Ritual
RITUAL
A book directing the order and manner to be observed in performing divine service in a particular church, diocese, or the like.
Fuente: Theological Dictionary
Ritual
That book which contains the prayers and ceremonies to be used by the minister in the administration of the sacraments and sacramentals, especially those included in the Gelasianum, Alcuin’s Appendix to the Gregorianum and the Ordines. The need for such a manual arose in the early Church; the first instance of such a collection is the “Liber Ordinum,” which dates from the latter half of the 7th century. In the 10th and 11th centuries these manuals became more general in the form of the Pontifical for bishops, and the Ritual for priests; the early Roman Manual did not strictly separate the episcopal from the priestly functions. Rituals for the secular clergy date only from the 14th century, and these, in a large degree, were compilations of the individual priests: Official diocesan rituals appeared only at the end of the 15th century. They are called Manualia, Liber Benedictionum, Agenda, Ritual, Pastoral, Sacerdotal. The publication of the first official Roman Ritual was ordered by Pope Paul V in the year 1614. This was revised by Pope Benedict XIV in 1742 and re-edited by Pope Leo XIII in 1884. The last official publication adapted to the New Code of Canon Law is by Pope Pius XI in 1925.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Ritual
The Ritual (Rituale Romanum) is one of the official books of the Roman Rite. It contains all the services performed by a priest that are not in the Missal and Breviary and has also, for convenience, some that are in those books. It is the latest and still the least uniform book of our rite.
When first ritual functions were written in books, the Sacramentary in the West, the Euchologion in the East contained all the priest’s (and bishop’s) part of whatever functions they performed, not only the holy Liturgy in the strict sense, but all other sacraments, blessings, sacramentals, and rites of every kind as well. The contents of our Ritual and Pontifical were in the Sacramentaries. In the Eastern Churches this state of things still to a great extent remains. In the West a further development led to the distinction of books, not according to the persons who use them, but according to the services for which they are used. The Missal, containing the whole Mass, succeeded the Sacramentary. Some early Missals added other rites, for the convenience of the priest or bishop; but on the whole this later arrangement involved the need of other books to supply the non-Eucharistic functions of the Sacramentary. These books, when they appeared, were the predecessors of our Pontifical and Ritual. The bishop’s functions (ordination, confirmation, etc.) filled the Pontifical, the priest’s offices (baptism, penance, matrimony, extreme unction, etc.) were contained in a great variety of little handbooks, finally replaced by the Ritual.
The Pontifical emerged first. The book under this name occurs already in the eighth century (Pontifical of Egbert). From the ninth there is a multitude of Pontificals. For the priest’s functions there was no uniform book till 1614. Some of these are contained in the Pontificals; often the chief ones were added to Missals and Books of Hours. Then special books were arranged, but there was no kind of uniformity in arrangement or name. Through the Middle Ages a vast number of handbooks for priests having the care of souls was written. Every local rite, almost every diocese, had such books; indeed many were compilations for the convenience of one priest or church. Such books were called by many names–Manuale, Liber agendarum, Agenda, Sacramentale, sometimes Rituale. Specimens of such medieval predecessors of the Ritual are the Manuale Curatorum of Roeskilde in Denmark (first printed 1513, ed. J. Freisen, Paderborn, 1898), and the Liber Agendarum of Schleswig (printed 1416, Paderborn, 1898). The Roeskilde book contains the blessing of salt and water, baptism, marriage, blessing of a house, visitation of the sick with viaticum and extreme unction, prayers for the dead, funeral service, funeral of infants, prayers for pilgrims, blessing of fire on Holy Saturday, and other blessings. The Schleswig book has besides much of the Holy Week services, and that for All Souls, Candlemas, and Ash Wednesday. In both many rites differ from the Roman forms.
