Ambrosian Vespers of the Fridays in Lent

In the Ambrosian Rite, the Fridays of Lent stand out from the rest of the week in two very notable ways. The first is that these days are “aliturgical”, meaning that no Mass is celebrated at all. (Exceptions are permitted only for the feasts of St Joseph and the Annunciation when they occur on Friday, the former being of very late institution.) As I have described many times before, the same custom once obtained in Lent in the Roman Rite, but on the Thursdays, and the Saturdays after Ash Wednesday and Passion Sunday, while it still holds in the Byzantine Rite for all the weekdays, likewise excepting only the Annunciation.

The other is that Vespers is celebrated in a special form which shares some characteristics with other liturgical days, but is in itself unique to these Fridays.

Ambrosian Vespers normally begins with a responsory called a lucernarium, which takes its name from the ancient custom that the church’s lamps were lit while it was being sung. The repertoire of these is very small, only twelve unique texts, one of which is sung only on these five Fridays. (On Good Friday, the lucernarium is simply omitted.) This particular one is much longer than is usually the case on a feria; just the opening words, “Dirigatur oratio mea sicut incensum in conspectu tuo. – Let my prayer be directed like incense in Thy sight”, have more notes than the whole of the default ferial text.

This is followed by the hymn Audi, benigne Conditor, which the Roman Rite sings at Vespers every day of Lent properly so called, and the Ambrosian Rite every day but Sunday. (The Ambrosian music is different.) The hymn is regularly followed by another responsory, called “in choro”, since in the cathedral it was sung by the clergy standing around the throne of the archbishop, who led the chanting of it. (Many features of the Ambrosian Office are assigned to specific offices within the cathedral chapter.) The repertoire of these is rather larger, numbering over sixty, but no recording is available of any of the ones that are sung on these days.

A photograph of the clergy and cantors around the archbishop at the high altar of Milan cathedral, during Vespers of the Epiphany. (Colorized by Nicola.)

At this point, there normally follows the psalmody, but on the Fridays of Lent, there are first read four lessons from the Old Testament, taken from Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, or one of the books of Kings. Each lesson is followed by a chant called a psalmellus, which is very similar in structure to the gradual of the Roman Mass, and then a prayer. A similar arrangement of readings, psalmelli and prayers is done at First Vespers of Christmas, Epiphany and Pentecost, and for these days, the material is all include in the Ambrosian Missal in an appendix, since they are followed by the Mass of the vigil. However, our Ambrosian expert Nicola de’ Grandi informs me that no modern printed edition of this material exists for the Friday Vespers of Lent. (In the following table of the lessons, I use the Vulgate naming of the books of Kings; modern Bibles which follow the Hebrew tradition call them 1-2 Samuel and 1-2 Kings.)

The Saturdays of Lent have a particular importance in the Ambrosian Rite. The day is treated almost like a feast, and the historical custom of Milan, already attested by St Ambrose himself (On Elijah and the fast, 34), is not to keep any fast on that day. The Masses have three readings, like a Sunday or a Saint’s day, where ferial days normally have only two. The Gospel of the first of these Saturdays, Matthew 12, 1-8, refers to this custom of not keeping it as a fast day.

“… Jesus went through the corn on the sabbath, and his disciples being hungry, began to pluck the ears, and to eat. And the Pharisees seeing them, said to him, ‘Behold thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do on the sabbath days.’ But he said to them, … ‘have ye not read in the law, that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple break the sabbath, and are without blame? But I tell you that there is here a greater than the temple. … For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath.”

Christ Defends the Plucking of Grain on the Sabbath, 1580-90, by the Flemish painter Martin van Valckenborch.

The following four Saturdays are each dedicated to the rites by which the catechumens were prepared for baptism during Lent, and the Gospels of these days refer to these rites very clearly. For example, on the third Saturday, the last verse of the Gospel, Mark 6, 6-13, is, “And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them”, because this was the day on which the catechumens were anointed.

For this reason, Dr Cesare Alzati, one of the best modern scholars of the Ambrosian Rite, sees this special form of Vespers, including the readings, as a kind of vigil for these Saturdays. And indeed, the first reading on the third Friday, 1 Kings (Samuel) 16, 1-13a, is the story of King David’s anointing at the hands of the prophet Samuel. It should be noted, however, that the criterion for the choice of these readings is for the most part not so clear.

After the fourth prayer, Vespers returns to its normal order with the psalmody. The Ambrosian psalms for Vespers on Sunday and the weekdays are the same as those in the Roman Office before the Divino Afflatu reform of the psalter, so on Friday, they are 137-141. (Some of the corresponding antiphons have the same text as the Roman ones, but the music is quite different.) The regular prayer after the psalms of Friday is then said:

“Gratias tibi agimus, omnipotens Deus; quod, declinante jam die, nos vespertini luminis claritate circumdas; petimus immensam clementiam tuam, ut, sicut nos hujus luminis claritate circumvallas, ita Sancti Spiritus tui luce corda nostra illuminare digneris. Per ... in unitate ejusdem...

We give Thee thanks, almighty God, since as the day now declines, Thou dost surround us with the brightness of the evening light; we ask Thy boundless clemency that, just as Thou encompass us with the brightness of this light, so also may Thou deign to enlighten our hearts with the light of Thy Holy Spirit. Through our Lord… in the unity of the same Holy Spirit…”

The common order of Friday Vespers in the first official post-Tridentine edition of the Ambrosian breviary, published under the authority of St Charles Borromeo in 1582. The prayer “Gratias tibi agimus” cited above is in the lower part of the left column.

At this point, there would normally be sung first the Magnificat, then several other chants; these vary in their number and arrangement according to the day, and most of them are followed by a prayer. (Ambrosian Sunday Vespers typically has five collects of its own, plus those of any commemorations of occurring feasts.) However, on the Fridays of Lent, these are all completely omitted, including the Magnificat; this looks forward to Holy Week, in which both the Benedictus and the Magnificat are omitted on all the ferias. The only element which is retained from the order followed on other ferial Vespers of Lent is twelve Kyrie eleisons before the standard concluding formula.