13 August 2009

Quaeritur

It caught my eye in my (English) Altar Missal: you know the collect A cunctis ... which used to be said so often as a commemoration after the collect of the day ... it has a rubric, all of course translated from the Latin, attached to it about the addition of the name of the Titular of the Church. At the end there is an abrupt note"NB in England the mention is always of S George".

Really? When and by whom was this direction given?

2 comments:

Joshua said...

In the Marquess of Bute's translation of the Breviary, he has a note about this, to the effect (I think) that the commemoration of the titular was to be of St George in England - it must have been some nineteenth century ruling, but I don't have the decree to hand.

Rubricarius said...

The name should be that of the titular and should not be confused with the patron according to J.B. O'Connell.

He also mentions that prior to the 1911-13 reform "...it was permitted or even enjoined, in virtue of customary law, to mention instead the patron of the place..."

A footnote mentions a decision of 1863 by the Congregation of Propoganda Fidei permission for St. George to be mentioned instead of the titular. However the English bishops petitioned the SRC and from 1 December 1938 the titular had to be mentioned instead of St. George.

See J.B. O'Connell, 'The Celebration of Mass' Vol 1 pp 178-179.