LETTORATO. — It is the second of the minor Orders in the Latin Church, and the only minor Order in the Eastern Church, since the subdiaconate was recognized as a major Order. He who is invested with it, receiving the office of reading Holy Scripture before the assembly of the faithful, is called a lector.
I. HISTORY
The first mention of the l. is found in Justin: «Commentarii Apostolorum vel scripta prophetarum leguntur, quoad tempus fert. Deinde ubi lector desiti, antistes oratione admonet et incitat ad haec praeclara imitanda» (Apol., I, 67, 3-4: PG 6, 429). According to de Rossi (in Bullettino di archeologia cristiana, 2nd series, 2 [1871], p. 32), the inscriptions that mention Favor and Claudius Attacianus as readers belong to the second century. At the beginning of the third century, Tertullian speaks of the l. as a regularly established Order: he criticizes the Marcionites, among whom «hodie est diaconus, qui erat lector» (De praescriptione haereticorum, 41: PL 2, 69). Shortly thereafter Hippolytus Romanus describes the ordination of the reader: «Lector constituatur episcopo librum apostoli ei dante et oret super eum, manum autem ei non imponat» (Ἀποστολικὴ παράδοσις, ed. A. Casamassa, Roma 1947, p. 22 [for private use]). St. Cyprian frequently recalls the names of the readers of the Church of Carthage (Ep. 24, 29, 33, 34: PL 4, 294, 310, 326, 329). In 251 Pope Cornelius lists readers among the members of the Roman clergy (Ep. ad Pubium, in Eusebio, Hist. eccl., VI, 43: PG 20, 621; the readers and doorkeepers numbered 52). At Cirta, during the persecution of 303, seven readers were captured (PL 8, 731-33). In the East, readers are mentioned in the Councils of Antioch (can. 10) and Laodicea (can. 24), in the Constitutiones Apost. (VIII, 22), and in the Ordinatio ecclesiastica Apostolorum (1, 19).II. FORMATION OF THE L
In the fourth century, the lectorate was the ordinary beginning of ecclesiastical life. Whereas the other minor Orders were conferred only on faithful who were over twenty, boys were also admitted to the lectorate: s. Epifanio di Pavia was a lector at eight, s. Damaso papa at thirteen, and Messio Romolo di Fiesole at fifteen; Giuliano l'Apostata, too, had been a lector at Nicomedia in his youth. Vittore di Vita attests that in the clergy of Carthage «quam plurimi erant lectores infantes» (De persecuzione vandalica, 5, 9: PL 58, 246). Soon they were gathered into a schola lectorum, for which there is evidence in Rome, Lyon, Reims, and Perrè (in the regions of the Euphrates). After the seventh century it was transformed into a schola cantorum, since the lectors by then had only the duty of singing. The schola was headed by a prior or primicerius, who was assisted by parafonisti, a kind of group leaders. Some ancient writers speak of a master of the lectors. Trained in letters and music, lectors often became the bishops’ actual secretaries and confidants.III. ORDINATION OF THE LECTOR
S. Cyprian is the first to speak of an ordination of the lector (Ep. 33: PL 4,325). The Traditio Apostolica of Hippolytus attests that the rite consisted solely in the traditio of the book of the letters, and expressly excludes the imposition of hands, which is instead introduced by the Constitutiones Apost., VIII, 22. The current Byzantine rite has added the traditio libri.The West never accepted the imposition of hands, but perfected the primitive ritual with an admonitio praevia, with an oratio accompanying the traditio of the book, attested in the Statuta Ecclesiae antiqua and in the Sacramentarium Gelasianum (PL 74, 1146), and with a final benedictio. This scheme was definitively established in the Pontificale Romanum. According to a response from the S. Congregation of Rites (27 September 1873), the codex which the bishop has the ordinands touch may be the Missal, the Breviary, or a volume of Sacred Scripture, for example, a Gospel book.
IV. FUNZIONI DEL LETTORE
In antico il lettore non solo leggeva e cantava la S. Scrittura nelle assemblee liturgiche (cf. S. Cipriano, Epp. 33 e 34: PL 4, 325, 333), ma ne custodiva anche i codici (cf. H. Leclercq, L'Afrique chrétienne, I, Parigi 1904, pp. 320-23). Secondo il Pontificale romano, che fonde elementi gallicani e romani, «lectorem oportet legere ea quae (vel ei qui) praedicat et lectiones cantare et benedicere panem et omnes fructus novos». La S. Congregazione dei Riti ha dichiarato (27 sett. 1873), che l'inciso vel ei qui è una rubrica, che il vescovo ordinante può liberamente sostituire al testo ea quae.In pratica queste funzioni sono ora ridotte alla sola lettura o canto delle lectiones nell'ufficio solenne. Il can. 1147 § 4 riconosce ancora ai lettori il potere di benedire (pane e frutti nuovi, come determina il Pontificale romano: «de ordinatione lect.»), almeno secondo l'interpretazione più comune, ma l'esercizio ne è abrogato, essendo anche queste due benedizioni riservate ai sacerdoti. - Vedi tav. LXXVII.