Today is the first of the Rogation Days...

When the litany is sung in procession and the divine Majesty is prayed to take pity on us in all our afflictions-- the litaniae maiores. It is also the feast of Saint Mark the Evangelist, and I had their liturgical rites all mixed up in my poor head.

The Rogation Days are the 25th of April, called Major, and the three days before the feast of the Ascension, called Minor. The Major Rogation, which has no connexion with the feast of St. Mark (fixed for this date much later) seems to be of very early date and to have been introduced to counteract the ancient Robigalia, on which the heathens held processions and supplications to their gods. St. Gregory the Great (d. 604) regulated the already existing custom. The Minor Rogations were introduced by St. Mamertus, Bishop of Vienne, and were afterwards ordered by the Fifth Council of Orléans, which was held in 511, and then approved by Leo III (795-816).... The liturgical celebration now consists in the procession and the Rogation Mass.

That is from the Catholic Encyclopedia. At Saint Eugène in Paris, the Mass of Saint Mark was celebrated at 11:30 pm last evening my time, and the Litaniae and Rogation Mass will begin in about an hour. The texts of the rite (it begins with None) are here




I have ceased, by the way, to concern myself with the real times of service over there; I begin to confuse when I should be at the computer if I try to keep the real time and my local time in my poor head. Nine hours of difference, I believe.

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