Ancient religious text

[Scott Anderson]

Are there any Catholic historians or serious Medievalists among our number? I need to track down an 11th century liturgical calendar.

[Deleted]

I might be able to help. Can't give a guarantee, but I will try.

[grodog]

Nov 12, 2017 18:09:48 GMT -6 Scott Anderson said:

Are there any Catholic historians or serious Medievalists among our number? I need to track down an 11th century liturgical calendar.

You could tag Falconer who may have some professional input here, and you may also want to check out various Ars Magica resources for calendars, since the game's default year is set in 1190 AD (at least in the first few editions).

Allan.

[Falconer]

Thanks, grodog, I saw this but presumed he was interested in a Latin text, not Greek or Slavonic. Scott, if you could tell us more about your need, it might get the juices flowing.

[Scott Anderson]

Thanks guys!

Generally, I would like to find a Catholic liturgical calendar from before 1570.

Specifically, one of a kind used in Normandy in 1050-1100.

The reason is that I'm writing a YA historical-fiction novel where the POV character in one of the plot threads is a Norman Benedictine monk. He would see events unfold in the context of the stories he would study on particular days, the psalms they would read, the ordinal garb they would wear, etc.

I have found a copy of the Hours correct for that time but it's just not as helpful as I would hope.

My stretch goal would be to find a dietary restriction schedule. But considering that the food was so completely alien 1,000 years ago, I have been happy to fudge it so far with recipes from somewhat later: 1300-1600, excluding or substituting out New World ingredients.

[coffee]

I don't remember where you're at, Scott, but do you have a local branch of the Society for Creative Anachronism nearby? There might be people there who have done this research already.

[Falconer]

People in the Society of Saint Pius X (cf. Angelus Press) will know. From an outsider’s point of view, as a group they seem interested in how things were prior to the reforms of the 20th century, but liturgical geeks in their number don’t stop there. I can make some inquiries via a connection I have.

[Scott Anderson]

Oh wow, those are great ideas guys!

I checked my local library system and they had trouble understanding what I want. The librarian put a call in to the seminary. Not hopeful.

Then I called my large metropolitan catholic diocese. They don't maintain a library.

I have an Ivy League university not too far away. That will be the next stop.

Then the SCA? Great call. I am certain there's one nearby.

And the Pope Pius X society, never heard of them. This is great. It's so fun to be able to learn from a great passionate community here

[Deleted]

What precisely do you mean by "liturgical calendar?"

[Falconer]

My friend writes:

This would probably be his easiest bet.

www.divinumofficium.com/cgi-bin/horas/officium.pl

And then make the settings "pre-Trident Monastic"

[Scott Anderson]

Nov 14, 2017 12:59:23 GMT -6 @gronanofsimmerya said:

What precisely do you mean by "liturgical calendar?"

A document that tells what saints are venerated on each day, what day of the religious season it is, what vestments to wear, the psalms and bible passages for the day, the dietary restrictions.

They are easy to find for the modern day and for most mainline religions but finding one from 1000 years ago is harder.

[Scott Anderson]

Nov 14, 2017 13:42:31 GMT -6 Falconer said:

My friend writes:

This would probably be his easiest bet.

www.divinumofficium.com/cgi-bin/horas/officium.pl

And then make the settings "pre-Trident Monastic"

Thank you, I do have the Hours and it does go back far enough. Maybe I just need to learn to read it more clearly.

[Deleted]

Nov 14, 2017 18:44:46 GMT -6 Scott Anderson said:

Nov 14, 2017 12:59:23 GMT -6 @gronanofsimmerya said:

What precisely do you mean by "liturgical calendar?"

A document that tells what saints are venerated on each day, what day of the religious season it is, what vestments to wear, the psalms and bible passages for the day, the dietary restrictions.

They are easy to find for the modern day and for most mainline religions but finding one from 1000 years ago is harder.

Well, for saints, they're fixed days. Just get a modern calendar of saints' days and delete any that were canonized after 1100 AD.

A little research on Google should tell you when the modern vestment colors were incorporated. In the 1100s I'd be surprised if it was as comprehensive as it is now. I'm not sure when the colored vestments came in, but remember a lot of "ancient church practices" were invented by the Oxford movement in the 1830s.

As far as psalms and scripture, I would be very surprised if there was a lectionary that early. Again, a bit of Google research on monastic life should answer that question.

I'd start by finding the Rule of Benedict and working from there.

And don't forget, the year started on Easter.

[Scott Anderson]

Thank you Mike and Piper!

I was able to find some original source material through Oxford University as well. It's one of those pay portal things, but my town library helped.

[Scott Anderson]

Okay, I got it. Cambridge University sent me this link. It's in French but thank goodness for easy web page translation:

calendoscope.irht.cnrs.fr/application

It gives saints celebrated on each day by various liturgical records throughout the early middle ages to early modern period.

