Holy week and the Benedictine Office pt 1

I thought I might complete this Lent series on the psalms of the Benedictine Office with a few notes on on the events of Holy Week in the Benedictine Office.

The Triduum Office

From Thursday, of course, the monastic breviary adopts the Roman Office of the Triduum in its entirety, rather than following the order set out in the Rule.  

The psalms used during the Triduum, as I've previously argued, are very carefully selected for their relevance to the events of Holy Week.

But those themes - and indeed many of those same psalms - in the Benedictine Office to create a mini-Triduum in the Office each week, and for the next few days I want to briefly point to a few of those particular features.

Before I do that though, I want to say something briefly about the history of the Office of the Triduum itself, and particularly to the question of how far back the adoption of the Roman Office in this period by the Benedictines goes.

The Origin of the Roman Triduum Office

The Roman Triduum itself can be traced back to at least the ninth century, but like the rest of the Roman Office for which evidence is sparse before the ninth century, it almost certainly predates that.

Just how far it predates it by though, is impossible to say.

Some, for example, claim that its lack of hymns, chapters and doxologies are indications of its antiquity; of its origins at a time when the Roman Office had none of those things, and preserved as such because of the antiquity of the Office of these days.  

But as Amalarius and other medieval commentators pointed out, all of those features arguably have particular theological rationales - and the Office of the Dead after all, similarly omits all these elements, but almost certainly dates from no earlier than the eighth century.

Moreover, while silence is not absolute evidence, it is at least suggestive that a mid seventh century papal decree instructing the Benedictines to follow Roman practices such as the omission of  the alleluia in Septuagesimatide and the use of the Roman Easter octave, does not mention the Triduum.

When did the Benedictines adopt the Roman Triduum?

Assuming then, that the Office of the Triduum as we know dates from perhaps the late seventh or more likely first half of the eighth centuries, at what point the Benedictines decided to follow the Roman rather than their own Office for these days?  

In the late eighth and early centuries, the early Carolingian Benedictines strongly criticized the Roman influenced practices of Monte Cassino and others, including for not respecting the Rules insistence on saying all of the psalms each week.  One commentary specifically mentions the truncated (three psalm) Roman Easter octave Office in this regard, but none of the sources of criticism mention the Triduum.

But if the Benedictine Office was still followed during the Triduum (at least in most places) at this time, that certainly didn't last, as virtually all of the surviving manuscripts for the Office, which date from the tenth century onwards, show the Benedictines as following the Roman Office for these days. 

The one exception I'm aware of (Cistercian influenced monasteries aside, on which see below, is a tenth century manuscript from Limoges, early a centre of Benedictine influence, which provides twelve responsories, rather than nine, for Maundy Thursday, but then contracts down to the Roman nine for Friday and Saturday.

But even that evidence is ambiguous - while it may preserve a remnant of an earlier practice of twelve responsories for each of these days; but it equally it might just be because the addition of Thursday to the Roman Triduum was itself a relatively late event (since it uses the psalms of the day rather than special sets as for the other two days).

The Cistercians

The one point of resistance to the Roman Triduum came with the Cistercians, who, instead of adding three extra readings and responsories to make up the usual Benedictine three Nocturn Office (which would have been straightforward to do, there are several variant responsories in the repertoire of the time), instead made the three days of the Triduum ferial days, with only three readings and responsories, in order, they claimed to be consistent with the Rule.

They were heavily criticized for this, though, and in the period not long before Trent, finally adopted the Roman practice, only reverting to their original ferial Office in 1959.

The twentieth century

The other key changes to the Triduum Office came in the twentieth century, with Pius X's psalter revisions leading to changes to the psalms used at Lauds in particular, and then the trimming out of Psalm 50 from each hour in 1960.

The mini-Triduum in the weekly Office

Tenebrae is a wonderfully evocative feature of Holy Week, a tradition to be treasured and savoured.

Still, it is worth considering how we can maintain the remembrance of this special Office throughout the year in our practice, and so more on that in my next post.