Matins, or Mattins, is a canonical hour of Christian liturgy. The earliest use of the nameMerriam-Webster Dictionary: "Matins" was in reference to the canonical hour, also called the vigil, which was originally celebrated by monks from about two hours after midnight to, at latest, the dawn, the time for the canonical hour of lauds (a practice still followed in certain orders). It was divided into two or (on Sundays) three nocturns. Outside of monasteries, it was generally recited at other times of the day, often in conjunction with lauds.
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This is both literally and conceptually incorrect as applied to the entire work: only the first six of its fifteen movements set texts from the Russian Orthodox canonical hour of Vespers.
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Originating before the mechanical clock itself, are water clocks. Such clocks were the earliest striking clocks; they rang once for each canonical hour. This sort of striking is still found in some skeleton clocks. It does not require a separate gear train to arm and release the single stroke sounded.
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Ecole française de Rome, (1992). At every canonical hour, the angels come and lift her up to hear their songs in Heaven. On the last day of her life, Maximin, now the bishop of Aix, comes to her and gives her the Eucharist. Mary cries tears of joy and, after taking it, she lies down and dies.
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Origen, the "Canons of Hippolytus", and St. Cyprian express the same tradition. It is therefore evident that the custom of prayer at the sixth hour was well established by the 3rd century. But probably most of these texts refer to private prayer. In the 4th century the hour of Sext was widely established as a Canonical Hour.
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Silence is often seen as essential to deepening a relationship with God. It is also considered a virtue in some religions. In Western Christian traditions such as Lutheranism and Roman Catholicism, the Great Silence is the period of time beginning at the canonical hour of Compline, in which votarists are silent until the first office of the next day, Lauds.
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Gregory of Tours also made several allusions to this office, which he calls Matutini hymni. According to John T. Hedrick, in Introduction to the Roman Breviary, Lauds were not originally a distinct canonical hour but Matins and Lauds formed a single office, the Night Office terminating only at dawn. The monks prayed Matins during the night and said Lauds in the early dawn.Parsch, Pius.
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The Ave Regina caelorum (Hail, Queen of Heaven) is an early Marian antiphon, praising Mary, the Queen of Heaven. It is traditionally said or sung after each of the canonical hours of the Liturgy of the Hours. The prayer is used especially after Compline, the final canonical hour of prayer before going to sleep. It is prayed from the Feast of the Presentation (February 2) through the Wednesday of Holy Week.
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Sext, like Terce and None, was composed at most of three psalms, of which the choice was fixed, the Deus in adjutorium, a hymn, a lesson (capitulum), a versicle, the Kyrie Eleison, and the customary concluding prayer and dismissal.St. Benedict of Nursia, Regula Chap. 17; cf. Chap. 18. One of the most common hymns used at Sext is Rector Potens, Verax Deus The term siesta derives from the canonical hour Sext.
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Frédéric Chopin's Nocturne in G Minor, Op. 15, No. 3. The marking "languido e rubato", slow tempo, and subdued dynamics creates an evocative mood characteristic of nocturnes. A nocturne (from the French which meant nocturnal, from Latin nocturnus) is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night. Historically, nocturne is a very old term applied to night Offices and, since the Middle Ages, to divisions in the canonical hour of Matins.
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The plural form, vigiliae (vigils, watches), also came into use. The Latin adjective nocturnus corresponds to English "nocturnal" and is attached to many different nouns, such as nocturnae horae (the hours of the night), nocturna tempora (nocturnal times), which are not necessarily connected with religion and are unrelated to the subject of this article. The phrase hora nocturna (night hour) may refer to the canonical hour of vigils or matins, but not to the individual nocturns into which vigils or matins may be divided.
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Pope Paul VI's 1969 motu proprio Mysterii Paschalis made the liturgical day correspond in general to what is generally understood today, running from midnight to midnight, instead of beginning with vespers of the evening before. By exception, the celebration of Sundays and solemnities begins already on the evening of the preceding day.Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the Calendar, 3 In the Liturgy of the Hours, the canonical hour that used to be called matins and that Benedictine monks celebrated at about 2 a.m. is now called the Office of Readings.