For the rest, I have this: www.smp.org/resourcecenter/calendar/ which is close enough for my purposes.

Thank you everyone!

[tetramorph]

Scott Anderson, gronan is right in the main. They did have liturgical colors, but I don't know what they were at that time. (Sorry!) And yes, they would have had a pretty elaborate lectionary at that point, but, again, I wouldn't know exactly where to go for that. Sorry!

[Falconer]

Here are my instincts/hunches on a few matters:

Readings — I believe the epistle and gospel books themselves were compiled for liturgical use and would contain assigned pericope designations for each day (and only include such pericopes).

Saints — there was a general, or universal, Martyrology of Jerome and a later Martyrology of Usuard; however, the more local and more recent saints would also be in veneration, and in fact receive far more devotion than the universal saints.

Colors — they would have been highly localized and unofficial, and the whole rainbow was probably not used in most places. In the Orthodox East, the rubrics have always only specified light and dark vestments (resurrectional and penitential); classically light = white or gold, and dark = red or purple.

As regards the West, one quote from the web states:

Up until the Fourth Century of the Church, it seems that all the vestments used in worship were white in color, at least according to Pope Benedict XIV who wrote about such things in the 18th Century. After that other colors began to work their way into the church’s liturgical life.

It seems that during the medieval era the various fabrics and colors used varied depending on a community’s resources. In fact, the big holy days, like Easter and Christmas, the local cleric must just pull out whatever happened to be the nicest, fanciest vestment he had, regardless of what hue it was.

By the time of Pope Innocent III in the 13th Century, four main liturgical colors had come into use: white, red, green, and black. Although this too varied from region to region.

…

In the later medieval period, it seems that Black was the color of choice for Advent and Lent, both being penitential seasons

And here’s another one:

The oldest English liturgical color sequence is that of Lichfield, c. A.D. 1240 from the statutes of Bishop Pateshull:

Advent and Lent, black
Passiontide, red
Christmas, most precious vestments
St John, Circumcision, BVM, Virgins, St Michael, white
Epiphany, Apostles, Martyrs, St John Baptist, varied colours
St Mary Magdalene, Epiphany till Lent and Pentecost till Advent, according to the will of the sacristan

There also is this instruction appended: “All things must be modified accordin to the means of the church.”

Put that together as you will, but certainly you see some patterns.

[Starbeard]

Drat, I'm sorry I missed this. This is exactly within my area of research, I could've provided you with some detailed information about the state of what we currently know, don't know, and pretend we know. The period 1050-1100 in England was full of very interesting changes in the liturgy.

Regarding vestments, we have less concrete information, but there are a few hints to suggest that churches kept as many changes of vestment as they could afford, and we certainly have some colourful anecdotes. For instance, Lanfranc provided Christ Church Canterbury with gold and silver plates for the performance of the liturgy, along with altar cloth and mass-vestments laden with gold thread and embroidered 'with dragons and strange birds', and a processional cope adorned with silver bells along the fringe and clasped by a topaz brooch set with amethysts. By contrast, when Leofric first came to Exeter Cathedral in 1050 there was supposedly only one ratty vestment and one set of antiquated service books (although this is likely an exaggeration, or perhaps was a statement about one of the cathedral's chapels or subsidiary churches). Either way, by the time Leofric died in 1072 Exeter had exploded into one of the most active scriptoria and liturgical centres in the country.

[Scott Anderson]

That's actually some great color, Starbeard. Thank you. It tracks well with what I was able to learn from the Trinity College archives too.

[Starbeard]

Brilliant. Sorry, I just saw that you were specifically looking for Norman information and not both Norman and English. Which monastery is your protagonist from?

Either way, most of the major issues of religious change were actually the same on both sides of the Channel in the years 1050-1100. The two regions shared many churchmen and church books both before and after the Conquest, and kept many of the same local saints, regardless of whether they were originally 'English' or 'Norman' (or Cornish or Welsh or Irish or Saxon or French).

Perhaps the only truly obvious difference is that the Norman monastics considered themselves to be much more austere than the English, whom they considered rather dainty and spoiled spendthrifts who would venerate anyone as a saint if they had a free day for it. Still, that has to taken with a grain of salt, since the Norman calendars record just as many saints feasts as the Anglo-Saxon ones do, except perhaps the most rigid Cluniac ones (but there were similarly reformed monasteries in England too).

Some of my own research is in the cult of Mary in England and Normandy in the 11th century. The English were absorbed in a rather extravagant and remarkable devotion to Mary, with special feasts and everything, and some believe that the more severe Normans generally cracked down on that under Lanfranc. Personally I think that's false. I think the Normans also had an unusual devotion to the cult of Mary, and much of what we consider "Anglo-Saxon" liturgical customs in that regard were actually "Anglo-Norman," even decades before the Conquest, and only began "blaming" the English for the practice in the 1120s after the Cistercians began a campaign against much of the Marian liturgy.