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<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Divine Office</title><script src="https://dtyry4ejybx0.cloudfront.net/js/cmp/cleanmediacmp.js?ver=0104" async="true"></script><script defer data-domain="newadvent.org" src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script><link rel="canonical" href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11219a.htm"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <meta name="description" content="Brief essay on the historical development of the Liturgy of the Hours"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://feeds.newadvent.org/bestoftheweb?format=xml"><link rel="icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><link rel="shortcut icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><meta name="robots" content="noodp"><link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="../utility/screen6.css" media="screen"></head> <body class="cathen" id="11219a.htm">  <br/> <div id="capitalcity"><table summary="Logo" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="100%"><tr valign="bottom"><td align="left"><a href="../"><img height=36 width=153 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></td><td align="right"> <form id="searchbox_000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0" action="../utility/search.htm">  <input type="hidden" name="safe" value="active"> <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0"/> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="FORID:9"/>  <label for="searchQuery" id="searchQueryLabel">Search:</label> <input id="searchQuery" name="q" type="text" size="25" aria-labelledby="searchQueryLabel"/>  <label for="submitButton" id="submitButtonLabel" class="visually-hidden">Submit Search</label> <input id="submitButton" type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" aria-labelledby="submitButtonLabel"/> </form> <table summary="Spacer" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td height="2"></td></tr></table> <table summary="Tabs" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr> <td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../"> Home </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_white_on_color" href="../cathen/index.html"> Encyclopedia </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../summa/index.html"> Summa </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../fathers/index.html"> Fathers </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../bible/gen001.htm"> Bible </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../library/index.html"> Library </a></td> </tr></table> </td> </tr></table><table summary="Alphabetical index" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"> <a href="../cathen/a.htm"> A </a><a href="../cathen/b.htm"> B </a><a href="../cathen/c.htm"> C </a><a href="../cathen/d.htm"> D </a><a href="../cathen/e.htm"> E </a><a href="../cathen/f.htm"> F </a><a href="../cathen/g.htm"> G </a><a href="../cathen/h.htm"> H </a><a href="../cathen/i.htm"> I </a><a href="../cathen/j.htm"> J </a><a href="../cathen/k.htm"> K </a><a href="../cathen/l.htm"> L </a><a href="../cathen/m.htm"> M </a><a href="../cathen/n.htm"> N </a><a href="../cathen/o.htm"> O </a><a href="../cathen/p.htm"> P </a><a href="../cathen/q.htm"> Q </a><a href="../cathen/r.htm"> R </a><a href="../cathen/s.htm"> S </a><a href="../cathen/t.htm"> T </a><a href="../cathen/u.htm"> U </a><a href="../cathen/v.htm"> V </a><a href="../cathen/w.htm"> W </a><a href="../cathen/x.htm"> X </a><a href="../cathen/y.htm"> Y </a><a href="../cathen/z.htm"> Z </a> </td></tr></table></div> <div id="mobilecity" style="text-align: center; "><a href="../"><img height=24 width=102 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></div>  <div id="mi5"><span class="breadcrumbs"><a href="../">Home</a> > <a href="../cathen">Catholic Encyclopedia</a> > <a href="../cathen/o.htm">O</a> > Divine Office</span></div> <div id="springfield2"> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-top' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <h1>Divine Office</h1> <p><em><a href="https://gumroad.com/l/na2"><strong>Please help support the mission of New Advent</strong> and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more  all for only $19.99...