AMBROSIAN, LITURGY. - 1. ST. AMBROSE AND THE LITURGY. - "The distinctive character of the Ambrosian rite is precisely that of being the ancient Roman rite, so that it has the merit of attesting in our days, in a living and experienced way, the rite of the ancient Roman Church." This definition, given by Pius XI, is essentially true in outlining the origin of the Ambrosian liturgy as a Roman liturgy, but it does not exclude that many Eastern and Gallican influences contributed to forming the Ambrosian liturgy. The studies and discussions carried out by F. Cabrol, H. Leclercq, G. Marin, A. Wilmart, G. Mabillon, L. Duchesne, C. Callewaert, A. M. Ceriani and others on its origin lead to this conclusion: the Ambrosian liturgy is composed of an essentially Roman core with Gallican, Eastern and medieval infiltrations and superstructures down to the 16th century, not all of them easily identifiable, which nevertheless do not stifle its genuinely Latin profile.
The name of Ambrosian liturgy must not lead one to believe that St. Ambrose was its inventor, nor that he made such innovations as to justify an attribute of paternity. It was only after the Roman reform of St. Gregory the Great that the distinction between the rite of Rome and the rite of Milan, previously not very marked, led to classifying the latter under the name of Ambrosian liturgy: in reality St. Ambrose had found in Milan a rite well ordered in traditional forms with certain differences from the usages of Rome (for example in fasting), which already indicate influences that had not come from Rome. In what state St. Ambrose found the liturgy in Milan and what can be deduced from his works was already the object of study on the part of M. Magistretti, corrected and perfected in turn by A. Paredi and E. Cattaneo; the conclusions of the latter are briefer but critically more certain. Since, however, St. Ambrose is the only source for knowledge of the Ambrosian rite in the 4th century, and since the Milanese had raised the Saint to the dignity of religious, moral and civil representative of Milan, it is understandable how from the 7th century onward the liturgy too came to be called Ambrosian. In his works, but especially in the De mysteriis and the De Sacramentis, he treats all the points of the liturgy, from the eucharistic and psalmodic synaxes to the Sacraments, from the hierarchy to the liturgical year, from funerals to the washing of the feet. However, he almost always speaks of them in passing, as if alluding to something well known to his hearers. Today we observe that, despite the corruptions and corrections suffered over the centuries, the Ambrosian liturgy has preserved a great part of what St. Ambrose describes to us, although he too had his share as an innovator.
Setting aside various disciplinary reforms of little importance, these reduce to three so far established: vigils, antiphons, hymns. To these one may add chant, for which we refer to the entry AMBROSIANO, CANTO.
a) The Vigil. — It is a night watch begun on the evening preceding the feast. The first were Sunday vigils; the second were those of the dies natalis of the martyrs. From these vigils, which from their place of assembly (statio) were called vigiliae stationales, are distinguished the daily vigils, probably of Alexandrian origin, which give rise to the lucernaris (vespers) and nocturna (matins) office.
St. Ambrose already found these vigils in Milan, and did nothing but order them better, fixing their laws to remedy that sense of disorder and weariness that pervaded the faithful during the long watch. It was during one of these vigils (when Justina was attempting to occupy the Portian basilica) that St. Ambrose instituted antiphonal chant.
b) The Antiphon. — « Duobus choris alternatim concentibus quasi duo Seraphim... Apud Latinos autem primus idem beatissimus Ambrosius antiphonas constituit Graecorum exemplum imitatus » (Isidore). Previously the chanting of the psalms was done, like that of the readings, by a lector, and the people responded at the end with an acclamation (see in the Hebrew liturgy the conclusion of psalm 105, or the whole of psalm 135). This has remained in the Ambrosian liturgy in the Canticle of the Three Youths; in the Roman liturgy it has remained at the end of the procession on Palm Sunday and in the Reproaches of Good Friday (just to cite a few examples). St. Ambrose's innovation was in having it sung as is done now, by two choirs that alternately execute a verse of the psalm. According to the fine expression of that same holy Doctor (Explan. ps. XII, 1, 9), before, one sang and everyone made a disturbance; then instead everyone sang and no one made a disturbance. This innovation, originating in Syria, passed successively to Antioch, to Caesarea and to Milan (v. ANTIFONA).
