In the last two posts in this series I have argued from contextual material that at least in the three groups of monasteries considered here (Agaune, Arles and those of St Benedict) the whole Office was viewed as intercessory in character, given for the salvation of the whole world, and most particularly to those closest to the religious - including their fellow religious, family, friends, benefactors and wider community - in late antiquity.
Later periods would add specific prayers and psalms to the Office: these, I would suggest, simply made explicit and specific what had always been implicit, rather than representing a fundamental change in the orientation of monastic life: the key difference, perhaps was that the interests of Church and State were more obviously firmly aligned from the early middle ages onwards.
But even in late antiquity there were already a number of specific features of the Office that would have signalled its intercessory intent to those who said and heard it.
The angelic salutation
I have previously pointed to the use of the angelic salutation from St Luke 2:12 (Glory to God in the highest; peace and good will to men on earth) in the liturgy of the Sleepless monks. If we assume that Agaune's liturgy was either directly or indirectly influenced by that of the Sleepless monks, as suggested earlier in the series, it probably did include explicit intercessory components.
In particular, the liturgy of the Sleepless Monks, according to the late fifth century life of St Alexander Aketemoi, raised petitions to God on behalf of their fellow Christians by singing the angelic salutation and making seventy-seven genuflections each day. [1] It is worth noting that this canticle was also used in the Office of Arles, at Lauds on Sundays. [2]
The Pater Noster
The use of the Our Father (Pater Noster) at each hour of the Benedictine Office may have been intended to play a similar function. [3]
St Benedict specifically gives the abbot's recitation of the prayer aloud at Lauds and Vespers an interpretation directed at the internal operation of the monastery:
But St Benedict surely also had in mind the broader interpretation of the prayer as well, since it was at the core of virtually every patristic exposition on prayer. In particular, its opening petition – thy kingdom come – surely perfectly expresses what the religious is meant to pray for. Caesarius of Arles, for example, instructed his nuns:
Later periods would add specific prayers and psalms to the Office: these, I would suggest, simply made explicit and specific what had always been implicit, rather than representing a fundamental change in the orientation of monastic life: the key difference, perhaps was that the interests of Church and State were more obviously firmly aligned from the early middle ages onwards.
But even in late antiquity there were already a number of specific features of the Office that would have signalled its intercessory intent to those who said and heard it.
The angelic salutation
I have previously pointed to the use of the angelic salutation from St Luke 2:12 (Glory to God in the highest; peace and good will to men on earth) in the liturgy of the Sleepless monks. If we assume that Agaune's liturgy was either directly or indirectly influenced by that of the Sleepless monks, as suggested earlier in the series, it probably did include explicit intercessory components.
In particular, the liturgy of the Sleepless Monks, according to the late fifth century life of St Alexander Aketemoi, raised petitions to God on behalf of their fellow Christians by singing the angelic salutation and making seventy-seven genuflections each day. [1] It is worth noting that this canticle was also used in the Office of Arles, at Lauds on Sundays. [2]
The Pater Noster
The use of the Our Father (Pater Noster) at each hour of the Benedictine Office may have been intended to play a similar function. [3]
St Benedict specifically gives the abbot's recitation of the prayer aloud at Lauds and Vespers an interpretation directed at the internal operation of the monastery:
The purpose of this is the removal of those thorns of scandal, or mutual offence, which are wont to arise in communities. For, being warned by the covenant which they make in that prayer, when they say Forgive us as we forgive, the brethren will cleanse their souls of such faults. [4]This sevenfold recitation of the prayer each day, then, echoes the same Scriptural injunction to forgive others seventy times seven claimed for St Alexander's use of the angelic salutation and genuflection, albeit within the community rather than more broadly.
