COLLETTA. - It denotes: 1) the place of assembly which in the ancient Roman Ordines is regularly indicated on the individual days of Lent (e.g., Collecta ad S. Anastasiam); - 2) the prayer of the day which anciently was said over the people assembled for the celebration of Holy Mass; - 3) from the 9th century onward, it is the name of the first prayer of the Mass, which sums up the petitions of the faithful, and as such is found in the Roman Missal. The ancient Roman rite admits only one c., which has remained the general rule to this day for feasts, whereas on other days it admits more than one.
nella liturgia romana, ivi 1935, pp. 429-50; L. Eisenhofer, Compendio di liturgia, trad. it., Torino 1940, p. 130; Ph. Oppenheim, Tractatus de textibus liturgicis, Roma 1945, p. 55 ff.; on the doctrine: pp. 202-35. Filippo Oppenheim