SOURCE: "The Liturgical Work of St. Benedict" in Saint Benedict and His Times, translated by Gregory J. Roettger, O. S. B., B. Herder Book Co., 1951, pp. 228-36.

[In the following essay, Schuster details the influential liturgy St. Benedict outlined in his Rule—later known as the Cursus S. Benedicti.]

Besides the Roman rite, the Oriental rite, and the Ambrosian rite, the Middle Ages also recognize a Cursus S. Benedicti, that is, they give the Patriarch's name to the entire liturgy of the Divine Office which the monks day and night chanted in their monastery churches. This special rite of the Opus Dei, as the Patriarch usually calls the Divine Office, is described in the Rule in chapters 8-20 and in chapters 43, 47, 52, 58, one of the most complete expositions of the Divine Office left us by the ancients.

As in the rest of the Rule, so also with regard to the liturgy, which he bases on the rite of Rome, the man of God follows the more enlightened tradition of the Fathers, but he casts the practices of the various churches together into a harmonious and wisely balanced whole, in accordance with his Roman character. It would suffice to compare the Cursus S. Benedicti with the Office of the Oriental monks and with that of the Irish and the Franks, to bring out immediately that a criterion of discretion inspired the Patriarch in composing his monastic Cursus.

When we consider that he divides the longer psalms into two sections; that during the short summer nights, in order not to abbreviate unduly the monks' rest, he shortens and cuts down even the Scriptural reading; that for smaller communities he dispenses from the obligation of singing the antiphons; that between Matins and Lauds he prescribes a brief intermission, so that the old men may retire a moment for the necessities of nature: weighing all these criteria of humaneness, it is impossible not to subscribe to the judgment of St. Gregory regarding the Rule: "… outstanding for its discretion."¹

When the man of God set his hand to compose his liturgical Cursus, he found himself face to face with venerable traditions which he could not disregard. Especially there existed a Roman tradition, to which the Apostolic See attached such importance that it obliged all new bishops to swear to conform to it and to propagate it in their dioceses, so that it might become common among the clergy. The formula of this oath is found in the Liber diurnus.² The new bishop swears and promises that every day, from cockcrow till morning, he will be present in the church with all his clergy for the daily celebration of the morning Office: "Vigilias in ecclesia celebrare."

For this purpose the year is divided into two parts, short nights and long nights, summer and winter. The first section runs from Easter to the autumnal equinox (September 24); during this time only three lessons, three antiphons, and three responsories are sung at the Office. There follows the litany customary at the beginning of Mass. At other times, however, because morning comes later, they will say "four lessons, with their responsories and antiphons." On Sundays throughout the year, on the other hand, "nine lessons, with their responsories and antiphons are recited.… The litanies twice a month at all times." During the sixth century this constituted the entire Office of the cathedral churches in the metropolitan province of the pope.

Besides this primitive Roman Cursus, Italian monachism of St. Benedict's time had before it, too, the ascetical traditions of the great Oriental Fathers, those of the monasticism of Jerusalem, of Cassian, of the abbey of Lerins, and of the Ambrosian Church. But there is this difference, namely, that if, confronted by such varied local customs, St. Benedict felt free to choose the best for his monasteries, this liberty did not extend to the practices of the Church of Rome and to the ancient ritual traditions of the Catholic Church, to which, without a doubt, he had to conform.³

The daily Cursus S. Benedicti comprised, besides the night Office, also the prayers of the seven day hours. In them are sung the Psalter, the collection of odes, namely, the hymns of St. Ambrose; there are read the Scriptures with the comments of the most famous Fathers. The chants are taken from the Liber antiphonalis or the Responsoriale; their execution demands great musical skill on the part of the chanters and the soloists.

According to the Roman fashion the year is divided into two parts: winter and summer. But since the fasts of summer end with the Ides of September, differing in this detail from the Liber diurnus, St. Benedict's winter begins with the Kalends of November and lasts till Easter.

In accord with the "Cautio episcopi," there is a difference between the ferial night Office and that of Sunday. To conform as far as possible to the Roman usage, St. Benedict has the Roman Office of the dawn at cockcrow, which he calls Matutinarum solemnitas, preceded by another of monastic devotion, which is known simply as nocturna laus.

