Monday, March 20, 2006

Time to Say Goodbye: Septuagesima and "Alleluia, Song of Gladness"

We have a guest columnist today! Nan from Holy Hauntings has been a faithful reader of this blog. When she sent me an email last month about the burying of the "Alleluia," I asked her if she would be willing to share this fascinating stuff with my readers. Has YOUR church ever held a ceremony like this?!?

Nan:

"Alleluia" or "hallelujah", meaning "Praise the Lord", is one of the few Hebrew words adopted untranslated into Christian worship. It is interesting to note that nowhere and at no time was any effort made to translate it into the vernacular, as Saint Isidore of Seville (636) mentioned in his writings. He explains this by the reverence for the hallowed traditions of the Apostolic Church.

Perhaps more than any other word, Alleluia ties us in a direct line to our Christian Fathers and Mothers. St. John mentions the Alleluia in the Revelation, Saint Jerome (420) praises the pious farmers and tradesmen who used to sing it at their toil, and the mothers taught their babies to pronounce Alleluia before any other word. Finally, the expression "Alleluia, the Lord is risen" became the general greeting of Christians in early medieval times on the Feast of the Resurrection.

But the time has come to say goodbye to the Alleluia, at least for a short time. Most people think that the last Sunday before Ash Wednesday is the official day we do this, but it historically was done weeks before, on Septuagesima Sunday (actually, the eve before). When we abandoned the Historic Lectionary, one of the great losses was this season of the "Gesima" Sundays. We also lost a reminder of why there even needs to be a Lent, Holy Week and Easter.

From Golden Legend or Lives of the Saints: "At Septuagesima beginneth the time of deviation or going out of the way, of the whole world, which began at Adam and endured unto Moses. And in this time is read the Book of Genesis. The time of Septuagesima representeth the time of deviation, that is of transgression. The Sexagesima signifieth the time of revocation. The Quinquagesima signifieth the time of remission. The Quadragesima signifieth of penance and satisfaction."

Septuagesima, Sexagesima, & Quinquagesima, words that sound strange to our modern ears, are in fact three Latin words and they indicate how far away we are from Easter—that is, 70, 60, and 50 days respectively.

Historic Ways to Say Goodbye

The "depositio" (discontinuance) of the Alleluia on the eve of Septuagesima assumed in medieval times a solemn and emotional note of saying farewell to the beloved song.
The liturgical office on the eve of Septuagesima was performed in many churches with special solemnity, and Alleluias were freely inserted in the sacred text, even to the number of twenty-eight final Alleluias in the church of Auxerre in France.

This custom also inspired some tender poems which were sung or recited during Vespers in honor of the sacred word. The best known of these hymns is Alleluia, dulce carmen (Alleluia, Song of Gladness), composed by an unknown author of the eleventh century. It was translated into English by John Mason Neale (1866) and may be found in the official hymnal of the Protestant Episcopal Church.

In some French churches the custom developed in ancient times of allowing the congregation to take part in the celebration of a quasi-liturgical farewell ceremony. The clergy abstained from any role in this popular service. Choirboys officiated in their stead at what was called "Burial of the Alleluia" performed the Saturday afternoon before Septuagesima Sunday. We find a description of it in the fifteenth-century statute book of the church of Toul:

On Saturday before Septuagesima Sunday all choir boys gather in the sacristy during the prayer of the None, to prepare for the burial of the Alleluia. After the last "Benedicamus" [i.e., at the end of the service] they march in procession, with crosses, tapers, holy water and censers; and they carry a coffin, as in a funeral. Thus they proceed through the aisle, moaning and mourning, until they reach the cloister. There they bury the coffin; they sprinkle it with holy water and incense it; whereupon they return to the sacristy by the same way [24].

Thus the Alleluia is sung for the last time and not heard again until it suddenly bursts into glory during the Mass of the Easter Vigil when the celebrant intones this sacred word after the Epistle, repeating it three times, as a jubilee, not herald, of the Resurrection of Christ

Things We've Handed Down

Fortunately we have held onto one of the treasures of the final Sunday of this season, Septuagesima: a hymn present in most hymnals today, Alleluia, Song of Gladness.

1. Alleluia dulce carmen,
Vox perennis gaudii,
Alleluia laus suavis
Est choris coelestibus,
Quam canunt Dei manentes
In domo per saecula.

2. Alleluia laeta mater
Concivis Jerusalem:
Alleluia vox tuorum
Civium gaudentium:
Exsules nos flere cogunt
Babylonis flumina.

3. Alleluia non meremur
In perenne psallere;
Alleluia vo reatus
Cogit intermittere;
Tempus instat quo peracta
Lugeamus crimina.

4. Unde laudando precamur
Te beata Trinitas,
Ut tuum nobis videre
Pascha des in aethere,
Quo tibi laeti canamus
Alleluia perpetim.


Alleluia, song of gladness,
Voice of joy that cannot die;
Alleluia is the anthem
Ever dear to choirs on high;
In the house of God abiding
Thus they sing eternally.

Alleluia thou resoundest,
True Jerusalem and free;
Alleluia, joyful mother,
All thy children sing with thee;
But by Babylon’s sad waters
Mourning exiles now are we.

Alleluia we deserve not
Here to chant forevermore;
Alleluia our transgressions
Make us for a while give o’er;
For the holy time is coming
Bidding us our sins deplore.

Therefore in our hymns we pray Thee,
Grant us, blessèd Trinity,
At the last to keep Thine Easter
In our home beyond the sky;
There to Thee forever singing
Alleluia joyfully.

Sources

The Cyber Hymnal, www.cyberhymnal.org

The Golden Legend or Lives of the Saints. Compiled by Jacobus de Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa, 1275. First edition published 1470. Englished by William Caxton, first edition 1483, edited by F.S. Ellis, Temple Classics, 1900 (reprinted 1922, 1931).

Francis X. Weiser, S.J., Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs. Harcourt, Brace & World, New York, 1958, 9 (http://www.neiu.edu/~history/Wei.htm).

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