LAUS PERENNIS (Ἔπαυστος Λειτουργία [or Δοξολογία]). - Historians of ancient monasticism understand by l. p. perpetual psalmody, that is, the organization of the office practiced uninterruptedly throughout the entire day, day and night (the office of the νυχθήμερον). In this regard there were two independent centers: the monasteries of the Acoemetae (v.) in the East and the monastery of Agaunum (v.) in the West.
I. IN THE EAST
Anxious to realize the evangelical saying Oportet semper orare et non deficere (Lk. 18:1), St. Alexander the Acoemete (early 5th century), after various experiments, thought of establishing among his monks the "perpetual doxology" that would make possible for the community what is not possible for the individual. He therefore established among them a rotation that ensured the perpetuity of the psalmody. Since the monks were of different nationalities, he divided them into ethnic groups, two for each language of origin (Greek, Syriac, Coptic and Latin: there were thus, it seems,
8 groups in the monastery on the Euphrates and 6 in that of Constantinople). These choirs alternated in such a way that the psalmody did not pause for a single instant, neither by day nor by night.
The institution of 7 canonical hours has been attributed to St. Alexander, but he does not speak of 7 hours for the entire day, but rather of 7 hours for the daytime course and 7 for the nighttime course (14 canonical hours). This does not correspond to our sevenfold cycle: the traditional office does not recognize the definitive organization from Alexander's cursus, who, after seven years of his liturgical system, arrived at the "perpetual doxology," which entailed the institution of 24 ministeria, corresponding to the 24 hours of the νυχθήμερον. With the 6th century the Acoemetae disappear.
II. IN THE WEST
At the inauguration of the great monastery of St. Maurice of Agaunum (515), which arose on the site of the sacrifice of St. Maurice and was known, St. Sigismund king of Burgundy and the fathers of the council, convoked there, expressed the wish that on the tomb of the holy martyrs the praises of the Lord be sung day and night, uninterruptedly (Mansi, VIII, 531-38: cf. Hefele-Leclercq, II, pp. 1017-22). For this reason the monks had to divide into nine (others say five) normae or choirs, which were to alternate according to the canonical hours ("succedentes sibi officiis canonici"), so that "die noctuque indesinenter Domino famulentur."
It is very probable that the idea of this l. p., called "inusitatum opus" by the biographer of St. Sigismund (Vita s. Sigismondi, n. 6: Acta SS. Mai, I, Antwerp 1680, p. 87), was suggested by the practice of the Acoemetae; testimonies on the matter are lacking, however. It is certain, nevertheless, that the institution of Agaunum was the prototype, in the 7th-8th centuries, of similar foundations in many parts of Gaul. J. Mabillon and H. Leclercq demonstrate this, for example, for the church of St. Benignus in Dijon, for the monasteries of St-Marcel in Chalon-sur-Saône, of St-Denis and St-Germain in Paris, St-Médard in Soissons, and for the celebrated abbeys of Luxeuil, St. Martin of Tours and St-Riquier (Centula). The institution of Agaunum was adopted also by female monasteries, such as that of Laon founded by St. Salaberga, and that of Remiremont (Habendense) erected by St. Romaric and St. Amatus (cf. Vita Amati, n. 10: MGH, Script. rer. Mer., IV, p. 218).
The laus perennis, although it did not modify the cursus of the Divine Office, which remained with its order of psalms and readings, required a special ordering of the entire life of the monastery: night was eliminated, as if existence there passed in a perpetual day. An expression of great fervor, the laus perennis demanded of the monks a superhuman effort, for which reason after the 8th century it declined. In various churches secular princes replaced the monks with "canons."
In Rome we find something similar to the laus perennis in the liturgical office that in the early Middle Ages the monks solemnly sang, day and night, in the basilicas entrusted to them: «laudes et hymnas nocte dieque modulanter decantent» (Lib. Pont., II, p. 58). For the basilica of St. Peter the monasteries of S. Giovanni e Paolo, S. Stefano Maggiore, S. Stefano Minore, and S. Martino were famous.
Bibliography8 works
Igino Cecchetti