Editing Matins (section)

===Roman Rite===
====Vigil====
The every-night monastic [[canonical hours|canonical hour]] that later became known as matins was at first called a vigil, from [[Latin]] ''vigilia''. For soldiers, this word meant a three-hour period of being on the watch during the night. Even for civilians, night was commonly spoken of as divided into four such watches: the Gospels use the term when recounting how, at about "the fourth watch of the night", Jesus came to his disciples who in their boat were struggling to make headway against the wind,<ref>{{bibleverse|Mark|6:48|ESV}}; {{bibleverse|Matthew|14:5|ESV}}</ref> and one of the [[Psalms]] says to the Lord: "A thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night."<ref>{{bibleverse|Psalm|90:4|ESV}}</ref>

The sixth-century ''[[Rule of Saint Benedict]]'' uses the term ''vigiliae'' ("vigils") fifteen times to speak of these celebrations, accompanying it four times with the adjective ''nocturnae'' ("nocturnal") and once with the words ''septem noctium'' ("of the seven nights", i.e., the nights of the week).<ref name=Regula>[http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/benedict.html ''Regula S.P.N. Benedicti'']</ref>

English versions of this document often obscure its use of the term vigil, translating it as "Night Hour" or "Night Office". Thus Leonard J. Doyle's English version uses "Night Office" to represent indifferently the unaccompanied noun ''vigilia'' ("vigil"), the phrase ''nocturna vigilia'' ("nightly vigil"), and the phrases ''nocturna hora'' ("night hour) and ''nocturna laus'' ("nocturnal praise").<ref>[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/50040/50040-h/50040-h.html ''St Benedict's Rule for Monasteries'']; cf. [https://www.ewtn.com/library/priests/benrule.htm another translation]; [https://books.google.com/books?id=fZNnDQAAQBAJ&q=delatte+rule+benedict Paul Delatte, ''Rule of St. Benedict: A Commentary'' (Ravenio Books 2014)]</ref>

The practice of rising for prayer in the middle of the night is as old as the Church.<ref name=Benedictine>[http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=9043 Benedictine Monks of Buckfast Abbey, "Divine Office: Matins — Prayer at Night", ''Homiletic and Pastoral Review'', pp.361-367, Joseph F. Wagner, Inc., New York, NY, January 1925]</ref> [[Tertullian]] ({{Circa|155|240}}) speaks of the "nocturnal convocations" (''nocturnae convocationes'') of Christians and their "absence all the night long at the paschal solemnities" (''sollemnibus Paschae abnoctantes'')<ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0404.htm Tertullian, ''Ad uxorem'', II,4] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140304214727/http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0404.htm |date=2014-03-04 }}; [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/tertullian/tertullian.uxor2.shtml Latin text]</ref> [[Cyprian]] ({{Circa|200}} – 258) also speaks of praying at night, but not of doing so as a group: "Let there be no failure of prayers in the hours of night — no idle and reckless waste of the occasions of prayer" (''nulla sint horis nocturnis precum damna, nulla orationum pigra et ignava dispendia'').<ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/050704.htm Cyprian, ''De oratione dominica'', 36 (near end)]; [https://archive.org/stream/corpusscriptoru16wissgoog#page/n461/mode/2up Latin text]</ref> The ''[[Apostolic Tradition]]'' speaks of prayer at midnight and again at cockcrow, but seemingly as private, not communal, prayer.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=UK-BkfXmh20C&dq=taft+%22two+prayer+times+at+night%22&pg=PA26 Robert F. Taft, ''The Liturgy of the Hours in East and West: The Origins of the Divine Office and Its Meaning for Today'' (Liturgical Press 1986), pp. 25–26]</ref> At an earlier date, [[Pliny the Younger]] [[Pliny the Younger on Christians|reported]] in about 112 that Christians gathered on a certain day before light, sang hymns to Christ as to a god and shared a meal.<ref>[http://faculty.georgetown.edu/jod/texts/pliny.html Pliny, ''Letters'' 10.96-97]</ref> The solemn celebration of vigils in the churches of [[Jerusalem]] in the early 380s is described in the ''[[Egeria (pilgrim)|Peregrinatio Aetheriae]]''.