This night Office, peculiar to the cenobites, begins shortly after midnight and, following the practice of the Egyptian monks, twelve psalms are sung in order, with the concluding alleluia. Contrary to the Roman usage, which reserved the scriptural readings for the morning Office, monastic piety anticipated them and inserted them between the psalms of the nocturna laus. Thus the morning Office will not be so long and burdensome and will permit the monks to go to their work in good time.

Now, the Roman morning Office enjoys a venerable tradition, which has determined for each day the psalms and the canticles to be used. St. Benedict follows it faithfully ("as the Roman Church prays"). He could not have acted differently; and that is the reason why even today in the Cursus S. Benedicti the psalms of the morning Office do not follow the order of the Psalter, but are chosen here and there in David's songbook.

As a conclusion to the morning Office, also in the Lateran the custom of Gaul and of Spain was followed, namely, of having the bishop recite the Pater noster before dismissing the assembly. St. Benedict introduces this usage into his Cursus, reserving the chanting of the closing Pater to the abbot, since he holds the place of Christ in the monastery.

On Sundays or feast days the Benedictine rite of the nocturna laus is more extended. The Patriarch remains faithful to the Egyptian tradition of twelve psalms each night; but then, after the reading of the scriptural commentary of the Fathers,⁴ he introduces, in accord with the custom of Jerusalem and Milan, a special section of chants chosen from the canticles. This extraordinary nocturna laus comes to a close with the abbot's chant of the Gospel of the resurrection, preceded by the Te Deum and followed by a doxology post Evangelium, according to the Ambrosian custom. It is not hard to explain these Milanese elements in the Cursus S. Benedicti if we will remember what St. Paulinus says in the life of St. Ambrose, namely, that almost the whole of Italy and the Occident had followed the example of the saint in introducing the night Office into their cathedrals: "At this period for the first time antiphons, hymns, and vigils began to be celebrated in the Church of Milan. Faithfulness to this practice persists until the present day not only in that Church, but throughout almost all the provinces of the West."⁵

Going contrary to Rome, which preserved intact its liturgical traditions—and which for long centuries allowed neither the singing of hymns nor other anticipations of its Office at cockcrow—as St. Benedict had received into his Cursus the Ambrosian tradition of hymns, so he also admitted that of the chant of the three canticles which on Sunday precede the solemn Gospel of the resurrection of Christ. At Jerusalem, as we know from the pilgrim Etheria, this chant was executed by the bishop in person, standing directly over the entrance of the cave in which the Savior was buried. St. Benedict prescribes that it be done by the abbot, "while all stand in awe and reverence."

When the reading of the word of God is finished, all must answer "Amen," precisely as is done at Milan when the Eucharist is received. There follows the Oriental Trinitarian hymn: "Te decet laus …" of the Apostolic Constitutions, which takes the place of the chant post Evangelium, according to the Ambrosian usage.

During the day, the hours of Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline call the monk to choir and to liturgical prayer. The determination of these hours, which formerly divided the civil day, came from the Christian tradition which grew out of the Jewish practice.⁶ According to St. Benedict, who remains indebted to the tradition of Cassian and of Lerins, in each of these hours three psalms are sung, and they terminate with the litany.

But when the monks are engaged in the work of the fields at some distance from the oratory, it is not prescribed that they betake themselves to the choir for the individual hours. In this circumstance they can sing the psalms out in the open, under the vault of heaven and in the sight of God who looks down upon them from His throne. Only let them pray with reverence: they "shall perform the work of God in the place where they are working, bending their knees in reverence before God" (chap. 50).

The Divine Office constitutes for the monk a daily and a personal obligation toward the majesty of God. Hence, also outside the choir, even on a journey, he has to sing the divine praises at the determined times: "Likewise those who have been sent on a journey shall not let the appointed hours pass by …" (chap. 50).

The day hours of the Office can indeed be sung by the monks while engaged in work, in the open field. Vespers, on the other hand, like the Office at dawn, enjoys a special solemnity and is celebrated only in church, a few hours before sunset.

Since, then, in the monastery the work must be accomplished by the light of day, because it is not wise to keep the community in the dim light of lanterns, the vespertina synaxis of St. Benedict does not at all agree with the Eucharistia lucernaris, that is, the chanting of the Lucernarium, as practiced at Milan, in Gaul, by Eugippius at Naples. On the other hand, it was not introduced in Rome; and this suffices that St. Benedict should not mention it in the Regula monasteriorum. The Ambrosians are accustomed to divide Vespers into several parts, with scriptural readings and distinct orations; but the Vespers of St. Benedict will be adapted to men who are already fatigued after the hard work of the day, who in Lent are still fasting, and at other times have taken their only meal a little before, namely, after None.

