Solemnity & Feast

[atara]

What’s the difference?

I know this past week of a Solemnity of Christ the King, but I kept thinking it was a feast day.
And, does the difference mean the music should be more solemn?

 

[diggerdomer]

What’s the difference?

I know this past week of a Solemnity of Christ the King, but I kept thinking it was a feast day.
And, does the difference mean the music should be more solemn?

The “hierarchy” of liturgical celebrations is solemnity, feast, and memoral.

Music and all elements of the Mass should be more prevalent in Solemnities vs. Feasts vs. Memorials.

 

[Joannm]

Also on a Solemnity, if it falls during the week, you sing the Gloria, even during Advent or Lent.

 

[Reuben_J]

Ranks of Catholic liturgical days

Each day in the Catholic liturgical calendar has a rank. The four basic ranks are as follows:

**Solemnity–**the highest ranking feast. These commemorate an event in the life of Jesus, Mary or the Apostles central to the Christian faith. The celebration of mass on a Solemnity includes proper readings, the singing of the Gloria and the recitation of the creed. Every Sunday is a solemnity.

Feast–the rank of secondary liturgical days including lesser events in the life of Jesus, Mary or an Apostle (theologically speaking) or for major saints.

Memorial–the commemoration of a saint of lesser importance. Many memorials are optional or only observed in specific dioceses, regions or nations.

Seasonal Weekday–a weekday in a “strong” liturgical season (Advent, Christmas Season, Lent, Easter Season) on which no solemnity, feast, or memorial is observed.

Feria or Ferial Weekday–a weekday in ordinary time on which no solemnity, feast or memorial is observed.

Catholic liturgical Calendar Rank

 

[OraLabora]

Also on a Solemnity, if it falls during the week, you sing the Gloria, even during Advent or Lent.

You do this for feasts during the week as well.

The hierarchy is in ascending order:

Optional memorial (not obligated to observe it, or as our abbey does in the Divine Office, observe it with one or two elements only)

Memorial; in a memorial there are also memorials with proper antiphons (which use the festive psalms) at Lauds and Vespers.

Feast

Solemnity

 

[curlycool89]

Also on a Solemnity, if it falls during the week, you sing the Gloria, even during Advent or Lent.

I believe that on a Solemnity you also say the Creed during the week (but not on a Feast).

 

[Evan]

One other difference is:

All Solemnities have Eves: Like Christmas Eve, or All Hallows Eve (Halloween). That is the celebration of the day begins in the previous afternoon.

There is still a small remnant of a higher feast: The Octave. That is a Solemnity of such importance the celebration lasts for 8 days. We still celebrate the octave of Christmas and the octave of Easter (in which many of the prayers are take from the feast).

There used to be an octave of Pentecost which is why the Easter duty ended on Trinity Sunday (the old end of the Easter Season) rather than Pentecost (the new end of the Easter Season.

 

[OraLabora]

One other difference is: All Solemnities have Eves: Like Christmas Eve, or All Hallows Eve (Halloween). That is the celebration of the day begins in the previous afternoon.

This also applies to feasts of Our Lord that are celebrated on a Sunday: there are 1st Vespers.

 

[Matthew_Holford]

What’s the difference?

I know this past week of a Solemnity of Christ the King, but I kept thinking it was a feast day.
And, does the difference mean the music should be more solemn?

Technically, all the ranks of holy day you’ve been told about are correct but we often use the term ‘feast’ generically. I’ve seen official documents which refer to the Feast of Christ the King although it’s actual rank in solemnity.

 

[Matthew_Holford]

This also applies to feasts of Our Lord that are celebrated on a Sunday: there are 1st Vespers.

As long as they’re in the General Rome Calendar. It doesn’t apply to Feasts of the Lord in particular calendar.

 

[Matthew_Holford]

I don’t think anyone’s mentioned commemorations. These are when optional memorials are not fully celebrated. At Mass: this means the Opening Prayer is that of the Optional Memorial, the rest of the propers are those of the ferial weekday. I cannot remember how they’re commemorated at the Divine Office. OraLabora may be able to help us there.

