TRIDUUM, Octave (Octiduum), Novena. - These are popular forms of devotion tied to a certain number of days, during which, through various exercises of piety, the faithful continue to implore particular graces with greater insistence, to give thanks for those received, or simply to solemnize certain events or feasts. Official liturgy does not know these devotional forms; but the Church has approved them and favors them with indulgences. The most common form is the Triduum; the Novena is a triplication of it; the Octiduum, on the other hand, is less well known and used.
I. TRIDUO
A space of three continuous days, or also an action that extends over three days (from the adjective triduus, whence the noun triduum); it is the transposition into time of the universal popular predilection for the number three. It is a fact established by many investigations in the field of the primitive culture of peoples, that the number three, in its countless relations, is universally preferred and almost consecrated. Certainly not as the "prime number" that comes after one, but for a certain idea of completeness or perfection connected with it: life, folklore, superstition, and also religion — indeed, all religions — present many examples of the "cult" of the number three.
It is known by divine revelation that in the unity of the divine nature lives the mystery of the Trinity of persons; and it is not unreasonable to deduce from this the supreme supernatural reason that explains in man a certain natural inclination to consider in the ternary number that kind of perfection and completeness; they are the reflections of the Creator in the rational creature. It is neither necessary nor right to wish to push that certain "divine exemplarism," which is certainly willed and intended by God, to excess. However that may be, to limit ourselves to the religious field, triads of divinities, greater or lesser, are found in primitive and classical religions; besides triduan funeral services, which are very widespread, they also know other forms of devotions, services and prayers based on the number three.
In the Old Testament the period of three days already appears as a thing of particular importance, especially in the more recent times. Sarah, daughter of Raguel, after the death of the seven husbands, gives herself to fasting for three days and three nights, and the angel Raphael invites the young Tobias, before the wedding, to abstain from his spouse for three days, praying (Tob. 3, 10; 6, 16-22; 8); Judith, in the Assyrian camp, before the great blow meditated against Holofernes, asks to be able to leave the camp for three nights, to adore God (Iud. 12, 6); Queen Esther, with all the Jewish people, fasts for three days and three nights to avert the danger of extermination (Esth. 4, 16); Daniel undertakes a fast, with prayers, of three weeks (Dan. 10, 2-3); Judas Maccabeus imposes on himself and his men a fast with prayers for three continuous days (II Mach. 13, 12); all practices that demonstrate, in the Jewish people, a preference for these penitential tridua, for the purpose of obtaining special graces. In the New Testament it is above all to be noted how our Lord himself makes use of this pious practice, to connect the three days lived by the prophet Jonah in the belly of the sea monster and his own stay in the tomb (Iou. 2, 1; Act. 12, 38-40). Another famous passage of the Gospel is that in which Jesus, speaking of the destruction of the Temple which he will rebuild within three days, alludes to his resurrection three days after the burial (Io. 2, 19-20; Mt. 26, 61; 27, 40; Mc. 14, 40; Mt. 27, 63; 17, 22; Mc. 8, 31; 9, 30). Also Saul, the future Paul, after the blinding scene, remained in Damascus for three days fasting and wholly shaken.
In remembrance of Christ's presence in the tomb, the custom soon became established among Christians of a fast of penitence for two or for three days, according to the interpretation given to the duration of Christ's burial. Here too is found the beginning of the practice of the Lenten fast, and the biduanu and the triduum ieiuni remained, at every time of the year, a pious practice. St. Jerome, it is true, was not too enthusiastic about it; in some of his letters he indeed dissuades from this use, defending as more reasonable a moderate continuous use of foods, instead of these almost exaggerated tridua (cf., for example, Ep. ad Furiam: PL 22, 555: « parcus cibus et venter semper esuriens triduanis ieiuni praefetur »). St. Augustine, on the other hand, brought back from Rome a deep impression of the many Christians, men, women, widows, virgins whom he had seen practicing this devotion of the " continuum triduum " of prayer and abstinence (De moribus ecclesiae catholicae et de moribus manichaeorum, I, 33: PL 32, 1340).
On this line stands what the Acts of St. Cecilia relate, namely that the Saint « biduanis vel triduanis ieiuni » se commendabbat Domino « (cf. Antiphon 5 of Lauds of the feast). But the most solemn confirmation of this pious practice of the triduum of penance and prayer as a universal use is found in the institution of the Rogations (v.), that is, of the minor litanies. St. Mamertus, to whom this institution is ascribed, in prescribing for his people a fast of three days, with a solemn litany, did nothing other than transform a usual private practice into a public practice which was then preserved and spread throughout the whole Church (cf., for example, the historical description that Amalarius gives of it in the Liber officialis, I, 37, in Opera liturgica, ed. J. M. Hanssens, II, Vatican City 1938, pp. 178-80). From this is also explained the very widespread medieval use that an adult preparing for Baptism had beforehand to observe the fast of three days.
Also in preparation for the election of the Pope and the coronation of the Emperor a similar triduum of prayer and fasting was very much in use. (E. Eichmann, Die Kaiserkrönung im Abendland, I, Würzburg 1942, p. 38; id., Weihe v. Krönung des Papstes im Mittelalter, Munich 1951, p. 6). From the penitential triduum, which had as its principal purpose impetration, the step was easy to the simple triduum of devotion, without fasting, with only private or public prayer, or with certain rites and popular uses.
