnody is used.
Implemented Tridentine (pre-Divino Afflatu) changes:
- Festive Offices for both the Tridentine, and the Divino Afflatu versions are similar,
except that in the Tridentine version, Feasts of semiduplex rank and above use the Festive
psalms, which is three nocturns each of three psalms for Matins, with a slightly different set for holy men and holy women, with the Sunday psalms from the
Psalter for the rest of the hours.
- Simplex Offices from the proper of the Saints have only one nocturn in the Tridentine version, with the psalms of the Feria.
- In ferial offices:
- Sunday Matins contains 18 psalms, weekdays contain 12 psalms with antiphons according to the day of week.
- Lauds and Vespers have their set of psalms and antiphones according to the day of week;
- The Laudes II psalms were introduced with the Divino Afflatu version for the seasons of Advent and Lent. In the Tridentine version, each Ferial Office Lauds began with Psalm 50 (Miserere),
and only the 2nd and 4th (canticle) change throughout the week.
- The Little Hours have the same psalm set over the week, but the antiphons change according to
the day of week.
Prime has 4 psalms, except on Saturdays which contained only 3 psalms.
For the other days, psalms in positions 1, 3, & 4 are the same for all days of the week, while the 2nd is different.
- For Preces Feriales, Psalm 129 is added at Lauds, and Psalm 50 is added at Vespers.
- The Suffragium is expanded with the Commemoratio de Cruce (in the ferial days, this is first), and Commemorations to the Blessed Virgin, to St. Joseph, St. Peter and Paul, de Pace.
Implemented 1955 only changes:
- First Vespers only for Sundays, 1st and 2nd class feasts.
- Simplex feasts are commemorated in Lauds and Vespers only, no reading in Matins.
- Former semiduplex feasts are considered as simplex, with the commemorating lesson in Matins, with the exception of the vigil of Pentecost, which is raised to the rank of duplex.
- As Cum nostra hac aetate indicated that the liturgical books should remain intact, so too does this site respect this integrity (i.e. listing feasts as semiduplex), but also for technical reasons.
Implemented 1956-1960 changes:
- The Pater noster and Ave Maria at the beginning and end of the hours,
(also Credo for beginning of Matins and Prime, and end of Compline) is omitted.
- Preces feriales only in Ember Days (except Pentecost octave)
and Wednesdays, Fridays of Advent and Lent.
- Suffragia and Preces Dominicales are deleted.
- Athanasium Creed (Quicumque) is prayed only on Trinity Sunday.
- Marian Antiphons at the end of Lauds are deleted.
- Vigils only for: Nativity, Pentecost, Ascension, St. John the Baptist, Sts. Peter & Paul, St. Lawrence, Assumption.
- Octaves only for: Christmas, Easter and Pentecost.
Implemented 1960 only changes:
- Antiphons are always doubled; that is to say, recited completely, rather than in some cases, up to the asterisk, as in the former rubrics.
- Doxologies for hymns are never changed.
- Lectio brevis in Prime does not change for saints' feasts, but rather, only for the liturgical season.
- Psalm 50 in Paschal Triduum prayers is deleted.
- Ranking of feasts are only 1st to 4th class.
- 4th class: commemoration only;
- 3rd class (former semiduplex, duplex and some duplex majus): only 3 lections of Matins;
- 2nd class (with some former duplex majus): Matins contains normally 9 lections, but for the minor hours, antiphons and psalms are typically taken from the weekday;
- 1st class: unchanged.
- First week of month (from August to November) always starts in the month, instead of the closest Sunday to the Kalends.
- Some additional calendar changes are implemented.
1960 New Calendar version changes:
- This edition has been edited so as to accord with the 22 February 2020 Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith decree Cum Sanctissima.
- Implements a variety of new saints from the United States particular calendar in use in 1960, as well as some recent saints (i.e. Saint Padre Pio). Offices not found in the Extraordinary Form are created from the Common of Saints.
- Memorial offices are implemented as 3rd class offices according to the 1960 rubrics (1, 2-3 readings from the season, 3rd reading from the saint). Feasts are implemented as 2nd class (semifestive offices), solemnities as 1st class (festive) offices.
- If two saints are assigned for the same day, the newer feast in the calendar is chosen, with a commemoration of the 1960 feast.
- Seasonal feast days moved to Sundays (Ascension etc.) or external solemnities cannot at present be handled, as there would be no Office left for the feria. Feasts days of saints can, however, be moved through the transfer tables (Latin/Tabulae/KNC.txt, Latin/Tabulae/TrNewcal.txt, Latin/Tabulae/Trnewcalyyyy.txt).
Click here for recitation times of the different versions.
laszlo kiss (+2011)
The Divinum Officium Project
canon DOT missae AT gmail DOT com
T.A.D.M.N.
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