Prayer at midnight and at cockcrow was associated with passages in the [[Gospel of Matthew]]<ref>{{bibleverse|Matthew|25:6}}</ref> and the [[Gospel of Mark]].<ref>{{bibleverse|Mark|13:35}}</ref><ref>Taft (1986), p. 35</ref> On the basis of the [[Gospel of Luke]],<ref>{{bibleverse|Luke|12:35–37}}</ref> too, prayer at any time of the night was seen as having eschatological significance.<ref>Taft (1986), p. 15</ref>

The quotation from Tertullian above refers to the all-night vigil liturgy held at Easter. A similar liturgy came to be held in the night that led to any Sunday. By the fourth century this Sunday vigil had become a daily observance, but no longer lasted throughout the night. What had been an all-night vigil became a liturgy only from cockcrow to before dawn.<ref>[https://www.ewtn.com/library/PRAYER/DIOFFICE.TXT Lallou, William J. "Introduction to the Roman Breviary", ''Roman Breviary In English'', Benziger Brothers, Inc., 1950]</ref> Saint Benedict wrote about it as beginning at about 2 in the morning ("the eighth hour of the night") and ending in winter well before dawn (leaving an interval in which the monks were to devote themselves to study or meditation),<ref>''Rule of Saint Benedict'', 8</ref> but having to be curtailed in summer in order to celebrate lauds at daybreak.<ref>''Rule of Saint Benedict'', 10</ref>

====''Matins''====
The word ''matins'' is derived from the [[Latin]] adjective {{Lang|la|matutinus}}, meaning 'of or belonging to the morning'.<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3D%2328254 Lewis and Short, ''Latin Dictionary'']</ref> It was at first applied to the psalms recited at dawn, but later became attached to the prayer originally offered, according to the fourth-century ''[[Apostolic Constitutions]]'', at cockcrow<ref>"Offer up your prayers in the morning, at the third hour, the sixth, the ninth, the evening, and at cock-crowing" ([http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-07/anf07-49.htm#P7253_2430086 Constitutions of the Holy Apostles] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060807084821/http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-07/anf07-49.htm#P7253_2430086 |date=2006-08-07 }}, VIII, iv, 34)</ref> and, according to the sixth-century ''Rule of Saint Benedict'', at could be calculated to be the eighth hour of the night (the hour that began at about 2 a.m.).<ref name=Doyle8>[https://www.ewtn.com/library/priests/benrule.htm#Chapter%208%20-%20Divine%20Office%20at%20Night Rule of Saint Benedict, 8]</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=e4lKAwAAQBAJ&q=oscillated Delatte, ''Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict'' (Wipf and Stock 1922), p. 141]</ref>

Between the vigil office and the dawn office in the long winter nights there was an interval, which "should be spent in study by those [monks] who need a better knowledge of the Psalter or the lessons"; in the summer nights the interval was short, only enough for the monks to "go out for the necessities of nature".<ref>[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/50040/50040-h/50040-h.html#chapter-8-nl-on-the-divine-office-during-the-night Rule of Saint Benedict, 8]</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=e4lKAwAAQBAJ&q=oscillatedDelatte Paul Delatte, ''Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict'' (Wipf and Stock 1922), p. 157]</ref> The vigil office was also shortened in the summer months by replacing readings with a passage of scripture recited by heart, but keeping the same number of psalms. Both in summer and in winter the vigil office was longer than on other days, with more reading and the recitation of canticles in addition to the psalms.<ref>Rule of Saint Benedict, 10−11</ref>

Outside monasteries few rose at night to pray. The canonical hour of the vigil was said in the morning, followed immediately by lauds, and the name of "matins" became attached to the lengthier part of what was recited at that time of the day, while the name of "lauds", a name originally describing only the three Psalms 148−150 recited every day at the end of the dawn office (until excised in the 1911 [[reform of the Roman Breviary by Pope Pius X]]; see [[Lauds]]), was applied to the whole of that office, substituting for the lost name of "matins" or variants such as ''laudes matutinae'' (morning praises) and ''matutini hymni'' (morning hymns). An early instance of the application of the named "matins" to the vigil office is that of the [[Council of Tours 567|Council of Tours in 567]], which spoke of ''ad matutinum sex antiphonae''.<ref name=CE1911>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10050a.htm Fernand Cabrol, "Matins" in ''The Catholic Encyclopedia'', vol. 10 (New York 1911)]; {{CE1913|wstitle=Matins|inline=1|last=Cabrol|first=Fernand|volume=10|year=1911}}</ref>

The ''Rule of Saint Benedict'' clearly distinguished matins as the nighttime hour, to which he applied [[Psalm 119|Psalm 118/119]]:62, "At midnight I rise to praise you, because of your righteous rules".<ref>[https://www.biblestudytools.com/psalms/119-62-compare.html Psalm 119:62]</ref><ref>Rule of Saint Benedict, 16</ref>

