The Sacred Congregation of Rites

Papa Sisto V

With the Apostolic Constitution Immensa aeterni Dei Pope Sixtus V established the Sacred Congregation of Rites on 22nd January 1588. It was given the specific task of both regulating and directing the sacred rites of the Latin Church and dealing with the canonization of saints.

For nearly four centuries, the Sacred Congregation, following the prescriptions of the Council of Trent (Canones et Decreta Sacrosancti Oecumenici et Generalis Concilii Tridentini, Sessions XXII, XXIV, XXV), was responsible for reforming and printing most liturgical books, revising and modifying the formularies and rites of the Latin Church, thus restoring them to their ancient purity and sobriety as well as contributing to the idea of liturgical unity that would be firmly maintained from then on.

Among the milestones in the liturgical field were the revisions of the Roman Calendar made by Popes Sixtus V, Clement VIII and Clement X, and the new editions of the Martyrology (1584), the Pontifical (1596), the Ceremonial (1600), the Breviary (1602), the Missal (1604) and the Ritual (1614) promulgated by Popes Gregory XIII (1572-1585), Clement VIII (1592-1605) and Paul V (1605-1621).

Under the pontificate of Pope St. Pius X (1903-1914), the Sacred Congregation of Rites worked on the new discipline concerning the frequent Communion of all the faithful (1905) and of the sick (1906) and also on the discipline concerning the Communion of children (1910). To his activity, we owe the promulgation of the so-called Vatican edition of the Graduale Romanum (1907), the partial reform of the Breviary (1911), and also the preparation of a new edition of the Roman Martyrology, which was released posthumously in 1914. In 1951, under Pius XII (1939-1958), the Congregation re-established the Easter Vigil (Sacred Congregation of Rites, Decree Dominicae Resurrectionis, AAS 43 (1951), pp. 128ff.), while in 1955 it published the new Rite of Holy Week (Sacred Congregation of Rites, Decree Maxima Redemptionis nostrae mysteria, AAS 47 (1955), pp. 838ff.).