It is likely that for the early Church, Good Friday also constituted a day of liturgical celebration. For a more extensive celebration of it we have to wait for the details reported in the testimony of Egeria (or Eteria) (cf. Dictionary of Patristic and Christian Antiquities, I, Casale Monferrato, 1983, col. 1108), from the 4th century, details that will have a decisive influence on the Roman liturgy. Until then, the central element of the Good Friday celebration was the celebration of the word. The arrangement of this liturgy offered to us by Justin in his I Apologia was taken up by the different liturgies, modifying this or that secondary aspect. Here we have the primitive nucleus of our liturgy of the word, traced, in its fundamental lines, to the Jewish celebration of Saturday morning .[1]
The first part of the Good Friday morning celebration retained this structure except for a few variations: readings, songs, homily, solemn orations, one of the forms of today’s so-called universal prayer.
It seems that the ancient structure contemplated a prostration of the bishop who, in the meantime, prayed in silence, a first reading followed by a Tractus, a second reading, the singing of the Passion, and finally the Solemn Orations (our universal prayer in its broadest form)[2] This is why certain Ordines offer us an example of a similar structure .[3]
Elsewhere, however, it is done differently, i.e. the celebration follows another pattern: after prostration the celebrant says a prayer, then there is the first reading followed by another prayer[4]
There is also another structure: after prostration, the celebrant recites an oration and then the readings begin without prayers. This is the structure chosen in the current Good Friday Ordo. The Solemn Prayers as presented to us in the Gelasian Sacramentary were preserved until the recent reform, which introduced new ones and transformed others.
But, as mentioned above, the Roman liturgy was influenced by the account given by Egeria in her 4th century Itinerarium (or Pelegrinatio ad loca sancta). In her diary, she describes what happens on Good Friday in Jerusalem where the cross of Christ is venerated.
…A chair is placed for the bishop behind the cross, where he stands at that moment. The bishop sits on the chair, a table covered with a linen cloth is placed in front of him, the deacons stand around the table: a gilded silver box is brought in which there is the holy wood of the Cross, it is opened and displayed. One places the wood of the Cross on the table, opens it and exposes it. One places the wood of the Cross and the inscription on the table. After having placed them on the table, the bishop sits down and lays his hands on the ends of the wood and the deacons, standing all around, keep watch. The reason for the vigilance is this: it is customary that one by one all the faithful and catechumens alike approach the table and, bending over the table, kiss the holy wood and then move on: now, it is said that, I do not know when, a person bit off a fragment of the holy wood: for this reason the deacons standing around take care that someone, coming near, does not dare repeat that gesture. So they all parade there one by one: they bend down, touch first with their foreheads then with their eyes the Cross and the inscription, then they kiss the Cross and pass on, but no one touches it with their hands[5]
In Rome, where part of the wood of the cross is preserved, the custom of a veneration similar to that described by Egeria[6] took hold. It is only with Ordo XXIII (700-750), however, that we have an extensive description, by a pilgrim, of the rite of veneration of the cross in the Eternal City. Although the Hispanic liturgy in the 7th century attests to a veneration of the cross inherited no less from Jerusalem, Rome does not depend on it in its ritual. Instead, the description given in Ordo XXIII is very similar to that narrated by Egeria[7] . The Eastern influence is evident: for example, it is the pope himself who carries the smoking thurible during the procession, a custom that is completely unknown in Rome. At the time when the rite of veneration entered the Roman liturgy, the popes occupying the Chair of Peter were oriental: from John V (685-686) to Zechariah (741-752)[8] . In Rome, moreover, the veneration of the cross precedes the liturgy of the word, as reported by Egeria .[9]
The liturgical books do not indicate any hymns of thanksgiving for the veneration of the cross, consistent in this also with the diary of Egeria. From the 8th and 9th centuries, the procession formed for the occasion is accompanied by a hymn, the antiphon Ecce lignum crucis with Psalm 118[10] . Other antiphons would later be added to the psalmody, e.g. Salva nos Christe and, in particular, Crucem tuam adoramus, an antiphon of Byzantine origin, known to Alamarius of Metz (c. 775 c. 858)[11] . In the Ordo XXXI in 850-890, the hymn Pange lingua (composed by Venantius Fortunatus [† c. 600] with the verse Crux fidelis is also added to Psalm 118 and the antiphon Ecce lignum crucis.
In these liturgical books, there is no mention of the use of either veiling or unveiling the cross. The origin and meaning of this use are obscure, although it is easy to guess the dramatisation involved in uncovering the sacred wood. This custom only appears with the Roman Pontifical of the 12th century.