</a></em></p> <p>("Liturgy of the Hours"</p> <h2 id="section1">The expression "divine office"</h2> <p>This expression signifies etymologically a <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duty</a> accomplished for <a href="../cathen/06608a.htm">God</a>; in virtue of a Divine precept it means, in <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">ecclesiastical</a> language, certain <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayers</a> to be recited at fixed hours of the day or night by <a href="../cathen/12406a.htm">priests</a>, religious, or <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clerics</a>, and, in general, by all those <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obliged</a> by their vocation to fulfil this <a href="../cathen/05215a.htm">duty</a>. The Divine Office comprises only the recitation of certain <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayers</a> in the <a href="../cathen/02768b.htm">Breviary</a>, and does not include the Mass and other <a href="../cathen/09306a.htm">liturgical</a> ceremonies.</p> <p>"Canonical Hours", "Breviary", "Diurnal and Nocturnal Office", "Ecclesiastical Office", "Cursus ecclesiasticus", or simply "cursus" are synonyms of "Divine Office". "Cursus" is the form used by <a href="../cathen/06780a.htm">Gregory</a> writing: "exsurgente abbate cum monachis ad celebrandum cursum" (De glor. martyr., xv). "Agenda", "agenda mortuorum", "agenda missarum", "solemnitas", "missa" were also used. The Greeks employ "synaxis" and "canon" in this sense. The expression "officium divinum" is used in the same sense by the Council of <a href="../cathen/01001a.htm">Aix-la-Chapelle</a> (800), the IV Lateran (1215), and Vienne (1311); but it is also used to signify any office of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>. Thus Walafrid Strabo, Pseudo-Alcuin, Rupert de Tuy entitle their works on <a href="../cathen/09306a.htm">liturgical</a> ceremonies "De officiis divinis". <a href="../cathen/07380a.htm">Hittorp</a>, in the sixteenth century, entitled his collection of <a href="../cathen/10285c.htm">medieval</a> <a href="../cathen/09306a.htm">liturgical</a> works "De Catholicæ Ecclesiæ divinis officiis ac ministeriis" (Cologne, 1568). The usage in <a href="../cathen/06166a.htm">France</a> of the expression "saint-office" as synonymous with "office divin" is not correct. "Saint-office" signifies a Roman congregation, the functions of which are well known, and the words should not be used to replace the name "Divine Office", which is much more suitable and has been used from ancient times.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>In the articles <a href="../cathen/02768b.htm">BREVIARY</a>; <a href="../cathen/07500b.htm">CANONICAL HOURS</a>; <a href="../cathen/10050a.htm">MATINS</a>; <a href="../cathen/12424a.htm">PRIME</a>; <a href="../cathen/14514c.htm">TERCE</a>; <a href="../cathen/13747c.htm">SEXT</a>; <a href="../cathen/11097a.htm">NONE</a>; <a href="../cathen/15381a.htm">VESPERS</a>, the reader will find treated the special questions concerning the meaning and history of each of the hours, the <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obligation</a> of reciting these <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayers</a>, the history of the formation of the <a href="../cathen/02768b.htm">Breviary</a>, etc. We deal here only with the general questions that have not been dwelt on in those articles.</p> <h2 id="section2">Primitive form of the office</h2> <p>The custom of reciting <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayers</a> at certain hours of the day or night goes back to the <a href="../cathen/08399a.htm">Jews</a>, from whom <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> have borrowed it. In the Psalms we find expressions like: "I will <a href="../cathen/04324b.htm">meditate</a> on thee in the morning"; "I rose at midnight to give praise to thee"; "Evening and morning, and at noon I will speak and declare: and he shall hear my voice"; "Seven times a day I have given praise to thee"; etc. (Cf. "Jewish Encyclopedia", X, 164-171, s.v. "Prayer"). The Apostles observed the Jewish custom of <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">praying</a> at midnight, terce, sext, none (<a href="../bible/act010.htm#vrs3">Acts 10:3, 9</a>; <a href="../bible/act016.htm#vrs25">16:25</a>; etc.). The <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christian</a> <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayer</a> of that time