OFFERTORY. - The name derives from the verb offerre (to offer, to bring), whose participle oblatum gave rise to the word "oblation," "oblata," by which the thing offered is indicated. The word offertorium is used in the II Ordo Romanus, absent from the Gelasian Sacramentary, present in the Gregorian, and very soon it designated the part of the Mass comprised between the presentation of the offerings and the Preface; and since a chant accompanies this part of the Mass, it too took the name of "o." (v. MESSA, III).
The Ordo Rom. I describes in detail for the first time the rite of the presentation. While the sacred ministers spread the shroud over the altar, the pope, accompanied by the primicerii, the notaries and the defensores, came down from his throne, went to kiss the altar, then proceeded to the enclosure where the men invested with authority stood (senatorium) to receive the offerings; he then passed to that of the matrons; the bishop in turn received the offerings of the clergy; certain priests received those of the people from the pergula that enclosed the sacred place reserved for the presbytery. Each brought the small loaf of bread; the bishops, priests, deacons and the leading laymen also brought flasks of wine called amulae; the singers, because they were occupied with the chant that accompanied the offertory ceremonies (thus Amalarius explains), offered the water in the person of one of the masters called archiparaphonista. What was done at Rome was carried out with the necessary ceremonial adaptations in other cities.
Already in the description of the Roman Mass made by an anonymous Frank of the second half of the 8th century, the deacon offers the paten to the pontiff, and he "suas proprias duas (oblationes) accipiens in manus suas; elevans oculis et manibus cum ipsis ad coelum, orat ad Deum secrete et completa oratione, ponit eas super altare" (Ordo XV, 33: ed. M. Andrieu, Les Ordines Romani du haut moyen âge, III, Louvain 1951, p. 102; see also p. 71, n. 1). The sign of the Cross was introduced in the 12th century (Durandus, Rationale divinorum officiorum, 4, 30, 17). The chalice, on the other hand, was simply placed by the deacon on the altar to the right of the oblations, until, through Gallican influence (Amalarius, De ecclesiasticis officiis, praef. alt.: PL 105, 992), it was placed behind the Host. And even when the Offerimus was introduced, only the deacon recited it; Durandus of Mende (d. 1296) is the first to note that the priest is associated in the recitation, and at the end of the 15th century John Burchard designates him as the offerer of the chalice, accompanied in gesture and words by the deacon; thus it remained in the Missal of Pius V.
THE CHANT
The ceremonies of the Offertorium are accompanied by a chant called antiphona ad Offertorium. The most ancient Roman testimonies are silent: only the Ordo Romanus I alludes to it, saying that the schola ceased singing at the invitation of the pontiff, when precisely the presentation of the offerings had ended; it seems, however, that it must be considered as dating at least from the 5th century, and in any case prior to St. Gregory the Great. It was originally an antiphonal chant performed by two groups; Milan has preserved (even more so in the manuscripts) often with the antiphon the verse, sometimes even two; but this too was the ancient Roman usage. The development of the offertory rites, requiring a greater span of time, transformed the chant from choral into responsorial, and as such it reached Rome, since the offertories there already appear "luxuriant in their exceedingly rich melodic vesture, and the verses, especially of the paraphonists, are shown adorned with all the virtuosity of the soloist's art" (P. Wagner). Precisely because of their origin, the majority of the most ancient texts are taken from the Psalter: those derived from other sources are usually not primitive, especially if historical. It should be noted, moreover, how the texts generally prescind from the liturgical moment and often also from the feast being celebrated, limiting themselves to expressing the joy of the assembly.
The Tridentine reform removed all repetition except in the Offertories of the sixteenth and twenty-third Sundays after Pentecost.
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Enrico Cattaneo