It should be noted that to make it accessible to the mass of the people, the melody of the psalms was simplified, leaving the antiphon its original melody.
c) The Hymn. — St. Ambrose was a poet, but a popular poet, not in the sense of lyrical poverty that is attributed to this word, but in the sense of a composer capable of making himself understood by the people for whom alone he wrote. The heretics Arius and Apollinaris had made use of hymns for the propaganda of heresy. St. Ambrose, in order to oppose new means of defense to heresy, created a new type of hymn (iambic dimeter in strophes of four verses with a predominantly syllabic melody), so widely diffused and enthusiastically accepted by the people as to be accused on this account of magic. From Milan his hymns spread to the Italian and Gallican Churches; they were imitated in other places, so that even Rome (the most reluctant to innovation) accepted it, calling by the name of Ambrosian every hymn made on the model of those of St. Ambrose. He therefore remains the founder, in the West, of Christian lyric poetry, which one may say was born by chance during the famous siege of the Portian basilica. The hymn, however, is not occasional or improvised, but is the fruit of long study in concentrating sublime truths into easy verses.
The eminently apostolic purpose, not only literary but practical and dogmatic, and the effect of a teaching given in this manner, are set forth by St. Ambrose himself in explaining psalm 1 (Explan. psalm. XII, 1, 9). For the number of hymns composed by St. Ambrose himself, v. AMBROGIO, santo.
2. THE MILANESE LITURGICAL BOOKS
a) Missal. — The Ambrosian liturgy cannot cite documents earlier than the 9th century, of which the first is probably the one published by A. Wilmart under the title: Expositio Missae Canonicae. There follows immediately the Missal of Biasca and the Bergamasque Sacramentary of the 10th century. A. M. Ceriani has published an Ambrosian Canon of the 11th century. After these, we have many other manuscripts down to the first incunabula of 1475. The official editions, on the other hand, are so far only 9, from 1594 to 1936. The first scholar of the Ambrosian Missal was Giovanni Bartolomeo De Guerci with his Liber Celebrationis Missae Ambrosianae, from the early years of the 13th century. The most important critical edition is the Missale Duplex prepared by Ceriani and published by Achille Ratti (later Pius XI) in 1913.
The Ambrosian Missal contains 236 prefaces. Another 77 may be added, now no longer in use, but preserved in the ancient Ambrosian sacramentaries. The Roman Missal, on the other hand, which with the Leonine Sacramentary had 267, now has only 15.
b) Breviary. - In the Milanese rite the book that began to gather the material from which the other books were to be born and derived was called the Manuale. It was used in particular not only for the psalmody, but also for the public functions. It contained various rubrics, the parts of the Mass that belonged to the choir and in certain editions also the Orationes, and the first words of the lessons for the Mass and for the office; even texts and rubrics for the administration of Baptism and Extreme Unction.
The oldest surviving manuals are from the 10th century. The most important of the manuals is the Beroldus (from the name of its compiler, superintendent of the lights and lamps of the cathedral of Milan) from the 12th century. This manual comprises rubrics, ceremonies, texts, calendar and division of alms, as they were then in use in the cathedral of Milan. Around the 1500s, the manual eliminates everything that is not office and takes on more exclusively the form of a breviary. The word breviary appears in 1443 for the first time, then in an incunabulum of 1475. Olrico Scaccabarozzi, who lived in the 13th century, contributed greatly to its formation as a composer of masses, offices and hymns. Dreves has published part of his output. The editions of the Breviary have been so far 32, from 1475 to 1902; the first edition, however, seems to be nothing other than the copy of a 13th-century manuscript. The Benedictine Monks of Maria Laach are studying the complete revision, critically as perfect as possible, of the Ambrosian Breviary. Regarding the use of Holy Scripture, Rodolfo De Rivo (14th century) already warned that the Ambrosians followed the version of the Septuagint. This is now true for the Psalter, because for the scriptural lessons St. Charles wished to introduce the text of the Vulgate. The complete Psalter is recited during the year in the course of two weeks. The Ambrosian Breviary comprises 78 hymns, not counting the Te Deum as such.