The synaxis vespertina consists of the daily chant of but four psalms, taken in order from David's songbook. There follows the Ambrosian hymn, Deus Creator omnium, with the Magnificat, the Sunday collect sung by the abbot, and the concluding litanies. St. Benedict himself explains what he means by these litanies: "… the verse and the petition of the litany, that is, 'Lord, have mercy on us' …" (chap. 9). The practice has been preserved in the Ambrosian liturgy, where in the festive Lenten Mass, in the Vespers of the vigil of the greater saints, and in the obsequies of the deceased, these final litanies are sung at the conclusion of the rite.

Differing from the brevity to which they are now reduced in the Benedictine Breviary, these ancient litanies resemble the Orationes solemnes of the Roman Missal for Good Friday, where they occur after the afternoon gathering and before the adoration of the wood of the cross. The deacon announces the prayer for the various needs of the Church, for the pope, for the bishop, for the sick, for those imprisoned or condemned to the mines, and people answer: "Kyrie eleison," or "Domine, miserere."

St. Benedict carefully distinguished the two parts of the deacon's prayer: "… the verse and the petition of the litany, that is, 'Lord, have mercy on us'.…"

The Office of Completoria seems also to derive from Ambrosian usage, which adds Completoria to Vespers. There is question here of three short psalms, always identical, which the monks recited before going to bed, in order to sanctify also the end of the day with prayer and the blessing of the abbot.

Compline is not sung, nor are antiphons interpolated; hence the psalm verses are recited in unison: "… three psalms, which are to be said straight through without antiphon" (chap. 17). Compline is treated almost as if it were private prayer; in enumerating the parts of the Divine Office in chapter 15 of the Rule, the Patriarch does not even mention it.

In agreement with the rule of Eugippius, spiritual reading from some work of the holy Fathers or from the Collations of Cassian precedes Compline. Hence arose the medieval custom of abbots granting their monks a light refreshment in the summer shortly before retiring, namely, a bit of watered wine or some fruit to restore them somewhat, and this received the name of "collation."

This, in general, constitutes the Cursus S. Benedicti, which together with the Regula spread into the entire world and in its turn influenced the Divine Office of the Church universal itself. After St. Benedict has completed his arrangement, he remarks that if his weekly distribution of the Psalter appears unacceptable to some abbot, he should consider himself free, most free, to order it differently, provided always that he remains faithful to the principle of the recitation of the Psalter and Canticles every week, and provided he respects, be it well understood, the liturgical tradition of the Church regarding the Office at dawn ad galli cantum.

The holy Patriarch himself reveals to us the measure of his discretion when he notes that the Psalter, which he distributed over the course of a whole week, was formerly recited daily by the ancient Fathers. To whom does he allude? The Cursus of Eugippius is exceedingly brief and contains only a few psalms. St. Benedict is aware of that fact, because he consulted Eugippius' rule and used it extensively.

The Ambrosians divided the Psalter into decades, and even to this day employ fifteen days in its recitation. To St. Benedict, however, this distribution does not appeal for his monks; indeed he says outright: "For those monks show themselves too lazy in the service to which they are vowed, who chant less than the Psalter with the customary canticles in the course of a week" (chap. 18). The saint probably was not aware of the fact that the Ambrosians repeat the same psalms in the day hours, so that actually their Cursus effectively is much longer than the monastic and runs to about two hundred psalms.

The Cursus S. Benedicti represented the true monastic ratio studiorum of the Middle Ages. From the moment that in the Benedictine conception the abbey was the "school of the Lord's service," the formative program of this school was supplied by the Divine Office, that is, the Opus Dei, as the Patriarch called it. This Divine Office, to which each monk dedicated about ten hours daily, contained everything knowable at that time; for, in a form eminently dramatic, it was at the same time prayer, Scripture study, patristic study, poetry, music, and history of the Church, for the solace of the spirit striving toward heaven.

Standing in choir and assiduously singing the Divine Office, the monk became acquainted with all those varied disciplines. Thanks to this intense higher instruction imparted to Benedictine communities with ability, method and constancy, the Patriarch of Cassino became and remained for more than seven centuries the Master of the Middles Ages.

