8 Scanlon ⦁ Psalms and Saints The first saint to inspire text modification in the Offices was the Virgin Mary.41 Her inclusion within the liturgy can be traced back into the seventh century, and the cult surrounding her created several feast days, including Purification, Annunciation, Assumption, and Nativity.42 By the thirteenth century in Notre Dame, the Little Office of the Virgin was performed almost every week day, following each of the normal Hours with an Hour from the Little Office.43 It was sung even on some feast days honoring other saints, and during the ferial days (days with no Mass or saint’s feast), “the Little Office of the Virgin ‘shadowed’ the Office of the day.”44 While the text of the Psalms is still kept for the antiphons of the Little Office, the opening phrases which were repeated throughout the antiphons were now drawn from the feast of the Assumption, and the responsories, lessons, and hymns were all focused on the Virgin Mary. The extensive veneration of the Virgin in Notre Dame, the cathedral named in honor of her, spurred daily devotion to her in the Offices that was echoed as far away as the region of Rome and papal jurisdiction.45 Two points are worthy of note concerning the Offices surrounding the Virgin Mary. First, they preserve the original focus of the Benedictine Offices on prayer, although they are redirected. Rachel Fulton Brown’s analysis of Medieval prayers in her book, From Judgement to Passion, presents countless examples of prayers to the Blessed Mother drawn from the liturgy of the day, Offices and Masses. However, while St. Benedict used Scripture itself as the content of prayers to God in the ferial Offices so that the Psalms were the textual emphasis, the prayers Brown details use the Psalms as supporting material, supplements to prayer directed towards Mary herself. The object of the Offices shifted from a universal God to a saint who could be claimed by one locality over another. Second, this emphasis on prayer eventually morphed into the “Hours of the Virgin” in the Book of Hours, a late Medieval devotional designed for private veneration.46 This legacy from the Offices seems to have endured the centuries with greater success than the Offices themselves, preserving the tradition of daily worship while removing the requirement for corporate music. 41 Weinmann, 20. 42 Brown, 205; Hoppin, 173; Brown, 216. 43 Baltzer, 463. 44 Baltzer, Ch. 20. 45 Brown, 224-225. 46 Batzler, Ch. 20.
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