consisted of almost the same elements as the Jewish: recital or chanting of psalms, reading of the <a href="../cathen/14526a.htm">Old Testament</a>, to which was soon added reading of the Gospels, Acts, and Epistles, and at times canticles composed or improvised by the assistants. "Gloria in excelsis" and the "Te decet laus" are apparently vestiges of these primitive inspirations. At present the elements composing the Divine Office seem more numerous, but they are derived, by gradual changes, from the primitive elements. As appears from the texts of Acts cited above, the first <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> preserved the custom of going to the Temple at the hour of <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayer</a>. But they had also their reunions or <em>synaxes</em> in private houses for the celebration of the Eucharist and for sermons and exhortations. But the Eucharistic synaxis soon entailed other <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayers</a>; the custom of going to the Temple disappeared; and the abuses of the Judaizing party forced the <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a> to separate more distinctly from the <a href="../cathen/08399a.htm">Jews</a> and their practices and worship. Thenceforth the <a href="../cathen/09306a.htm">Christian liturgy</a> rarely borrowed from <a href="../cathen/08537a.htm">Judaism</a>.</p> <h2 id="section3">Development</h2> <p>The development of the Divine Office was probably in the following manner: The celebration of the Eucharist was preceded by the recital of the psalms and the reading of the <a href="../cathen/14526a.htm">Old</a> and <a href="../cathen/14530a.htm">New Testaments</a>. This was called the Mass of the Catechumens, which has been preserved almost in its original form. Probably this part of the Mass was the first form of the Divine Office, and, in the beginning, the vigils and the Eucharistic Synaxis were one. When the Eucharistic service was not celebrated, the <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayer</a> was limited to the recital or chanting of the psalms and the reading of the Scriptures. The vigils thus separated from the Mass became an independent office. During the first period the only office celebrated in public was the Eucharistic Synaxis with vigils preceding it, but forming with it one whole. In this hypothesis the Mass of the Catechumens would be the original kernel of the whole Divine Office. The Eucharistic Synaxis beginning at eventide did not terminate till dawn. The vigils, independently of the Eucharistic service, were divided naturally into three parts; the beginning of the vigils, or the evening Office; the vigils properly so called; and the end of the vigils or the matutinal Office. For when the vigils were as yet the only Office and were celebrated but rarely, they were continued during the greater part of the night. Thus the Office which we have called the Office of evening or <a href="../cathen/15381a.htm">Vespers</a>, that of midnight, and that of the morning, called <a href="../cathen/10050a.htm">Matins</a> first and then <a href="../cathen/09038a.htm">Lauds</a>, were originally but one Office. If this hypothesis be rejected, it must be admitted that at first there was only one public office, Vigils. The service of eventide, <a href="../cathen/15381a.htm">Vespers</a>, and that of the morning, <a href="../cathen/10050a.htm">Matins</a> or <a href="../cathen/09038a.htm">Lauds</a>, were gradually separated from it. During the day, <a href="../cathen/14514c.htm">Terce</a>, Sext, and None, customary hours of private <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayers</a> both with the <a href="../cathen/08399a.htm">Jews</a> and the early <a href="../cathen/03712a.htm">Christians</a>, became later <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">ecclesiastical</a> Hours, just like <a href="../cathen/15381a.htm">Vespers</a> or <a href="../cathen/09038a.htm">Lauds</a>. <a href="../cathen/04187a.htm">Complin</a> appears as a repetition of <a href="../cathen/15381a.htm">Vespers</a>, first in the fourth century (see <a href="../cathen/04187a.htm">COMPLIN</a>). Prime is the only hour the precise origin and date of which are known--at the end of the fourth century (see <a href="../cathen/12424a.htm">PRIME</a>).