But St Benedict surely also had in mind the broader interpretation of the prayer as well, since it was at the core of virtually every patristic exposition on prayer. In particular, its opening petition – thy kingdom come – surely perfectly expresses what the religious is meant to pray for. Caesarius of Arles, for example, instructed his nuns:
That, with the help of God, you may be able to keep them as you abide unceasingly in your monastery cell, implore by assiduous prayer [assiduis orationibus] the visitation of the Son of God…[5]
St Benedict would surely have found this perfectly in tune with his own take on the prayer, not least since his favourite Church Father, Cyprian makes it clear that the reference to Our Father is a reminder that the prayer is intended to be collective, made on behalf of all Christians:
Before all things, the Teacher of peace and the Master of unity would not have prayer to be made singly and individually, as for one who prays to pray for himself alone. For we say not My Father, which art in heaven, nor Give me this day my daily bread; nor does each one ask that only his own debt should be forgiven him; nor does he request for himself alone that he may not be led into temptation, and delivered from evil. Our prayer is public and common; and when we pray, we pray not for one, but for the whole people, because we the whole people are one. [6]
Capitella, litanies and collects
I also noted earlier that the Arles Office included 'capitella', psalm verses collected together to cover particular intentions.
St Benedict doesn't include either collects (perhaps because of his Office's lay character) or capitella, but he does include the short litany 'Lord have mercy; Christ have mercy; Lord have mercy' as a conclusion to each hour. [7]
Towards heaven
The clearest signal (at least to Patristic eyes) of the intercessory nature of St Benedict’s Office though, is arguably embedded in number symbolism, programmed into its fundamental design.
Modern eyes tend to be oblivious to the symbolism of the numbers included in Scripture and the liturgy. Patristic writers, however, all saw deep meaning in the numbers mentioned in Scripture, and St Augustine in particular devoted extensive exegesis to it.
That St Benedict put considerable stock on this symbolism is suggested in the Rule and Office both explicitly, for example in his allusion to the 'sacred number seven' in his discussion of the number of day hours; and implicitly, for example in his discussion of the core of his spiritual theology in the first seven chapters of the Rule, and then description of the Office in the next twelve. [8]
I also noted earlier that the Arles Office included 'capitella', psalm verses collected together to cover particular intentions.
St Benedict doesn't include either collects (perhaps because of his Office's lay character) or capitella, but he does include the short litany 'Lord have mercy; Christ have mercy; Lord have mercy' as a conclusion to each hour. [7]
Towards heaven
The clearest signal (at least to Patristic eyes) of the intercessory nature of St Benedict’s Office though, is arguably embedded in number symbolism, programmed into its fundamental design.
Modern eyes tend to be oblivious to the symbolism of the numbers included in Scripture and the liturgy. Patristic writers, however, all saw deep meaning in the numbers mentioned in Scripture, and St Augustine in particular devoted extensive exegesis to it.
That St Benedict put considerable stock on this symbolism is suggested in the Rule and Office both explicitly, for example in his allusion to the 'sacred number seven' in his discussion of the number of day hours; and implicitly, for example in his discussion of the core of his spiritual theology in the first seven chapters of the Rule, and then description of the Office in the next twelve. [8]
At the start of this series I discussed one piece of symbolism employed by St Benedict, in the forty psalms said each day in the Office, a number that can be seen as symbolising our preparation for entering heaven.
A second important piece of number symbolism that I want to touch briefly on here is that associated with his insistence on saying all 150 psalms each week. [9]
Variable and fixed numbers of psalms in the Office
A second important piece of number symbolism that I want to touch briefly on here is that associated with his insistence on saying all 150 psalms each week. [9]
Variable and fixed numbers of psalms in the Office
Instead, the length of the Night office in particular varied with the seasons, and the number at the day hours could differ on Sundays and feasts. The Office described by St Augustine's Rule (which may have reflected the practice of Rome in his time) took this form, as did that of Arles, that of the Master, and the Roman secular office described in the Liber Diurnis and used by suburbican bishops and in the tituli. [10] The logical consequence of the variable psalmody model was of course that the entire psalter was not said within any fixed period of time in the Office itself (though it may have been in private recitation).
