Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/170

 NOVENA

142

NOVENA

Greeks and Romans tliat of a nine days' mourn- ing, with a special feast on the ninth day after death or burial. This, however, was rather of a private or family character (cf. Homer, Iliad, XXIV, 664, 784; Virgil, .lincid, V, 0)4; Tacitus, Annals, VI, v.). The Romans also celebrated their parentalia novcndialia, a yearly novena (13 to 22 Feb.) of commemoration of all the departed members of their families (cf. IMomni- sen, "Corp. Inscript. Latin.", I, 3S6 sq.). The cele- bration ended on the ninth day with a sacrifice and a joyful banquet. There is a reference to these customs m the laws of the Emperor Justinian ("Corp. Jur. Civil. Justinian." II, Turin, 1757, 696, tit. xix, "De sepulchro violato ), where creditors are forbidden to trouble the heirs of their debtor for nine davs after his death. St. Augustine (P. L., XXXIV, 5%) warns Christians not to imitate the pagan custom, as there is no example of it in Holy Writ. Later on, the same was done by the Pseudo-Alcuin (P. L., CI, 1278), in- voking the authorit}' of St. Augustine, and still more sharply by Jolm Beleth (P. L., CCII, 160) in the twelfth century. Even Durandus in his "Rationale" (Naples, 1478), writing on the Office of the Dead, remarks that "some did not approve this, to avoid the appearance of aping pagan customs".

Nevertheless, in Christian mortuary celebrations, one finds that of the ninth day with those of the third and seventh. The "Constitutiones Apostohcae" (VIII, xlii; P. G., I, 1147) already speak of it. The custom existed specially in the East, but is found also among the Franks and Anglo-Saxons. Even if it was connected with an earlier practice of the pagans, it nevertheless had in itself no vestige of superstition. A nine days' mourning with daily Mass was a distinc- tion, naturally, which could be shared by none but the higher classes. Princes and the rich ordered such a celebration for themselves in their wills; even in the wills of popes and cardinals such orders are found. Already in the Middle Ages the novena of Masses for popes and cardinals was customary. Later on, the mortuary celebration for cardinals became constantly more simple, until finally it was regulated and fixed by the Constitution "Praecipuum" of Benedict XIV (23 Nov., 1741). For deceased sovereign pontiffs the nine days' mourning was retained, and so came to be called simply the "Pope's Novena" (cf. Mabillon, "Museum Italicum", II, Paris, 1689, 530 sqq., "Ordo Roman. XV"; P. L., LXXVIII, 1353; Const. "In eligendis" of Pius IV, 9 Oct., 1562). The usage still continues and consists chiefly in a novena of Masses for the departed. A rescript of the Sacred Congrega- tion of Rites (22 Apr., 1633) informs us that such novenas of mourning, officia novendialia ex testamenlo, were generally known and allowed in the churches of religious (Deer. Auth. S. R. C, 604). They are no longer in common use, though they have never been forbidden, and indeed, on the contrary, novendiales precum el Missarum devotiones pro defunctis were ap- proved by Gregory XVI (11 July, 1853) and indul- genced for a confraternity agonizantium in France (Rescr. Auth. S. C. Indulg., 382).

Besides the novena for the dead, we find in the earlier part of the Middle Ages the novena of prepara- tion, but at first only before Christmas and only in Spain and France. This had its origin in the nine months Our Lord was in His Blessed Mother's womb from the Incarnation to the Nativity. In Spain the Annunciation was transferred for the whole country by the tenth Council of Toledo in 656 (Cap. i; Mansi, "Coll. Cone", XI, 34) to 18 Dec, as the most fitting feast preparatory to Christmas. With this it appears that a real novena of preparation for Christmas was immediately connected for the whole of Spain. At any rate, in a question sent from the Azores (Insulae Angrenses) to the Sacred Congregation of Rites, an appeal was made to the "most ancient custom" of celebrating, just before Christmas, nine votive Masses

of Our Lady. And this usage, because of the people who took part in the celebration, was permitted to continue (28 Sept., 1658; Deer. Auth., 1093). A French Ordinarium (P. L., CXLVIl, 123) prescribes that the preparation for Christmas on the ninth day should begin with the O anthems and that each day, at the Magnificat, the altar and the choir should fee incensed. The Ordinarium of Nantes and the Antiph- onary of St. Martin of Tours, in place of the seven common O anthems, have nine for the nine days be- fore Christmas, and these were sung with special solemnity (Martene, "De Antiq. Eccles. Ritib.", Ill, Venice, 1783, 30). In Italy the novena seems to have spread only in the seventeenth century. Still, the "Praxis caeremoniarum sen sacrorum Romana; Ecclesise Rituum accurata tractatio " of the Theatine Piscara Castaldo, a book approved in 1525 by the author's father general (Naples, 1645, p. 386 sqq.), gives complete directions for the celebration of the Christmas novena with Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. The author remarks that this novena in commemoration of Our Lord's nine months in the womb was solemnly celebrated in very many places in Italy. And in the beginning of the eighteenth cen- tury the Christmas novena held such a distinguished position that the Sacred Congregation of Rites (7 July, 1718), in a special case, allowed for it alone the solemn celebration with Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament (Deer. Auth., 2250).

But before this, at least in Sicily, the custom had sprung up among religious of preparing for the feast of their founder with a novena of Masses, and these MisscE novendiales volivce were also (2 Sept., 1690) de- clared permissible (Deer. Auth., 1843). In general, in the seventeenth century, numerous novenas were held especially in the churches of religious and to the Saints of the various orders (cf. Prola, "De novendi- aUbussupplicationibus", Romae 1724, passim). Two hundred years later, on application from Sicily for Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament in the celebration of novenas, special permission was granted (Deer. Auth., 3728), and in the decrees'on the Missce voiivce of 30 June, 1896, there is really question of the Missce volivce novendiales B. M. V. (Deer. Auth., 3922 V, n. 3). At least in this way, then, the novena is recognized even in the Liturgy.

At the same time as the novena of preparation, the proper novena of prayer arose, among the faithful, it would seem, who in their need turned to the saints with a novena, especially to recover health. The original home of this novena must have been France, Belgium, and the neighbourhood of the Lower Rhine. Specially noteworthy up to the year 1000 are the novenas to St. Hubert, St. Marcolf, and St. Mom- molus. St. Mommolus (or Mummolus) was con- sidered the special patron for head and brain diseases: the novenas to him were made especially in the Holy Cross Monastery of Bordeaux, where the saint was buried (Mabillon, "Act. Sanct. O. S. B.", II, Venice, 1733, 645 sqq.; "Acta SS.", August, II, 351 sqq.; Du Cange, "Glossarium", s. v. "Novena"). St. Marcolf procured for the kings of France the power to cure scrofula by a touch of their hand. For this purpose, shortly after their coronation and anointing at Reims, the kings had to go in person on pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Marcolf at Corbeny and make a novena there. Those who were to be healed had to make a similar novena. But the best known is the novena to St. Hubert, which continues even to our day. This is made against madness by people bitten bya mad dog or wolf (ActaSS., November, 1, 871 sqq.).

The last-named novena was attacked in later times, particularly by the Jansenists, and was rejected as superstitious (cf. "Acta SS.", loc. cit., where the attack is met and the novena justified). Before this, Gerson, in the fourteenth century, had given warning against the superstitious abuse of this novena. But