Matins (Matutinum, Laudes Matutinae, Officium Nocturnum)

MATINS (Matutinum, Laudes Matutinae, Officium Nocturnum). - I. In the most ancient sense (down to the 11th century) it is the morning prayer or canonical Hour that took place at sunrise. Previously it was a private prayer or oration, though "legitimate" (Tertullian, Ad uxorem, II, 5 "qua lucem ingredimur"; De oratione, 23, 25 "ingressu lucis"; Cyprian, De orat. domin., 34, 5 "mane... matutina oratione"; Hippolytus, Trad. Apost., ed. Connolly, pp. 190-93; "circa galli cantum"); it was public, however, on Sundays (Const. Apost., II, 59; VIII, 34-39); then it enters liturgical use and becomes the prayer of the Church (Hilary, In psalm. LXIV, 12; Ambrose, De Elia, XV, 55; Augustine, Confess., V, 9; Egeria, cf. L. Duchesne, Origines du culte chrétien, 5th ed., Paris 1925, p. 512) it is prescribed as the Hour of dawn in the monastic Rules (Cassian, Caesarius, Columbanus, especially St. Benedict "Matutini qui incipiente luce agendi sunt", chaps. 8, 11, 13; "Matutinorum solemnitas", chap. 12, 13; "Agenda matutina", chap. 13); in the Office of the Church, the Decree of Justinian of 529 (Cod. Iust., l. 1. tit. 111, lex 41) enumerates among the nocturnal group the "matutinas preces" ("omnes clerici... nocturnas et matutinas et vespertinas preces clamant").

The M. does not seem to originate from the division of the Vigil (v.) into three canonical Hours. Since the entire vigil (pannychis) was a grave hardship for the faithful, Vespers were established in the evening and the M. at dawn, reserving the vigil to ascetics and monastic virgins. But there were three clearly distinct hours of prayer. Again J. Froger (Les origines de Prime, Rome 1946), identifying the ancient morning prayer with the nocturnal one, supposes only two Hours, one in the evening, the other nocturnal-matutinal; the introduction of a new morning prayer (Cassian: PL 49, 126-36) is to be referred not to the Hour of Prime, but to Lauds. This new thesis finds many opponents (Masai, J. Jungmann, Chadwick). The arrangement of the matutinal prayers, so solemn and characteristic, indicates rather a priority in comparison with that of the nocturnal Office. The matutinal psalms consist of Ps. 62 (Const. Apost., II, 59), of the canticle of the three youths (Caesarius, Benedict "Benedictiones") and of the group of Psalms 148-50 (Cassian, Caesarius, Benedict "Laudes"); the name of the last group "Laudes" was later extended to the whole morning Office: Laudes, the praises of dawn.

II. In the modern sense (from the 12th century) it is the nocturnal Office. It was formerly recited at midnight, but little by little it drew near to the morning (Egeria "ante pullorum cantum"; St. Benedict "octava hora noctis, modice amplius de media nocte", chap. 8, at two o'clock after midnight). In the Ordo Romanus XI, 3, 9, 15 etc. (ed. Mabillon) and in the Ordo Off. Eccl. Lateran. Bernardi of 1145 (ed. Fischer, n. 27, 28, 31 ff.), the term "Matutinum" or "De matutinis" is already used in the new sense; Lauds are called "matutinae laudes". In the time of Amalarius (d. 1850), in the days of a double Office, that is, of the ferial and of a saint that overlaps the ferial, the Office of the saint was said before midnight ("circa vespertinam horam": Amalarius, De ordine antiphonandi, chap. 17), and the other ferial one "ad gallicinium, vel ad matutinas horas" ("in superiore parte noctis": Amalarius, loc. cit.). Thus the double use is prepared, on the one hand of anticipating the nocturnal Office to the evening of the day, on the other of saying it "circa diei crepusculum", in the morning (G. Belet, Explicatio divini Officii, chap. 20: PL 202, 32). The nocturnal prayer moved toward the morning assumed the name of M.

From the private practice of the ancient Christians of rising at midnight to pray (Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Hippolytus; Trad. Apost., ed. Connolly, pp. 192-93, 198-99; ed. Dix, pp. 65-67) came a double interruption of the night: "circa mediam noctem", "circa galli cantum". Thus began this common prayer in the Church: every night in the convents of ascetics, on Sundays for the other Christians. Psalms were sung, interspersed with a collect by the priest (Egeria), the Holy Scriptures were read (Hippolytus). These two forms of nocturnal prayer, greater on Sunday and lesser on ferias, recur even today: on Sundays to the first nocturnal prayer (already 12 psalms and 3 lessons) two others were added (each with 3 psalms and 3 lessons). From this nocturnal prayer is to be distinguished the entire paschal vigil (of Easter and Pentecost, pannychis), the vigil on the anniversaries of martyrs or of the Ember Days; from these vigils the nocturnal prayer is clearly distinct. The vigils began before midnight and ended with the solemnity of the Eucharist, while the nocturnal prayer was made after midnight and then toward morning; but there were similarities in the form of the recitation of the psalms and of the lessons.

Since the reform of Pius X, obligatory from Jan. 1913, the millennial psalmodic distribution into the three great Hours: Vespers, M., Lauds, was replaced by a new weekly arrangement, invariably assigning 9 psalms to the M. (instead of the 18 for Sundays and 12 for ferias) and, respecting the ancient Ordo psallandi, arranging for the M. the psalms 1-108.

The M., on the greater feasts (except Easter and Pentecost) and after the reform of Pius X also on Sundays, is composed of 3 Nocturns, of which each has the ordered rhythm of 3 psalms, 3 lessons and 3 responsories; on common or ferial days of one Nocturn of 9 psalms and 3 lessons (and responsories). The Ordo monasticus ordered by St. Benedict is different from this order of the universal Church and preserves customs then in force both at Rome and in the monasteries of the East and of Gaul (Cassian).

Pietro Siffin