African Rite


In the history of Christianity, the African Rite refers to a now defunct Christian, Latin liturgical rite, and is considered a development or possibly a local use of the primitive Roman Rite. Centered around the Archdiocese of Carthage in the Early African church, it used the Latin language.
The African Rite may be considered in two different periods: The ante-Nicene period when Christians were persecuted and could not freely develop forms of public worship, and when the liturgical prayers and acts had not become fixed; and the post-Nicene period when the simple, improvised forms of prayer gave way to more elaborate, set formularies, and the primitive liturgical actions evolved into grand and formal ceremonies.

Background

The African liturgy was in use not only in the old Roman province of Africa of which Carthage was the capital, but also in Numidia and Mauretania -- in fact, in all of Northern Africa from the borders of Egypt west to the Atlantic Ocean, meaning the Early African church, centered around the Archdiocese of Carthage.
Christianity was introduced into proconsular Africa in the latter half of the 2nd century AD, probably by missionaries from Rome, and then spread rapidly through the other African provinces.
Although the language of the African Rite was Latin, it was modified by the introduction of many classical "Africanisms". Since it had been in use for at least more than a century before the Roman Church changed its official liturgical language from Koine Greek to the Latin idiom, it is probably the oldest Latin liturgical rite.
Since the African Church was dependent upon the bishopric of Rome, and since there was constant communication between Africa and Rome concerning ecclesiastical affairs, it may be supposed that liturgical questions were raised, different customs discussed, and the customs or formulas of one church adopted by the other.
A study of the African liturgy might thus be useful in tracing the origin and development of the different Latin liturgical rites, and to determine how one rite influenced another. The African liturgy seems to have influenced the Mozarabic and Gallican liturgies—similarities in phraseology show a common antique origin or a mutual dependence of the liturgies.

Ante-Nicene period

No liturgical codices are extant - these were all lost due to the destruction of the Islamic invasion and due to the relatively rural character of the African regions, making the reconstruction of the ancient African liturgy difficult. Quotations and references from liturgical books and ceremonies are rare in the works of the early ecclesiastical writers and councils.
However, various sources illuminate customs which were peculiar to the African Church, as well as what formularies and ceremonies were common to all the Western churches:
  • Two writers -- Tertullian and St. Cyprian -- furnish useful information on the African liturgy. Tertullian's writings are especially rich in descriptions of, and allusions to, ecclesiastical customs.
  • The acts of the early martyrs, for example Saints Perpetua and Felicitas, are also illustrative.
  • Finally, inscriptions on Christian monuments provide evidence on the beliefs and practices of the time.

    Prayers

Christians' prayers were either private or liturgical. Privately they prayed every morning and evening, and many of them prayed frequently during the day—for example, at the third, sixth, and ninth hours, before meals, and before undertaking any unusual work or enterprise. The liturgical prayers were said chiefly during the reunions of the faithful to observe the vigils, or to celebrate the Agape feast and the Holy Eucharist.
These Christian assemblies in Africa seem to have been modelled on the same plans as those in other countries. To a certain degree, they imitated the Word services of the Jewish synagogue, adding to it the Eucharistic service and some institutions specific to Christianity.
These gatherings were characterized by three elements: psalmody, the reading of passages from the Old and New Testaments, and prayer, to which a homily on the Scripture was generally added by the deacon, priest or bishop. Such meetings were sometimes distinct from the Mass, but sometimes they formed a preparation for the celebration of the divine mysteries.
The Church priests presided over the assembly, instructions and exhortations were given, prayers recited for the needs of the Church, the necessities of the brethren were considered and provided for, and various business pertaining to the Christian community was transacted, and finally, the Agape feast was probably - until entirely disappearing in the early 3rd century - celebrated as a fitting conclusion to a reunion of Christ's followers. The Agape feast seems to have been celebrated in Africa in the same manner as in other countries, and to have degenerated into an abuse to be suppressed here, as well as elsewhere.
These liturgical meetings generally took place at night, or just before dawn, and hence Tertullian speaks of such an assembly as a coetus antelucanus, a "meeting before the dawn", while others speak of it as a vigil. The hour may have been chosen to enable Christians to evade their heathen persecutors, or to commemorate the time of the resurrection of Jesus.
The Christian liturgy, in a strict sense of the word, is the celebration of the Eucharist - involving unbloody sacrifice and a consummation. This generally followed the long prayers of a vigil. Traces of the ancient vigils survive in similarities with the preparatory part of today's Mass, or perhaps even more clearly in the first part of the Masses for the Ember days, or the Mass of the Pre-sanctified on Good Friday. Thus the Eucharist was celebrated very early in the morning ordinarily, and the regular day chosen for assisting at the Eucharist was on the - sacred - Sunday, in commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus.