In the sixteenth century, while the other liturgical books were being revised and issued as a uniform standard, there was naturally a desire to substitute an official book that should take the place of these varied collections. But the matter did not receive the attention of the Holy See itself for some time. First, various books were issued at Rome with the idea of securing uniformity, but without official sanction. Albert Castellani in 1537 published a Sacerdotale of this kind; in 1579 at Venice another version appeared, arranged by Grancesco Samarino, Canon of the Lateran; it was re-edited in 1583 by Angelo Rocca. In 1586 Giulio Antonio Santorio, Cardinal of St. Severina, printed a handbook of rites for the use of priests, which, as Paul V says, “he had composed after long study and with much industry and labor” (Apostolicæ Sedis). This book is the foundation of our Roman Ritual. In 1614 Paul V published the first edition of the official Ritual by the Constitution “Apostolicæ Sedis” of 17 June. In this he points out that Clement VIII had already issued a uniform text of the Pontifical and the Cærimoniale Episcoporum, which determines the functions of many other ecclesiastics besides bishops. (That is still the case. The Cærimoniale Episcoporum forms the indispensable complement of other liturgical books for priests too.) “It remained”, the pope continues, “that the sacred and authentic rites of the Church, to be observed in the administration of sacraments and other ecclesiastical functions by those who have the care of souls, should also be included in one book and published by authority of the Apostolic See; so that they should carry out their office according to a public and fixed standard, instead of following so great a multitude of Rituals”.
But, unlike the other books of the Roman Rite, the Ritual has never been imposed as the only standard. Paul V did not abolish all other collections of the same kind, nor command every one to use only his book. He says: “Wherefore we exhort in the Lord” that it should be adopted. The result of this is that the old local Rituals have never been altogether abolished. After the appearance of the Roman edition these others were gradually more and more conformed to it. They continued to be used, but had many of their prayers and ceremonies modified to agree with the Roman book. This applies especially to the rites of baptism, Holy Communion, the form of absolution, extreme unction. The ceremonies also contained in the Missal (holy water, the processions of Candlemas and Palm Sunday, etc.), and the prayers also in the Breviary (the Office for the Dead) are necessarily identical with those of Paul V’s Ritual; these have the absolute authority of the Missal and Breviary. On the other hand, many countries have local customs for marriage, the visitation of the sick, etc., numerous special blessings, processions and sacramentals not found in the Roman book, still printed in various diocesan Rituals. It is then by no means the case that every priest of the roman Rite uses the Roman Ritual. Very many dioceses or provinces still have their own local handbooks under the name of Rituale or another (Ordo administrandi sacramenta, etc.), though all of these conform to the Roman text in the chief elements. Most contain practically all the Roman book, and have besides local additions.
The further history of the Rituale Romanum is this: Benedict XIV in 1752 revised it, together with the Pontifical and Cærimoniale Episcoporum. His new editions of these three books were published by the Brief “Quam ardenti” (25 March, 1752), which quotes Paul V’s Constitution at length and is printed, as far as it concerns this book, in the beginning of the Ritual. He added to Paul V’s text two forms for giving the papal blessing (V, 6; VIII, 31). Meanwhile a great number of additional blessings were added in an appendix. This appendix is now nearly as long as the original book. Under the title Benedictionale Romanum it is often issued separately. Leo XIII approved an editio typica published by Pustet at Ratisbon in 1884. This is now out of date. The Ritual contains several chants (for processions, burials, Office of the Dead, etc.). These should be conformable to the Motu Proprio of Pius X of 22 Nov., 1903, and the Decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites of 8 Jan., 1904. All the Catholic liturgical publishers now issue editions of this kind, approved by the Congregation.
