Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 04:31, 4 October 2006

The Sarum Use, was a derivative of the earlier Liturgy of Saint John, the Gallican Liturgy used in the British Isles throughout the first millennium. It developed during that period, borrowing from both European Gallican and Roman sources until around the turn of the first millennium. Sarum and its immediate predecessor was used in Great Britain & Ireland from early in the first millennium until modern times.

In 1078, William of Normandy, appointed St. Osmund, a Norman nobleman, as bishop of Salisbury. (A Latin contraction of the name for Salisbury being Sarum.) As bishop, Osmund initiated some revisions to the extant Celtic-Anglo-Saxon rite and the local adaptations of the Roman Rite, drawing on both Norman and Anglo-Saxon traditions. This resulted in the compilation of a new Missal, Breviary, and other liturgical manuals, which came to be used throughout southern England, Wales and parts of Ireland.

The Sarum Use is noted for its distinctive scheme of liturgical colours, which differed somewhat from that traditionally used in the Roman Catholic Church since the 16th century and most Protestant churches, surviving only on an optional basis in the Anglican Churches, such as the Church of England and the Episcopal Church in the United States of America.

While Sarum was the first Liturgy sanctioned by the newly reformed Church of England in the 1530s, and was reintroduced to England under Queen Mary, it survived among the RC recusants to the mid nineteenth century and was used into the twentieth century in some Anglican monastic institutions. Many of the practices of the Sarum Use - though not, obviously, the full liturgy itself - were revived in England in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as part of the Anglo-Catholic movement in the Church of England. Chief among the proponents of such Sarum customs was the Rev. Percy Dearmer, who put these into practice at his parish of St. Mary's, Primrose Hill, in London, and explained them at length in his The Parson's Handbook, which ran through several editions. On April 1, 2000, a full Sarum Mass was celebrated by the Most Reverend Mario Joseph Conti, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Glasgow in the University of Aberdeen's King's College Chapel, to commemorate the quincentenary of the pre-Reformation founding of the chapel by William Elphinstone, Bishop of Aberdeen.

The Sarum Use also is used by Western rite of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia in Particular by Saint Petroc Monastery and its missions .

Sarum ritual

The Sarum Use, was a derivative of the earlier Liturgy of Saint John (the Divine), the Gallican Liturgy used in the British Isles which in the course of its development, borrowed from European Gallican and Roman sources through until the turn of the first millennium, Sarum and its immediate predecessor was used in Great Britain & Ireland throughout the first millennium and the second until modern times. Other such "Uses" used in the British Isles prior to the Reformation, included those of York, Hereford, Lincoln, Bangor and Westminster.

The Dominican and Sarum Uses shared several similarities, and the Sarum Use may have had an influence upon the later because of one the Dominican rite's founders was from an English province. As with the Dominican rite, the chalice was prepared before Mass unlike in the Tridentine usage; the priest began by saying a verse of the psalm Confitemini, with a shortened Confiteor, followed by Adjutorium nostrum in nomine Domini.

The Introit was generally called Officium; no response was made to the Orate Fratres, and unlike in the Tridentine Use, the phrase "et sorores" was added.

The offering of the bread and wine was made by one act; after the Elevation the celebrant stood arms outstretched in the form of a cross; the Particle was put into the chalice after the Agnus Dei. The Sarum rite counted the Sundays as after Trinity, not Sundays after Pentacost as is the Roman Use. The Last Gospel, the first chapter of John's Gospel, was read on the priest's way back to the sacristy.

In the Sarum Use, blue rather than violet was authorised during Advent (the shade of blue used during Advent resembles royal blue, and is sometimes referred to as "Sarum blue"); and throughout most of Lent a Lenten array consisting of unbleached muslin cloth, with either black or crimson accents, was utilized instead of the Roman violet, the use of which was limited to the period between Septuagesima and Ash Wednesday. During Passiontide & Holy Week (the last two weeks before Easter), the liturgical colour became crimson. Finally there seems to be evidence that the use of yellow vestments was sanctioned for the feasts of Confessors (in recent years there has been a revival in the use of yellow or gold vestments in both Roman Catholic and Protestant circles, as a permissible substitute for white vestments).

The Sarum Use was notable for its extremely elaborate ceremonial, employing many altar servers and multiple deacons & subdeacons at the Mass. There were also various differences from the later Tridentine Rite, including the placement of two candles (rather than six) on the altar, the use of a profound bow instead of genuflection, and the use of ornate fans during Mass, a practice which survived in the Roman Rite until the mid-20th century only in Papal ceremonies such as the Papal Solemn Mass.

The Sarum Use was also the original basis of both the Communion Service, Lectionary and the collects in the liturgy of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. This is most evident in its sequence of Major Propers for the Sundays in Advent, which vary considerably from those used in the Roman Tridentine Rite. One may also take note of the Marriage Rite and the Sarum custom of "plighting troths", though this can also be found in the Roman Rite as used by Roman Catholics in England.

External links

• OrthodoxWiki page on the Sarum Rite
• "Sarum Rite" on Catholic Encyclopedia. 1912.
• Media report on 2000 Sarum Mass
• An article from the Rev. Dr. J. Robert Wright on the Sarum Use\
• Chants of the Sarum Divine Office
• Ordinary of the Sarum Missal from Charles Wohlers
• Sarum Mass in Latin
• Ordo Kalendar of the feasts of the Sarum Rite c.1503
• Sarum Breviary translated into English
• Treatise on the Hours of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Sarum Use
• Blog entries concerning a Roman Catholic celebration of the Sarum rite in the 1990s
• Various mp3s of Sarum Chant

• Christian liturgy, rites, and worship services
• Anglican sacraments
• Catholic Mass