</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>At all events, during the course of the fifth century, the Office was composed, as today, of a nocturnal Office, viz. <a href="../cathen/05647a.htm">Vigils</a>--afterwards <a href="../cathen/10050a.htm">Matins</a>--and the seven Offices of the day, <a href="../cathen/09038a.htm">Lauds</a>, Prime, <a href="../cathen/14514c.htm">Terce</a>, Sext, None, <a href="../cathen/15381a.htm">Vespers</a>, and <a href="../cathen/04187a.htm">Complin</a>. In the "Apostolic Constitutions" we read: "Precationes facite mane, hora tertia, sexta, nona, et vespere atque galli cantu" (VIII, iv). Such were the hours as they then existed. There are omitted only Prime and <a href="../cathen/04187a.htm">Complin</a>, which originated not earlier than the end of the fourth century, and the use of which spread only gradually. The elements of which these hours are composed were at first few in number, identical with those of the Mass of the Catechumens, psalms recited or chanted uninterruptedly (tract) or by two choirs (antiphons) or by a cantor alternating with the choir (responses and versicles); lessons (readings from the <a href="../cathen/14526a.htm">Old</a> and <a href="../cathen/14530a.htm">New Testaments</a>, the origin of the capitula), and <a href="../cathen/12345b.htm">prayers</a> (see <a href="../cathen/02768b.htm">BREVIARY</a>).</p> <p>This development of the Divine Office, as far as concerns the Roman liturgy, was completed at the close of the sixth century. Later changes are not in essential points but rather concern additions, as the <a href="../cathen/01575b.htm">antiphons</a> to <a href="../cathen/15464b.htm">Our Lady</a> at the end of certain offices, matters of the calendar, and optional offices, like those of Saturday (see <a href="../cathen/09294a.htm">LITTLE OFFICE OF OUR LADY</a>), or of the dead (see <a href="../cathen/11220a.htm">OFFICE OF THE DEAD</a>), and the celebration of new feasts etc. The influence of <a href="../cathen/06780a.htm">St. Gregory the Great</a> on the formation and fixation of the Roman Antiphonary, an influence that has been questioned, now appears <a href="../cathen/03539b.htm">certain</a> (see "Dict. d'archéol. et de liturgie", s.v. "Antiphonaire").</p> <p>While allowing a certain liberty as to the exterior form of the office (e.g. the liberty enjoyed by the <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a> of <a href="../cathen/05329b.htm">Egypt</a> and later by St. Benedict in the constitution of the <a href="../cathen/02443a.htm">Benedictine</a> Office), the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> insisted from ancient times on its right to supervise the <a href="../cathen/11330a.htm">orthodoxy</a> of the <a href="../cathen/09306a.htm">liturgical</a> formulæ. The Council of <a href="../cathen/10304b.htm">Milevis</a> (416) forbade any <a href="../cathen/09306a.htm">liturgical</a> formula not approved by a council or by a competent authority (cf. Labbe, II, 1540). The Councils of <a href="../cathen/15271b.htm">Vannes</a> (461), <a href="../cathen/01206b.htm">Agde</a> (506), Epaon (517), Braga (563), Toledo (especially the fourth council) <a href="../cathen/12454b.htm">promulgated</a> similar decrees for Gaul and <a href="../cathen/14169b.htm">Spain</a>. In the fifth and sixth centuries several facts (see <a href="../cathen/03255c.htm">CANON OF THE MASS</a>) made known to us the <a href="../cathen/13055c.htm">rights</a> claimed by the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">popes</a> in <a href="../cathen/09306a.htm">liturgical</a> matters. The same fact is established by the correspondence of <a href="../cathen/06780a.htm">St. Gregory I</a>. Under his successors the Roman liturgy tends gradually to replace the others, and this is additional <a href="../cathen/12454c.htm">proof</a> of the right of the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> to control the liturgy (a thesis well established by <a href="../cathen/07058a.htm">Dom Guéranger</a> in his "Institutions Liturgiques", Paris, 1883, and in his letter to the <a href="../cathen/01691a.htm">Archbishop</a> of <a href="../cathen/12725a.htm">Reims</a> on <a href="../cathen/09306a.htm">liturgical</a> law, op. cit., III, 453 sq.). From the eleventh century, under <a href="../cathen/06791c.htm">St. Gregory VII</a> and his successors, this influence gradually increases (Bäumer-Biron, "Hist. du Bréviaire", especially II, 8, 22 sqq.). From the <a href="../cathen/15030c.htm">Council of Trent</a> the