### TRIDUO, OTTAVARIO (OTTIDUO), NOVENA
These are popular forms of devotion linked to a certain number of days, during which one continues, with various acts of piety, to implore with greater insistence particular graces, to give thanks for those received, or simply to solemnize certain events or feasts. The official liturgy does not recognize these devotional forms; yet the Church has approved them and encourages them with indulgences. The most common form is the Triduo; the Novena is a triplication of it; the Ottiduo, instead, is less known and used.
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### I. TRIDUO
A space of three continuous days, or also an action that extends over three days (from the adjective *tridius*, whence the noun *triduum*); it is the transposition into time of the universal popular predilection for the number three. It is a fact confirmed by numerous studies in the field of primitive cultures, that the number three, in its countless relations, is universally preferred and almost consecrated. Certainly not as a "prime number" that follows one, but for a certain idea of completeness or perfection that is associated with it: life, folklore, superstition, and even religion—in short, all religions—present many examples of the "cult" of the number three.
Divine revelation teaches that within the unity of the divine nature dwells the mystery of the Trinity of Persons; and it is not unreasonable to deduce the supreme supernatural reason that explains in man a certain natural inclination to consider in the ternary number that kind of perfection and completeness; these are the reflections of the Creator in the rational creature. It is neither necessary nor right to push that "divine exemplarism," which is certainly willed and intended by God, to excess. Be that as it may, limiting ourselves to the religious sphere, triads of divinities, major or minor, are found in primitive and classical religions; they know, besides very widespread tridual funeral rites, other forms of devotions, services, and prayers based on the number three.
In the Old Testament, the period of three days already appears as something of particular importance, especially in more recent times. Sara, the daughter of Raguel, after the death of her seven husbands, fasts for three days and three nights, and the angel Raphael invites the young Tobias, before his wedding, to abstain for three days from his bride, praying (Tob. 3:10; 6:16–22; 8); Judith, in the Assyrian camp, before her great strike against Holofernes, asks to be allowed to leave the camp for three nights, to worship God (Jud. 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 performs a fast, with prayers, for three weeks (Dan. 10:2–3); Judas Maccabeus imposes on himself and his men a fast with prayers for three continuous days (2 Macc. 13:12): all practices that demonstrate, in the Jewish people, a preference for these penitential tridua, with the aim of obtaining special graces. In the New Testament, it is especially noteworthy how our Lord Himself makes use of this pious practice, to draw a parallel between the three days spent by the prophet Jonah in the belly of the fish and His own stay in the tomb (Jon. 2:1; Matt. 12:38–40). Another famous passage in the Gospel is that in which Jesus, speaking of the destruction of the Temple that He will rebuild in three days, alludes to His resurrection after three days from burial (John 2:19–20; Matt. 26:61; 27:40; Mark 14:40; Matt. 27:63; 17:22; Mark 8:31; 9:30). Even Saul, the future Paul, after the blinding vision, remained in Damascus for three days fasting and greatly troubled.
In memory of Christ’s presence in the tomb, a fast of penance for two or three days soon became common among Christians, according to the interpretation given to the duration of Christ’s burial. Here also lies the origin of the practice of Lenten fasting, and the *biduani* and *triduani ieiunia* remained, at all times of the year, a pious practice. St. Jerome, it is true, was not overly enthusiastic; in some of his letters he dissuades from this use, defending as more reasonable a moderate continuous use of food, rather than these almost exaggerated tridua (cf., e.g., *Ep. ad Furian*: PL 22, 555: *“parcus cibus et venter semper esuriens triduaniis ieiuniis praefertur”*). St. Augustine, instead, 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).
In this line stands what is reflected in the Acts of St. Cecilia, namely that the Saint “*biduani* vel *triduaniis ieiuniis se commendabat Domino*” (cf. Antiphon 5 of the Lauds of her feast). But the most solemn confirmation of this pious practice of the triduum of penance and prayer as a universal usage is found in the institution of the Rogations (v.), that is, of the Minor Litanies. St. Mamertus, to whom this institution is attributed, by prescribing to his people a fast of three days, with solemn litany, did nothing but transform a usual private practice into a public one that has been preserved and spread throughout the Church (v. , for example, the historical description given by Amalarius in *Liber officialis*, I, 37, in *Opera liturgica*, ed. J. M. Hanssens, II, Vatican City 1938, pp. 178–80). From this also derives the very widespread medieval usage according to which an adult preparing for Baptism had to observe beforehand a fast of three days.
