History of the Roman Missal

The Roman Missal is the book containing the prescribed prayers, chants and instructions for the celebration of Mass in the Roman Catholic Church.

Published first in Latin under the title Missale Romanum, the text is then translated and, once approved by the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, is published in modern languages for use in local churches throughout the world.

In 2002, Pope John Paul II introduced a new edition of the Missale Romanum for use in the church. Soon after, the complex work of translating the text into English began.

The process of implementing a new edition of the prayers of the Mass has occurred many times throughout the history of the church as the liturgy developed and was adapted to particular circumstances to meet the needs of the church.

In the earliest centuries of the church, there were no books containing prescribed liturgical prayers, texts or other instructions. Because the faith of the church was articulated in liturgical prayer, there was a need for consistency and authenticity in the words used in the celebration of the liturgy.

Collections of prayers developed gradually for use in particular locations and situations such as for a particular monastery, the pope or other local churches.

Eventually, larger, more organized collections of prayers were assembled into sacramentaries. The earliest sacramentaries were attributed to Pope Leo I in the fifth century.

The first true liturgical books that could be called missals were found in monasteries beginning around the 12th and 13th centuries. A missal contained not only the prayers but the biblical readings, the chants and the rubrics for the celebration of Mass.

It is difficult to trace exact origins of the first missal. The first book bearing the name Missale Romanum appeared in 1474, but it was not until after the Council of Trent that an edition of the Missale Romanum appeared that was to be in obligatory use throughout the Latin Church.

This marked the first official attempt at uniformity in the celebration of the Mass in the history of the church.

Since that time, to accommodate the ongoing evolution and development of the liturgy, new editions of the Roman Missal were promulgated by popes for use in the church:

1604 — Pope Clement VIII
1634 — Pope Urban VIII
1884 — Pope Leo XIII
1920 — Pope Benedict XV
1962 — Pope John XXIII
1970 — Pope Paul VI
1975 — Pope Paul VI
2002 — Pope John Paul II

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