EXPOSITIO MISSAE
. The tradition of expounding the meaning of liturgical ceremonies began in the 4th
century with the mystagogical catecheses, sermons in which the rites of baptism,
confirmation, and the eucharist were explained to newly baptized adult converts.
Liturgical commentaries were subsequently written by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite
(ca. 500), Maximus Confessor (580–662), Germanus of Constantinople (ca. 640–733),
and others. The first western treatise exclusively devoted to liturgy is the De
ecclesiasticis officiis of Isidore of Seville (ca. 560–636), which in turn served as a source
for the Expositio antiquae liturgiae Gallicanae attributed to St. Germanus (bishop of
Paris 555–76), the only description of a Gallican Mass ordo. But the bulk of Expositiones
missae dates from the Carolingian period, when the Roman Mass was being assimilated
by the Frankish church; these treatises are therefore important sources of information
about the texts and ceremonies of the early Franco-Roman Mass and were among the
sources consulted by Amalarius of Metz and other Carolingian commentators. By the
12th century, the Expositiones were no longer in circulation as such, because they had
become incorporated into the canon-law literature and the liturgical book known as the
Pontifical.
Peter Jeffery
[See also: AMALARIUS OF METZ; GALLICAN RITE; MASS, CHANTS AND
TEXTS]
Lawson, Christopher M., ed. Sancti Isidori episcopi Hispalensis: De ecclesiasticis officiis. CCSL
113. Turnhout: Brepols, 1989.
Ratcliff, E.C., ed. Expositio antiquae liturgiae Gallicanae. London: Regnum, 1971.
Schulz, Hans-Joachim. The Byzantine Liturgy: Symbolic Structure and Faith Expression, trans.
Matthew J.O’Connell. New York: Pueblo, 1986.
Yarnold, Edward. The Awe-Inspiring Rites of Initiation: Baptismal Homilies of the Fourth Century.
Slough: St. Paul, 1972.
EXULTET
. The Easter vigil, celebrated Holy Saturday night and ending Easter morning, began in
both East and West with a lamplighting service (lucernarium). In some of the western
rites, but not originally at Rome, this involved the lighting of a large candle while a
deacon sang a special Easter hymn, the Praeconium Paschale. There were many texts in
use for the praeconium, but the one that became the standard medieval text (a Gallican
text that came into the Roman rite via the supplement to the Hadrianum sacramentary)
began with the words Exultet iam angelica turba caelorum. There were multiple melodic
traditions, but the one that became standard was closely related to the tone for the Preface
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