It is unclear whether the Office Cassian advocated involved saying all of the psalms in the context of the Office itself in a particular period: the Egyptian and Palestinian Offices he described more likely used only a fixed selection of psalms said each day, with the remainder being said privately by the monk in his cell. [11]
In contrast, St Benedict's Rule (which may or may not reflect a recent contemporaneous change in the Roman basilican Office) provides us with the first documented insistence that all the psalms be said within a particular time period, viz a week. [12]
The sacred number 150
Patristic era writers supply several several explanations for the significance of the number of psalms, a favourite being it representing the Old creation/covenant (ie the seven days of creation) plus the eighth day of the New, and the link to the fifteen steps of the inner temple, which in turn symbolised the ascent to heaven in the corresponding Gradual Psalms.
St Augustine, for example, specifically christened 150 as sacred, by dint of the number of psalms. In his commentary on the '70 or 80 years of life' to which man can aspire (on Psalm 89), he drew a number of important connections:
Moreover, seventy and eighty years equal a hundred and fifty; a number which the Psalms clearly insinuate to be a sacred one. One hundred and fifty have the same relative signification as fifteen, the latter number being composed of seven and eight together: the first of which points to the Old Testament through the observation of the Sabbath; the latter to the New, referring to the resurrection of our Lord. Hence the fifteen steps in the Temple. Hence in the Psalms, fifteen songs of degrees. Hence the waters of the deluge overtopped the highest mountains by fifteen cubits: and many other instances of the same nature. [13]But it is probably significant that it is one of St Benedict’s contemporaries, Cassiodorus, who expands on the link St Augustine made between the number of psalms and the Great Flood:
."..we have observed that through the Lord's generosity the earth was cleansed of its sins after one hundred and fifty days, when the flood covered the earth. So the spiritual depth of the psalms with their perennial cleansing purifies the hearts of men until Judgment Day; and from this we experience a saving flood which washes clean our minds befouled with sins." [14]
The monk’s daily and weekly ‘pensum’ of psalms then, can be seen as penance done on behalf of the people to purge them of their sins, so that, as Psalm 94 daily reminded the monk, all might hear and respond to God’s call, and thus enter the promised land of heaven.
And perhaps there is another implicit link which I will come back to in due course, in the spreading of the psalms over seven days, to the idea best articulated by St John Chrysostom and recently highlighted by Benedict Anderson, that the liturgy is about effecting the repair of creation, damaged by the Fall. [15]
And you can find the next post in this series here.
Notes
[1] Daniel Caner's Wandering, Begging Monks: Spiritual Authority and the Promotion of Monasticism in Late Antiquity, University of California Press, 2002, pp 267.
[2] (RC 69).
[3] RB 13 12-14 - Plane agenda matutina vel vespertina non transeat aliquando, nisi in ultimo per ordinem oratio dominica, omnibus audientibus, dicatur a priore..., [14] Ceteris vero agendis, ultima pars eius orationis dicatur, ut ab omnibus respondeatur: Sed libera nos a malo.
[4] Propter scandalorum spinas quae oriri solent, [13] ut conventi per ipsius orationis sponsionem qua dicunt: Dimitte nobis sicut et nos dimittimus, purgent se ab huiusmodi vitio.
[5] RC 1: Ch 1, trans McCarthy, in La Corte and McMillan ed Regular Life, Monastic, Canonical and Mendicant Rules, pp 58-9).
[6] Cyprian, Treatise IV, Robert Ernest Wallis (trans), Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 5. Edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886.
[7] RB 9: [10] Post hos, lectio apostoli sequatur, ex corde recitanda, et versus, et supplicatio litaniae, id est Kyrie eleison. Similarly, see RB 12, 13, 17.