The Rituale Romanum is divided into ten “titles” (tituli); all, except the first, subdivided into chapters. In each (except I and X) the first chapter gives the general rules for the sacrament or function, the others give the exact ceremonies and prayers for various cases of administration. Titulus I (caput unicum) is “of the things to be observed in general in the administration of sacraments”; II, About baptism, chap. vi gives the rite when a bishop baptizes, vii the blessing of the font, not on Holy Saturday or Whitsun Eve; III, Penance and absolutions from excommunication; IV, Administration of Holy Communion (not during Mass); V, Extreme Unction, the seven penitential psalms, litany, visitation and care of the dying, the Apostolic blessing, commendation of a departing soul; VI, Of funerals, Office of the Dead, absolutions at the grave on later days, funerals of infants; VII, Matrimony and churching of women; VII, Blessings of holy water, candles, houses (on Holy Saturday), and many others; then blessings reserved to bishops and priests who have special faculties, such as those of vestments, ciboriums, statues, foundation stones, a new church (not, of course, the consecration, which is in the Pontifical), cemeteries, etc.; IX, Processions, for Candlemas, Palm Sunday, Rogation Days, Corpus Christi, etc.; X, Exorcism and forms for filling up parochial books (of baptism, confirmation, marriage, status animarum, the dead). The blessings of tit. VIII are the old ones of the Ritual. The appendix that follows tit. X contains additional forms for blessing baptism water, for confirmation as administered by a missionary priest, decrees about Holy Communion and the “Forty Hours” devotion, the litanies of Loreto and the Holy Name. Then follow a long series of blessings, not reserved; reserved to bishops and priests they delegate, reserved to certain religious orders; then more blessings (novissim ) and a second appendix containing yet another collection. These appendixes grow continually. As soon as the Sacred Congregation of Rites approves a new blessing it is added to the next edition of the Ritual.
The Milanese Rite has its own ritual (Rituale Ambrosianum, published by Giacomo Agnelli at the Archiepiscopal Press, Milan). In the Byzantine Rite the contents of our ritual are contained in the Euchologion. The Armenians have a ritual (Mashdotz) like ours. Other schismatical Churches have not yet arranged the various parts of this book in one collection. But nearly all the Eastern Catholics now have Rituals formed on the Roman model (see LITURGICAL BOOKS, IV).
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BARUFFALDI, Ad rituale romanum commentaria (Venice, 1731); CATALANI, Rituale romanum . . . perpetuis commentariis exornatum (Rome, 1757); ZACCARIA, Bibliotheca Ritualis (Rome, 1776); THALHOFER, Handbuch der kath. Liturgik, II (Freiburg, 1893), 509-36.
ADRIAN FORTESCUE
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIIICopyright © 1912 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, February 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, D.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Ritual
(from ritus, a ceremony) has been defined as the external body of words and action by which worship is expressed and exhibited before God and man; also the book containing the particular ordinances of any single Church. The necessity of ritual, whether of a more or less elaborate kind, may be supported
(1) on historical grounds. Its traces may be found in all ages; and every form of religion, true or false Christianity, Mohammedanism, Buddhism, and the different forms of idolatry has had a ritual of its own.
(2) On internal grounds. From the two-fold constitution of man as body and spirit. As long as the body is an essential element of man, so long, it is urged, will ritual be a necessary feature in his worship. Objection is made that the Jewish system of external observances, and, by inference, all worship of a similar kind, was abolished by our Lord when he said, God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth (Joh 4:24); and that all attempts to reintroduce a system of ritual are a violation of the genius and intention of the Founder of Christianity. This was the basis of the teaching of George Fox (A.D. 1647). But it appears, from Christ’s own conduct in the institution of baptism and the Lord’s supper, and those recorded acts of worship (Luk 18:13; Luk 21:2-3; Luk 22:4) which secured his sanction or approval, that the real object of his animadversion was a permanent external worship from which the heart and affections were absent. The special objects of Christian ritual are (1) to impart the historic truths of religion. By the various festivals (e.g. Easter, Whit-Sunday) of the Church and their attendant ceremonies, Christians have their attention drawn to the divine origin of their religion. (2) A constant witness to moral and doctrinal truth. Thus baptism shows the corruption of human nature and the necessity of purity, and is a symbol of the inward washing of regeneration. Mosheim (Eccles. Hist. [Amer. ed.] 1, 84) states that Christ only established two rites, which it is not lawful either to change or abrogate, viz. baptism and the Lord’s supper, and infers from this that ceremonies are not essential to the religion of Christ, and that the whole business of them is left by him to the discretion and free choice of Christians. In the 2d century ceremonies were much increased, for which Mosheim (1, 132) assigns the following reasons:
(1) To conciliate the Jews and pagans:
(2) to rebut the charge of atheism made against the Christians, because they had not the external paraphernalia of religion;
(3) imitation of language in the New Test., such as terms borrowed from the Jewish laws. The bishops were first innocently called high priests, the presbyters priests, etc. These titles were abused by those to whom they were given, who claimed that they had the same rank and dignity, and possessed the same rights and privileges, with those who bore them under the Jewish dispensation. Hence the splendid garments, and many other things.
