Concelebration

CONCELEBRATION. - In a broad sense it is the assistance and active participation of ministers and faithful in sacred functions; in a stricter sense it is the union of sacred ministers alone, or of priests alone, at the function of a bishop, as was formerly the custom, for example, in the administration of Baptism, of Extreme Unction, and, as still continues, in the imposition of hands at priestly ordination and at the consecration of the holy oils on Holy Thursday; in the proper sense it is the active participation of several priests in the celebration of the Mass.

In the Latin Church there is c. at the consecration of a bishop and at priestly ordination. C. is a very ancient institution. The Liber Pontificalis (I, 139, note 3) attributes it to Pope Zephyrinus (198-217). In Rome the priests celebrated together with the pope, outside Rome with the bishop. In the most remote Christian era, however, a true c. cannot be admitted, given that the text of the prayers was not yet fixed, but only the manner of celebrating (cf. Justin, Apology, I, 65 and 67). C. was rather a simple assistance in the presbyterium, as indeed indicates the original text of the Traditio apostolica of St. Hippolytus (223), which however in a later redaction becomes a true c. (E. Hauler, Didascaliae Apostolorum fragmenta Veronensia, Leipzig 1900, p. 106). The Councils of Toledo I (400), of Tarragona (516) and of the province of Auvergne (585) order the assistance of priests and deacons at the divine sacrifice every day; Pope Innocent I (d. 417) writes to Bishop Decentius of Gubbio (PL 20, 476) that priests should have «orandi et sacrificandi iuge officium». An accurate description of c. is offered by the Ordines Romani III and IV (cf. ed. M. Andrieu, Les Ordines romani du haut moyen âge, II, Louvain 1948, pp. 131, 163) according to which the cardinal priests surrounded the pope at the altar and said together with him the canon with the words of consecration, while each had before him on a corporal three oblations to be consecrated. In Rome the c. took place on solemnities until the 13th century (Innocent III, De sacros. altaris mysterio, IV, 25; PL 21, 874; cf. Ordo Romanus XI [according to Mabillon], 20), then it fell into disuse and was retained only for the ordination of bishops and priests. In the Gallican, Mozarabic and Ambrosian rites there is no evidence for a common consecration, but rather for a c.

Among the Easterners c. has been in use from the beginning, because the Councils of Neocaesarea (315) and of Chalcedon (451) presuppose it, while the Constitutions of the Egyptian Church, the Canons of Hippolytus, the Testament of the Lord and other ancient documents speak of it. St. Athanasius (Apologia contra Arianos, 8, 12) reproaches the priest Ischyras «quod cum et ipse esset presbyter tamen aliorum sacerdotum synaxi nunquam participasset». Among the Greeks c. came more greatly into use from the 15th century; in the Maronite rite from the 16th century: there is also simultaneous c., which among other Easterners was first accepted by the Melkites in 1729, then by the other rites, so that by now it is the common form among the Easterners, who may perform it every day: while however the schismatics recite together the words of consecration as the rest of the canon, the dissident Slavonics say them aloud, the Hussites chant them. C. expresses perspicuously the unity among the sacred ministers in the highest and most sublime act of worship and their participation in the one priesthood of Christ.

2 (1898), p. 97 ff.; P. De Puniet, Concélébration liturgique, in DACL. III, coll. 2470-88; L. Beauduin, Concélébration eucharistique, in Questions liturgiques et paroissiales, 7 (1922), pp. 275-285; 8 (1923), pp. 23-34; P. De Meester, De concélébration in Ecclesia orientali praesertim secundum ritum Byzantium, in Ephemerides liturgicae, 36 (1923), pp. 101-10, 145-54, 196-201; L. Berg, Die römisch-kath. Kirche und die orthodoxen Russen, 4th ed., Berlin 1926, pp. 40-42; J. M. Hanssens, De concélébration eucharistique, in Periodica de re morali, canonica, liturgica, 16 (1927), pp. 143-54, 181-210; 17 (1928), pp. 93-127; 21 (1932), pp. 193-219; P. Daout, Notes sur les origines de la concélébration eucharistique dans le rite maronite, in Orientalia christiana periodica, 9 (1940), pp. 233-39; H. von Meurers, Die eucharistische Konzelebration, in Pastor bonus, 3 (1942), pp. 65-77, 97-105.

Filippo Oppenheim