c) The Pontifical. - M. Magistretti published a 9th-century codex and other extracts from codices up to the 15th century with various ordines for the consecration of a church and of sacred furnishings, for sacred orders from simple clerics to bishops, for the consecrations of virgins and widows; various blessings for fruits, for brides; exorcisms; consecration of the holy oils, and even a Canon of the Mass and the consecration of the king of Italy.
The Ambrosian Pontifical is now no longer in use, and the Roman Pontifical is in force in the l. a. [Ambrosian liturgy]. There remain, still distinctly Ambrosian, the ritual of the Sacraments and a special ceremonial for the Cathedral.
To these must be added: the Collettario (for blessings with the Most Blessed Sacrament), the Calendar, published every year as a guide for Masses and the office, and the chant books: Antiphonary for Masses, Vesperal, Processional.
3. THE LITURGICAL YEAR
As in the Roman rite, the great cycles of Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and the Sanctoral are distinguished.
a) Christmas cycle. Ambrosian Advent begins on the Sunday after the feast of St. Martin; it therefore has the same length as Lent, with six Sundays. In the last week of Advent there are the ferias De Excepta, whose much-discussed meaning must depend on the etymology (excipere "to receive") in relation to the imminent coming of Christ. In the octave after Christmas we have the unique example of an office of the saints between the feasts of the saints and the Christmas octave. It also happens that two vespers are recited on the same day. On Epiphany the day of Easter is announced. Epiphany, the more ancient and solemn feast, has an octave. The Sundays after Epiphany should be six. The office of the sixth Sunday is always celebrated even when a very low Easter obliges some of them to be suppressed. Lent begins on the first Sunday, not on Wednesday as in the Roman rite. On this first Sunday the Alleluia is put aside, except at vespers, and it is taken up again on Holy Saturday.
b) Ambrosian Lent is austere: Mass is not said on Friday, all the altarpieces of the altars are covered (never the Crucifix), no feast of saints is celebrated (St. Joseph on 19 March is an exception of recent date) except that of the Annunciation. Noteworthy for their antiquity (11th century) are the litanic prayers of the Mass on Sundays. The Saturday preceding Palm Sunday is called in tradizione Symboli in memory of the Credo anciently handed over to catechumens in solemn form.
Holy Week is called the week In Authentica because it is the prototype of the weeks in the liturgy. Its Wednesday, as the Preface indicates, is reserved for confessions for the paschal communion of the following day. In the octave of Easter there are two Masses, one for the newly baptized and the other for the faithful. The paschal cycle ends with the day of the Ascension. The triduum of the minor litanies is celebrated after the Ascension because "they do not fast as long as the bridegroom remains" (cf. Mt 9:15), unlike the Roman Rogations of Gallican origin.
c) The Pentecostal cycle likewise comprises the octave of Pentecost with two Masses (the vigil of Pentecost resembles Holy Saturday with regard to the Baptism of the new Christians), the octave of Corpus Christi and the Sundays after Pentecost; these too vary in number according to the date of Easter.
After 29 August the Sundays after the Decollation (of St. John the Baptist) begin, no more than five; then the Sundays of October up to the dedication of the Cathedral. There follow the Sundays after the Dedication up to Advent. On 25 April the major litanies are held, which go back to St. Gregory the Great.
