>Dear Malcolm,
> Fascinating question -- let's hope for many responses!
> I think that it's impossible to generalize. However, in parts of
>France, at least, in the later medieval centuries, it was on Monday that
>masses for the dead were regularly offered. (Given time, I could find the
>exact reference[s]. ---Spring semester dust still far from settled....)
>
>Linda Olson
>Director, Honors College
>Southern Connecticut State Univ.
The 12th-C liturgist Johannes Belethus wrote (concerning Mondays): "Eadem
quoque feria missa pro defunctis cantatur, quoniam, ut dicunt quidam, in
prima feria refrigerium habent illi, qui sunt in purgatorio, et statim in
secunda feria redeunt ad penas. Ut autem laboribus eorum subveniatur,
missa pro illis cantatur."
The Monday mass for the dead is discussed briefly by Josef Jungmann,
Pastoral Liturgy (NY, 1962), p. 263, n. 33.
Saturday was the day for masses of the Virgin, which I have not seen
associated with the souls undergoing purgation--at least not before the end
of the twelfth century. On the masses associated with different days of
the week in the early middle ages, see Arnold Angenendt, "Missa specialis,"
Fruhmittelalterliche Studien 17 (1983): 153-221.
Megan McLaughlin,Associate Professor of History and Women's Studies
History Dept., Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
309 Gregory Hall, 810 S. Wright St., Urbana, IL 61801
Tel: 217-244-2084 Fax: 217-333-2297
E-MAIL: [log in to unmask]
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