The word ''vigil'' also took on a different meaning: not only a prayerful night watch before a religious feast, but the day before a feast.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20190212130740/https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/vigil Oxford English Dictionaries]</ref><ref>[https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vigil Merriam-Webster]</ref>

====Monastic matins====
The canonical hour began with the [[versicle]] "Lord, open our lips: And we shall praise your name" (the latter said three times) followed by [[Psalm 3]] and [[Psalm 95|Psalm 94/95]] (the [[invitatory]]). The invitatory was to be recited slowly out of consideration for any late-arriving monk, since anyone appearing after its conclusion was punished by having to stand in a place apart.<ref>Rule of Saint Benedict, 43</ref> After this a hymn was sung.

Next came two sets of six psalms followed by readings. (Such sets would later be called [[nocturns]].) The first set was of six psalms followed by three readings from the [[Old Testament|Old]] or [[New Testament]]s or from [[Church Fathers]]. Each reading was followed by a [[responsory]]. The second set of six psalms was followed by a passage from the [[Apostle Paul]] recited by heart and by some prayers. The Night Office then concluded with a versicle and a litany that began with [[Kyrie eleison]].<ref>Rule of St Benedict, 9–10</ref>

Since summer nights are shorter, from Easter to October a single passage from the Old Testament, recited by heart, took the place of the three readings used during the rest of the year.<ref>Rule of Saint Benedict, 10</ref>

On Sundays, the office was longer, and therefore began a little earlier. Each set of six psalms was followed by four readings instead of three after the first set and a single recitation by heart after the second set. Then three [[canticle]]s taken from Old Testament books other than the Psalms were recited, followed by four readings from the New Testament, the singing of the [[Te Deum]], and a reading by the abbot from the Gospels, after which another hymn was sung.<ref>Rule of Saint Benedict, 11</ref>

====''Roman Breviary'' matins====
In the ''Roman Breviary'', use of which was made obligatory throughout the [[Latin Church]] (with exceptions for forms of the [[Liturgy of the Hours]] that could show they had been in continuous use for at least two hundred years) by Pope Pius V in 1568, matins and lauds were seen as a single canonical hour, with lauds as an appendage to matins.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=y8NVAAAAcAAJ&dq=Roman+Breviary+appended&pg=PA19 John Henry Newman, ''On the Roman Breviary as embodying the substance of the devotional services of the Church Catholic'' (Tracts for the Times, 75), p. 19]</ref>

Its matins began, as in the monastic matins, with versicles and the [[invitatory]] Psalm 94 (Psalm 95 in the Masoretic text) chanted or recited in the responsorial form, that is to say, by one or more [[Cantor (church)|cantor]]s singing one verse, which the [[choir]] repeated as a response to the successive verses sung by the cantors. A [[hymn]] was then sung.{{citation needed|date=January 2025}}

After that introduction, Sunday matins had three sections ("[[nocturns]]"), the first with 12 psalms and 3 very short scriptural readings; the second with 3 psalms and 3 equally short [[Fathers of the Church|patristic]] readings; and the third with 3 psalms and 3 short extracts from a homily. Matins of feasts of [[Ranking of liturgical days in the Roman Rite|double or semidouble rank]] had 3 nocturns, each with 3 psalms and 3 readings.<ref>''Rubricae Generales Breviarii'', I,5; II,4</ref> On a feast of simple rank, a ''feria'' or a vigil day, matins had 12 psalms and 3 readings with no division into nocturns.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_ieGIT3_BdREC ''Rubricae Generales Breviarii'', III,4; V,3; VI,4]</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=q1DNl-q61-wC&q=breviarium+romanum ''Breviarium Romanum'' (Dessain 1861), as an example of a volume of the Roman Breviary]</ref>

The psalms used at matins in the Roman Breviary from Sunday to Saturday were Psalms 1−108/109 in consecutive order, omitting a few that were reserved for other canonical hours: Psalms 4, 5, 21/22−25/26, 41/42, 50/51, 53/54, 62/63, 66/67, 89/90−92/93.<ref name=PiusV&X>[https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2011/10/divino-afflatu-centennial-ii-comparing.html List of psalms in the Pius V and the Pius X matins]</ref> The consecutive order was not observed for the invitatory psalms, recited every day, and in the matins of feasts.{{citation needed|date=January 2025}}

Each reading was followed by a [[responsory]], except the last one, when this was followed by the ''[[Te Deum]]''.{{citation needed|date=January 2025}}