Already in the Middle Ages the triduum of preparation for a given feast was known, in honor of a particularly venerated saint, and also to impetrate a grace. These devotional tridua did not win the applause of all; already Gerson showed himself opposed to them, and in the modern age the Jansenist movement, the Enlightenment, and Josephinism sought to discredit these devotions. The faithful, however, remained firm in the ancient devotion of the devotional triduum, and even today tridua, whether private or public, with greater or lesser solemnity, are a form of Christian piety universally widespread and accepted. In the very recent Enchiridion indulgentiarum (Rome 1952) the tridua during the octave of Corpus Domini, in honor of Christ the King, of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii and of St. John the Baptist, are expressly granted indulgences.
II. PARTICULAR TRIDUUMS
The three days of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday are called the "Sacred Triduum"; this is a purely philological designation (three days), which does not indicate a unitary devotional form, because each day of this triduum has its own character. Besides the liturgical triduum of the Rogations, a special Eucharistic triduum on the last three days of Carnival is very widespread, celebrated in many regions with great solemnity and a gathering of people.
Another kind of triduum is the one customarily celebrated on the occasion of beatifications and canonizations. The celebration takes place first of all in Rome, generally in the national or religious church of the one who has been raised to the honors of the altars, or in another church, after the official function in the Vatican Basilica. The custom came into use after the end of the Middle Ages in canonizations, when the first permissions for a provisional cult in view of an almost-defined canonization were introduced (beginning of the 16th century); this permission was celebrated with a solemn triduum in a Roman church, until Alexander VII ordered that in this case too the official act of beatification in St. Peter's should precede it. These tridua soon, and by now as a rule, were celebrated also outside Rome, in the respective dioceses or religious churches of the new Blessed or Saint. The Sacred Congregation of Rites has issued precise norms for the celebration of Masses and other liturgical solemnities, as well as for the pre-established indulgences.
Not a triduum in the proper sense, but pertinent to the idea of the ternary, is the "third" day in the funeral celebration. It was in fact an ancient belief that the soul left the body definitively only on the third day after death; the third day was therefore solemnized in a particular way, a custom continued also by Christians and sanctioned by the liturgy.
III. NOVENA
The novena is nothing other than a tripled, that is, intensified, triduum, and thus brought to a much greater efficacy, and consequently reserved for more solemn occasions.
As a Christian celebration the novena is prefigured by the nine days that the Apostles, together with the first disciples, according to the explicit command of the Lord, had to wait in recollection and prayer for the coming of the Holy Spirit. But the novena, or rather, according to classical terminology, the more common "novendial," was that of the funeral cult. In fact the Romans, as well as other peoples, used to prolong funeral rites for nine days, a custom that passed without question among Christians. However, already in the time of St. Augustine, a strong protest was raised against this pagan custom, replacing the novena of the dead with a septenary (seven days), taking as its starting point the Christian week and the number seven, believed more sacred than nine. Indeed, after various waverings, the septenary prevailed, that is, the celebration of the seventh day, but strangely the pagan novendials, as a daily funeral celebration, were maintained for the death of the Supreme Pontiff.
The devotional novena, with an impetratory purpose, and also for the purpose of greater solemnity of a feast or of an extraordinary event (jubilee, centenary, etc.), was already known in the Middle Ages. Famous in Italy was the novena of Gubbio, in honor of the patron St. Ubald, and in France (Paris) the novena of King St. Louis IX.
The various novenas in honor of popular saints or of the Madonna increased in number in the Baroque age, often celebrated publicly, with great external splendor and wide participation of the faithful. Mention should be made above all of the novena of the Immaculate Conception, which developed very widely during the 17th and 18th centuries, often celebrated by vow or by foundation (for example, the solemn vow of Charles VI, emperor, for the entire House of Austria). The novena of Christmas too, in preparation for this feast, has become, in many regions, extremely popular. A famous novena is the one called "of grace" in honor of St. Francis Xavier, which draws its origin from the miraculous healing, wrought through invocation of the Saint, of the Jesuit Father Marcello Mastrilli (Naples, 3 Jan. 1634), who later died a martyr in the Indian mission (17 Oct. 1637). The event aroused universal enthusiasm and gave occasion to celebrate annually a solemn novena to the Saint (celebrated, for example, officially at the courts of Madrid and Vienna), fixed for the days 4-12 March, the 12th being the anniversary of the date of the canonization of St. Francis Xavier (1622).
The Enchiridion indulgentiarum (Rome 1952) gives, on p. 692 (index), the list of indulgenced novenas.
Among the Christian people, however, the most accredited novenas are the private ones, for graces, especially in difficult cases, and often in cases of serious illness. In the causes of saints, when it is a question of miraculous healings, it is found that they are often linked to a novena or even to a series of novenas, during which the Servant of God and the Blessed were invoked. It should be noted that, in the case of such a novena, it must be established that it was addressed to a single Servant of God and Blessed; otherwise the proof of the granting becomes impossible; however, the concomitant invocation of the Madonna is always permitted.
TRIESTE AND CAPODISTRIA, DIOCESE OF - 1) State borders; 2) borders of ecclesiastical circumscription; 3) roads; 4) railways; 5) oratories.
IV. OCTAVE
It is a form of devotion continued for eight days, thus a kind of octave. To tell the truth, octaves are relatively rare, and their origin is rather recent. At most it is in use on the occasion of the celebration of beatifications or canonizations. The Sacred Congregation of Rites, for such celebrations, has issued instructions for liturgical concessions not much different from those of tridua.
Bibliography
Giuseppe Löw