CONCELEBRATION. — In the broad sense, this is the assistance and active participation of ministers and the faithful in sacred functions; in a narrower sense, it is the union of the sacred ministers alone, or of the priests alone, in the function of a bishop, as was formerly customary, for example, in the administration of Baptism and Extreme Unction, and, as is still the case, in the imposition of hands at priestly ordination and in 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 Mass.
In the Latin Church, c. occurs in the consecration of a bishop and in priestly ordination. C. is a very ancient institution. The Liber Pontificalis (I, 139, note 3) attributes it to Pope Zefirino (198–217). In Rome, priests celebrated together with the pope; outside Rome, with the bishop. In the most remote Christian period, however, a true c. cannot be admitted, since the text of the prayers had not yet been fixed, but only the manner of celebrating (cf. Giustino, Apologia, I, 65 and 67). C. was rather a simple presence in the presbytery, as is in fact indicated by the original text of the Traditio apostolica of s. Ippolito (223), which, however, in a later recension, becomes a true c. (E. Hauler, Didascaliae Apostolorum fragmenta Veronensia, Lipsia 1900, p. 106). The Councils of Toledo I (400), Tarragona (516), and the province of Alvernia (585) ordered priests and deacons to be present at the divine sacrifice every day. Pope Innocenzo I (d. 417) wrote to Bishop Decenzio 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, Lovanio 1948, pp. 131, 163), according to which the cardinal priests surrounded the pope at the altar and recited the canon together with him, including the consecratory words, while each had before him, on a corporal, three offerings to be consecrated. In Rome, c.
took place on solemn occasions until the 13th century (Innocenzo III, De sacros. altaris mysterio, IV, 25; PL 21, 874; cf. Ordo Romanus XI [according to Mabillon], 20); it then 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 of a common consecration, but there is evidence of c.
Among the Eastern Christians, c. has been in use from the beginning, because the Councils of Neocaesarea (315) and Chalcedon (451) presuppose it, while it is mentioned in the Constitutions of the Egyptian Church, the Canons of Hippolytus, the Testament of the Lord, and other ancient documents. S. Atanasio (Apologia contra Arianus, 8, 12) reproaches the priest Ischira «quod cum et ipse esset presbyter tamen aliorum sacerdotum synaxi nunquam participasset». Among the Greeks, c. came increasingly into use from the 15th century; in the Maronite rite, from the 16th century. There is also simultaneous c., which among the other Eastern Christians was first accepted by the Melchites in 1729, and then by the other rites, so that it is now the common form among Eastern Christians, who may practice it every day. Whereas the schismatics recite the consecratory words together, like the rest of the canon, the dissident Slavs say them aloud, and the Hussites sing them. C. clearly expresses the unity of the sacred ministers in the highest and most sublime act of worship and their participation in the one priesthood of Christ.