VIGIL. - It is the day that precedes, as a preparation, the great feasts of the Lord (Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Pentecost) and those of the saints (of the Madonna, of St. John, of the Apostles, of St. Lawrence, etc.).
They are distinguished into privileged and common; the privileged are of the 1st and 2nd class; the former, Easter and Pentecost, do not yield to any feast; the latter, Epiphany, yield only to a feast of higher or equal rite and to a feast of the Lord; the common ones are only commemorated on the occurrence of a feast of double rite. If they fall on a Sunday, they are celebrated or commemorated on the preceding Saturday. They have their own proper in the Office and in the Mass. The CIC prescribes fasting, in addition to Holy Saturday (until the bells are rung), on the vigils of Christmas, of Pentecost, of the Assumption of the Most Holy Mary and of All Saints (v. DIGIUNO).
It originates from the Easter vigil, "the mother of all vigils" (St. Augustine, Serm., 219), in ancient times a pannuchia, a celebration throughout the night with readings drawn from the Holy Books, alternating with the responsorial singing of the psalms, canticles and their respective collects; the Mass followed. Such a vigil took place also at Pentecost, on the Sundays of the Ember Days, and extended to the feasts of the principal martyrs: of the apostles Peter and Paul, of St. Lawrence, etc. At Milan a similar vigil preceded the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, the translation of the relics of Sts. Gervasius and Protasius and the dedication of the Ambrosian Basilica (St. Ambrose, De virginitate, XIX, 124; Ep., 22, 2). Similarly at Carthage it preceded the feast of St. Cyprian (St. Augustine, Enarr. in ps., 32, XI, 1, 5; 85, 24), at Toulouse it was held at the tomb of St. Saturninus. From this public vigil with the participation of the clergy and the faithful is distinguished the private one, that which, for example, the faithful held at the tomb of some martyr, but without the eucharistic celebration. Later, perhaps already at the beginning of the 5th century, the cemetery vigils, outside the city at the tombs of the martyrs, were held at the close of the evening of the preceding day (cf., for example, the first Mass of St. Lawrence in the Leonine Sacramentary: "praevenientes natalem"). The other vigils of Easter, of Pentecost, of the Sundays of the Ember Days were moved to the evening of Saturday in the 7th century. A distinctive feature of these vigils was that they began on the evening preceding the feast or the Sunday and ended before midnight. Then they were again moved forward to the time of None and received a proper Office for the choir and for the Mass. The original liturgy is preserved in the vigil of Holy Saturday, of Pentecost and of the Saturdays of the Ember Days.
THE NIGHT HOUR OF THE OFFICE
This vigil does not originate from the vigil as pannychis, but from the private prayer of the faithful at midnight, made in common by the monks and consequently also by the Churches (v. MATTUTINO; NOTTURNO; UFFICIO). On ferias it was made with one Nocturn of 9 psalms and 3 lessons (in the monastic Office in 2 Nocturns with 6 psalms each and with 3 lessons in the first Nocturn). On Sundays they increased the number of lessons (9 in the Office of the Churches, 12 in the monastic one), with the psalms and lessons divided into 3 Nocturns.
The number of 3 Nocturns does not derive from military watches, but from practical necessity: a pause was made, a breath between or after 3 or 4 lessons; they were not considered three distinct vigils, because the individual vigils did not close with a corresponding Collect, but ended as if they were a single vigil, with a single collect. It should be noted that this vigil was always made after midnight (as opposed to the other vigil mentioned above), "at first cockcrow" (around three o'clock) and was combined with that matutinal Office, called today Lauds. The anticipation before midnight or on the preceding evening begins from the 12th century.
Recently J. M. Hanssens has asserted that the vigil does not originate from midnight prayer, but is considered as an amplification of the properly matutinal Office of Lauds, with the monks prefixing the customary recitation of the Psalter alone or interspersed with lessons, as was done to pass a total or partial night vigil devoutly in preparation for that matutinal one.
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Pietro Siffrin