Description
This book takes seriously the need for a two-fold shift in methodology within the field of liturgical studies and serves as a model for future historical work. The first shift necessary in liturgical studies is a shift to sources other than the central liturgical texts, i.e. the Missal, breviary, lectionary, and books of rites. The second shift necessary in the field is a greater appreciation of the diversity of liturgical celebrations within the Church. In order to engage in such a study, this book analyzes a non-traditional liturgical source within a little-studied liturgical tradition. The source that provides the basis for this study is the Homiliae Toletanae (British Library, Add. 30853), a homiliary for Mass found in the Hispano-Mozarabic Rite. The Homiliae Toletanae dates to circa the seventh/eighth centuries and survives in one tenth/eleventh-century manuscript. It contains homilies for every major temporal and sanctoral feast in the calendar of Toledo. The Homiliae Toletanae is a valuable manuscript for reconstructing and understanding the liturgical practices of seventh/eighth-century Toledo. This study looks only at the Lenten homilies found within the Homiliae Toletanae in order to supplement what is already known about the Lenten practices of late Visigothic and early Mozarabic Spain. In reconstructing the practices of Lent in seventh/eighth-century Spain, this study explores the two major themes of Lent, penance and initiation, and their relationship to one another. It reflects on what some scholars consider a crisis in the thematic understanding of Lent in the seventh/eighth centuries. Coupled with this crisis is a shift from adult initiation to infant initiation in this period. This study argues that this crisis of meaning and the subsequent shift to a more penitential understanding of Lent was a direct result of the decline in adult initiation in this period. The dominant role that fasting and almsgiving played in the Lenten life of late Visigothic and early Mozarabic Spain is also analyzed. In order to conduct this study, this volume utilizes textual criticism as well as the comparative method in liturgical studies. The comparative method is based on the work of Anton Baumstark, the Mateos School, and Paul Bradshaw. This method is used to reconstruct liturgical practices based on the manuscript evidence. The first part of this book contextualizes the Homiliae Toletanae within the larger Hispano-Mozarabic and Christian tradition, and discusses its origin, dating, composition, and general content. The second part of this book is an in-depth look at the twenty-three homilies of Lent found within the Homiliae Toletanae. The goal of this volume is to show that liturgical traditions, like the Hispano-Mozarabic Rite, have a profound creativity and uniqueness. Their patrimony is rich, and they contain many liturgical insights, both historically and pastorally.
