Sacrosanctum Concilium Part III: Revision of the Ambrosian Rite



Mosaic of St. Ambrose from the Duomo
di Milano

As promised, the topic of discussion today is the Ambrosian Rite, the liturgical use particular to the archdiocese of Milan, Italy. 

As specified in Sacrosanctum Concilium:  [I]n faithful obedience to tradition, the sacred Council declares that holy Mother Church holds all lawfully acknowledged rites to be of equal right and dignity; that she wishes to preserve them in the future and to foster them in every way. The Council also desires that, where necessary, the rites be revised carefully in the light of sound tradition, and that they be given new vigor to meet the circumstances and needs of modern times.  As such, revision has been undertaken of most of the other liturgical rites of the Catholic Church, with a few such as the Dominican, Bragan, Norbertine, and Carmelite at least effectively suppressed.  For non-Western rites, this essentially amounted to the removal of Latin influences and a return to genuine Eastern practices.  In the West, this lead to reforms of the Ambrosian and Mozarabic Missals, along with the Roman Missal.  In recent years, with the publication of Summorum Pontificum, there has been much discussion regarding whether or not the Motu Proprio, authorizing the use of the 1962 Missale Romanum, is authoritative for other rites, such as the Ambrosian Rite.  As such, there are currently two forms of the Ambrosian Rite in use; the 1955 and the 1976 Missals.

Most of us who would see an Ambrosian Mass would probably not notice anything particularly different, since both forms, but especially the Ordinary form, quite resemble the Roman Rite (as of this date, I haven't found a text for the Ordinary of the modern Ambrosian Rite in anything other than Italian.  While I can read it, if anyone has seen a Latin version on the internet, I'm definitely interested).  As to its origin, there is a degree of debate as to whether or not the the Ambrosian Rite is a Latinized form of a Gallican Liturgy, or is in fact the Roman Liturgy, as it appeared before many of Pope St. Gregory the Great's reforms.  Now, there is a great deal to discuss on the Ambrosian Rite, particularly its wealth of Prefaces, but that might require a whole other post. 

Now, it would appear that the reformers at the Second Vatican Council subscribed to the theory that the Ambrosian Rite is an older form of the Roman Rite.  Consequently, many of its features were adopted in the Roman Rite; number of readings, Responsorial Psalm, recitation of the Oratio Super Oblata out loud, the formula for distribution of Communion.  When the Ambrosian Rite was revised in 1976, the Ordinary was heavily Romanized; prayers that existed in the Roman Rite (Ecce Agnus Dei, the use of Kyrie Eleison prior to the Gloria in one form of the Penitential Rite) but not in the Ambrosian Rite, were added.  At this time, there is very little to distinguish the two rites.  Certainly there's still the Ambrosian 6-week Advent, the Deacon still wears his stole over the dalmatic, and the elaborate use of the phrase Kyrie Eleison, the location of the Credo and other features, but obviously there was an attempt to take advantage of the reforms introduced into the Roman Rite. 

So, to summarize, I leave you this week simply with this: The Ambrosian Rite may possibly be a form of the Roman Rite that predates reforms made by Pope St. Gregory the Great that resulted in many of the familiar features of the Roman Rite today, in both the Extraordinary and Ordinary forms.  Many revisions to the Roman Rite were possibly based on this assumption.  Likewise, the revision of the Ambrosian Rite itself was heavily influenced by the revision of the Roman Rite. If revised independently of the Roman Rite, would the Ambrosian Rite still have taken its current form?  Would it have looked much different?  Was Sacrosanctum Concilium applied in a way that allowed for the Ambrosian Rite to be revised in a manner that the document intended?