Rubrics of the Roman Breviary and Missal (1962 Edition)

Rubrics of the Roman Breviary and Missal (1962 Edition)

A handy study-manual of the 1962 Roman Liturgy This is a reprint of an official English translation of the new general rubrics promulgated for the traditional Roman Breviary (1961) and Roman Missal (1962).

On July 25, 1960, Pope John XXIII published a motu proprio entitled, Rubricarum instructum, which approved and promulgated a new body of rubrics for the Roman Breviary and Missal—as denoted in the subtitle of his letter: Novum Rubricarum Breviarii et Missalis Romani Corpus Approbatur.

This papal letter was followed the next day, July 26th, with a general decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, Novum rubricarum, which published the reformed code of rubrics which took effect for the Roman Rite on January 1, 1961.

Initially the work of Pope Pius XII, these new general rubrics included changes to the calendar, its classification rules, and the Roman Martyrology, while continuing in the line of liturgical reforms initiated by the Council of Trent for the Breviary and Missal, though never completed by that liturgical commission or subsequent ones. Among the objectives of the prior commissions—and likewise the new code of rubrics—was the restoration of the temporal cycle’s primacy in the Roman liturgical calendar and simplification of the classification system. These goals were admirably achieved with these general rubrics which were subsequently printed in the revised editions of the Roman Breviary (1961—and Roman Martyrology) and Roman Missal (1962).