 

[atara]

If Mass is a solemnity - it’s a double solemnity on Christ the King?

 

[MarkThompson]

If Mass is a solemnity - it’s a double solemnity on Christ the King?

Mass is not, by itself, a solemnity. I think you meant to say “If Sunday is a solemnity,” but an average Sunday does not rank as a solemnity either. Sundays of Ordinary Time rank after Feasts of the Lord in the General Calendar and before Feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of the saints in the General Calendar.

 

[Spirithound]

I don’t think anyone’s mentioned commemorations. These are when optional memorials are not fully celebrated. At Mass: this means the Opening Prayer is that of the Optional Memorial, the rest of the propers are those of the ferial weekday. I cannot remember how they’re commemorated at the Divine Office. OraLabora may be able to help us there.

From the General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours:

Memorials During Privileged Seasons

1. During privileged seasons, if it is desired to celebrate the office of a saint on a day assigned to his or her memorial:

a. in the office of readings, after the patristic reading (with its responsory) from the Proper of Seasons, a proper reading about the saint (with its responsory) may follow, with the concluding prayer of the saint;

b. at morning prayer and evening prayer, the ending of the concluding prayer may be omitted and the saint’s antiphon (from the proper or common) and prayer may be added.

ewtn.com/library/curia/cdwgilh.htm#Ch%20IV-II

 

[OraLabora]

I don’t think anyone’s mentioned commemorations. These are when optional memorials are not fully celebrated. At Mass: this means the Opening Prayer is that of the Optional Memorial, the rest of the propers are those of the ferial weekday. I cannot remember how they’re commemorated at the Divine Office. OraLabora may be able to help us there.

I think there is some latitude in the Divine Office at least in a monastery. At our abbey, typically they use the Benedictus antiphon from the Proper (if there is one) or commons and that’s it. I myself will recognize it at Vigils by reading the hagiographic reading and praying the collect of the saint. At the Mass it varies, sometimes they do the Mass of the saint, other times just the proper readings and/or collect with the appropriate Kyriale.

In reality, the GILH does not distinguish between obligatory and optional memorials, so one should celebrate the optional ones as the obligatory ones. However memorials have considerable latitude to begin with especially if there is no proper office:

1. The hymn can be from the common or the hymn of the day
2. The short reading and responsory can be from the common or the reading of the day
3. The gospel canticle antiphon can be from the day or the common
4. The intercessions can be from the day or common
5. The collect is always of the saint.

So that you can build in your own formula of ranking of the two, by using everything from the day where allowed by the rubrics for optional memorials, and using everything from the common where allowed by the rubrics, for obligatory memorials.

From the General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours:

Memorials During Privileged Seasons

1. During privileged seasons, if it is desired to celebrate the office of a saint on a day assigned to his or her memorial:

a. in the office of readings, after the patristic reading (with its responsory) from the Proper of Seasons, a proper reading about the saint (with its responsory) may follow, with the concluding prayer of the saint;

b. at morning prayer and evening prayer, the ending of the concluding prayer may be omitted and the saint’s antiphon (from the proper or common) and prayer may be added.

ewtn.com/library/curia/cdwgilh.htm#Ch%20IV-II

During privileged seasons, all memorials become optional. This includes Advent from Dec. 17-24, Octave of Christmas and all of Lent, and celebrated as Spirithound says.

 

[atara]

I still kinda don’t get it- the difference between a solemnity & a feast.
I get that Solemnities are higher on the scale than feasts -

 

[OraLabora]

I still kinda don’t get it- the difference between a solemnity & a feast.
I get that Solemnities are higher on the scale than feasts -

Well, with respect to the LOTH:

Feast: no 1st Vespers unless it’s the feast of Our Lord that falls on a Sunday; ferial psalms for the little hours (Terce, Sext, None), but with proper antiphon in some cases, collect of the feast; festive psalms for Lauds and Vespers with proper antiphons or from the common, Gloria at Mass.

