SEPTUAGESIMA (In the Roman Missal: "Dominica in Septuagesima"). - It is the ninth Sunday before Easter, in preparation for the feast of the Resurrection of Christ.
As a paschal preparation, Septuagesima is purely Roman. Baumstark explains Septuagesima as a combination of the eight weeks of Eastern preparation (v. QUINQUAGESIMA; SESSAGESIMA) with the addition of Holy Week (until then independent). St. Gregory the Great was believed to be the organizer of these three Sundays before Lent (Callewaert, Morin, Capelle). Recently, however, A. Chavasse has asserted that St. Gregory in 590-93, in organizing the liturgy of his sacramentary and of the ecclesiastical year, knew only Sexagesima and that (594-96) he took account only of it (in 594, in fact, there were 5 Sundays after Epiphany and Sexagesima fell on February 14). Even the "Comes" attributed to Alcuin, written after 643, does not know Septuagesima, which is mentioned for the first time in the manuscripts of the Roman Epistolary and Evangeliary, not earlier than 700, and in the Sacramentaries of the Gelasian type of the 8th century. The 70 days are counted from the Sunday of Septuagesima up to and including Low Saturday, the Easter week that ends on Low Saturday having been reorganized. With the books of the Gregorian type, the Roman Septuagesima too came to be adopted everywhere, and, after 750, also in Gaul; only in Spain was Quinquagesima retained.
With Septuagesima the singing of the Alleluia and of the Gloria in the Masses of the season comes to an end (v. ALLELUIA), and in its place the Tractus is sung after the Gradual. The services are held in vestments of violet color: the deacon and the subdeacon wear the dalmatic and the tunicle, but of violet color.
Bibliography6 worksJ. Froger, Les anticipations du jeûne quadragésimal, in Mélanges de sc. relig., 3 (1947), pp. 207-34; C. Callewaert, L'oeuvre liturgique de
BIBL.: J. Froger, Les anticipations du jeûne quadragésimal, in Mélanges de sc. relig., 3 (1947), pp. 207-34; C. Callewaert, L'oeuvre liturgique de St Grégoire. La Septuagesime et l'Alleluia, in Sacris Erudiri, 3 (1950), pp. 635-53; H. Leclercq, Septuagesime, in DACL, XV, 1, coll. 1362-66; G. Morin, La part des papes du VIᵉ siècle dans le développement de l'année liturgique, in Rev. bénédict., 52 (1950), pp. 3-8; A. Baumstark, Liturgie comparée, Chevetogne [1939], p. 209; A. Chavasse, Temps de préparation à la Pâque d'après quelques livres liturg. romains, in Rech. de sc. relig., 37 (1950), pp. 131-45.
Siffrin, Pietro. “Settuagesima (Nel Messale Romano «Dominica in Septuagesima»).” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. XI, col. 460. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1953. https://azioneromana.com/article/settuagesima-nel-messale-romano-dominica-in-septuagesima.
MLA
Siffrin, Pietro. “Settuagesima (Nel Messale Romano «Dominica in Septuagesima»).” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. XI, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1953, col. 460. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/settuagesima-nel-messale-romano-dominica-in-septuagesima.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec11_settuagesima_nel_messale_roman,
author = {Siffrin, Pietro},
title = {Settuagesima (Nel Messale Romano «Dominica in Septuagesima»)},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {XI},
pages = {460},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1953},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/settuagesima-nel-messale-romano-dominica-in-septuagesima}
}
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