COLLETTA. — It indicates: 1) the gathering place which in the ancient Roman Orders is regularly specified on individual days of Lent (e.g., Collaetia ad S. Anastasiam); 2) the prayer of the day which was formerly said over the assembled people for the celebration of the Holy Mass; 3) since the 9th century, it has been the name of the first prayer of the Mass, which summarizes the faithful’s petitions, and as such is found in the Roman Missal. The ancient Roman rite admits only one collect, which remains the general rule even today for feast days, while on other days more than one may be used.
BIBL.: B. Capelle, Collaetia, in Revue bénédictine, 42 (1930), pp. 197-204; I. Schuster, Liber Sacramentorum, 3rd ed., I, Torino 1932, pp. 87-89; III, pp. 39, 63; G. Destefani, La S. Messa nella liturgia romana, ivi 1935, pp. 420-50; L. Eisenhofer, Compendio di liturgia, trad. it., Torino 1940, p. 130; Ph. Oppenheim, Tractatus de textibus liturgicis, Roma 1945, p. 55 sq.; Filippo Oppenheim