d) The sanctoral cycle. All the feasts of the Lord are distributed in the cycle of Christmas and Easter and of Pentecost, except the Transfiguration, fixed for 6 August. The feasts of Our Lady are 12 in all, arranged in this order: Purification, Annunciation, Visitation, Carmel, Our Lady of the Snows, Assumption, Nativity, the Name of Mary, the Seven Sorrows, Holy Rosary, Presentation, Immaculate Conception. There follow the three feasts of the Archangels, which are: 29 September, St. Michael; 24 October, St. Raphael; 5 December, St. Gabriel; 2 October, the Guardian Angels. The 12 Apostles, either alone or paired, follow the Roman rite, except St. Matthias and St. Thomas. Note that St. James, formerly on 29 December, was transferred to leave the place to St. Thomas of Canterbury; St. Joseph, once on 12 December, was moved to 19 March for uniformity with Roman use. St. John the Baptist has two feasts as in the Roman rite: 24 June (the birth) and 29 August (the death). St. Ambrose has a special place, with four feasts: the Thursday of Easter (death), 14 May (translation of the body), 30 November (baptism), 7 December (episcopal ordination), which is the greatest feast. Very recent are the feasts of the patronage of St. Joseph, of the patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the feast of the Holy Family, connected with certain Sundays, for the people, but celebrated on the following day.
All the other saints are predominantly those of the first four centuries, to which others are added, but not after the 17th century. Saints of the 16th and 17th centuries have also taken a large place.
The only saint of the 18th century is St. Alphonsus de' Liguori. Some saints were introduced (without having any connection with Milan) by the devotion of the various rulers who succeeded one another in the duchy of Milan, e.g. kings such as St. Henry, St. Louis IX, St. Casimir, etc.
4. COLORS AND VARIOUS PARTICULARS
The Ambrosian colors are five:
White: for all feasts of the Lord except the Circumcision (which has red), for all feasts of Our Lady except the Purification (murrey), for virgins who are not martyrs, and for confessors.
Red: from the Saturday in traditione Symboli to Good Friday (being in ancient times a color of mourning, as the Easterners and the Supreme Pontiff still use it); for the Apostles and Evangelists, except St. John, for the feasts of Pentecost, of Corpus Christi, and the Sundays from Pentecost to the Dedication, for everything that concerns the eucharistic cult and for all holy martyrs.
Green: on the Sundays after the Epiphany, after Easter, after the Dedication and for the feasts of holy abbots.
Murrey: (also called violaceous) on the feasts of holy matrons, on the Sundays of the pre-Lenten and Lenten seasons, on the Sundays of Advent, on the vigils of saints and at the funerals of children. The Archbishop uses it in place of black.
Black: in the office for the dead, on the ferias of Lent and in the triduan litanies.
a) The authentic Ambrosian altar is the basilical one, facing the people (one understands therefore how, from the supposition that the altar already faces the people, the Ambrosian priests never turn to say the "Dominus vobiscum", even if in fact they celebrate on non-Ambrosian altars) and surmounted by a small temple, as in Milan in the basilica of St. Ambrose, and in Rome in the basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.
b) The Ambrosian Mass, which has many similarities with the Roman one, has the Kyrie after the Gloria, the Creed after the Offertory, the washing of the hands before the Qui pridie; after the elevation the celebrant stretches out his arms in the form of a cross; in the ancient attitude of the Orantes; the Pater noster is after the fraction of the Host. The priest, vesting for Mass, puts the amice over the alb; the deacon wears the stole over the dalmatic, not exactly crosswise, but almost straight. The alb and the amice bear gold fringes which later, having become a separate part, were called cappini.
c) Among the most characteristic peculiarities of the Duomo we note the school of the Vecchioni and the Vecchione (v. OBLAZIONARI DI S. AMBROGIO). On the greater solemnities the archbishop begins vespers vested in the chasuble. Other characteristics are the fruits that the archbishop distributes at matins of Christmas and the Epiphany and the original gifts of the vespers of the Epiphany. On Feb. 2 the procession of the Idea (an ancient painted panel) depicting the Madonna takes place. Worthy of note is the long white stole used by the deacon on the first three days of Holy Week, which crosses over the breast and the back; and the folded chasuble used by the ministers on the Sundays of Lent.
d) Extent. The Ambrosian rite is used in all the parishes of the archdiocese except the vicariates of Monza, Trezzo and Treviglio and the churches of the religious. Outside the diocese there are 30 parishes in the Bergamasque territory, some in the Novarese and 55 in the Canton of Ticino which maintain the Ambrosian rite, and they correspond roughly to the ancient fief of the Borromeos and to the radius of influence of St. Charles, in the duchy of Milan.