The celebrated musical scholae, the numerous scriptoria, the architecture and sacred art, even the various schools of liturgical drama, arose in former times in connection with the Opus Dei regulated by St. Benedict, to which he ascribed an absolute primacy when he wrote: "Let nothing, therefore, be put before the Work of God" (chap. 43).

The sacred drama or the Opus Dei that is daily celebrated in Benedictine abbeys demands, besides gifts of the spirit, also a true literary and artistic competence. The dispositions of the spirit required for a good understanding of the Divine Office are described in chapters 19 and 20 of the Regula monasteriorum and are summed up in the golden principle: "… that our mind may be in harmony with our voice," and in the other to which reference has already been made: "Let nothing, therefore, be put before the Work of God."

In order to endow his monks with the suitable cultural preparation for an adequate understanding of the Sacred Scriptures and the songs of David, which go to make up the Divine Office, the Patriarch lays it down that the commentaries on them which are read in public be those "by well known and orthodox Catholic Fathers" (chap. 9). In the last chapter of the Rule he returns to recommend the study of the Bible and the holy Fathers (chap. 73). But since, besides these readings in common, some of the monks had need also of private and personal study, St. Benedict sets apart for this purpose not only the interval between the morning Office and Prime, but also three or four hours of the workday and the entire Sunday (chap. 48).

In choir everything—readings, chants, and ceremonies—must be executed to perfection and according to the rules of art. Whoever is not capable of doing these things in a worthy manner is without further ado excluded from performing such a function: "The brethren are not to read or chant in order, but only those who edify their hearers" (chap. 38).

Father Faber has written a most interesting chapter on the ancient Benedictine school of asceticism. More recently, too, the ancient ascetic tradition of monasticism has received attention, and the conclusion is that all those giants of Catholic sanctity, many of whose lives are contained in the nine folio volumes of Mabillon's Acta Sanctorum Ordinis S. Benedicti from the sixth to the twelfth centuries, received their formation in the "school of the Lord's service," thanks above all to the daily Opus Dei ordered by St. Benedict. This aspect of the doctrinal apostolate of the holy Patriarch by means of the liturgical Cursus, which receives its name from him, generally receives little notice from the historians, despite its decisive effect on ecclesiastical culture during the Middle Ages.

We may observe that the numerous Benedictine abbeys of a former age, spread over Europe, differed greatly from one another in spirit, in nationality, in purpose, in the activity developed by them. Yet all the great saints, apostles, bishops, teachers, and other Benedictine abbots of whom history makes mention possessed an identical spirit and a similar forma mentis, that which they derived from the same "school of the Lord's service," by virtue of the efficacy of a common and magnificent liturgy which supplied the place of a regular ratio studiorum. For this reason the fathers of the Council of Duzia in 874 placed the Regula monasteriorum "among the canonical Scriptures and the writings of the Catholic doctors."

Notes

¹ The Ambrosian rite divides and distributes the Psalter into decades, assigning one of them to a night. This division is rather ancient, since it is that followed also by St. Augustine in his Enarrationes in Psalmos, as Cassiodorus testifies: "Uno codice tam diffusa complectens, quae Me [Augustinus] in decadas quindecim mirabiliter explicavit" (Comment. in Psalt., Praef.)

²"Cautio episcopi," no. 82.

³ An Irishman of the eighth century thus describes the relations between the Roman Cursus and that of St. Benedict: "Est et alius cursus beati Benedicti, qui ipsum singulariter pauco discordante a cursu Romano, in sua Regula repperies scriptum" (Haddan and Stubb, Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents, Oxford, 1869, I, 140).

⁴ In ancient times the faithful stood not only during the divine psalmody, but also during the scriptural readings and the sermon. St. Benedict, however, permits the monks to sit at the night Office during the singing of the lessons and the responsories: "… residentibus cunctis disposite et per ordinem in subsellis" (chap. 11). At Arles St. Caesarius introduced a similar discipline among the faithful "when longer Passiones are read or more extended explanations given." In such a case, the weak and others who found it difficult to stand sat on the floor (PL, XXXIX, 2315).

⁵Vita S. Ambrosii, no. 13.

⁶ The Cursus of Eugippius and Cassiodorus differed from that of St. Benedict in making no provision for the hour of Prime.