Anglican Breviary and Sarum Missal

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Tis_Bearself

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I had a few questions on the Anglican Breviary and am posting them here in Non-Catholic Religions so that Anglicans can chime in, but I’m happy to hear from any Catholics with knowledge as well.


To make a long story short, I borrowed a collect prayer for St. Benedict Biscop out of the Anglican Breviary because I absolutely couldn’t find one anywhere else, not even on the Benedictine sites. I figured this one time it would be okay because it’s for a private devotion, not liturgical use, and the Anglican Breviary claims to be basically an English translation of the Roman Missal, and the differences seem to be the omission of papal bulls and stuff rather than something like a saint collect.
The collect was also worded in the traditional Roman Missal form, as opposed to some of the modern day Anglican and Episcopal “collects” I see that are not following the expected form of a Catholic collect. Finally, I found this 12-year-old thread where some Carmelite third order member even got permission to use the Anglican Breviary to pray the Divine Office as required by their order.
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Anglican Breviary Spirituality
I hope this is the correct Forum. My question is pretty straight forward. I have prayed the Divine Office (Liturgy of the Hours) since it was referred to as the Roman Breviary. I hope I don’t offend anyone but I really dislike the NAB translation. I am not a Traditionalist. I do not think Vatican II was the work of Satan. I am however a conservative Catholic and I am 66 years old. I love the majestic translation from the past. I am thinking of switching to the Anglican Breviary, which I have be…
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So for all these reasons, the use of Anglican Breviary for private devotional Catholic prayers would seem to be generally okay, assuming a Catholic isn’t going to be tempted to defect to the Anglicans by using the book (zero chance of that in my case).

Here is my question: Why does the Anglican Breviary seem to be different from the Sarum Missal? If you had the Sarum Rite and the Sarum Missal right up till Queen Elizabeth I suppressed them, then why did people need the Roman Missal, which became the Anglican Breviary? I do use an old Sarum Missal (via Archive.org) for some of my prayers, but St. Benedict Biscop wasn’t mentioned in it.
 
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I have no knowledge of this question, but in the interest of maybe getting some answers I’m gonna tag @OraLabora in. 😇 Can you help with this highly specialised question? 😊
 
I don’t know. But I was in contact with the gentleman who had the Breviary republished, back around 20+ years ago. Good man.

I like the Breviary, too. And the Anglican Missal, for that matter.
 
I don’t know.

The gentleman who got it republished is (0r was) like unto the sort of thing I am: a Continuing Anglican Anglo-Catholic. And a scholarly one, at that.

I have had no contact with him for many years, as I said.
 
I gather that the Roman Breviary has undergone many reforms over time and that the Anglican Breviary linked is based largely on the 1911 version but rendered in ++Cranmer’s Prayer Book English.

There were a number of Medieval Uses in England besides that of Sarum. York and Hereford come to mind. I had a quick look though my abridged Sarum Breviary and St Benedict Biscop doesn’t get a mention there either. Perhaps a Northumbrian like St Benedict Biscop didn’t have much popularity in southern England!! We do however commemorate him in the Church of England.

Following on from the Oxford Movement in the mid 19th century were the Ritualists who wanted to introduce Roman practice within the Church of England. (See Wikipedia ‘Ritualism in the Church of England.’) To facilitate this many ‘Ritualist’ books were published including Missals and Brevaries etc. I own quite a few of these.

Incidentally, Percy Dearmer has a nice little bio of Saint Benedict Biscop here:
http://anglicanhistory.org/dearmer/lives/07.html
 
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I’m glad the “modernizing trends of the 1960s” didn’t kill it off. If for no other reason than I might need it for a few more collects. I guarantee that whatever “modern” collects are out there will make me cringe.
 
I sympathize. But it’s not something I run into. For which I am thankful.

The reprint is intended to keep it, as is, available in perpetuity, as you likely read at the link above… As long as the gentleman who is behind it can manage that.
 
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There’s a Collect for St Benedict Biscop in Divine Worship: The Missal. The Ordinariate Office simply states that the propers and collect may be taken from the commons (of a religious).

As to the Breivary and Sarum Missal - these things just come and go, although they always seem to have a ‘revival’ too.
 
Yes, I use the Commons from the Roman Missal. I just get tired of reading the same Common for an Abbot 25 times a year, so I try to find something specific for a saint if there is one out there.

Also, I’m not aware of Divine Worship: The Missal being online somewhere to read for free so I can pull collects from it. Do you know of any such source? If so, I’d be happy to use it. I am always collecting more online resources for this project - different old missals, websites of various orders etc.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
Why does the Anglican Breviary seem to be different from the Sarum Missal?
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In answering your question I would also like to draw upon a quote from elsewhere in your OP.
Tis_Bearself said:
the Anglican Breviary claims to be basically an English translation of the Roman Missal
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I can only base my answer on what you have written. It seems to me that you have some confusion between a breviary and a missal, which, admittedly, surprises me. The former contains the Divine Office while the latter contains the Holy Mass, as I’m sure you know.