Communion on such a day does not appear in Rome before the 7th century. This is confirmed by the famous letter of Innocent I to the bishop of Gubbio, Decentius[12] . In the Ordo XXIII (700-750), we find an interesting rubric: neither the pope nor the bishops communicate on Good Friday. Those who wish to communicate must do so by consuming what has been preserved from the Eucharist celebrated on the previous day, i.e. Holy Thursday. Those who do not wish to communicate in this way can go to the other churches in Rome[13] . We are in the presence of a double custom. But in the Roman liturgy of the time, one took communion under both species. The oldest documents mention in explicit terms the reservation of consecrated bread and wine. Some later documents, which seem to be of Frankish origin, mention the reservation of consecrated bread only, but speak at the same time of the silent mixing of consecrated bread with unconsecrated wine. This mixing of bread and wine was based on a theological conviction. It was not easy to keep consecrated wine on Thursday until Good Friday. Now, for the ordinary communion of the faithful, it was customary to pour holy blood into a chalice already filled with unconsecrated wine. Around 1800, the idea arose that by mixing consecrated bread with unconsecrated wine, the latter would be consecrated by contact. Alamarium of Metz bears witness to this use[14] . Thus, bread consecrated on the eve and a chalice filled with wine are brought to the altar. They are placed on the table and incensed. Then the celebrant chants the Pater. The host is then divided into three parts and the third is placed in the chalice, in silence. The 12th century Pontifical recalls that unconsecrated wine is consecrated by contact from the consecrated bread. At the beginning of the 13th century, this theory is refuted, but this belief had lasted for four centuries. The 13th-century Papal Ordo indicates at that time that only the pontiff communicates on Good Friday .[15]
Until the reform of 1055, only the celebrant may communicate, but the rite of entrance will always be practised without the consecration of wine.
By suppressing the input, the 1955 reform had, however, introduced communion of the faithful. Otherwise, it had retained most of the previous usages. With Vatican II, this liturgy underwent major changes.
The celebration had already been set for the afternoon by the previous Ordo. This provision was kept. It could have been decided to celebrate the liturgy of the word in the morning and to set adoration of the cross and communion in the afternoon. But more than understandable pastoral reasons did not allow this innovation; it is difficult to commit people to gather twice on the same day for two celebrations. It was even considered to remove communion from the faithful and return to the ancient tradition. But the communion of the faithful on Good Friday had just been instituted by the 1955 reform.
The Vatican II reform introduced:
at the beginning of the celebration an oration of your choice;
the choice of two readings in addition to the Passion, in which the figure of the suffering Christ, led to the slaughter as a mute sheep, laden with all our sins, the cause of our justification, emerges.
The rubrics have also been changed: the one presiding wears red vestments, a sign of Christ’s kingship, instead of using the colour black. Again, the presiding Bishop of the Universal Prayer (=Solemn Prayer) may be placed at the See, at the ambo or at the table. These, depending on the life situation in which the local Church finds itself, can be added at the discretion of either the individual bishops’ conference or even the local Ordinary.
For the second part of the celebration, the veneration of the cross is introduced alongside the ancient custom of showing the cross to the faithful, progressively unveiling it to the chant, repeated three times, of the Ecce lignum crucis. Another form of ostension of the cross is also proposed: from the back of the church, the celebrant or deacon, carrying the unveiled cross, chants the Ecce lignum crucis. He sings it three times while advancing towards the presbytery, thus repeating the same rite adopted for the lumen Christi.
For communion (third part) the Ordo Missae from the Lord’s Prayer onwards is adopted.
By Fr. Giorgio Bontempi C.M.
[1] JUSTIN, I Apologia, LXVII, Paulines, Rome, 1983, 117 – 119.
[2] The history of these orations is complex. See P. De Clerck, Le piére univèrselle dans les liturgies anciènnes. Temoinagès patristiques et textes liturgiques, Munster, 1977.
[3] For example, the Ordines XVI; XVII; XXIII; XXIV and XXXB, which date from the end of the 8th century, and some sacramentaries from the same period. Cf. H. SCMIDT, Hebdomanda Sancta, II/2, Romae – Freiburgi, Br. Barcinone, 1957, 778 ff.
[4] Several sacramentaries testify to this use, for example, the Gelasian Sacramentary.
[5] EGERIA, Travelogue, Milan, 1999, 96 – 97
[6] H. GRISAR The ‘Sancta Sanctorum’ in Rome and its newly opened treasure, ‘La Civiltà Cattolica’, 52/2 (1906) 513-544; 708-730.
[7] Le Liber Ordinum es usage dans l’Eglise wisigothique et mozarabe d’Espagne du V au XI siècle: ed. M. Ferotìn, Paris, 1904, coll. 192 ff. ; M. ANDRIEU, Les Ordines romani …, cit., nrr. 9-22 (Ordo XXIII).
[8] H. SCHMIDT, op. cit. 791.
[9] EGERIA, Travelogue, Milan, 1999, 96 – 97
[10] M. ANDRIEU, Les Ordines romani…, cit, no. 35, p. 294 (Ordo XIV).
[11] ALAMARIUS OF METZ, Liber Officialis, I, 14.
[12] INNOCENT i, Letter 25 to Decentius of Gubbio: PL 20, 555-556.
[13] M. ANDRIEU, Les Ordines romani…, cit, 272 (Ordo XXIII
[14] ALAMARIUS OF METZ, Liber Officialis, I, 15.
[15] Triduum Sacrum, ed. Adrien Nocent, in Anàmnesi 6, L’Anno Liturgico, Genoa, Marietti, 1989, 108-109.
