Procession

PROCESSION. - From pro "forward" and cedere "to walk," it is in general the ceremonial, public, measured-pace advance of a group that precedes or follows an image or an illustrious personage.

I. IN CATHOLIC LITURGY

The p. is a solemn supplication made in honor and praise of God or of the saints, in thanksgiving, in penance and in expiation, especially in times of calamity. It is an act both of homage toward God and of exaltation of religious feeling (CIC, 1290 § 1). Processions are also called litaniae, rogationes, supplicationes.

The order of the procession is set out by the Roman Ritual (tit. IX): the Cross always opens the cortege, followed by the people (two by two) and the clergy according to hierarchical order; psalms and hymns are sung (St. Augustine, De civ. Dei, 22, 8) and appropriate prayers are recited, in some regions or on some occasions accompanied by dances and rhythmic gestures (for example, the famous dancing procession of Echternach in honor of St. Willibrord, on the Tuesday of Pentecost); besides the Cross, other sacred symbols, banners, relics, statues, etc., are carried. A distinction is made between processions independent of other liturgical acts, such as litanies, eucharistic processions, pilgrimages, that of the reception of the bishop on his entry or during a pastoral visitation, and processions joined to liturgical functions, such as the stational processions, those of the candles, of the palms, at the baptismal font. There are ordinary processions, which recur every year on certain feasts or on certain days (of the candles, of the palms, the litanies, etc.), or extraordinary ones, which are called for particular circumstances on the occasion of a calamity or of a thanksgiving.

Religious processions were and are in use among all peoples (v. below). Before the Constantinian peace Christians had only funeral processions; at the end of the 4th century in Jerusalem, as is narrated in the Peregrinatio of Egeria (CSEL, 39, chap. 24 ff., pp. 71-101), the processions commemorating the events of Christ's life in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, etc., were already highly developed. St. Ambrose (Ep. 22 ad sor.) and St. Augustine (Conf., IX, 7) describe processions on the occasion of the translation of relics. In Rome the so-called greater litanies were introduced (v. ROGAZIONI) in place of the pagan feast in honor of Robigo (April 25). An integral part of liturgical life are the stational processions, revived and reorganized by Gregory I, on the anniversary feasts of the martyrs, especially on the major feast days of the ecclesiastical year and on the ferial days of Lent. On the four oldest Marian feasts (Nativity, Annunciation, Purification and Dormition or Assumption) a great procession with torches was held from S. Adriano in the Forum to S. Maria Maggiore. In the liturgy of the Mass the 3 ceremonial processions took shape: of the celebrant's entrance (Introitus), of the offerings of the faithful at the Offertory, and of Communion; to these was then added that for the reading of the Gospel. In times of public calamity extraordinary penitential processions were introduced (famous was that of 591 ordered by St. Gregory the Great). To implore the heavenly blessing on the fruits of the countryside, besides those of the minor rogations, other processions were made through the fields with 4 stations for singing the openings of the 4 Gospels, each in the direction of one of the four cardinal points; in some regions they were then made on horseback with the Blessed Sacrament or with a relic of the Precious Blood (Blutritt of Weingarten in Germany). The most solemn of all is the eucharistic procession of the feast of Corpus Christi and on the occasion of eucharistic congresses, both national and international.

Great and picturesque processions are held in Spain, famous being, for example, that of the Rosary or that lasting 10-12 hours during Holy Week in Seville and in other Spanish cities. In Germany, in recent years, nocturnal penitential processions made by men during Lent have flourished.

Pietro Siffrin

II. CANON LAW

In the current discipline of the Church, processions are distinguished into ordinary and extraordinary; the former are tied to fixed days by the liturgy or by local customs, such as those of the feast of the Purification of the B. Virgin, of Palm Sunday, of the day of Corpus Christi, of the Rogations; the latter are called in special circumstances of a public character, such as processions of penance to implore the cessation of a scourge, in case of plague, war, famine, drought, etc. (Caeremon. Episc., lib. II, chaps. 16, 21, 32, 33 n. 8 ff.; Rituale Romanum, tit. IX, chap. 1, n. 8; CIC, can. 1290 § 2). Processions are further distinguished into public, to which the definition given above according to can. 1290 § 1 properly applies, and private, which are held either in private buildings or by private persons without a true convocation of all the faithful people. With the latter are grouped those held by the clergy and faithful attached to a particular church or which are led through the streets by the regulars or "frattelloni" (cf. S. R. Rota, 3 Feb. 1922; AAS, 14 [1922] p. 397). They are then distinguished into theophoric and non-theophoric.

