Gallican Rite

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The Gallican Rite

The Gallican rite is actually a family of rites which comprised the majority use of most of Western European for the greater part of the 1st Millenium. The rite first developed in the early centuries as the Syriac-Greek rites of Jerusalem-Antioch were first translated into Latin in various parts of the Roman West. Various rites within the greater Gallican family claim various specific lineages: such as origin with the Alexandrine rite of St. Mark for the Churches of Aquilea and Milan, or origins with the Ephesine rite of St. John the Divine for the Churches of Gaul, Iberia, and Brittania. Many Gallican texts survive, but the survival of the rite is mostly in its influence upon the present Roman and Anglican rites (called Gallo-Roman), as a component of the Ambrosian rite of Milan. The last surviving "pure" Gallican rite is the Mozarabic rite of Toledo, Spain which has been limited to a few chapels for the past few centuries. The Gallican rites are more extravagant than the Roman, the music more melismatic, the words richer, more profuse, and dramatic. The surviving Gallican materials also have recognizable concordances with the Eastern and Oriental rites in the form of certain prayers and ceremonial, owing to its shared ancient origin in the original rites of the Holy Land.

In the early 20th c., the Russian emigre community in Paris included a number of clergy who were mindful of evangelization in the West. Among that number were a pair of brothers, Fathers Eugraph and Eugene Kovalevsky. Based upon the "Letters of Saint Germanus" and various Gallican Missals (Stowe, Bobbio, Gothic, Mozarab, Autun) and much borrowing from the Byzantine, a Neo-Gallican rite was constructed for the Western Rite activity in France. This rite was something in between an Eastern and Western rite, having similarities in structure and material with both. The rite is still in use with Le Eqlise Catholique Orthodoxe Francaise as well as the Union Actuelle Orthodoxe Catholique Francaise now in union with the Patriarch of Serbia. The rite has been used by communities under the Patriarch of Moscow, the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, the Patriarch of Romania, and the Patriarch of Serbia.

Sources

"Some Notes on the History and Liturgical Practice of the Orthodox Church of France" by Fr. Francis DeMarais.

L'ECOF article on the origins of their Neo-Gallican rite in French.

L'ECOF article on the Ancient Rite of the Gauls in French.

Neo-Gallican Liturgy used by L'ECOF

Catholic Encyclopedia: Gallican Rite

New Catholic Dictionary: Gallican Rite

Catholic Encyclopedia: Aquliean Rite of Gallican family

Catholic Encyclopedia: Ambrosian Rite - Romanized Gallican

Catholic Encyclopedia: Mozarabic Rite - Romanized Gallican

Liturgica.Com "Gallican Chant"

Catholic Tradition: "A Short History of the Roman Mass" by Michael Davies.

See also [The Stowe Missal]