[8] Due to their reflection of the pattern of creation, both seven and twelve were interpreted as meaning completeness, fulfillment or universality, with twelve having a governmental connotation (due tothe twelve tribes of Israel/number of apostles, etc). The start of the Office material in chpater 8 is symbolically important too, given its association with the eighth day and thus ushering in of the era of the new creation: and St Benedict reinforces the importance of the number by having his monks rise at the eighth hour of the night, and concluding the chapter with a reference to Lauds, which he makes an explicit celebration of the Resurrection each day.
[9] RB 18:[22] Hoc praecipue commonentes ut, si cui forte haec distributio psalmorum displicuerit, ordinet si melius aliter iudicaverit, [23] dum omnimodis id adtendat ut omni hebdomada psalterium ex integro numero centum quinquaginta psalmorum psallantur, et dominico die semper a caput reprehendatur ad vigilias. [24] Quia nimis inertem devotionis suae servitium ostendunt monachi qui minus a psalterio cum canticis consuetudinariis per septimanae circulum psallunt, [25] dum quando legamus sanctos patres nostros uno die hoc strenue implesse, quod nos tepidi utinam septimana integra persolvamus.
[10] Augustine's, Ordo Monasterii gives a number of psalms for the Night Office that varies between 12, 15 and 18 psalms; the Rule of the Master specifies 12 to 16; the Cautio Episcopi (in the Liber Diurnis), 3 or 4 on weekdays, and nine on Sundays.
[11] For a discussion of the evidence see Armand Veilleux, La Liturgie Dans Le Cenobitisme Pachomien Au Quatrieme Siecle, (Studia Anselmiana 57); Herder, Rome 1968 and Stig Simeon R. Frøyshov, The Cathedral–Monastic Distinction Revisited Part I: Was Egyptian Desert Liturgy a Pure Monastic Office?, Studia Liturgica 37 (2007), 198-216.
[12] The liturgist's case for a shift to a fixed weekly psalm cursus of the Roman prior to St Benedict (rather than being a product of St Gregory's revamp) largely hangs on the claim that the 'de psalmiis' responsories, a set of psalm based responsories used in Epiphanytide, were selected to reflect the psalms used each day of the week at Matins, and were originally used throughout the year. However, as the earliest evidence for the set dates from the seventh century (and the earliest listing of them as a set from the eighth), the strength of the case must be assessed as thin at the best. But thisis a topic on which I plan t write more elsewhere!
[13] St Augustine's commentary on Psalm 89. See also St Gregory the Great on Job chapter 35: "For by the number seven he expressed the present time, ‘which is passed by periods of seven days. But by the number ‘eight’ he designated eternal life, which the Lord made known to us by His resurrection...Hence it is, that the Temple is ascended with fifteen steps, in order that it may be learned by its very ascent that by seven and eight our worldly doings may be carefully discharged, and an eternal dwelling may be providently sought for. Hence also it is that, by increasing a unit to ten, the Prophet uttered a hundred and fifty Psalms."
[14] Cassiodorus, commentary on Psalm 150, P. G. Walsh (trans), Explanations of the Psalms, vol 3, Ancient Christian Writers Series, Paulist Press, 1991, pp 466.
[15] Benedict Anderson, Et erant semper in templo: The Divine Office as Priestly Temple Service, paper was originally delivered at the Fota XI International Liturgical Conference, July 7-9, 2018.
And you can find the next post in this series here.
Notes
[1] Daniel Caner's Wandering, Begging Monks: Spiritual Authority and the Promotion of Monasticism in Late Antiquity, University of California Press, 2002, pp 267.
[2] (RC 69).
[3] RB 13 12-14 - Plane agenda matutina vel vespertina non transeat aliquando, nisi in ultimo per ordinem oratio dominica, omnibus audientibus, dicatur a priore..., [14] Ceteris vero agendis, ultima pars eius orationis dicatur, ut ab omnibus respondeatur: Sed libera nos a malo.
[4] Propter scandalorum spinas quae oriri solent, [13] ut conventi per ipsius orationis sponsionem qua dicunt: Dimitte nobis sicut et nos dimittimus, purgent se ab huiusmodi vitio.
