Canonical Hours

I. IDEA

By canonical hour is understood all the fixed portion of the
Divine Office which the Church appoints to be recited at the
different hours. The term was borrowed from the custom of the
Jews, and passed into the speech of the early Christians. In the
Acts of the Apostles we see that prayer was designated by the hour
at which it was said (Acts, iii, 1). The observance from being
optional having become obligatory for certain classes of persons
in virtue of canons or ordinances promulgated by the Church, each
portion of the Divine Office was called a canonical hour, and the
whole of the prayers fixed for a certain day took the name of
canonical hours. This term was extended to apply to the book or
collection which contained these prayers, hence the expression
"book of hours". The Rule of St. Benedict is one of the most
ancient documents in which the expression, canonical hours is
found; in chapter lxvii we read "ad omnes canonicas horas". It
passed into common speech about the next century as may be judged
from St. Isidore of Seville ("De ecclesiasticis officiis", I, xix,
in P. L. LXXXIII, 757), etc. The article BREVIARY treats the
various parts which compose the Divine Office, together with their
origin and the history of their formation; under each of the words
designating them details will be found concerning their
composition, the modifications they have undergone, and the
questions raised with regard to their origin (see COMPLINE); here
we shall deal only with the obligation of reciting them imposed by
the Church on certain classes of people, an obligation which
recalls, as has been said, the very qualification of canonical.

II. OBLIGATION OF RECITING

After having devoted a few lines to the present discipline of the
Church on this point, the origin and successive development of the
obligation will be treated at length.

A. Present Discipline of the Church

This is set forth by all moral theologians and canonists. They
treat more or less extensively of the character of this
obligation, the conditions required for complying with it, and
practical instances of infraction or negligence. All modern
authors derive their inspiration from St. Alphonsus Liguori
(Theologia Moralis, VI, n. 140 sqq.). The general thesis on the
existence of this obligation and the persons whom it concerns may
be formulated thus: the following are bound each day to the
recitation, at least private, of the canonical hours: (a) all
clerics in Holy orders; (b) all beneficiaries; (c) religious men
and women, who are bound by their rule to the office of choir
(Deshayes, "Memento juris ecclesiastici", n. 430). According to
the terms of this pronouncement there must be considered (1) the
obligatory character of this recitation; it deals with a precept
of the Church which aims at binding to this duty certain classes
of persons whom she makes her representatives with God. The
obligation is founded on the virtue of religion; its infraction
may be a mortal sin if the omitted part is notable. (2) The
validity of private recitation, but in this case the person who
recites it must actually pronounce the words, for it is something
more than mental prayer. (3) The persons obliged to recite the
hours: (a) All clerics in Holy orders, that is, all who have
received the sub-diaconate or one of the superior orders, for,
since the twelfth century, the sub-diaconate has been
incontestably ranked among Holy orders (Innocentius III, cap.
"Miramur", 7, "de servis non ordinandis"). All are bound unless
legitimately dispensed by the sovereign pontiff even though they
are excommunicated, suspended, or interdicted. (b) All
beneficiaries, that is, all who enjoy a perpetual right to derive
revenue from the goods of the Church, by reason of a spiritual
charge with which the Church has invested them, even though they
are merely tonsured; this obligation binds under pain of losing
their right to the benefice, in proportion to the extent of their
omission, conformably to the statute of the Fifth Council of the
Lateran (1512-17). (c) Lastly, religious, both men and women,
bound by their rule to the office of choir, from the instant they
have made solemn profession in an order approved by the Church.

As for the solemnly professed, everyone agrees that they are bound
to recite the Office whether in choir, or in private (if they
cannot assist at choir), even when they are not yet in Holy
orders; this is the meaning of the ancient custom observed in
religious orders, and a reply of the Penitentiary has definitively
consecrated this interpretation (26 November, 1852). But Pope Pius
IX having (17 March, 1857) decreed through the Congregation of
Regulars that, in future, solemn vows should be preceded by a
trienniate of simple vows the question arose whether during this
trienniate the religious are bound to the recitation of Divine
Office. The doubt submitted by the general of the Dominicans to
the Sacred Congregation on the condition of regulars received a
negative reply. This reply, nevertheless, maintained for those
religious the obligation of assisting at choir (6 August, 1858).
Whence it follows that for religious with simple vows exemption
from Office bears simply on private recitation when they cannot
assist at choir. Such is, in brief, the condition of canonical
legislation on the obligation of reciting the canonical hours in
as far as concerns persons.

B. Origins and Successive Development of this Obligation

(1) The official prayer of the Church called in the Bible "the
sacrifice of the lips" was from the early times of Christianity
confided to persons charged with praying for the whole Christian
people. It may be said that the obligation imposed on a class of
persons is found in germ in the confiding by the Apostles (Acts,
vi, 4) to the deacons of the external care of the community, the
Apostles themselves reserving the duties of prayer and evangelical
preaching.

