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(Latinseptuagesima, the seventieth).
Septuagesima is the ninth Sunday beforeEaster, the third beforeLent known among the Greeks as "Sunday of the Prodigal" from the Gospel,Luke 15, which they read on this day, called alsoDominica Circumdederunt by the Latins, from the first word of theIntroit of the Mass. Inliturgical literature the name "Septuagesima" occurs for the first time in the Gelasian Sacramentary. Why the day (or the week, or the period) has the name Septuagesima, and the next SundaySexagesima, etc., is a matter of dispute among writers. It is certainly not the seventieth day beforeEaster, still less is the next Sunday the sixtieth, fiftieth, etc. Amularius, "De eccl. Off.", I, I, would make the Septuagesima mystically represent theBabylonian Captivity of seventy years, would have it begin with this Sunday on which the Sacramentaries and Antiphonaries give theIntroit "Circumdederunt me undique" and end with the Saturday afterEaster, when theChurch sings "Eduxit Dominus populum suum." Perhaps the word is only one of a numerical series:Quadragesima,Quinquagesima, etc. Again, it may simply denote the earliest day on which someChristians began the forty days ofLent, excluding Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday from the observance of the fast.
Septuagesima is today inaugurated in the Roman Martyrology by the words: "Septuagesima Sunday, on which the canticle of the Lord, Alleluja, ceases to be said". On the Saturday preceding, theRoman Breviary notes that after the "Benedicamus" ofVespers twoAlleluias are to be added, that thenceforth it is to be omitted tillEaster, and in its place "Laus tibi Domine" is to be said at the beginning of the Office. Formerly the farewell to theAlleluia was quite solemn. In an Antiphonary of the Church of St. Cornelius at Compiègne we find two specialantiphons.Spain had a short Office consisting of ahymn, chapter, antiphon, and sequence. Missals inGermany up to the fifteenth century had a beautiful sequence. In French churches they sang thehymn "Alleluia, dulce carmen" (Guéranger, IV, 14) which was well-known among the Anglo-Saxons (Rock, IV, 69). The "Te Deum" is not recited atMatins, except on feasts. The lessons of the firstNocturn are taken from Genesis, relating the fall and subsequent misery of man and thus giving a fit preparation for theLenten season. In the Mass of Sunday andferias the Gloria in Excelsis is entirely omitted. In all Masses a Tract is added to the Gradual.
APA citation.Mershman, F.(1912).Septuagesima. InThe Catholic Encyclopedia.New York: Robert Appleton Company.http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13721b.htm
MLA citation.Mershman, Francis."Septuagesima."The Catholic Encyclopedia.Vol. 13.New York: Robert Appleton Company,1912.<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13721b.htm>.
Transcription.This article was transcribed for New Advent by Paul Soffing.In Memory of Frederick Geiger.
Ecclesiastical approbation.Nihil Obstat. February 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, D.D., Censor.Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
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