I know very little of the Anglican Breviary but believe it was a translation into English of the Roman Breviary in use at the time. It was produced for Anglicans who called themselves Anglo-Catholics and who in practice were very much Anglo-Papalists. They wanted to copy what we Catholics did. The Anglican Breviary was done in the same English as found in the Book of Common Prayer.

The Sarum Missal was a use of the Roman Rite originally from the diocese of Salisbury, England. Salisbury was not the only English diocese to have its own use, a number of others did, too. The Sarum Rite spread beyond Salisbury and was probably the most widely used at the time of the Reformation. I understand that after the Council of Trent it was of sufficient provenance not to be one of the many rites/uses that were abrogated.

Therefore, I do not think there should be any surprise that you find some difference between a liturgical book for the Mass that has not been altered since the Middle Ages and another liturgical book that was for the Divine Office and dates from the early twentieth century.
 
Good catch, as it appears I did misspeak and should have said it was based on the Roman Breviary. There is also a Sarum Breviary so I probably should have said that.

I currently don’t pray LOTH and don’t own any breviaries, so I’m not as concerned with the correct terminology.

Additionally, both breviaries and missals contain the daily Collects, which is the only part I am focusing on and praying at this point, so I wasn’t paying much attention to the distinction.

My underlying issue, which it seems that the previous posters understood despite my gaffe in wording, is why one would need to use Roman anything (breviary, missal) when one already had Sarum (breviary, missal, etc.). I agree that there are differences between a missal and a breviary, but for purposes of just looking up the collects, it’s no different and the distinction is immaterial to the question I’m asking.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
Additionally, both breviaries and missals contain the daily Collects, which is the only part I am focusing on and praying at this point, so I wasn’t paying much attention to the distinction.
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I thought that may be the case but could only go off what you’d written. I still suspect, though, the Sarum Missal and Anglican Breviary will have different collects. To the best of my knowledge the Sarum Missal hasn’t been changed since it was made a crime to be a Catholic in these Isles. On the other hand the Anglican Breviary was, I think, basically a translation of the Roman Breviary current at the time into the Elizabethan English found in the Book of Common Prayer.

To the crux of your question I don’t think you’re doing anything wrong borrowing from the Anglican Breviary. It is mostly the Roman Breviary in English. You’re probably on even safer ground now the liturgy can be celebrated in the vernacular.

I don’t posses an Anglican Breviary but possess Monastic Matins and the Anglican Diurnal. They’re both translations of the Benedictine Monastic Office in to English. There is some limited provision for things Anglican which have been taken in some cases from the English Book of Common Prayer and in others from the American Book of Common Prayer. They very clearly indicate when this happens. So, I do wonder if perhaps the Anglican Breviary does the same, i.e. provides a sort of warning that this material is Anglican only.
 
As far as I’m aware Divine Worship: The Missal is not online. If you need any collects for obscure British saints in the future though let me know and I’ll send you the Collect.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
My underlying issue, which it seems that the previous posters understood despite my gaffe in wording, is why one would need to use Roman anything (breviary, missal) when one already had Sarum (breviary, missal, etc.).
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I have an Anglican Breviary (AB), and it’s an eclectic mix between Roman and Sarum (some rubrics follow the latter).

The textual history of the AB is very muddy, but I suspect the answer to your question lies in the heightened aesthetic fetishism for “all things Roman” by a significant demographic of Anglo-Catholics. That probably fed into the decision to choose the Roman (rather than the Sarum) Breviary as the translation basis for the Anglican Breviary.

It’s important to note that Anglo-Catholicism wasn’t an especially homogenous movement: there were some who wished to return to return to a sort of primitive Celtic or “Anglo-Patristic” liturgy, others wanted to return to the Sarum Use, and others wished instead to harmonise the liturgy with the prevailing Roman Use. The English Society of Ss Peter and Paul (which made the translation of the Anglican Breviary) likely fell into the latter.

I feel that there must also be some sort of substantive theological reason apart from a superficial aesthetic interest , but I’m at a loss as to what it might be. Explicitly Roman streams of Anglo-Catholic theology weren’t especially influential in Australia, and it has receded in much of the global Anglican communion so there’s little written about it that is easily accessible.
 
i own and pray the Anglican Breviary. It is basically a translation of Pius X breviary from 1910/1911. It’s a perfect way for a Catholic to pray. I have heard of FSSP priests recommending it as private devotion, Only thing thats a little different is the how the calendar refers to the Immaculate Conception (basically they call it the Immaculate Conception without calling it that) but for that day can just print out that day’s prayers from online .

Should you pray the Anglican Breviary would be basically no different from Breviary used by all Roman rite priests of the first half of the 20th century, from WWI until 1955 abouts, except it would be in nice poetic English rather than majestic Latin.

so i dont wear out the book, I am working on typing out portions of the commons of the breviary so i can print it out for a small binder. its a little different language, for one out of respect for the copyright of the owners, and two using some older English prayers from very old 1600s Anglicanism and Catholicism, such as the Nicene Creed, for the fun of it and to make my mind think more actively when I pray by mixing it up from the usual. if you’re interested send me a PM but its far from finished.
 
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