LECTORATE. - It is the second of the Minor Orders in the Latin Church, the only Minor Order in the Eastern Church since the subdiaconate has been recognized as a Major Order. The one invested with it, receiving the office of reading Sacred Scripture before the assembly of the faithful, is called a lector.
I. HISTORY
The first mention of the lectorate is found in Justin: "The commentaries of the Apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as the time permits. Then, when the lector has finished, the bishop addresses a prayer and urges [the faithful] to imitate these noble examples" (*Apologia*, I, 67, 3-4: PG 6, 429). According to de Rossi (*Bulletin de l'archéologie chrétienne*, 2nd series, 2 [1871], p. 32), inscriptions commemorating Favor and Claudius Attacianus as lectors belong to the 2nd century. At the beginning of the 3rd century, Tertullian speaks of the lectorate as a regularly established Order: he criticizes the Marcionites, among whom "today is a deacon who was once a lector" (*De praescriptione haereticorum*, 41: PL 2, 69). Shortly afterward, Hippolytus of Rome describes the ordination of the lector: "Lectors are appointed by the bishop, who gives him the book of the Apostles and prays over him, but does not impose hands upon him" (*Apostolikēn παράδοσις*, ed. A. Casamassa, Rome 1947, p. 22 [for private use]). St. Cyprian frequently mentions the names of the lectors of the Church of Carthage (*Ep. 24, 29, 33, 34: PL 4, 294, 310, 326, 329*). Pope Cornelius, in 251, enumerates lectors among the members of the Roman clergy (*Ep. ad Fabium*, in Eusebius, *Historia ecclesiastica*, VI, 43: PG 20, 621; the lectors and ostiarii numbered 52). At Cirta, during the persecution of 303, seven lectors were captured (PL 8, 731-33). In the East, lectors are mentioned in the Councils of Antioch (can. 10) and Laodicea (can. 24), in the *Constitutiones Apostolorum* (VIII, 22), and in the *Ordinatio ecclesiastica Apostolorum* (1, 19).II. TRAINING OF THE LECTOR
By the 4th century, the lectorate was the ordinary beginning of ecclesiastical life. While the other Minor Orders were conferred only on those over twenty years of age, the lectorate was also conferred on boys: St. Epiphanius of Pavia was a lector at eight years of age, St. Damasus the Pope at thirteen, Messius Romulus of Fiesole at fifteen; even Julian the Apostate had been a lector in his youth at Nicomedia. Victor of Vita attests that in the clergy of Carthage "there were very many child lectors" (*De persecutione vandalica*, 5, 9: PL 58, 246). Soon they were gathered into a *schola lectorum*, of which there is evidence for Rome, Lyons, Reims, and Perrè (in the regions of the Euphrates). After the 7th century, it was transformed into a *schola cantorum*, since the lectors now had only the office of singing. The *schola* had at its head a *prior* or primicerius, assisted by *paraphonistae*, a kind of group leaders. Some ancient writers speak of a master of the lectors. Trained in letters and music, lectors often became true secretaries and confidants of the bishops.
III. ORDINATION OF THE LECTOR
St. 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 of the *traditio* of the book of the letters and expressly excludes the imposition of hands, which was later introduced by the *Constitutiones Apostolorum*, VIII, 22. The present Byzantine rite has added the *traditio libri*.The West never accepted the imposition of hands, but perfected the primitive rite with a preceding admonition, a prayer accompanying the *traditio* of the book, as attested in the *Statuta Ecclesiae antiqua* and the *Sacramentarium Gelasianum* (PL 74, 1146), and with a final blessing. This scheme is definitively fixed in the Roman Pontifical. According to a decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites (27 Sept. 1873), the codex which the bishop causes the ordinands to touch may be the Missal, the Breviary, or a volume of Sacred Scripture, e.g., an Evangelary.
IV. FUNCTIONS OF THE LECTOR
In antiquity, the lector not only read and sang Sacred Scripture in liturgical assemblies (cf. St. Cyprian, *Ep. 33* and *34: PL 4, 325, 333*), but also guarded its codices (cf. H. Leclercq, *L'Afrique chrétienne*, I, Paris 1904, pp. 320-23). According to the Roman Pontifical, which blends Gallican and Roman elements, "it behooves the lector to read what [or whom] the preacher proclaims and to sing the lessons and to bless bread and all new fruits." The Sacred Congregation of Rites declared (27 Sept. 1873) that the phrase *vel ei qui* is a rubric which the ordaining bishop may freely substitute for the text *ea quae*.In practice, these functions are now reduced to the sole reading or singing of the lessons in solemn office. Canon 1147 § 4 still recognizes in lectors the power to bless (bread and new fruits, as determined by the Roman Pontifical: "de ordinatione lect."), at least according to the most common interpretation, but the exercise of this power has been abrogated, since these two blessings are reserved to priests. — See pl. LXXVII.