Sabbath and feast days

The Sabbath, in the Jewish sense, was not observed by Christians during this early period. The Jewish festivals were also abandoned, as Tertullian writes of the observance of festivals by Christians, "to whom Sabbaths are strange, and the new-moons and festivals formerly beloved by God". Sunday was now the Lord's day of the New Covenant, a day of rejoicing, on which it was forbidden to fast and to pray in a kneeling posture: "We count fasting or kneeling in worship on the Lord's day to be unlawful".
Since the resurrection of Jesus was honored on Sunday, it was only natural that Friday was considered appropriate for commemorating the passion and death of Christ. Hence the early Christians met for prayer on Friday, which was marked for meat abstinence and fasting in other Christian writings.
Christians also gathered on Wednesdays, but its origin as a meeting day cannot be accounted for. Tertullian referred to the Wednesday and Friday meetings as stations. In Africa, it appears to have been customary to celebrate the Eucharist on station days, although it does not seem to have been the practice in other churches. However, these were days of fasting in churches everywhere. Since fasting lasted only until the ninth hour, the liturgy would be celebrated and communion distributed about that time in the afternoon.
Of all Sundays, the feast of Easter was the greatest and was celebrated with special solemnity. Good Friday, called by Tertullian "Pascha", was a day of strict fasting which continued through Holy Saturday. Even though Good Friday was a preparation for the feast of Easter, it was the most solemn vigil during the year, and the one on which all vigils were modelled.
Holy Saturday does not seem to have had any special liturgical service assigned, the present service being the ancient Easter vigil anticipated. The Easter vigil may have been so solemnly observed because of the traditional belief that Jesus would return to judge the world on the feast of Easter, and early Christians hoped He would find them vigilant, prepared and praying.
Easter in Tertullian's time was followed by fifty days of rejoicing until Pentecost, which was considered the close of the Easter season rather than a solemn feast with a special significance.
In the 3rd century, Lent, as a period of forty days fasting, was unknown in Africa. Of the greater feasts of the liturgical year, the earlier writers appear to know nothing -- Christmas, the Circumcision of Jesus, the Epiphany, the festivals of the Blessed Virgin and the feasts of the Apostles do not seem to have been celebrated in the African Church, or at least not with special solemnity.
Festivals of local Christian martyrs seem to have taken precedence over what are now regarded as the greatest feasts of the Church, and their anniversaries were celebrated with great solemnity long before the immovable feasts were introduced. Only at a much later date were commemorations of foreign saints made. The early Christians had a great devotion towards the martyrs and confessors of the Christian faith, carefully preserved and venerated their relics, made pilgrimages to their tombs, and sought to be buried as near as possible to the relics of the martyrs. Thus the calendar of the African Church in the ante-Nicene period contained a comparatively small number of feast days.

The Eucharist

The most important liturgical function is the celebration of Mass, or the Eucharist. The African Church seems to have divided the Mass into the Mass of the catechumens, and the Mass of the faithful. Among the orthodox Christians, the catechumens were rigidly excluded from assisting at the propitiatory sacrifice of the Eucharist.
Bread and wine were - and are - used as the matter of the sacrament, but a little water was already in early times added to the wine to signify the union of the people with Christ. St. Cyprian severely condemned bishops who used only water in the chalice, declaring that water is not the essential matter of the sacrifice and its exclusive use renders the sacrament invalid.
Both Tertullian's and St. Cyprian's writings have passages which seem to give the form of the Eucharist in the very words of Christ as quoted in Sacred Scripture. Sometimes there is great similarity between the African Rite's words and the phraseology of the still existing and still used Roman Canon. There are allusions to a Preface, the Sanctus, the "commemoration" of Jesus Christ, the Pater noster, and to different acclamations. These elements are found in all apostolic and early Christian liturgies.
Tertullian speaks often of the kiss of peace, and considers the ceremony very important. References are also made to a litany which was recited during the Mass, but no precise information is given concerning its place in the liturgy.
At Mass the faithful received holy communion under the species of bread from the bishop or priest, and under the species wine from the deacon holding the chalice, and each one, after receiving communion, answered "Amen" to profess his faith in the sacrament. Sometimes the faithful carried the Host home, and there communicated themselves, especially in times of persecution by the Roman Emperors.
Christians receiving Communion were expected to be fasting and free of serious sin. They practiced frequent Communion, especially during persecutions. It was considered sacrilegious for the consecrated bread or wine to fall on the ground or be touched by ordinary materials.