====20th-century changes====
Matins underwent profound changes in the 20th century. The first of these changes was the [[reform of the Roman Breviary by Pope Pius X]] in 1911, resulting in what [[Pope Paul VI]] called "a new Breviary".<ref name=Laudis>[https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_p-vi_apc_19701101_laudis-canticum_lt.html Apostolic Constitution ''Laudis Canticum'']</ref> The reservation of Psalms 1-108/109 to matins and the consecutive order within that group were abandoned, and, apart from the invitatory psalm, which continued in its place at matins every day, no psalm was ordinarily repeated within the same week. To facilitate an even distribution among the days of the week, the longer psalms were divided into shorter portions, as only the very long Psalm 118/119 had been previously. Matins no longer had 18 psalms on Sundays, 12 on ordinary days and 9 on the more important feasts: on every day it had 9 psalms, either distributed among three nocturns or recited all together, maintaining the distinction between celebrations as three nocturns with nine readings (including Sundays) and those arranged as a single nocturn with only three readings.<ref name=PiusV&X/>

In 1947, [[Pope Pius XII]] entrusted examination of the whole question of the Breviary to a commission which conducted a worldwide consultation of the Catholic bishops. He authorized recitation of the psalms in a new Latin translation and in 1955 ordered a simplification of the rubrics.<ref name=Laudis/>

In 1960, [[Pope John XXIII]] issued his ''[[Code of Rubrics]]'', which assigned nine-readings matins only to first-class and second-class feasts and therefore reduced the readings of Sunday matins to three.<ref>[http://divinumofficium.com/www/horas/Help/Rubrics/Breviary%201960.html 1960 Code of Rubrics, 161−163]</ref>

In 1970, [[Pope Paul VI]] published a revised form of the [[Liturgy of the Hours]], in which the psalms were arranged in a four-week instead of a one-week cycle, but the variety of other texts was greatly increased, in particular the scriptural and patristic readings, while the hagiographical readings were purged of non-historical legendary content.<ref>''Laudis canticum'', criteria 3−7</ref>

What had previously been called matins was given the name of "Office of Readings" ''(Officium lectionis'' and was declared appropriate for celebrating at any hour, while preserving its nocturnal character for those who wished to celebrate a vigil.<ref>''Laudis canticum'', criterion 2</ref> For that purpose alternative hymns are provided and an appendix contains material, in particular canticles and readings from the Gospels, to facilitate celebration of a vigil. The Catholic Church has thus restored to the word vigil the meaning it had in early Christianity. Pope John XIII's ''Code of Rubrics'' still used the word vigil to mean the day before a feast, but recognized the quite different character of the [[Easter Vigil]], which, "since it is not a liturgical day, is celebrated in its own way, as a night watch".<ref>[http://divinumofficium.com/www/horas/Help/Rubrics/General%20Rubrics.html#5 1960 Code of Rubrics, 28]</ref> The Roman liturgy now uses the term vigil either in this sense of "a night watch" or with regard to a [[Mass (liturgy)|Mass]] celebrated in the evening before a feast, not before the hour of First Vespers.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=WlQGG3t4LUkC&dq=%22Vigil+Mass%22&pg=PT279 David I. Fulton, Mary DeTurris Poust, ''The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Catholic Catechism: The Core Teachings of Catholicism in Plain English'' (Penguin 2008)]</ref>

The psalmody of the Office of Readings consists of three psalms or portions of psalms, each with its own antiphon. These are followed by two extended readings with their responsories, the first from the [[Bible]] (but not from the Gospels), and the second being patristic, hagiographical, or magisterial. As already mentioned, a Gospel reading may optionally be added, preceded by vigil canticles, in order to celebrate a vigil. These are given in an appendix of the book of the [[Liturgy of the Hours]].<ref>''Liturgia Horarum iuxta ritum Romanum'', editio typica altera, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2000</ref>

To those who find it seriously difficult, because of their advanced age or for reasons peculiar to them, to observe the revised Liturgy of the Hours Pope Paul VI gave permission to keep using the previous Roman Breviary either in whole or in part.<ref name=Laudis/> In 2007 [[Pope Benedict XVI]] allowed all clergy of the [[Latin Church]] to fulfil their canonical obligations by using the 1961 ''Roman Breviary'' issued under Pope John XXIII (but not earlier editions such as that of Pius X or Pius V).<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/motu_proprio/documents/hf_ben-xvi_motu-proprio_20070707_summorum-pontificum.html ''Summorum Pontificum'', art. 9 §3]</ref> This is done by [[traditionalist Catholic]] communities, such as the [[Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter]] and the [[Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest]].