(Lat., from matutinus: ‘early in the morning’).
A service in the Divine Office of the Roman Catholic Church, traditionally performed during the night, often at about 3 a.m. Originally called Vigils, Matins now consists of an introduction and one, two or three nocturns.
Many patristic writings from the beginning of the 3rd century onwards distinguish between prayer at night and prayer in the early morning. By the early 4th century these two hours of prayer, which were originally private, had developed into forms of public worship corresponding to the later Matins and Lauds. (The Latin names for these services, respectively vigiliae and matutinae laudes, are a potential source of confusion in the secondary literature; for this reason it has become usual in liturgical scholarship to use the term Vigils for the early service.) A famous and instructive description of this dual pattern appears in the pilgrimage diary (381–4) of the Spanish nun Egeria, from which it is evident that the earlier service held in 4th-century Jerusalem was largely a monastic affair, whereas the service held after daybreak was celebrated by the bishop and his clergy. This would seem to confirm the existence of separate monastic and cathedral traditions for morning prayer, although the distinction is not entirely clearcut. A central difference between the two, and a source of some controversy, lies in the use of psalmody: in the earlier service the psalmody was variable, whereas in the later one fixed psalms such as the laudate psalms (cxlviii–cl) were included. It seems that urban monasticism took over the practice of extensive psalmody at Vigils from contemporary monastic communities in the deserts of Syria, Palestine and Egypt; the leaders of these communities, among them St Anthony (c356) and St Pachomius (c346), encouraged extensive psalmody not only within the liturgy but also on other occasions. Vigils was held only once a week during the later 4th century – on Fridays in Jerusalem and Saturdays in Bethlehem, often lasting the entire night. In addition to the Vigils of monastic origin, the cathedral tradition had its own types of Vigils services, many of them equally long, to be held on special occasions, for example, vigils for wakes, vigils at the tombs of martyrs, the baptismal vigil, and an extended form of Vespers. In time, Vigils, or the ‘Great Vigil’ as it was later called, became too burdensome for the monastic tradition and eventually died out in the West, but some aspects of an earlier form, the Sunday resurrection vigil, have survived in Eastern Churches.
The psalmody of the Great Vigil consisted in singing (or perhaps reciting) a portion of the Psalter divided into ‘stations’, a precursor of the later nocturns of Western Matins. Besides psalmody, readings and prayer, the Great Vigil also included hymns, as is attested in the later 4th century for Antioch (in the writings of John Chrysostom) and Milan (during the time of Ambrose). In the 6th century Western monastic Rules began to require a new type of Great Vigil service consisting of a prologue followed by antiphonal and responsorial psalms, lessons, collects and prayers organized in groups (nocturns). An early monastic form of this service, known also as nocturns (but without the prologue), was adopted at Rome and elsewhere for daily use among secular clergy; it too was often given the name Vigils. The extended nocturns for Sunday, first described in the anonymous Rule of the Master (first quarter of the 6th century), was further reduced in the Rule of St Benedict (c530), thus effectively abolishing the Great Vigil and setting the lead for further developments in the Middle Ages.
See also Christian Church, music of the early, §I, 4.
As early as the Rule of St Benedict, the introduction to Matins in the monastic cursus is made up of the versicles Deus in adjutorium and Domine labia mea with their responses; Psalm iii (Vulgate numbering: Domine quid multiplicati); Psalm xciv (Venite exsultemus Domino), known as the invitatory, with its antiphon; and a hymn. In the monastic ferial Office there is a different invitatory antiphon and hymn for each day of the week, and Proper ones for feasts. In the Roman cursus there was at first no introduction to Matins. The invitatory seems to have been adopted in the Roman cursus at the time of the reform of the liturgy under Pope Gregory I (590–604); at certain times, such as the last three days of Holy Week, it is not sung.
