MATTUTINO (Matutinum, Laudes matutinae, Officium nocturnum). — I. In the oldest sense (up to the 11th century), it is the morning prayer or canonical Hour that took place at sunrise. At first it was a private prayer or supplication, although “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 Sunday (Const. Apost., II, 59; VIII, 34–39); then it entered liturgical usage and became 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), and was 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, Justinian’s Decree of 529 (Cod. Iust., l. 1, tit. 111, lex 41) lists “matutinas preces” among the nocturnal group (“omnes clerici... nocturnas et matutinas et vespertinas preces clamant”).
M. does not seem to have originated from the division of the Vigil (v.) into three canonical Hours. Since the entire vigil (pannychis) was a serious hardship for the faithful, Vespers was established in the evening and M. at dawn, while the vigil was reserved for ascetics and monastic virgins. But there were three clearly distinct hours of prayer. More recently, J. Froger (Les origines de Prime, Rome 1946), identifying the ancient morning prayer with the nocturnal prayer, posits only two Hours, one in the evening and the other nocturnal-matinal; 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 has many opponents (Masai, J. Jungmann, Chadwick). The solemn and distinctive arrangement of the morning prayers rather indicates priority in comparison with that of the nocturnal Office. The morning psalms consist of Ps. 62 (Const. Apost., II, 59), the canticle of the three youths (Caesarius, Benedict “Benedictiones”), and the group of Psalms 148–50 (Cassian, Caesarius, Benedict “Laudes”); the name of the last group, “Laudes,” was subsequently extended to the entire morning Office: Laudes, the praises of dawn.
II. In the modern sense (from the 12th century), it is the nocturnal Office. It was recited at first at midnight, but gradually moved closer to morning (Egeria “ante pullorum cantum”; St Benedict “octava hora noctis, modice amplius de media nocte,” chap. 8, at two o’clock after midnight). In Ordo Romanus XI, 3, 9, 15, etc. (ed. Mabillon) and in the Ordo Off. Eccl. Lateran. Bernardi of 1145 (ed. Fischer, nos. 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. in 1850), on days with a double Office, that is, the ferial Office and that of a saint superimposed upon the ferial Office, the saint’s Office was said before midnight (“circa vespertinam horam”: Amalarius, De ordine antiphonandi, chap. 17), and the other, ferial Office, “ad gallicinium, vel ad matutinas horas” (“in superiore parte noctis”: Amalarius, loc. cit.). Thus the twofold practice was prepared: on the one hand, anticipating the nocturnal Office to the evening of the day; on the other, saying it “circa diei crepusculum,” in the morning (G. Belet, Explicatio divini Officii, chap. 20: PL 202, 32). The nocturnal prayer, shifted toward morning, assumed the name M.
From the private practice of 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) arose a double interruption of the night: “circa mediam noctem,” “circa galli cantum.” Thus this common prayer began in the Church: every night in the monasteries of the ascetics, and on Sundays for other Christians. Psalms were sung, interspersed with a collect by the priest (Egeria), and the Holy Scriptures were read (Hippolytus). These two forms of nocturnal prayer, the greater on Sunday and the lesser on the ferial day, also recur today: on Sundays, two further nocturnes were added to the first nocturnal prayer (formerly 12 psalms and 3 lessons), each with 3 psalms and 3 lessons. The entire Paschal vigil (of Easter and Pentecost, pannychis), the vigil on the anniversaries of the martyrs or of the Ember Days, must be distinguished from this nocturnal prayer; the nocturnal prayer is clearly distinct from these vigils. The vigils began before midnight
and ended with the solemnity of the Eucharist, whereas the nocturnal prayer took place after midnight and later toward morning; but there were similarities in the form of reciting the psalms and lessons.
Following the reform of Pius X, obligatory from January 1913, the thousand-year-old psalm distribution among the three great Hours—Vespers, M., Lauds—was replaced by a new weekly arrangement, assigning 9 psalms invariably to M. (instead of the 18 on Sundays and 12 on ferial days) and, while respecting the ancient Ordo psallandi, assigning Psalms 1–108 to M.
M., on the greater feasts (except Easter and Pentecost) and, after the reform of Pius X, also on Sundays, consists of 3 Nocturnes, each having the orderly sequence of 3 psalms, 3 lessons, and 3 responsories; on ordinary or ferial days, it consists of 1 Nocturne of 9 psalms and 3 lessons (and responsories). The Ordo monasticus arranged by St Benedict differs from this order of the universal Church and preserves customs then in force both at Rome and in the monasteries of the East and Gaul (Cassian).