The Basilica of San Pedro celebrates for the fifth time in its history a Mass in Hispano-Mozárabe rite

For the fifth time in history, the Basilica of San Pedro del Vaticano hosted a Mass in Hispanic-Mozarabic rite, with which the Christians who lived under Islamic domain in the Iberian Peninsula, celebrated the liturgy in the first 10 centuries of the history of Spain.

In a climate of solemnity and fervor, the Archbishop of Toledo and primacy of Spain, Mons. Francisco Cerro Chaves celebrated the Eucharist on the altar of the chair, according to this ancient rite, one of the few non -Roman Western liturgies that have survived the passage of centuries.

In the homily, the prelate defended communion with Christ, with the Catholic Church and with the successor of Peter, stressing that these three realities “are not negotiable.”

“You cannot play with communion with Christ, you cannot play with communion with the Church and you cannot play with communion with Peter,” he said.

Inspired by the Gospel of the day, the Archbishop focused his preaching in Jesus’s question: “And you, who says it is me?” “That question is directed today to each one. And of our answer changes everything: change the story, change your landscape, change your heart,” he said. “It is the most important question that the Gospel does. And Peter answers: ‘You are the son of God alive,” he added

Citing Benedict XVI, he recalled that Christianity is born from the personal encounter with Christ, and that being a Christian also implies living communion with the Church and with the Pope. “San Ignacio de Antioquía says it clearly: nothing without the bishop, nothing without Pedro,” he said.

Likewise, Mons. Cerro exalted the Pope’s mission as guarantor of the faith and messenger of the Gospel to the world: “The task of the Pope is to say all humanity: you are the son of living God. That is why he goes out to the peripheries, to the dioceses, to the peoples, to announce the love of Christ.”

In the celebration – which was framed in the pilgrimage of 200 people from the Archdiocese of Toledo to Rome on the occasion of the Jubileo de la Esperanza – several representatives of the Roman curia also participated: among them, Mons. Alejandro Arellano Cedillo, Dean of the Roman Rota; Mons. Aurelio García Macías, Undersecretary of Dicastery for Divine Cult; Mons. Francisco César García Magán, auxiliary bishop of Toledo and general secretary of the Spanish Episcopal Conference and the Lay Extremadura, Massimino Caballero Ledo, Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy.

What is the Hispanic-Mozarabic rite?

Next to the Roman, Galican, Ambrosian and Bracarense liturgy, the Hispanic-Mozarabic rite is part of the set of rites developed around the old metropolitan headquarters of the West.

“This rite is part of the western liturgies that have been formed around a headquarters: the Roman liturgy (Rome), the Galican liturgy (Lyon), the ambrosian liturgy (Milan) and the Bracarense liturgy (Braga),” says the officer of the Holy See, Salvador Aguilera, whom Mons closed thanked its involvement to make possible the celebration to make the celebration possible to celebrate the celebration in the celebration of the celebration in the celebration to make it possible to Basilica of San Pedro of this rite born in the heart of the former Visigothic Church and still alive in Toledo.

Maximum splendor in Spain during the Visigothic era

As explained by the doctor in Liturgy, this way of celebrating the Eucharist lived its maximum splendor during the Visigothic era, especially after the official conversion of the kingdom to Catholicism in the III Council of Toledo, in the year 589.

However, its history has not been exempt from moments of persecution in which the risk of disappearing forever has been run. After the Muslim invasion of the year 711, many liturgical books and relics had to be transferred to northern Spain to put them insurance.

In the year 1080, at the request of Pope Gregory VII, the Council of Burgos that supposed the abolition of the rite was convened. However, little years later, exactly in 1085, with the reconquest of the city of Toledo by Alfonso VI, the privilege of conserving his liturgy was granted to the Mozarabic.

Since then, the preservation of the Hispano-Mozárabe rite has been the work of great ecclesiastical figures. “Three names marked the history of the rite from their abolition to the present day: the Cisneros Cardinals, Lorenzana and González,” says P. Aguilera.

Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros, Archbishop of Toledo since 1495, “undertook a reform that not only affected material issues, such as parishes or liturgical books, but also promoted the formation of the clergy, ensuring the continuity of such an old liturgy,” says the expert.

In fact, Cardinal Cisneros instituted the Mozarabic Chapel of Corpus Christi in the cathedral of Toledo and commissioned the edition of the Missale mixed according to the Rule of Blessed isidore (1500) and of Breviarii according to the Blessed isidore (1502). Centuries later, Cardinal Lorenzana published new editions of Breviary (1775) and Missal (1804), fundamental works for the conservation of the rite.

Already in the twentieth century, Cardinal Marcelo González Martín resumed the reforming impulse following the Second Vatican Council. “Following the indications of the Constitution Council On the reform of the rites, he appointed a commission that elaborated the Latin edition of the two volumes of the Hispanic-Mozarabicum Missale … and of the Free victorious (Lectionary) ”.

Thirty years after the reconcile reform, in 1992, the first volume of the new Hispanic-Mozarabic missal, recently edited and the Holy Father, wanted to celebrate the Holy Mass, was presented to Pope San Juan Pablo II. On May 28, 1992, solemnity of the ascension of the Lord, it was the first time that a Pope celebrated the Mass according to this rite.

On that occasion, the Polish Pontiff expressed his “viva complacency for the meritorious work done in the revision of the Hispanic -Mozarabrab rite, thus fulfilling what is prescribed in the Constitution Council About the sacred liturgy. This has offered a beautiful fruit to the Church of Spain, which is both an eminent service to culture, so it has the recovery of the formulas in which your ancestors expressed their faith. ”

Other occasions in which it has been held according to this rite in San Pedro were in 2000, also on the occasion of the jubilee, in a Mass chaired by Cardinal Francisco Álvarez Martínez; And in 2015, during the Jubilee of Mercy, in another held by Archbishop Emeritus of Toledo, Mons. Braulio Rodríguez Plaza.