Nidaros ordo

Sunday 6 September. Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity. Anthem after Compline: Ave regina celorum.
Monday 7. Feria II. (The office of St Adrian is celebrated today by anticipation.) Sub tuum presidium.
Tuesday 8. NATIVITY OF THE VIRGIN MARY, double (?). St Adrian, bishop and martyr, three lessons (see yesterday's entry). O florens rosa.
Wednesday 9. Feria IV in the Octave of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary. Commemoration of St Gorgon, martyr. Rogamus te.
Thursday 10. Feria V in Oct. Nat. Mar. Com. St Audomarus, bishop. Ave stella matutina.
Friday 11. Feria VI in Oct. Nat. Mar. Com. Ss Prothus and Iacinctus, martyrs. Mundi domina.
Saturday 12. Sabbath in Oct. Nat. Mar. Salve regina.

With St Adrian and the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we have a situation similar to that involving Ss Hermes and Augustine a couple of weeks ago: an annual clash of celebrations. Here the same solution has been arrived at - to anticipate the lesser feast on the previous day, which happens to be vacant - but here the transfer has not gone as far as changing the date of Adrian's feast day. Instead, we have a rubric on the 7 September: Hic cantentur de eo iii. lc. noct. (Here the three matins lessons about him are sung.) All this doesn't leave the kalendarist enough room to give us the rank of Mary's feast, but as it is printed in red and has an octave, we can assume it is at least a double feast.

The Nativity of the Virgin is one of those offices which survives in the Choir Antiphoner of Nidaros Cathedral, and it has been recorded by the Schola Sanctae Sunnivae.

Nidaros ordo

Sunday 30 August. Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity. Commemoration of Ss Felix and Adauctus, martyrs. Anthem after Compline: Ave regina celorum.
Monday 31. Feria II. Sub tuum presidium.
Tuesday 1 September. Saint Egidius, abbot, single. Commemoration of St Priscus, martyr. O florens rosa.
Wednesday 2. Feria IV. Rogamus te.
Thursday 3. Feria V. Ave stella matutina.
Friday 4. Translation of St Cuthbert, bishop and confessor, three lessons. Mundi domina.
Saturday 5. St Bertinus, abbot, three lessons. Salve regina.

Nidaros ordo

Sunday 23 August. Twelfth Sunday after Trinity. Anthem after Compline: Ave regina celorum.
Monday 24. SAINT BARTHOLOMEW, apostle, double. Sub tuum presidium.
Tuesday 25. St Audoen, bishop and confessor, three lessons. O florens rosa.
Wednesday 26. Feria IV. Rogamus te.
Thursday 27. St Hermes, martyr, three lessons. Ave stella matutina.
Friday 28. St Augustine, bishop and confessor, semidouble. Mundi domina.
Saturday 29. Beheading of John the Baptist, nine lessons. Commemoration of St Sabina, widow. Salve regina.

Audoen is Ouen, bishop of Rouen, and not the first saint from what is now Normandy that we've come across in the Nidaros calendar. Evidence perhaps that the liturgical reforms of William of Volpiano lie somewhere in the substrata of the Nidaros use.

St Hermes was an early Roman martyr (like Sabina). His feast was traditionally observed on the 28th. The thirteenth-century Ordo Nidrosiensis Ecclesie gives rather vague instructions about how to negotiate the clash of this feast with that of St Augustine of Hippo. By the time of the printed Breviary of 1519, the pragmatic decision had obviously been taken to transfer Hermes permanently to the 27th.

Ave Maria, by Franz Biebl

Nidaros ordo

Sunday 16 August. Eleventh Sunday after Trinity. Commemorations of the Octaves of St Laurence and of the Assumption. Anthem after Compline: Ave regina celorum.
Monday 17. Octave day of St Laurence, three lessons. Com. Oct. Ass. Sub tuum presidium.
Tuesday 18. Feria III in Oct. Ass. O florens rosa.
Wednesday 19. Feria IV in Oct. Ass. Rogamus te.
Thursday 20. Feria V in Oct. Ass. Ave stella matutina.
Friday 21. Feria VI in Oct. Ass. Mundi domina.
Saturday 22. Octave day of St Mary, semidouble. Com. Ss. Thimoteus and Simphorian. Salve regina.

