Little Office of Our Lady
A liturgical
devotion to the
Blessed Virgin, in imitation of, and in addition to, the
Divine Office.
It is first heard of in the middle of the eighth century at
Monte Cassino. According to Cardinal Bona, who quotes from a manuscript of Peter the Deacon (twelfth century), there was, in addition to the Divine Office, another “which it is customary to perform in honour of the
Holy Mother of God, which Zachary the Pope [d. 752] commanded under strict precept to the Cassinese Monastery.” This would seem to indicate that some form of the Office of Our Lady was already extant and, indeed, we hear of an Office in her honour composed by St. Ildephonsus, who lived about the end of the seventh century. The Eastern Church, too, possesses an Office of the B.V.M., attributed to St. John Damascene (c. 730). But though various Offices in honour of
Our Lady were in existence earlier, it is probable that the Little Office, as a part of the liturgy, did not come into general use before the tenth century; and it is not unlikely that its diffusion is largely due to the marked devotion to the Blessed Virgin which is characteristic of the Church in England under the guidance of St. Dunstan and St. Ethelwold. Certainly during the tenth century, an Office of the Blessed Virgin is mentioned at Augsburg, at Verdun, and at Eisiedeln; while already in the following century there were at least two versions of her “Hours” extant in England. In the eleventh century we learn from St. Peter Damian that it was already commonly recited amongst the secular clergy of Italy and France, and it was through his influence that the practice of reciting it in choir, in addition to the Great Office, was introduced into several Italian monasteries. At Cluny the Office of the B.V.M. was not introduced till the end of the eleventh century, and then only as a devotion for the sick monks. In the twelfth century came the foundation of the Orders of Cîteaux and Prémontré, of which the latter only retained the Little Office in addition to the Divine Office. The Austin Canons also retained it, and, perhaps through their influence, in the course of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, it developed from a private devotion into part of the daily duty of the secular clergy as well. By the fourteenth century the recital of the Little Office had come to be an almost universal practice and was regarded as obligatory on all the clergy. This obligation remained until
St. Pius V removed it by the Bull “Quod a nobis” of 1568. At the present time, however, it is recited on certain days by several of the older orders, and it serves, instead of the Greater Office, as the liturgical prayer of lay brothers and lay sisters in some of the contemplative orders, and of the members of most of the congregations of women engaged in active work. Down to the Reformation it formed a large part of the “Primer or Lay-folk’s Prayer-book”, and was customarily recited by the devout laity, by whom the practice was continued for long afterwards among the persecuted Catholics. Today it is recited daily by Dominican, Carmelite, Augustinian, and by large numbers of the Franciscan, Tertiaries, as well as by many pious laymen who desire to take part in the liturgical prayer of the Church. It is worth noting that the form of the Little Office of Our Lady has varied considerably at different periods and in different places. The earlier versions varied very considerably, chiefly as regards the hymns and antiphons used: in England in
medieval times the main differences seem to have been between the Sarum and York Uses. Since the time of
St. Pius V, that most commonly recited has been the version of the reformed Breviary of that pope. In this version, which suffers somewhat from the classicism of the sixteenth century, are to be found the seven “Hours”, as in the Greater Office. At Matins, after the versicles follow the invitatory “Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum” with the “Venite” then the hymn “Quem terra, pontus, sidera”; then three groups of psalms, each with their antiphons, of which one group is said on Sundays, Mondays, and Thursdays, the second on Tuesdays and Fridays, the third on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
