October 4th - St. Francis of Assisi

Today is the feast of St. Francis of Assisi. It is of double rite and the liturgical colour is white. Today is also the twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost and the first Sunday of October.

At Vespers yesterday afternoon the antiphons Domine, quinque talenta etc from the Common of Confessor non-pontiffs were sung with psalms 109, 110, 111, 112 & 116. After the collect of the feast a commemoration of the Sunday was sung, the antiphon on the Magnificat being Adaperiat Dominus for the Saturday before the first Sunday of October. The Suffrages were omitted as the feast is a double.

At Mattins the invitatory is Regem Confessorum etc and the Office hymn Iste Confessor. In the first nocturn (Pss. 1, 2, 3) the lessons are the Incipit of the first Book of Machabees. The first lesson is the same as in mondern editions. The second lesson is longer and continues with what are the first sentences of the modern third lesson ending ... in oculis eorum. The third lesson begins Et destinaverunt... and continues beyond the end of the modern third lesson (ut facerent malum.) until ... et accepit spolia terrae Aegypti, i.e. vv. 17 - 20 are included. In the second nocturn (Pss. 4, 5 & 8) the lessons for St. Francis are the same as those found in the modern books. In the third nocturn (Pss. 14, 20 & 23) the seventh and eighth lesson are as on the feast of St. Matthias with the Gospel Confiteor tibi Pater... These lessons are now found (in a slightly shorter version) in the Common of Abbots. The ninth lesson is the three lessons of the homily of the XXI Sunday. These are significantly longer than those in the modern editions. The Te Deum is sung.

At Lauds the antiphons Domine, quinque talenta are again sung, this time with the Sunday psalms (Pss. 92, 99, 62-66, Benedicite 148-49-150). After the collect of the feast a commemoration is sung of the Sunday. The Suffrages are omitted.

At Prime the antiphon Domine, quinque talenta is sung with the festal Psalms (Pss. 53, 118i & 118ii). Quicumque and the Dominical preces are omitted.

Mass is sung after Terce. The Gloria is sung, the second collect is of the Sunday. The Credo is sung and the Common Preface is sung, and the last Gospel is of the Sunday.

Vespers are of the feast. A commemoration of the Sunday is sung after the collect of the feast. At Compline the Dominical preces are omitted.

Icon of St. Francis, shewing his life, from here.