Each nocturn consists of psalms with antiphons, and one, three or four lessons followed by responsories. The number of nocturns varies: in the Roman cursus there are three on Sundays and one on ordinary weekdays. In the monastic cursus there are two on weekdays. On most feasts in both cursus there are three nocturns. The number of psalms in each nocturn also varies: in the Roman cursus, as it is presented in the 11th-century antiphoner I-IVc CVI, f.lv (CAO, i, 1963, no.1), there are 14 psalms in the first nocturn of Sunday, divided into groups of six, four and four, with one antiphon for each group. The second and third nocturns have three psalms, each with its own antiphon; this is the usual pattern for all the nocturns of feast days. On weekdays, when there is only one nocturn, there are 12 psalms divided into six groups of two psalms each, with an antiphon for each group.
In the monastic cursus there are on Sundays and feasts six psalms in each of the first two nocturns; three Old Testament canticles replace the psalms in the third nocturn. Usually only one antiphon is given for all three canticles. On feasts, separate antiphons are given for each of the six psalms in both nocturns. On Sundays, the psalms are grouped in pairs, with one antiphon for each pair. On weekdays, in each of the two nocturns, there are six psalms. In general, the procedure seems to have been to group them in pairs, as on Sunday, with one antiphon for each pair. However, the testimony of the most important antiphoner of the period, CH-SGs 390–391 (c1000; facs. in PalMus, 2nd ser., i, 1900, 2/1970) is not consistent. On many saints’ days the ferial psalms of Matins are replaced by specially chosen ones; the manuscripts often disagree concerning the precise choice of psalms for a particular day.
A versicle with response follows the psalms. Next come, in the monastic cursus, four lessons, each of them followed by a greater responsory sung in a rather elaborate musical style, the last of them incorporating the doxology. The lessons are reduced in number and in length on weekdays. In each nocturn in the Roman cursus there are three lessons and responsories. The lessons are most often from the Bible; an old tradition required the reading of the entire Bible once a year. One method of organizing this is described in the Ordo romanus XIII (second half of the 8th century; outlined by M. Righetti, Manuale di storia liturgica, ii, Milan, 3/1969, 754–5). Other sources for lessons are the writings of the Church Fathers and the Lives of the Saints. From the 10th century it became the practice to include all the elements of the Office in a single book, the breviary; practical considerations required the shortening of the lessons, and thus the proportions of the Office changed considerably.
The texts of the responsories are often taken from the Bible. There is a cycle of them, beginning with the respond Domine ne in ira, which is assigned to the first Sunday after Epiphany. Most or all of these responsories (depending on the manuscript) take their texts from the Book of Psalms, in particular from Psalms i–xxv in order, though not consecutively. This series seems originally to have been created for use on ordinary Sundays as a complement to the ferial Office before the liturgical reform of Pope Gregory I. Later it was replaced, on the Sundays after Pentecost, by various series of responsories from the books of the Bible scheduled for reading at that time of the year. Amalarius of Metz (c830) reported a state of transition between the two practices. (See also Responsory, §§1–2.)
After the last responsory on Sundays and some feasts the Te Deum is sung; in the Roman cursus this often replaces the last responsory. On rare occasions the Te Deum is preceded by an introductory trope: the St Gallen manuscript has one on the feast day of the patron of the monastery (p.324, no.131), Gaudeat his festis.
See also Service, §1.
J.-M. Hanssens: Nature et genèse de l’office des matines: aux origines de la prière liturgique (Rome, 1952)
A. Baumstark: Nocturna laus: Typen frühchristlicher Vigilienfeier und ihr Fortleben vor allem im römischen und monastischen Ritus (Münster, 1956)
R. Le Roux: ‘Aux origines de l’office festif: les antiennes et les psaumes de matines et de laudes pour Noël et le 1er janvier’, EG, iv (1961), 65–172
J.A. Jungmann: ‘The Origin of Matins’, Pastoral Liturgy (London, 1962), 105–22 [orig. pubd in Liturgisches Erbe und pastorale Gegenwart (Innsbruck, 1960)]
R. Le Roux: ‘Etude de l’office dominical et férial: les répons “de psalmis” pour les matines de l’Epiphanie à la Septuagésime’, EG, vi (1963), 39–148
For further bibliography see Divine Office.
RUTH STEINER/KEITH FALCONER