(2) We will summarize here the chapters in which Thomassin gives
the history of prayer and the development of this obligation
("Vetus et nova ecclesi� disciplina", Part I, II, lxxii sqq.;
Roskovany has treated the same subject in "Coelibatus et
Breviarium", v, viii, xi, xii). During the first five centuries,
although the Christian body under the presidency of the bishop and
priests took part daily in the Divine Offices, clerics were under
a stricter obligation to assist thereat; if they were prevented by
some other duty they were under obligation to supply the omission
by private recitation. Witness for the Church of the Orient in the
fourth century this text of the Apostolic Constitutions:
"Precationes facite mane et tertia hora, ac sexta et nona vespera
atque in gallicinio" (VIII, xxxiv, P. G., I, 1135). The same
chapter adds that if the assembly could not take place in the
Church because of the infidels, the bishop should assemble his
flock in some private house, and if he could not, each one should
discharge this pious duty either alone or with two or three of his
brethren. Thus, says, Thomassin, from the infancy of the Church
there has been a Divine Office composed of psalms, prayers, and
lessons, this office has been publicly chanted in the churches or
oratories, the ecclesiastics were charged with presiding at the
prayer in union with the bishop, the faithful were included in the
same obligation of piety, and if prevented from assembling these
prayers had to be said in private. The liturgical prescriptions of
the Council of Laodicea (c. 387) which appear to be borrowed from
the Liturgy of Constantinople are an echo of these practices
(Hefele-Leclercq, "Histoire des conciles", I, 994). The
anchorites, disciples of St. Pachomius, the monks of Egypt and the
Thebaid derived inspiration from this legislation of the Church
regarding prayer (see Sozomen, "Hist. Eccles.", P. G., LXVII, c.
1071; Cassian, "De coenobiorum institutione", P. L., XLIX, c. 82-
7).

In this way the idea of the Church is manifested; if she no longer
formulates in precise terms the law of prayer for clerics and
monks she lets it be understood to what extent she holds them
bound. Clerics are by their ordination attached to the service of
a church; the principal function of the ministers in each church
is the Mass and public prayer; this public prayer consists in the
recitation of the Divine Office. It must be remarked further that
the material subsistence of clerics is assured them by the Church
as a consequence of their ordination, but on condition that they
assist at Divine Office; those who fail will have no part in the
daily distributions. For the Western Church the same conclusion is
drawn from the manner in which the Fathers express themselves when
they speak of public prayer (see some of their testimony in this
respect under BREVIARY). In their eyes, in the measure in which
they are formed and developed, the canonical hours are as the
attestation and result of the continual prayer of the Church;
clerics have so many more reasons for taking an active part, as
they have more liberty and leisure, and it is in great measure to
this end that an honest livelihood is assured them. From the fifth
century councils formulated laws on this subject with sanctions
and penalties; such is the fourteenth canon of a provincial
council of the province of Tours held at Vannes, in Brittany, in
465. (Hefele-Leclerq, "Histoire des conciles", II, 905; see also
Baumer, "Histoire du Breviaire", I, 219. For Spain may be
mentioned various decisions of a council held at Toledo about 400.
Hefele-Leclerq, op. cit., II, 123.)

(3) Sixth to eighth century.--Decisions multiplied especially in
the West obliging clerics to celebrate publicly the Divine Office.
To-day the "statuta ecclesi� antiqua" are most commonly ascribed
to the sixth century and the Church of Arles in Gaul, though long
attributed to the fourth Council of Carthage (398); canon xlix
ordains "that a cleric who without being sick fails in the vigils
should be deprived of his benefice" (Hefele-Leclerq, "Histoire des
conciles", II, 105). Particular councils followed in great numbers
and, while displaying solicitude in establishing uniformity in the
order of psalmody and the Office, made regulations for their
worthy celebration by priests, deacons, and the other members of
the clergy. The monks, called upon to supply the insufficiency of
the clergy in the accomplishment of this duty, had likewise to
abide by these decisions; indeed, on many occasions they were
instrumental in their preparation. Among these councils may be
quoted that of Agde in 506, that of Tarragona in 516, that of
Epaon in 517, etc. In these councils the aim was to follow the
Eastern and the Roman usages. The monastic rules had not waited
for these rules to promote the worthy celebration of the hours; it
is known what importance St. Benedict attached to what he called
the Divine work par excellence: "Nihil operi Dei pr�ponatur", we
read in ch. xliii. This sketch of the obligation of priests and
clerics to take part in the celebration of the Divine Office may
be concluded by citing the decree promulgated by Emperor Justinian
I in 528; "Sancimus ut omnes clerici per singulas ecclesias
constituti per seipsos nocturnas et matutinas et vespertinas
preces canant" (Kriegel and Hermann, "Corpus juris civilis",
Leipzig, II, 39).

As to the private recitation of the Divine Office, Thomassin
("Vetus et nova ecclesi� disciplina", part I, II, lxxiii sqq.)
gives the proofs which establish its obligatory character as early
as the fifth century for priests and clerics; Grancolas in
"Commentarius historicus in Breviarum romanum" relies on the
testimony of St. Jerome. For what concerns monks, we have a more
certain testimony in the Rule of St. Benedict. Ch. l prescribes
that those who work outdoors or who are travelling should
accomplish God's work at the hour appointed, and in whatever place
they are, to the best of their ability. Therefore, they were
merely dispensed from the lessons, but recited by heart the
psalms, hymns, and shorter prayers. Dom Ruinart (Preface to works
of Gregory of Tours, P. L., LXXI, 36-40) assures us that in the
works of Gregory of Tours proofs are to be found attesting the
fidelity of ecclesiastics of every degree to the recitation of the
hours in private when they could not assist at public Office.
These persons did not consider themselves free to omit this
recitation.

F.M. CABROL
Transcribed by Elizabeth T. Knuth

Dedicated to Thomas S. Charters

From the Catholic Encyclopedia, copyright � 1913 by the
Encyclopedia Press, Inc. Electronic version copyright � 1996 by
New Advent, Inc.

Taken from the New Advent Web Page (www.knight.org/advent).

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