A similar triduum of prayer and fasting was also widely used in preparation for the election of the Pope and the coronation of the Emperor. (E. Eichmann, *Die Kaiserkrönung im Abendland*, I, Würzburg 1942, p. 38; id., *Weihe u. Krönung des Papstes im Mittelalter*, Munich 1951, p. 6). From the penitential triduum, which had as its main purpose impetration, it was easy to move to the simple triduum of devotion, without fasting, with only private or public prayer, or with certain popular rites and customs.
Already in the Middle Ages, the triduum of preparation for a given feast in honor of a particularly venerated saint was known, as well as for impetrating a grace. These devotional tridua did not meet with universal approval; already Gerson opposed them, and in modern times the Jansenist movement, the Enlightenment, and Josephinism sought to discredit these devotions. The faithful, however, remained steadfast in the ancient devotion of the devotional triduum, and even today tridua, whether private or public, with greater or lesser solemnity, are a universally diffused and accepted form of Christian piety. In the most recent *Enchiridion Indulgentiarum* (Rome 1952), tridua are expressly granted indulgences during the octave of Corpus Christi, in honor of Christ the King, the Madonna of the Rosary of Pompei, and St. John the Baptist.
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### II. PARTICULAR TRIDUA
The “Sacred Triduum” is called the three days of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday; it is a purely philological denomination (three days), which does not indicate a unitary devotional form, because each day of this triduum has its own distinct character. Besides the liturgical triduum of the Rogations, a special Eucharistic triduum is widely observed in the three days preceding Lent in many regions, celebrated with great solemnity and large attendance.
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 person who has been raised to the honours of the altar, or in another church, after the official function in the Vatican Basilica. The custom became established after the end of the Middle Ages in canonizations, when the first permissions for a provisional cult were introduced in view of an almost definitive canonization (beginning of the 16th century); this permission was celebrated with a solemn triduum in a Roman church, until Alexander VII ordered that even in this case the official act of beatification in St Peter’s should precede II. These tridua soon became, and have now by rule, celebrated also outside Rome, in the relevant 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 pertaining to the idea of a three-day period, is the “third day” in funeral celebrations. It was an ancient belief indeed that the soul definitively left the body only on the third day after death; the third day therefore came to be solemnized in a particular way, a custom continued also by Christians and sanctioned by the liturgy.
III. NOVENA
A novena is nothing other than a triduum tripled, that is, intensified, thus rendered far more efficacious, and therefore reserved for more solemn occasions.As a Christian celebration, the novena is prefigured by the nine days which the Apostles, together with the first disciples, had to wait in recollection and prayer, according to the express command of the Lord, for the coming of the Holy Spirit. But the novena, or rather, according to classical terminology, the more common “novendiale,” was that of funeral cult. Indeed, the Romans, like other peoples, used to prolong funeral rites for nine days, a custom that passed without more among Christians. However, already in the time of St Augustine, a strong protest was raised against this pagan custom, substituting for the novena of the dead a week (seven days), taking as their cue the Christian week and the number seven, believed more sacred than nine. In fact, after various hesitations, the week prevailed, that is, the celebration of the seventh day; yet strangely the pagan novendiales, as daily funeral celebrations, were maintained for the death of the Supreme Pontiff.
The devotional novena, whether for the purpose of obtaining a grace or for the greater solemnity of a feast or of an extraordinary event (jubilee, centenary, etc.), was already known in the Middle Ages. Famous in Italy is the novena of Gubbio in honour of its patron St Ubaldo, and in France (Paris) the novena of King St Louis IX.
The various novenas in honour of popular saints or of the Madonna increased in number in the Baroque age, often celebrated publicly with great external splendour and wide participation of the faithful. Worth mentioning above all is the novena of the Immaculate Conception, which took on a wide development during the 17th and 18th centuries, often celebrated by vow or by foundation (for example, the solemn vow of Charles VI, Emperor, for the whole House of Austria). The Christmas novena, in preparation for this feast, has also become very popular in many regions. A famous novena is the so-called “of grace” in honour of St Francis Xavier, which takes its origin from the miraculous healing, obtained through the invocation of the Saint, of the Jesuit Fr 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 for the annual celebration of a solemn novena to the Saint (celebrated, for example, officially at the courts of Madrid and Vienna) fixed for the days 4–12 March, 12 being the anniversary of the canonization of Francis Xavier (1622).
The Enchiridion Indulgentiarum (Rome 1952) gives, at 6:02 (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 comes to miraculous healings, it is often found that they are connected 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 directed to only one Servant of God and Blessed; otherwise the proof of the granting of the grace becomes impossible; the concomitant invocation of the Madonna is however always permitted.