“The Rogation Days”. From “The Liturgical Year”. By: “Servant Of God”, Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.

Abbot Prosper Guéranger, O.S.B.

1805-1875.

Printmaker: Claude-Ferdinand Gaillard (1834–1887).

Published 1878, or earlier.

Date: 7 May 2007 (original upload date).

Source: Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons.

Author: Original uploader Ikanreed at English Wikipedia

(Wikimedia Commons)

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for Rogation Sunday, at Saint-Eugène-Sainte-Cécile, Paris.

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Prosper Louis Pascal Guéranger (referred to as Dom Guéranger, 4 April 1805, Sablé-sur-Sarthe, France –
30 January 1875, Solesmes, France) was a French Benedictine Monk and Priest, who served for nearly forty years as the Abbot of Solesmes Abbey (which he Founded in the abandoned Priory of Solesmes).

Through his efforts, he became the Founder of the French Benedictine Congregation (now The Solesmes Congregation), which re-established Monastic Life in France after it had been wiped out by The French Revolution.

Guéranger was the author of “The Liturgical Year”, which covers every day of The Catholic Church’s Liturgical Cycle in fifteen volumes. He was well regarded by Blessed Pope Pius IX, and was a proponent of the Dogmas of Papal Infallibility and The Immaculate Conception.

Guéranger is credited with reviving The Benedictine Order in France, and the implementation of The Tridentine Mass in France, though he is also regarded as the grand-father of The Liturgical Movement, which led to further reform of The Mass of The Roman Rite beyond its Tridentine Form.

The cause for his Canonisation is currently being studied by The Holy See, which has approved the Title for him of “Servant of God”.

“The Liturgical Year”.

By: Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.

Available in fifteen Volumes from

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The following Text is from “The Liturgical Year”.

By: Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.

   Volume 9.

   Paschal Time - Book III.

MONDAY.

It seems strange that there should be anything like mourning during Paschal Time: And yet these three days [Editor: Rogation Monday; Rogation Tuesday; Rogation Wednesday] are Days of Penance.

A moment’s reflection, however, will show us that the institution of The Rogation Days is a most appropriate one. True, Our Saviour told us, before His Passion, that “the children of The Bridegroom should not Fast whilst The Bridegroom is with them”; but is not sadness in keeping with these last hours of Jesus’s presence on Earth ? Were not His Mother and Disciples oppressed with grief at the thought of their having so soon to lose Him, Whose company had been a foretaste of Heaven ?

Let us see how The Liturgical Year came to have inserted in its Calendar these three days [Editor: Rogation Monday; Rogation Tuesday; Rogation Wednesday], during which Holy Church, though radiant with the joy of Easter, seems to go back to her Lenten observances.

The Holy Ghost, Who guides her in all things, willed that this completion of her Paschal Liturgy should owe its origin to a Devotion peculiar to one of the most illustrious and Venerable Churches of Southern Gaul, The Church of Vienne, France.

The second half of The 5th-Century A.D. had but just commenced, when the Country around Vienne, which had been recently conquered by The Burgundians, was visited by calamities of every kind. The people were struck with fear at these indications of God’s anger. Saint Mamertus, who, at the time, was Bishop of Vienne, prescribed three days’ Public Expiation, during which The Faithful were to devote themselves to Penance, and walk in Procession chanting appropriate Psalms.

The three days preceding The Ascension were the ones chosen. Unknown to himself, the Holy Bishop was thus initiating a practice, which was afterwards to form part of The Liturgy of The Universal Church.

The Churches of Gaul, as might naturally be expected, were the first to adopt the Devotion. Saint Alcimus Avitus, who was one of the earliest successors of Saint Mamertus in The See of Vienne, informs us that the custom of keeping The Rogation Days was, at that time, firmly established in his Diocese.

Saint Cæsarius of Arles, who lived in the early part of the 6th-Century A.D., speaks of them as being observed in Countries afar off; by which he meant, at the very least, to designate all that portion of Gaul which was under The Visigoths. That the whole of Gaul soon adopted the custom, is evident from The Canons drawn up at The First Council of Orleans, held in 511 A.D., which represented all the Provinces that were in allegiance to Clovis.

The regulations, made by The Council regarding The Rogation Days, give us a great idea of the importance attached to their observance. Not only Abstinence from flesh-meat, but even Fasting, is made of obligation. Masters are also required to dispense their servants from work, in order that they may assist at the long functions which fill up almost the whole of these three days [Editor: Rogation Monday, Rogation Tuesday, and Rogation Wednesday].

In 567 A.D., The Council of Tours, likewise, imposed the precept of Fasting during The Rogation Days; and, as to the obligation of resting from servile work, we find it recognised in the “Capitularia” of Charlemagne Charles the Bald.

The main part of The Rogation Rite originally consisted, at least in Gaul, in singing Canticles of Supplication while passing from place to place; and, hence, the word “Procession”. We learn, from Saint Cæsarius of Arles, that each day’s Procession lasted six hours; and that, when the Clergy became tired, the women took up the chanting.

The Faithful of those days had not made the discovery , which was reserved for modern times, that one requisite for Religious Processions is that they be as short as possible.

The Procession for The Rogation Days was preceded by The Faithful receiving The Ashes upon their heads, as now at the beginning of Lent; they were then sprinkled with Holy Water, and The Procession began. It was made up of The Clergy and people of several of the smaller Parishes, who were headed by The Cross of the principal Church, which conducted the whole Ceremony.

All walked bare-foot, singing The Litany, Psalms, and Antiphons, until they reached the Church appointed for The Station, where The Holy Sacrifice was offered. They entered the Churches that lay on their route, and sang an Antiphon or Responsory appropriate to each.

The remainder of this Article can be read in full at

“The Liturgical Year”.

By: Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.

   Volume 9.

   Paschal Time - Book III.