Today, December 18th, the day of which Christmas is the Octave, the Visigoths celebrated dies Sancte Marie (for the day of Holy Mary), one of the most important feasts in the Old Hispanic liturgical calendar. While the scriptural references in the proper prayers primarily involve the Annunciation, this was the sole feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Old Hispanic calendar until the Assumption was added after the eighth century. I wrote about this last year on the feast of Candlemas (which did not exist for the Visigoths) and why having a single feast of Mary may have served a particularly effective purpose.
As this feast originally held the same solemnity as Christmas, there is no doubt that it played a fairly important role in Visigothic Advent. Not only is this one of the most well-preserved liturgies in the Old Hispanic rite, but as elucidated by Kati Ihnat, it is the earliest complete Mass and Office related to Mary in any Western rite. In later manuscripts the feast and devotion came to be commonly referred to as “S. Maria de la O” due to a unique habit of singing “a loud and protracted “O”, to express the longing of the universe for the coming of the Redeemer” (source).
In later centuries, as the Old Hispanic Rite became known as Mozarabic and gradually gave way to the Roman Rite across most of Spain, the feast gained new significance. By the early Modern period, the Annunciation was celebrated almost everywhere on March 25th (the Old Hispanic and Ambrosian liturgies avoided this practice for centuries so as to avoid it occurring during Lent) and the feast on December 18 morphed into a minor feast known as the “Feast of the Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.” Thus the Dies Sancte Marie was imbued with an added connection to Advent, which was already manifested in the aforementioned singing of “Oooooo” and the readings from Ezekiel 37, Philippians 4, and Matthew 1.
In commemoration of this notable feast and the unique role it played in the liturgical lead-up to Christmas, I thought it fitting to present and translate the text of the closing prayer (benedictio) from the liturgy. Simple and succinct, I find it a remarkable example of prayer and powerful liturgy in the tradition of the rich and didactic old Hispanic texts. I will leave these powerful lines to speak for themselves, as the great feast of the Nativity approaches.
Dominus Ihesus Christus, qui in seculorum fine processit ex Virgine, cor uestrum uirginitatis incorrupte nitore clarificet. Amen.
Et qui nuntiante angelo Virginis ingressus est uterum, eiusdem uos misteri et instruat et muniat sacramento. Amen.
Quique hodie uirginee festum conceptionis deuotissime celebratis, ad nativitatem nostri Redemptoris exultantibus animis, et mundo corde perueniatis. Amen.
May the Lord Jesus Christ, who proceeded from the Virgin in the completion of time,* clarify our heart with the splendor of her incorrupt virginity. Amen.
And may He who entered the womb of the Virgin as the angel proclaimed, both prepare and fortify us with the sacrament of the same mystery. Amen.
And whoever celebrates the feast of the virginal conception most devoutly, may you reach the nativity of Our Redeemer with rejoicing spirits and a pure heart. Amen.
*Frankly, I struggled with a good translation for in seclorum fine, which seems to be a uniquely Iberian Late Latinism. I welcome any insight into the matter!
Latin Text from Férotin, M., ed. Le Liber Mozarabicus Sacramentorum, Monumenta Ecclesiae Liturgica, vol. VI, (Paris: Firmin-Didot, 1912), 53).
Cover image: Annunciation by Murillo.
Musings of a medievalist mama 