Nidaros ordo

Sunday 9 August. Tenth Sunday after Trinity. Commemoration of the Octave of the Translation of St Olaf, king and martyr. Anthem after Compline: Ave regina celorum.
Monday 10. ST LAURENCE, martyr, double. Com. Oct. Transl. Olaf. Sub tuum presidium.
Tuesday 11. St Tiburcius, martyr, three lessons. Com. Oct. Laur. O florens rosa.
Wednesday 12. Feria IV in Oct. Laur. Rogamus te.
Thursday 13. St Ypolitus and his companions, martyrs, three lessons. Com. Oct. Laur. Ave stella matutina.
Friday 14. VIGIL OF THE ASSUMPTION. Comm. St Eusebius, bishop and confessor, and Oct. Laur. Alma redemptoris.
Saturday 15. THE ASSUMPTION OF ST MARY THE VIRGIN, summum. Com. Oct. Laur. Salve regina.

Nidaros ordo

Sunday 2 August. Ninth Sunday after Trinity. Commemorations of Saint Stephen, pope and martyr, and of the Octave of the Natale of St Olaf, king and martyr. Anthem after Compline: Alma redemptoris.
Monday 3. TRANSLATION OF ST OLAF, summum. Comm. of the Invention of St Stephen, protomartyr, and of Oct. Nat. Olaf. Sub tuum presidium.
Tuesday 4. Feria III in Oct. Nat. Olaf. Com. Transl. Olaf. O florens rosa.
Wednesday 5. Octave day of the Natale of St Olaf, semidouble. Comm. Transl. Olaf, and St Oswald, martyr. Rogamus te.
Thursday 6. Transfiguration of the Lord, nine lessons. Comm. Transl. Olaf, and St Sixtus, pope. Ave stella matutina.
Friday 7. St Donatus, bishop and martyr, three lessons. Mundi domina.
Saturday 8. Vigil of St Laurence, martyr. Com. St Ciriacus and companions, martyrs. Salve regina.

Nidaros ordo

Sunday 26 July. Eighth Sunday after Trinity. Commemoration of Saints Christopher and Cucuratus, martyrs. Anthem after Compline: Ave regina celorum.
Monday 27. The Seven Sleepers, three lessons. Sub tuum presidium.
Tuesday 28. VIGIL OF ST OLAF. Commemorations of St Pantaleon, martyr, and of Ss Felix, Simplicius, Faustinus and Beatrice, martyrs. Alma redemptoris.
Wednesday 29. ST OLAF, KING AND MARTYR, summum. Rogamus te.
Thursday 30. Feria V in Octave of St Olaf. Com. Ss Abdon and Sennen. Ave stella matutina.
Friday 31. Feria VI in Oct. Olaf. Com. St German, bishop and confessor. Mundi domina.
Saturday 1 August. The Chains of Peter, semidouble. Com. Oct. Olaf. Com. Maccabees, martyrs. Salve regina.

Nidaros ordo

Sunday 19 July. Seventh Sunday after Trinity. Anthem after Compline: Ave regina celorum.
Monday 20. Saint Margaret, virgin, semidouble. Sub tuum presidium.
Tuesday 21. St Praxed, virgin not a martyr. O florens rosa.
Wednesday 22. St Mary Magdalene, semidouble. Commemoration of St Wandregisillus. Rogamus te.
Thursday 23. St Appollinaris, bishop and martyr, three lessons. Ave stella matutina.
Friday 24. VIGIL OF ST JAMES. Commemoration of St Cristina, virgin martyr. Mundi domina.
Saturday 25. ST JAMES, apostle, double. Salve regina.

In the kalendar of the Nidaros Breviary, St Margaret's feast-day is unusually printed in red, a privilege normally reserved to feasts of double rank or higher. I wonder whether the immense popularity of this saint made her natale a sort of day of devotion?

Wandregisillus was the founder of the Abbey of Fontenelle, a.k.a. Saint-Wandrille, in the lower Seine valley not far from Le Havre. I wasn't able to get that far East on my recent visit to Normandy, but I did manage to pick up their CD of a typical Sunday Mass (fully Gregorian) in the very well-stocked Siloë bookshop on Mont-Saint-Michel. It was in writing of the conventual Mass at Saint-Wandrille that Patrick Leigh Fermor captured so brilliantly the effect of Gregorian plainsong in A Time to Keep Silence.

Friday's saint is Christina the Astonishing, who was formerly commemorated in a chapel of which Fr Bede Rowe may have some recollection.

"Fidelis servus et prudens", sung by the Rose Ensemble

SWITHUN!

Ave Maria mater Dei, by William Cornysh