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The canonical hour began with the versicles, "O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me" and "O Lord, Thou wilt open my lips, and my mouth shall declare Thy praise" (the latter said three times) followed by Psalm 3 and 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.Rule of Saint Benedict, 43 After this a hymn was sung. Next came two sets of six psalms followed by readings.
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Parts of the Axion Estin hymn date back to the earliest days of Orthodoxy. In the Eastern Church, the Theotokia often include biblical references that emphasize the mystery of the Incarnation. These Marian hymns have been used in daily prayers since early Christianity (they became part of liturgy later) as a way to teach people the Orthodox beliefs, and to prepare them against ideas considered heresies.St. Mary in the Orthodox concept by Tadrous Y. Malaty 1978 page 81-83 Marian hymns remain a key element in the liturgy of the Coptic Church and are included in every canonical hour, day and night.
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Opening verse of matins Nocturns (Latin: nocturni or nocturna) in the liturgy of the Roman Rite are the sections into which the canonical hour of matins was divided from the fourth or fifth century until after the Second Vatican Council.Merriam-Webster DictionaryCollins English Dictionary A nocturn consisted of psalms accompanied by antiphons and followed by readings, which were taken either from Scripture or from the Church Fathers or similar writings. Matins was composed of one to three nocturns. Originating in a prayer service celebrated by early Christians at night, the liturgical office of matins was originally in Latin called vigilia (vigil, watch).
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The entry for each date in the Martyrology is to be read on the previous day.Praenotanda, 35 Reading in choir is recommended, but the reading may also be done otherwise:Praenotanda, 36 in seminaries and similar institutes, it has been traditional to read it after the main meal of the day. Prior to the Second Vatican Council, and where the 1962 liturgical books are used as authorised by Summorum Pontificum, the Martyrology is read at the canonical Hour of Prime. If the Martyrology is read in the post-Vatican II form, this is usually done after the concluding prayer of Lauds, the Hour that preceded Prime.
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The king spends the night before his Sacre at the Palace of Tau and is awakened in the morning by the clergy and officials involved in the coronation ritual. They assist in dressing the king for the Sacre and the king then chooses which of his nobles will serve as the Hostages for the Sainte Ampoule and the clergy, as well, also swear to return the Sainte Ampoule to the Abbey of St. Remi after the Sacre. The king enters Reims Cathedral after the singing of the canonical hour of Prime. At the king's entrance into the cathedral a prayer is said and, in the 17th and 18th centuries, the hymn 'Veni Creator Spiritus' is sung.
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Illuminated manuscript page illustrating the Annunciation from the Belles Heures du Duc de Berry. The Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry, or Belles Heures of Jean de Berry (The Beautiful Hours) is an early 15th-century illuminated manuscript book of hours (containing prayers to be said by the faithful at each canonical hour of the day) commissioned by the French prince John, Duke of Berry (), around 1409, and made for his use in private prayer and especially devotions to the Virgin Mary. The Belles Heures is one of the most celebrated manuscripts of the Middle Ages and very few books of hours are as richly decorated as it. Each section of the Belles Heures is customised to the personal wishes of its patron.
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John Cassian states that this canonical hour originated in his own time and in his own monastery in Bethlehem, where he lived as a novice: "hanc matitutinam canonicam functionem nostro tempore in nostro quoque monasterio primitus institutam." ("was appointed as a canonical office in our own day, and also in our own monastery, where our Lord Jesus Christ was born of a Virgin and deigned to submit to growth in infancy as man, and where by His Grace He supported our own infancy, still tender in religion, and, as it were, fed with milk"). Jules Pargoire concluded that the institution of Prime must be placed towards 382.Jules Pargoire, "Prime et Complines" in La Revue d'histoire et de Littérature, III (1898), 282-88; Dict.
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Before praying, they wash their hands and face in order to be clean before and present their best to God; shoes are removed in order to acknowledge that one is offering prayer before a holy God. During each of the seven fixed prayer times, Coptic Orthodox Christians pray "prostrating three times in the name of the Trinity; at the end of each Psalm … while saying the ‘Alleluia’;" and forty-one times for each of the Kyrie eleisons present in a canonical hour. In the Coptic Orthodox Church, it is customary for women to wear a Christian headcovering when praying. All churches of the Coptic Orthodox Church are designed to face the eastward direction of prayer and efforts are made to remodel churches obtained from other Christian denominations that are not built in this fashion.
