LOST FEASTS: January 28: Translation of the Relics of St. Thomas Aquinas

One of the casualties of the revision of the Breviary undertaken by St. Pius X, was the feast of the Translation of the Relics of St. Thomas Aquinas.  To commemorate the transferal of the Angelic Doctor's relics to Toulouse on January 28, 1369, the general chapter of that year, with the permission of Pope Urban V, instituted a liturgical feast on January 28.  The feast was given the rank of totum duplex.  A commemoration was also made of the "second feast" of St. Agnes on this day.

January 23: St. Raymond of Pennafort, C., O.P., III Class

Today, in the 1962 Dominican Rite Calendar, we celebrate the feast of St. Raymond of Pennafort, Confessor, of the Order of Preachers. At the time the 1962 Breviary was published, his feast was III Class and contained a near complete set of propers for the entire office. So the semi-festive office is prayed, according to the rubrics. Between then, and the printing of the 1967 English translation of the Breviary, the Order made his feast II Class. At Lauds, the Psalms of Sunday are prayed and a commemoration of St. Emerentiana, virgin and martyr is made.

From “Short Lives of the Dominican Saints” (London, Kegan Paul, Trench, and Trübner & Co., Ltd., 1901):

January 18: St. Margaret of Hungary, V., O.P., III Class

Today, in the 1962 Dominican Rite Calendar, we celebrate the feast of St. Margaret of Hungary, virgin, of the Order of Preachers.  The feast is III Class, and the office is prayed according to the rubrics.  Most of the office is proper, and is taken from the Proper of the Saints, and at Lauds the Psalms of Sunday are prayed.  At Lauds and Vespers a commemoration is made of St.  Prisca, virgin and martyr.  At Pretiosa, the obit of Barnabas of Vercelli, 15th Master General of the Order is read.

This is one of my favorite feasts on the Dominican calendar.  This saintly heir to the Hungarian throne is one of the numerous saints who adorn the liturgical calendar who sprang from royal blood.  We live in a time of political confusion and darkness.  We also live in an era in which there is great misunderstanding, akin to myth or even superstition, regarding the historical monarchical form of  government which is part of the glorious heritage of Christendom.  Saints like St. Margaret of Hungary, along with countless other examples of royalty being raised to the altars of the Church, attest to the fact that not all kings and queens were tyrants or scoundrels.   Indeed, the propers for today's feast are replete with examples of her sanctity from the accounts of her life, and attest to the level of sanctity that she achieved through her glorious union with Almighty God.

The Ferial Office During Epiphanytide

In the Dominican Breviary, the ferial office in Epiphany season is similar to that of the Roman Breviary, with slight differences.  The hymn at Lauds is different, as are some of the versicles.

The ferial days in Epiphany-tide are IV Class, so when a III Class feast occurs on the calendar, no commemoration is made of the ferial office.

January is a nice month in the Dominican sanctorale, even in the 1962 calendar.  The month starts off with St. Zedislavae Berkianae, Mat., O.P. on January 3.  Next up is St. Francis de Capillis and St. Peter Sanz and Companions on January 15.  Traditionally, January 15 was the feast of Bl. Francis de Capillis.  However, when St. Peter Sanz and his companions were canonized in 2000, being martyrs of China they were grouped together with St. Francis, who is considered the protomartyr of China.  Next comes St. Margaret of Hungary on January 18, one of the numerous saints of the Hungarian nobility, and a personal favorite of mine.  Finally, on January 23, we have the feast of St. Raymond of Pennafort, patron saint of canon lawyers.

January 3: St. Zedislavae Berkianae, Mat., O.P., III Class

Today, in the 1962 Dominican Rite Calendar, we celebrate the feast of St. Zedislavae Berkianae, Matron of the Order of Preachers.  The feast is III Class, so the ordinary office is prayed.  All is taken from the Office of a a Non-Virgin outside Paschaltide, except for the Collect prayer below.

The Ferial Office During Christmastide

In the 1962 Breviarium S.O.P., the ferial days of Christmastide (January 2-5) contained no feast days of saints or blesseds, so the ferial day was prayed on each of those days, unless one of them fell on Sunday.  The liturgical rank of these ferial days was IV Class.  Of course, in previous editions of the Breiary, January 2 was the feast of Blessed Stephana Quinzani and January 3 was the feast of St. (then blessed) Zedislavae Berkianae.  On my calendar, I follow Fr. Augustine Thompson rule of including the Dominican saints who were merely blessed in the older calendar.  

So I add St. Zedislavae back into the calendar, even though she was removed in the 1962 revision.

The Christmastide ferial office is is prayed as follows:

1967 English Translation of Breviarium S.O.P. - ONLINE

Thanks to the generous help of a reader of this blog, Mr. Joseph P. Bradley, MD, OP, I have been able to make substantial headway with my long-desired project to put the entire 1967 English translation of the 1962 Breviarium SOP online, in a convenient and usable format.

My goal was to have a page on this blog, that is essentially a Table of Contents of the entire breviary, with hyperlinks to the various sections.  Toward that end, Mr. Bradley was kind enough to devote the time to scanning Volume as a pdf document last Fall, and the page is now set up and available for public use.  All that is missing are the Propers of the Season and Saints from Volume II, which we hope to have available by late Spring/early Summer 2019.

To access the online version of the Breviary, simply click on the banner link above, which says "1967 Dominican Breviary in English".

It will take you to the Table of Contents page.  Simply click on the hyperlink and the pdf document for that section should appear.

Once the two Propers from Volume II are uploaded there will be a complete copy of the 1967 English translation online for the first time, that I am aware of.  I hope everyone who enjoys this blog, or who has some devotion to the traditional Office of the Order of Preachers, will use and enjoy this page.