SECRETA (understood oratio; Super oblata; Sacra). — The prayer of the Mass recited over the offerings before the Preface, called Super oblata in books of the Gregorian type.
The title S. occurs in the ancient Gelasiam (Vat. cod. Reg. lat. 316, from the middle of the 8th century), and already half a century earlier in the so-called Bobbio Missal (Paris, Bibl. naz., lat. 13246) there is collectio secreta, perhaps an indication of Gallican provenance. Jungmann explains the name from the Gallican practice of reciting this prayer in a low voice, whereas in the primitive Roman rite and still today in the Ambrosian rite the prayer is said aloud. The difference between the ancient Roman usage and the new Gallican-Frankish one can be seen in the notice of the Ordo XV, 35 (Andrieu, 102): «... dicit orationem super oblationes» (or oblatas secrete; cf. Ordo V, 58), «ita ut nullus praeter Deum et ipsum audiat»; similarly in the Ordo XVII, 46 (Andrieu, 181); this was done because of a strict silence imposed at this point in the Gallican liturgy under Oriental influence. There is testimony to the practice of reciting the S. in a low voice from the 7th–8th century in a COMMODIANO (v.). Righetti, on the other hand, explains it through two concomitant liturgical actions—also found in the Oriental rite—one performed by the celebrant in secret, the other by the deacon aloud (the deacon recites the names of the offerers, while the priest, to save time, says the prayer over the offerings). Other derivations, for example, from seccenere or secretio (the faithful as distinct from the catechumens, the offerings for consecration as distinct from those intended only for blessing), or from an equivalent of benedictio or consacratio (Batifol), or from a prayer preparatory to the Preface or to the act of consecration, called S. (Brinktrine), are less probable.
(phot. Bildarchiv d. Ö. Nationalbibliothek)