Mozarabic Rite - Preservation and Relevance of The Mozarabic Rite

Preservation and Relevance of The Mozarabic Rite

The Mozarabic Rite is the second-best attested liturgy in the Latin Church in terms of preserved documentation. The Mozarabic Rite was considered authoritative for the clarification of a Sacramentary received by Charlemagne from Pope Adrian I (d. 795). The first is, of course, the Roman Rite, which, to encourage unity of faith and worship, generally replaced the Mozarabic in Iberia from about 1080.

In the year 870, Charles the Bald, wishing to see what the ancient Gallican Rite had been like, had priests sent from Spain to celebrate the Mozarabic Rite before him.

In the latter part of the eighth century, the Rite had fallen under some suspicion owing to quotations cited by Elipandus of Toledo in support of his Adoptianist theories, and the Council of Frankfurt 794 spoke somewhat disparagingly of possible Islamic influence on it. It was due to these suspicions that in 924, John X sent a Papal Legate named Zanello to investigate the Rite. Zanello spoke favourably of the Rite, and the Pope gave a new approbation to it, requiring only to change the words of consecration to that of the Roman one. Spanish clergy gradually started to use the Roman words of institution (though there is no evidence whether or not it was done consistently).

When King Alfonso VI of Castile conquered Toledo in 1085, it was being disputed as to which rite Iberian Christians should follow: the Roman rite or Mozarabic Rite. After other ordeals, it was submitted to the trial by fire: One book for each rite was thrown into a fire. The Toledan book was little damaged whilst the Roman one was consumed. Henry Jenner comments in the Catholic Encyclopedia: "No one who has seen a Mozarabic manuscript with its extraordinarily solid vellum, will adopt any hypothesis of Divine Interposition here." The king allowed six parishes in the city to continue to use the Mozarabic rite.

Cardinal Jiménez de Cisneros (d. 1517) published in 1500 a Mozarabic missal, and two years later a breviary, both of which were formally approved by Pope Julius II. To perfect the presentation of the liturgy Jiménez interpolated elements of the Roman Rite as then used in Iberia, particularly the preliminary prayers for the Mass. He also instituted a chapel in the Cathedral of Toledo, with a college of thirteen priests to use the Roman Missal and Breviary. This continues to the present day, in spite of vicissitudes that included the killing of all the priests of the group in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War.

The texts prepared by Jiménez were republished at various times. The dawn of the twentieth century saw an intensification of studies of the rite and the publication of its manuscript sources. In response to the encouragement given by the Second Vatican Council in Sacrosanctum Concilium, 3-4 to renew other rites as well as the Roman, the Cardinal Archbishop of Toledo Marcelo González Martín set up a commission to revise the liturgical books of the Mozarabic rite. Between 1988 and 1995, the Missal (in two volumes), the Lectionary (also in two volumes), and a vernacular (Castilian) version of the Ordinary of the Mass appeared, with the required approval of the Spanish bishops conference and confirmation by the Holy See.

The Mozarabic Rite is celebrated daily in the Corpus Christi Chapel (also called the Mozarabic Chapel) in the Cathedral of Toledo. In Madrid Mozarabic or Gothic Rite is celebrated in Spanish every Tuesday (Pº Recoletos 11 Monastery of Poor Clare Sisters, 19' 00 h). Two of the original six "Mozarabic" parishes of Toledo remain. About two hundred families in Toledo belong to these parishes and form an association of those who can claim that their families have always belonged to Mozarabic Rite. Additionally, all the churches of Toledo annually celebrate this rite on the Mozarabic Feast of the Incarnation on December 18, and on the feast day of Saint Ildephonsus on January 23. The rite is also used on certain days each year in the Talavera Chapel of the Old Cathedral of Salamanca and less regularly in other cities in Spain. Pope John Paul II celebrated it once in each of the years 1992 and 2000.

The Mozarabic Rite has been of interest to non-Catholic communions as well. For example, in the 1880s the Anglican Communion examined the Mozarabic rite for ideas about making their own liturgy more inspiring, and at present the aforementioned Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church employs it for the celebration of all sacraments. The Spanish custom of the bridegroom giving his bride thirteen coins after exchanging their nuptial vows during the marriage ceremony (also observed in the former Spanish colonies in the New World and in Hispanic Catholic parishes in the United States and Canada) has its origins in the Mozarabic rite.

The oldest Western manuscript written on paper is the Mozarabic Missal of Silos, from the eleventh century.