COMPLINE. – The last hour of the Divine Office.
I. NAME
It derives from the Latin *completa*, *completorium* (also used as an adjective in the plural: *completorii*, understood as *psalmi*), and it is so called the last canonical hour, with which the Divine Office ends and the liturgical day is closed. The expression *ad completum* is already found in antiquity to indicate the *postcommunio*, which ends the Mass. The form *completa* is given for the first time in the Rule of St. Aurelian (d. 533): “When you are about to rest, in the school where you stay, *completa* shall be said.” *Completorium* is from St. Benedict (Rule, chaps. 16, 17, 18), who uses in the same sense also the verb *complere* (chap. 13): “Therefore, all gathered together, let them *complete* it, and going out from Compline.”II. ORIGIN
Until the early years of the 20th century, it was commonly held that St. Benedict was its creator and institutor. B. Plaine and J. Pargoire demonstrate that even in this St. Benedict was an organizer, not a creator. Compline originated in the East. St. Basil in the *Regulae fusius tractatae*, q. 37, 5 (PL 31, 1016), written between 338-362, says: “As night begins, we must ask that we may enjoy undisturbed and untroubled rest; at this hour the ninetieth psalm must necessarily be said.” It is the oldest text that clearly speaks of the existence of Compline. Fifty years later, John Chrysostom (d. 407) in *Epist. I ad Tim.* hom., 14, 4 (PG 67, 577), speaking of the monks of Antioch, says: “After they have sat for a little while and closed everything with hymns, each one rests in his bed,” where *hymni*, in the philological and historical context, most likely indicates Compline. More conclusive is the testimony of Callinicus (ca. 477-50) in the *Vita S. Hypatii* (Acta SS. Inni, III, Paris 1867, p. 325), who speaks of a canonical hour (*προθύμνα*) between Vespers and the nocturnal Office. It cannot be a private prayer because it is named alongside the other parts of the Office, without any distinction. There is no doubt that it is Compline.These texts clearly show that in the East, between the 4th and 5th centuries, in the monasteries there was a prayer, of which the 90th psalm *Qui habitat* was a part, which was recited “as night begins,” between Vespers and the “vigiliae,” and was part of the series of canonical hours.
In the West, the first certain testimony is found in the *Regula secunda* (5th century), in which, after the Lucernarium (Vespers), it is prescribed: “customary psalms shall be said before sleep” (cf. C. Lambot, *Un «Ordo officii» du Ve siècle*, in *Rev. bénéd.*, 42 [1930], pp. 77-80). Before St. Benedict, therefore, Compline already had its place and its fixed psalmody scheme, but not yet a proper name. The Rule of St. Aurelian mentions it as commonly used in the monasteries of southern Gaul in the mid-5th century and with a special cursus: “first the directaneus psalm ninety; then customary little chapters.”
At this point, Compline must have officially entered Rome as well. St. Benedict speaks of it as an established institution. Moreover, in the primitive Roman organization, psalms 4, 9, 13 were not included in Matins or Vespers, and this was most likely because Compline was placed alongside the other canonical hours before the 5th century. For Rome, however, the first explicit mention is given by the Ordo of John “A richicantor” of St. Peter (ed. C. S. Silva-Tarouca, in *Mem. della Pont. accad. rom. di Archeologia*, 1 [1923], p. 212): “When the signal is struck, *completorio* (= *completoria*) are sung, where they sleep in the dormitory, and at the final verse they are said before sleeping, that is, *Pone Domine custodiam ori meo*, and then they go to rest silently in their beds.” In the Roman monasteries attached to the official basilicas at the end of the 7th century, Compline still had the character of a private prayer. But the ecclesiastical canons sanctioned in the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle of 816 include among the obligatory canonical hours also Compline (Council of Aix-la-Chapelle ca. 128).
III. STRUCTURE
Compline, like Prime, consists of two parts: an introductory preamble, which we might call the *Officium capituli*, and the psalmody with its adjuncts, which constitute the *Officium chori*.1. *Officium capituli.* – It is essentially formed of a short reading and the confession of faults. St. Benedict (Rule, chap. 42) prescribes that the monks, after Vespers and supper, gather together and listen to the reading of a good book, preferably the lives of the Holy Fathers, for the space of four or five sheets or “as much as the hour permits.” Then the Compline psalms are recited, and, after the blessing of the abbot, all retire for rest. As for the absent, the Rule prescribes that they recite the reading of St. Peter: “Brother, be sober.” This pericope entered the Office of the secular clergy and has remained fixed to this day. The reading began, as usual, with the blessing requested from the abbot (*Noctem quietam*) and ended with *Tu autem*. The *collatio* closed with the invocation: *Adiutorium nostrum*. To the reading, many monasteries added the examination of conscience (lasting the space of one *Pater*), followed by the accusation of the faults of the day, which the monks, kneeling, made to one another, with the recitation of the *Confiteor*: “They mutually forgive debts,” says the Rule of St. Fructuosus (ca. 670) in chap. 2 (PL 87, 1099). After the accusation, the presiding one expressed the common repentance with the verse: *Converte nos*, to which all responded *Et avertet*, and the psalms were recited.
Among the Franciscans, the first part of the *Officium capituli* (reading and accompanying formulas) took place in the refectory, during supper. From the refectory, saying the *Miserere*, the friars went to the church, where the recitation of the Compline psalms took place, beginning with *Adiutorium nostrum* (cf. A. Le Carou, *L'Office divin chez les frères Mineurs au XIIIe siècle*, Paris 1928, pp. 23-24).
2. *Officium chori.* – Amalarius (ca. 830: *De eccl. off.*, IV, 8) is the most authoritative witness to the primitive Roman scheme of Compline. After *Deus in adiutorium* followed four psalms: 4, 30 (the first stanza), 90, 133, which were invariable for every day and had been assigned to Compline because of their meaning of divine protection in the night hour.
This arrangement lasted until Pius X, who reduced the psalms to three, suppressing the 30th and reserving this scheme for Sunday and feast-day Office, while providing the other days of the week with their own ordinary psalmody. In the arrangement of the Psalter, it was one of the most daring reforms, derogating from the use of sixteen centuries. After the psalms followed the verse *Custodi nos, Domine*, the canticle of Simeon *Nunc dimittis*, the prayers (*Kyrie eleison*, which St. Benedict calls it, but in the current form they are late, perhaps from the 14th century), and the blessing of the abbot or the one presiding. *Et benedictiones misae sunt* (Rule, chap. 17). For the true blessing is today’s prayer *Visita... habitationem istam* (clearly referring to the place where the Hour is recited, i.e., the monks’ dwelling, not the church), *et benedictio tua sit super nos semper*. The blessing that follows today: *Benedicat et custodiat* is nothing but a duplication of the previous one. Finally, the abbot sprinkled all with holy water.
Later, three other elements were added to this original scheme: the hymn *Te lucis*, the chapter *Tu autem* (first attested by Durandus, d. 1296), and the responsory *In manus tuas*, which, as a mandatory introduction, is even later than the chapter.
The verse *Pone, Domine, custodiam ori meo*, of which Amalarius speaks in the text cited above and which ended the hour of Compline, was called the “closing verse,” because it closed the mouths of the monks in the most rigorous silence, until the “opening verse,” that is, *Domine labia mea aperies*, with which Matins began the following night (cf. *Regula Magistri*, chaps. 30 and 37: PL 88, 999 and 1005).
In the 13th century, the custom arose of singing after Compline, before an image of the Madonna, the *Salve Regina*, which was then annexed to Compline and prescribed by Pius V, together with the other three major antiphons of the Madonna, to be recited according to the different seasons of the liturgical year.