TERCE. — The canonical hour of the third hour of the day, corresponding to 9 a.m.
It is the most solemn of the minor hours and precedes the Solemn Mass on feast days. The hymn alludes to the descent of the Holy Spirit; on the feast and octave of Pentecost it is replaced by the *Veni Creator Spiritus*. In antiquity, as is known from Hippolytus and the Apostolic Constitutions, the third hour of prayer was associated with the Lord’s condemnation before Pilate. The canonical hour was at first an act of private piety, then a public and canonical prayer of monks, and from the 5th–6th century also of the secular clergy; its structure is common to that of the other minor hours, Sext (q.v.) and None (q.v.).
BIBL.: C. Callewaert, *De Breviarii Rom. Liturgia*, Brugge 1939, nn. 212, 226, 317, 318; P. Albrigi, *Sacra liturgia. L’Orazione pubblica*, Vicenza 1941, pp. 88–90, 439–41; M. Righetti, *Man. di st. liturg.*, Milano 1946, pp. 421–23, 584–86; A. Leclercq, *Sext. et Tierce*, in DACL, XV, coll. 1396–99.