[5] RC 1: Ch 1, trans McCarthy, in La Corte and McMillan ed Regular Life, Monastic, Canonical and Mendicant Rules, pp 58-9).
[6] Cyprian, Treatise IV, Robert Ernest Wallis (trans), Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 5. Edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886.
[7] RB 9: [10] Post hos, lectio apostoli sequatur, ex corde recitanda, et versus, et supplicatio litaniae, id est Kyrie eleison. Similarly, see RB 12, 13, 17.
[8] Due to their reflection of the pattern of creation, both seven and twelve were interpreted as meaning completeness, fulfillment or universality, with twelve having a governmental connotation (due tothe twelve tribes of Israel/number of apostles, etc). The start of the Office material in chpater 8 is symbolically important too, given its association with the eighth day and thus ushering in of the era of the new creation: and St Benedict reinforces the importance of the number by having his monks rise at the eighth hour of the night, and concluding the chapter with a reference to Lauds, which he makes an explicit celebration of the Resurrection each day.
[9] RB 18:[22] Hoc praecipue commonentes ut, si cui forte haec distributio psalmorum displicuerit, ordinet si melius aliter iudicaverit, [23] dum omnimodis id adtendat ut omni hebdomada psalterium ex integro numero centum quinquaginta psalmorum psallantur, et dominico die semper a caput reprehendatur ad vigilias. [24] Quia nimis inertem devotionis suae servitium ostendunt monachi qui minus a psalterio cum canticis consuetudinariis per septimanae circulum psallunt, [25] dum quando legamus sanctos patres nostros uno die hoc strenue implesse, quod nos tepidi utinam septimana integra persolvamus.
[10] Augustine's, Ordo Monasterii gives a number of psalms for the Night Office that varies between 12, 15 and 18 psalms; the Rule of the Master specifies 12 to 16; the Cautio Episcopi (in the Liber Diurnis), 3 or 4 on weekdays, and nine on Sundays.
[11] For a discussion of the evidence see Armand Veilleux, La Liturgie Dans Le Cenobitisme Pachomien Au Quatrieme Siecle, (Studia Anselmiana 57); Herder, Rome 1968 and Stig Simeon R. Frøyshov, The Cathedral–Monastic Distinction Revisited Part I: Was Egyptian Desert Liturgy a Pure Monastic Office?, Studia Liturgica 37 (2007), 198-216.
[12] The liturgist's case for a shift to a fixed weekly psalm cursus of the Roman prior to St Benedict (rather than being a product of St Gregory's revamp) largely hangs on the claim that the 'de psalmiis' responsories, a set of psalm based responsories used in Epiphanytide, were selected to reflect the psalms used each day of the week at Matins, and were originally used throughout the year. However, as the earliest evidence for the set dates from the seventh century (and the earliest listing of them as a set from the eighth), the strength of the case must be assessed as thin at the best. But thisis a topic on which I plan t write more elsewhere!
[13] St Augustine's commentary on Psalm 89. See also St Gregory the Great on Job chapter 35: "For by the number seven he expressed the present time, ‘which is passed by periods of seven days. But by the number ‘eight’ he designated eternal life, which the Lord made known to us by His resurrection...Hence it is, that the Temple is ascended with fifteen steps, in order that it may be learned by its very ascent that by seven and eight our worldly doings may be carefully discharged, and an eternal dwelling may be providently sought for. Hence also it is that, by increasing a unit to ten, the Prophet uttered a hundred and fifty Psalms."
[14] Cassiodorus, commentary on Psalm 150, P. G. Walsh (trans), Explanations of the Psalms, vol 3, Ancient Christian Writers Series, Paulist Press, 1991, pp 466.
[15] Benedict Anderson, Et erant semper in templo: The Divine Office as Priestly Temple Service, paper was originally delivered at the Fota XI International Liturgical Conference, July 7-9, 2018.
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