5. HISTORY OF THE AMBROSIAN RITE
Before St. Ambrose only St. Mirocles is cited as a bishop who took an interest in the rite. After him, we note St. Simplician, St. Lazarus, St. Eusebius, to whom recent studies attribute various texts of Prefaces, Theodore, St. Eugenius (a much studied and discussed figure). Charlemagne did not succeed in abolishing the rite of Milan in his aim of unifying the liturgy in the Holy Roman Empire. In the 11th century (a sad century of heresy and corruption), the Nicolaitan priests clung to the authority of St. Ambrose and to the rite in order to maintain the dissension and independence from Rome. One explains therefore how the Popes attempted to unify the rite in order to remove the pretext. But the good offices interposed showed the papal legates its holiness, which therefore it would have been unjust to involve in the sad Ambrosian parenthesis. This is a chapter of the greatest interest, where great figures of Rome and Milan excel, in opposition to the subversive coalition of that time. We recall the archbishop Franco da Parma and Piccolpasso among those who succeeded one another on the Ambrosian chair before St. Charles.
St. Charles (v.), after having collaborated in Rome on the compilation of the Caeremoniale episcoporum, also began in Milan a vast liturgical work. He fought against Spanish governors who wanted the Roman rite out of personal spite against the archbishop; he fought for the observance of the first Sunday of Lent, indeed he removed the last Alleluias from it in order to make it uniform with the other Lenten Sundays; he fought against the Monzesi who, having abandoned the patriarchine rite, should have adopted the Ambrosian one; he did not succeed because of a subtle opposition with a political background in which the priests were not extraneous; he fought to restore the liturgical character of the Lenten Fridays; he surrounded himself with valid collaborators (such as Galesino) for the study and revision of the liturgical books. He labored much to remove abuses in the various parishes visited by him; he published instructions to priests for the celebration of Mass, the book of litanies and a Breviary. After his death the Ritual and the Missal prepared by him came out. Cardinal Federico Borromeo took up the inheritance of his cousin and made many editions of the liturgical books, among which the Caeremoniale and rubrical instructions. Other archbishops felt it their duty to take the rite to heart, of which they are the natural custodians and those responsible. With varying fortune the archbishops G. Pozzobonelli, G. Gaysruck, B. Romilli, A. C. Ferrari and I. Schuster applied themselves to the task. The latter, already known as a scholar of the Roman liturgy, gave new impulse to Ambrosian studies, to which he contributed largely also with his publications. He entrusted the revision of the Breviary to the Benedictines of Maria Laach, and that of the chant to abbot G. M. Suñol. - See Pl. LXXXII.
Bibliography4 works
b) Sources. - Beroldus, ed. M. Magistretti, Milan 1894; Manuale Ambrosianum, ed. M. Magistretti, ibid. 1895; Pontificale, ed. M. Magistretti, ibid. 1899; Missale Ambrosianum Duplex, ed. A. Ratti-M. Magistretti, ibid. 1913; Expositio Missae Canonicae, ed. Wilmart, Monaco-Aschendorff 1922.
c) Studies. - A. M. Ceriani, Notitia Liturgiae Ambrosianae, Milan 1895; P. Lejay, Ambrosius (nu), in DACL, I, coll. 1373-1422; Ambrosius, Bollettino liturgico ambrosiano, Milan 1925; A. Paredi, I Prefazi ambrosiani, ibid. 1937; E. T. Moneta Caglio, Intendere la Messa, ibid. 1939, with a good bibliography; A. Paredi, La liturgia di s. Ambrogio, in S. Ambrogio nel XVI Centenario della nascita, ibid. 1940, pp. 69-158; E. Cattaneo, Il Breviario ambrosiano, ibid. 1943; Atti del Congresso Liturgico Ambrosiano (the reports by E. Cattaneo and Borella), Milan 1948. - Ferdinando Longoni