Solemnity: always 1st Vespers, gradual psalms with proper antiphons for the little hours, festive psalms at Lauds and Vespers with proper antiphons. Gloria and Credo at Mass.

And for those who celebrate in Latin, for the hymns of the Little Hours and Compline, there is a gradual increase in the ornamentation of the hymns from very simple for ferias, slightly more ornamented for memorials, more so again for feasts, and most ornamented for solemnities and Sundays. For Compline, the Marian antiphon is sung on the simple tone for ferias and memorials, and on the solemn tone for feasts and solemnities.

All a matter of degrees of solemnity for the celebration ranging from simple to ornate.

 

[MarkThompson]

And just to be clear, Solemnities, Feasts, and Memorials can all be called feasts. The only differences are (1) the level of importance the Church thinks they have, and (2) how they are expressed in liturgy. So, for instance, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is more important than today’s feast of Saint Andre Dung Lac and companions. Therefore, the Assumption is classified as a Solemnity, while St. Andre Dung Lac is classified as a Memorial. They are both feasts, though; they just don’t hold the intermediate liturgical rank named “Feast.” The next one of those that we have is next Tuesday’s Feast of St. Andrew the Apostle.

Likewise, every saint, no matter how insignificant, has what we call a “feast day.” If I’m not mistaken, today is the feast day of Saint Firmina, believed to have died in the third century in the persecutions of the emperor Diocletian. On the liturgical calendar, her feast day is neither a Solemnity, a Feast, nor a Memorial, though. It’s not there at all. It may be locally approved for the diocese or parish where she lived or where her remains are kept, I don’t know. But she still has a feast day, even if no one is actually celebrating it in the liturgy by commemorating it as a “Feast.” Today is additionally the feast day of a number of other minor saints we also don’t recognize in the calendar.

It may help you to read Wikipedia’s article on the Ranking of liturgical days in the Roman Rite (cached version here as the site seems to be down right now). You’ll see that the terminology of Solemnities and Memorials only goes back to 1969. Before that, the calendar just called everything a feast and divided them into different classes.

 

[OraLabora]

Likewise, every saint, no matter how insignificant, has what we call a “feast day.” If I’m not mistaken, today is the feast day of Saint Firmina, believed to have died in the third century in the persecutions of the emperor Diocletian. On the liturgical calendar, her feast day is neither a Solemnity, a Feast, nor a Memorial, though. It’s not there at all. It may be locally approved for the diocese or parish where she lived or where her remains are kept, I don’t know.

All saints, those on the calendar or not, are listed in the martyrology and where the martyrology is proclaimed daily (e.g. in all monasteries), the saint at least gets a passing mention that time.

That said, the GILH says this about celebrating saints not on the liturgical calendar:

Option to Choose an Office

1. On weekdays when an optional memorial is permitted, for a good reason the office of a saint listed on that day in the Roman Martyrology, or in an approved appendix to it, may be celebrated in the same way as other memorials (see nos. 234-239).

So one does have the option to recognize those saints in the manner of a memorial. However they would not be able to supersede a celebration of a saint in the calendar. However some of these saints may be on the local calendar, such as the patron saint of a parish.

 

[MarkThompson]

Thanks, yes, that’s true; it was a bit of an oversimplification, even though I meant in general. The point is, going back to the original question (“Solemnity & Feast: What’s the difference?”), the truth is that they are all “feasts” in a basic sense, and that the Church has chosen feasts of the greatest importance to be called “Solemnities,” feasts of middling importance to be called “Feasts,” feasts of minor importance to be called “Memorials.”

I guess I don’t know the answer (do you?) to whether one can officially say that the feast of, for instance, St. Firmina is a Memorial. The quotation you gave, indicating that it “may be celebrated in the same way as other memorials,” would seem to indicate so. Either way, it is a feast, even though it does not have the liturgical rank of Feast, which is the main point I wanted to communicate since it seemed to be at the root of the confusion here.