NOVEMBER 6.

SIXTH DAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE
OF ALL SAINTS.

Thou art my portion, O Lord, Alleluia, in the land of the living, Alleluia, Alleluia.-Bring forth my soul out of prison, to confess to thy Name; in the land of the living, Alleluia, Alleluia.-Glory and honour be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, world without end, Amen in the land of the living, Alleluia, Alleluia.1

Such is the opening chant for the departed, in the Mozarabic Missal. With the Greeks, in like manner, no word is of more frequent recurrence in the Office of the Dead, than the Alleluia. Moreover, both Greece and Spain are but observing what was once a general practice throughout the Church.

St. Jerome tells us how, at the death of Fabiola, all the Roman people assembled, the chant of psalms echoed on all sides, and the sublime Alleluia filled the temples till it shook their gilded roofs. Two centuries later, the story of St. Radegonde's funeral, written by her daughter Baudonivia, proves that, if submissive tears were not forbidden to the survivors

1 In Missa defunctorum Officium (seu Introitus). Tu es portio mea, Domine, alleluia, in terra viventium, alleluia, alleluia. V. Educ de carcere animam meam ad confitendum nomini tuo: in terra viventium, alleluia, alleluia. Gloria et honor Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto, in secula sæculorum, amen: in terra viventium, alleluia, alleluia. 2 GOAR, Nota 6a ad Officium Exsequiarum in Euchologio. 3 HIERON. ad Oceanum, de morte Fabiola,

and might at times even flow abundantly, the custom in Gaul was, nevertheless, the same as that of Rome. 1

And again with regard to a later period, the Manuscript of Rheims quoted by Dom Hugh Ménard in his notes on the Gregorian Sacramentary, 2 prescribes as a prelude to the burial prayers, the chanting of the Psalm In exitu Israel de Egypto, with Alleluia as Antiphon.

When St. Anthony buried in the desert the body of St. Paul the first hermit, the biographer of the latter relates that, in accordance with Christian tradition, Anthony sang hymns as well as psalms. Such was actually the universal Christian tradition, identical in all lands.

St. John Chrysostom remarks the same fact, and explains it thus: "Tell me, are they not conquerors, "the dead whom we carry in procession with shining "torches and the singing of hymns? Yes; we praise "God and give him thanks; for he crowns the departed one; he has put an end to his labour; and "he keeps him near himself, free from all fear. "Seek no other explanation for these hymns and "psalms they are an expression of joy."

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St. Dionysius speaks in the same strain, in his book on the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy. After alluding to the joy of the dying Christian, as he sees approaching the end of his struggle and an eternal security, he adds: "The relatives of the deceased, his "friends in God and in holiness, proclaim him blessed "for having conquered at last; and they address "their songs of thanksgiving to the heavenly Author "of the victory. Praying that themselves may ob"tain a similar lot, they bear him to the hierarch the "distributor of the holy crowns, to whom it belongs

1 BAUDONIVIA, Vita Radegundis, 28. Vita S. Pauli, primi eremitæ, 16. Homil. iv.

3 HIERON.

2 Nota 680. 4 CHRYS, In epist. ad Hebr.

"to perform the sacred rites prescribed with regard "to those who have slept in the Lord."1

Tomorrow we will give some examples of these last honours paid by the Church to her children.

Certain Churches borrow the following stanzas from the tenth Song of the Cathemerinon, which gave us yesterday the Mozarabic Hymn for the Dead.

Jam moesta quiesce que

rela, Lacrymas suspendite ma

tres,

HYMN.

Nullus sua pignora plangat:
Mors hæc reparatio vitæ est.

Quidnam sibi saxa cavata, Quid pulchra volunt monumenta,

Res quod nisi creditur illis Non mortua, sed data somno?

Nam quod requiescere

corpus Vacuum sine mente vide

mus,

Spatium breve restat ut alti
Repetat collegia sensus.
Venient cito sæcula cum
jam
Socius calor ossa revisat,
Animataque sanguine vivo
Habitacula pristina gestet.

Quæ pigra cadavera pridem Tumulis putrefacta jacebant,

Cease now each sad complaint; ye mothers check your tears; let no man mourn the pledges he has given for this death is the restoration of life.

What mean these sculptured marbles, and these fair monuments, save that what is committed to them is not dead, but laid to sleep?

For this body which we see lying lifeless, yet a little while and it will seek once more the companionship of the spirit that has fled on high.

Quickly shall the time come, when friendly life shall make these cold embers glow; and animating them with circling blood, shall take back her former dwelling.

The motionless corpses, that have lain corrupting in their graves, shall be caught up into the swift air, united to the

1 DIONYS. De eccles. hierarch. Cap. VII. 1. § 1, 2, 3.

The following Responsory is the last of the third Nocturn in the short Office of the Dead per annum. After it we give an ancient prayer, found in the Ambrosian rite, and appropriated to deceased benefactors and relatives.1

RESPONSORY.

R. Libera me, Domine, B. Deliver me, O Lord, from

1 Oratio super sindonem, in Missa quotidiana pro defunctis Fratribus, Sororibus, Propinquis et Benefactoribus.

The following Prose by Adam of St. Victor, though often assigned to other feasts, was sung in several places to celebrate all the Saints.

SEQUENCE.