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The Mass is begun with the first part of the Angelical Salutation, and in the Confiteor the words Septem beatis patribus nostris 'our seven blessed fathers' are inserted. At the conclusion of Mass the Salve Regina and the oration Omnipotens sempiterne Deus are recited. In the recitation of the Divine Office each canonical hour is begun with the Ave Maria down to the words ventris tui, Jesus. The custom of reciting daily, immediately before Vespers, a special prayer called Vigilia, composed of the three psalms and three antiphons of the first nocturn of the Office of the Blessed Virgin, followed by three lessons and responses, comes down from the thirteenth century, when they were offered in thanksgiving for a special favour bestowed upon the order by Pope Alexander IV (13 May 1259).
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These texts bear witness to the private custom of saying a prayer before retiring to rest. If this was not the canonical hour of compline, it was certainly a preliminary step towards it. The same writers reject the opinion of Paulin Ladeuze and Dom Besse who believe that compline had a place in the Rule of St. Pachomius, which would mean that it originated still earlier in the 4th century. It might be possible to reconcile these different sentiments by stating that if it be an established fact that St. Basil instituted and organized the hour of compline for the East, as St. Benedict did for the West, there existed as early as the days of St. Cyprian and Clement of Alexandria the custom of reciting a prayer before sleep, in which practice we find the most remote origin of our compline.
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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.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 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 cantors singing one verse, which the choir repeated as a response to the successive verses sung by the cantors. A hymn was then sung.
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Church bells are tolled at these hours to enjoin the faithful to Christian prayer. Those who are unable to pray canonical hour of a certain fixed prayer time may recite the Qauma, in the Indian Orthodox tradition. In Western Christianity and Eastern Orthodox Christianity, the practice of praying the canonical hours at fixed prayer times became mainly observed by monastics and clergy, though today, the Catholic Church encourages the laity to pray the Liturgy of the Hours and in the Lutheran Churches and Anglican Communion, breviaries such as The Brotherhood Prayer Book and the Anglican Breviary, respectively, are used to pray the Daily Office; the Methodist tradition has emphasized the praying of the canonical hours as an "essential practice" in being a disciple of Jesus. Many Christians have historically hung a Christian cross the eastern wall of their houses, which they face during these seven fixed prayer times.
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The every-night monastic 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,; 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." 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.
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With his apostolic constitution Laudis canticum of 1 November 1970, Pope Paul VI announced his revision of the Latin-Church Liturgy of the Hours, involving among other things distribution of the psalms over a period of four weeks instead of the previous arrangement whereby they were said within a single week. In line with the decision of the Second Vatican Council that matins, while retaining its character of nocturnal praise should become a prayer for any hour of the day, that canonical hour was renamed the Office of Readings and to it were assigned two substantial readings, one from Scripture, the second from the Fathers of the Church or other writers, and only three psalms or portions of psalms. This contrasted strongly with the arrangement to which the Rule of Saint Benedict gave witness: twelve complete psalms, to which on Sundays three canticles were added. In the Benedictine system, the psalms and the readings were distributed among two or three nocturns.
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547) distinguishes between the seven daytime canonical hours of lauds (dawn), prime (sunrise), terce (mid- morning), sext (midday), none (mid-afternoon), vespers (sunset), compline (retiring) and the one nighttime canonical hour of night watch. It links the seven daytime offices with Psalm 118/119:164, "Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous rules";Psalm 119:164 and the one nighttime office with Psalm 118/119:62, "At midnight I rise to praise you, because of your righteous rules",Psalm 119:62Regula S.P.N. Benedicti, caput 6Rule of Saint Benedict, chapter 16 In this reckoning, the one nocturnal office, together with lauds and vespers, are the three major hours, the other five are the minor or little hours.Code of Rubrics (1960), 138Felix Just, "The Liturgy of the Hours" According to Dwight E. Vogel, Daniel James Lula and Elizabeth Moore the diurnal offices are terce, sext, and none, which are distinguished from the major hours of matins (morning prayer), lauds and vespers and from the nighttime hours of compline and vigil.
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