(4) Among the Greeks and other people of the East nothing was considered more sacred than the Mysteries. This circumstance led the Christians, in order to impart dignity to their religion, to claim similar mysteries. Without discussing the general subject further, we present the rituals of the various prominent Christian churches.
1. Church of Rome. The ceremonial of the offices of the Roman Church administered by bishops is contained in the books entitled Pontificale and Ceremoniale Episcoporum. The priestly offices are detailed in the Ritual. In its present form it dates from the Council of Trent, which directed a revision of all the different rituals then extant. An authoritative edition was published by Paul V in 1614, which has been frequently reprinted, and of which a revision was issued by Benedict XIV. Besides the Roman Ritual, there are many diocesan rituals, some of which are of much historical interest. The most approved commentary on the Roman Ritual is that of Barrufaldo (Florence, 1847, 2 vols.). SEE BREVIARY; SEE MISSAL; SEE RITUALE ROMANUM
2. English Church. Originally each bishop had the power to form his own liturgy, and to regulate its attendant ritual, provided that the essential features of Christian worship were retained, and that nothing commanded in Scripture or derived from apostolic times was omitted. St. Basil (A.D. 329-379) composed a liturgy for the Church of Ceesarea, which received the sanction of its bishop, Eusebius (Greg. Naz. Orat. 20). As a consequence, great variety existed, with a tendency to increase. Two early but unsuccessful attempts were made to introduce a uniformity of worship throughout England. The Council of Cloveshoe (A.D. 747) recommended the adoption of the Roman liturgy to all the English dioceses, but its recommendation was never more than partially carried out. In 1085 St. Osmund compiled the Sarum Breviary and Missal, which obtained a wide circulation, but were never universally accepted to the exclusion of those previously existing. It was, in a great measure, to remedy the inconveniences resulting from this variety that the First Book of Common Prayer, compiled by a committee of Convocation (first appointed in A.D. 1542), was issued in the second year of king Edward VI (A.D. 1549). This book, after receiving various additions and alterations in A.D. 1552, 1560, 1604, and 1662, is still the guide of the English Church in all matters connected with the performance of divine service and ritual. SEE COMMON PRAYER, BOOK OF.
3. Greek Church. In the Greek Church, as in the other Eastern communions, the ritual forms part of the general collection (which contains also the eucharistic service) entitled EUCHOLOGION SEE EUCHOLOGION (q.v.).
4. The Methodist Churches. The ritual of these churches embraces directions for public worship, for the administration of baptism and the Lord’s supper, for solemnizing matrimony, burial of the dead, reception of members, laying cornerstones, dedication of churches, consecration of bishops, and ordination of deacons and elders. The chief part of this ritual was prepared by Mr. Wesley, and was adopted by the General Conference of 1784. Methodists do not believe that any precise form of ritual is essential, but that, as far as practicable, a uniform system should be adopted for the sake of propriety and order. See Blunt, Dict. of Theol.; Chambers’s Encyclop.; Simpson, Cyclop. of Methodism, s.v.; Mosheim, Church Hist. vol. 1; Barnum, Romansism.