reformation of the <a href="../cathen/09296a.htm">liturgical books</a> enters a new phase. <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> becomes, under Popes <a href="../cathen/12129a.htm">Pius IV</a>, <a href="../cathen/12130a.htm">St. Pius V</a>, <a href="../cathen/07001b.htm">Gregory XIII</a>, <a href="../cathen/14033a.htm">Sixtus V</a>, <a href="../cathen/07004a.htm">Gregory XIV</a>, <a href="../cathen/15218a.htm">Urban VII</a> and his successors, <a href="../cathen/02432a.htm">Benedict XIV</a>, the scene of a laborious undertaking--the reformation and correction of the Divine Office, resulting in the modern custom, with all the <a href="../cathen/13216a.htm">rubrics</a> and rules for the recitation of the Divine Office and its <a href="../cathen/11189a.htm">obligation</a>, and with the reformation of the <a href="../cathen/09296a.htm">liturgical books</a>, corrected in accordance with the decisions of the <a href="../cathen/15030c.htm">Council of Trent</a> and solemnly approved by the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">popes</a> (Bäumer-Biron, "Hist. du Bréviaire").</p> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-bottom' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <div class="cenotes"><h2>Sources</h2><p class="cenotes">BONA, <em>De divina Psalmodia</em>, ii, par. 1; THOMASSIN, <em>De vet. eccl. disc.</em>, Part I, II, lxxi-lxxviii; GRANCOLAS, <em>Traité de la messe et de l'office divin</em> (Paris, 1713); MACHIETTA, <em>Commentarius historico-theologicus de divino officio</em> (Venice, 1739); PIANACCI, <em>Del offizio divino, trattato historico-critico-morale</em> (Rome, 1770); <em>De divini officii nominibus et definitione, antiquitate et excellentia</em> in ZACCARIA, <em>Disciplina populi Dei in N. T.</em>, 1782, I, 116 sq.; MORONI, <em>Dizionario di erudizione storico ecclesiastica</em>, LXXXII, 279 sqq.; BÄUMER-BIRON, <em>Histoire du Bréviaire</em> (Paris, 1905), passim; CABROL, <em>Dict. d'archéol. et de liturgie</em>, s. vv. <em>Antiphonaire</em>, <em>Bréviaire</em>; GAVANTI, <em>Compendio delle cerimonie ecclesiastiche</em>, the part devoted to the rubrics of the Breviary, sections on the obligation, omission, and in general all the questions concerning the recitation of the Office; ROSKOVÁNY, <em>De coelibatu et Breviario</em> (Budapest, 1861); BATIFFOL, <em>Origine de l'obligation personnelle des clercs à le récitation de l'office canonique</em> in <em>Le canoniste contemporain</em>, XVII (1894), 9-15; IDEM, <em>Histoire du Bréviaire romain</em> (Paris, 1893).</p></div> <div class="pub"><h2>About this page</h2><p id="apa"><strong>APA citation.</strong> <span id="apaauthor">Cabrol, F.</span> <span id="apayear">(1911).</span> <span id="apaarticle">Divine Office.</span> In <span id="apawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="apapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company.</span> <span id="apaurl">http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11219a.htm</span></p><p id="mla"><strong>MLA citation.</strong> <span id="mlaauthor">Cabrol, Fernand.</span> <span id="mlaarticle">"Divine Office."</span> <span id="mlawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="mlavolume">Vol. 11.</span> <span id="mlapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company,</span> <span id="mlayear">1911.</span> <span id="mlaurl"><http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11219a.htm>.</span></p><p id="transcription"><strong>Transcription.</strong> <span id="transcriber">This article was transcribed for New Advent by Elizabeth T. Knuth.</span> <span id="dedication">Dedicated to the monks of St. John's Abbey, Collegeville, Minnesota.</span></p><p id="approbation"><strong>Ecclesiastical approbation.</strong> <span id="nihil"><em>Nihil Obstat.</em> February 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor.</span> <span id="imprimatur"><em>Imprimatur.</em> +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.</span></p><p id="contactus"><strong>Contact information.</strong> The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster <em>at</em> newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.</p></div> </div> <div id="ogdenville"><table summary="Bottom bar" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"><center><strong>Copyright © 2023 by <a href="../utility/contactus.htm">New Advent LLC</a>. 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