This form of public worship too is regulated in matters of discipline by the CIC (cann. 1290-95), which treats of processions in general and in particular of the procession of Corpus Christi. Only the Pope has the right to call public processions, whether ordinary or extraordinary, for the whole Church; whereas local Ordinaries may permit extraordinary processions in their respective dioceses and transfer or even abolish the ordinary ones, with the exception of the Eucharistic procession permitted by the CIC also to the regulars during the octave of Corpus Christi.

The Rituale Romanum (tit. IX, chaps. 6-14) indicates the following extraordinary processions for reasons of public utility: 1) to ask for rain; 2) for fair weather; 3) to avert a storm; 4) for propitiation in time of famine; 5) of mortality or plague; 6) of war; 7) or of any other calamity; 8) in thanksgiving; 9) for the transfer of relics.

Except when they enjoy particular privileges (as do the Dominicans for the processions held on the 1st Sunday of the octave), religious, even exempt ones, depend on the bishop for processions conducted outside their churches and their cloisters (can. 1293). But if they lack a cloister, they may freely walk in procession even along the street adjoining the convent or church (S. Congr. of Rites, 27 July 1628). All the more do Chapters, parish priests, rectors of churches, confraternities and all other diocesan moral bodies need the license of the Ordinary to conduct processions; they are expressly forbidden to introduce new processions and to transfer or suppress those already existing without the permission of the bishop, with whom indeed they must cooperate in order to root out, where necessary, abuses or bad habits. The faculties of the Ordinary in this regard do not lapse in the face of customs or immemorial prescriptions to the contrary: for to him alone belongs the disciplinary supervision of worship (S. Congr. of Rites, Tarent., 3 Feb. 1922). Parish priests have the right to lead and order any public ordinary procession within the bounds of their respective parishes, even if called by regulars, except the Eucharistic one, organized by the latter during the octave of Corpus Christi and conducted outside the church (can. 467, 7; Commiss. for the Interpretation of the CIC, 12 Nov. 1922; AAS, 14 [1922], p. 395; 17 [1925], p. 582).

In processions, whether ordinary or extraordinary, of a public character, all male religious families must take part; whereas in the processions proper to a particular church only the clerics benefited or otherwise assigned to the service of that same church are bound to take part (can. 1294). It is the right and duty of the Ordinary to prescribe, in accordance with the disciplinary and liturgical laws, everything concerning the order of precedence among the persons participating, the place, the time and the ceremonies or rites to be observed in processions, so that the purpose of such manifestations of worship may be attained.

In Italy, when they take place outside places destined for worship, processions are subject to the authorization of the Public Security authority (art. 25 T. U. Leggi P. S. 18 June 1931, n. 773).

Luigi Fini

III. IN NON-CHRISTIAN RELIGIONS

The procession is found in all religions, because men always experience the need to honor their divinities, to entreat them in time of need, to implore their forgiveness for offenses committed. It is therefore, besides a homage rendered to the divinity, also an exaltation of the group, which, from its orderly advancing with songs, dances, prayers, rhythmic gestures, often with uniform garments and insignia, feels its religious-social cohesion strengthened.

Even primitive peoples practice the procession. Thanks to the descriptions of missionaries and explorers, that which the Australian Arunta call inticiuma is well known, and under another name it is practiced among other tribes as well. It consists in advancing in procession toward the place where the totemic ancestor of the tribe is believed to have his seat, and in causing, for the purpose of fertility, the scattering of fragments of stones from that place, which is believed to be rich in fertilizing power.

In China and Japan processional rites are frequent and picturesque. In Babylon the procession was of an honorary type and consisted in carrying around the city the statue of the god seated on a throne and preceded by his court. In Egypt the procession was even more stirring, because on that occasion the image of the god, always jealously enclosed in the innermost recess of the sanctuary, was placed on a boat-shaped cart, and, if the procession proceeded on the Nile, priest and people accompanied the image from the bank with dances, songs and illuminations, which Herodotus describes (II, 59-63).

In Greece solemn processions were: that of the Panathenaea depicted on the frieze of the Parthenon, when all the classes of the city went up to the temple to offer a peplos to Athena; and that which preceded the beginning of the Olympic games, formed by the magistrates of the city, the priests, and representatives of the various cities who went to offer a solemn sacrifice to Zeus on the Altis. For processions in Rome v. POMPA.

In the mystery religions processions played a very notable part. In the Eleusinian mysteries (v.) famous was the one that brought the "sacred things" back from Athens to Eleusis. In the Isiac mysteries the procession was magnificent that accompanied the image of the goddess from her temple to the seashore, at the reopening of navigation (navigium Iisidi, of March 5, described in dazzling colors by Apuleius [Metam., XI, 8 ff.]). At the close of the public festivals of Cybele, in Rome, on March 27, a solemn one accompanied the image of the goddess from her temple on the Palatine to the little stream Almo on the Appian Way, where the lavatio of the silver statue of the goddess took place. - See plate II.

Nicola Turchi