Solemn Mass
Solemn Mass is the full ceremonial form of a Mass, predominantly associated with the Tridentine Mass where it is celebrated by a priest with a deacon and a subdeacon, requiring most of the parts of the Mass to be sung, and the use of incense. It is also called High Mass or Solemn High Mass.
These terms distinguish it from a Low Mass and Missa cantata. The parts assigned to the deacon and subdeacon are often performed by priests in vestments proper to those roles. A Solemn Mass celebrated by a bishop has its own particular ceremonies and is referred to as a Solemn Pontifical Mass. Within the Roman Rite, the history of the Solemn Mass has been traced to the 7th century in the Gregorian Sacramentary and Ordo Romanus Primus, followed by several centuries of adapting these pontifical liturgies. Eventually, the proliferation of multiple parish churches within the same cities saw these liturgies further adapted so that the average priest could celebrate them. By the 13th century, those Masses with ceremonial more closely following that of the pontifical liturgies were identified as "Solemn" or "High Masses" in contrast with simpler "Low Masses". In the Catholic Church, since the promulgation of the 1969 Roman Missal, much of the Solemn Mass's ceremonial has fallen into obsolescence and disuse.
In Lutheranism and parts of Anglicanism, High Mass is celebrated in a manner similar to the Tridentine Rite.
Definition
Solemn or High Mass is the full form of Mass and elements of the abbreviated forms can be explained only in its light:Thus, in the 21st century, the term "solemn Mass", capitalized or not, is also increasingly used instead of an analogous celebration in the post-Vatican II form of the Roman Rite of Mass, in which case it has been defined as "a high Mass in which the priest is assisted by two deacons". The functions that the two deacons carry out are indicated in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal and the 1989 edition of the Ceremonial of Bishops,
In the Syro-Malabar Church, this Holy Qurbana divine liturgy has three forms: a simplified form, a standard form for Sundays use, and a Solemn High form, known as the Raza, used only on solemnities. A reform of the Raza launched in November 1931 in order to return to the unadulterated and original form was issued in 1985, followed in 1989 by a reform of the other two forms carried out with the same principles.
The terms "Solemn Mass", "Solemn High Mass" and "High Mass" are also often used within Anglo-Catholicism, in which the ceremonial, and sometimes the text, are based on those of the Sarum Rite or the later Tridentine Mass. Lutherans sometimes use the term "High Mass" to describe a more solemn form of their Divine Service, generally celebrated in a manner similar to that of Roman Catholics. Examples of similarities include vestments, chanting, and incense. Lutheran congregations in North America commonly celebrate High Mass more or less, but rarely use the term "Mass".
History: from the Pontifical Mass to the ''Missa Solemnis''
Adaptation of Roman papal liturgy in Frankish monasteries in the first millennium
The primitive and original form of Mass celebration is that in which the bishop surrounded by his clergy offers up the sacrifice in the presence of the congregation. The direct descendant of the bishops' collective service is the pontifical service, especially in its most elaborate form, the papal Mass. According to Jungmann, the solemn high Mass is "a late simplification of the pontifical service". Ample proof is to be found in the arrangement for Mass ·as outlined in an eighth century Breviarium ecclesiastici ordinis adapted to the circumstances of a Frankish Scots monastery: in it, nearly everything of ritual splendor has been transferred to the monastic sacerdos: deacons, subdeacons, clerics, seven candles, Pax vobis and double lavabo. If these Frankish sources refer first and foremost to the role of bishops in the liturgy, they are soon allotted to the priests also.Missionary exportation of the High Mass by the Order of Preachers
The outlines of the present-day form of the missa solemnis became distinct after the tenth or eleventh century. The Synod of Limoges in 1031 enjoined abbots and other priests not to have more than three deacons on feast-days, while bishops were allowed to have five or seven.In 1065, Bishop John of Avranches provided testimony of the arrangement of the High Mass in its modern form with only one deacon and one subdeacon:
The conventual Mass at the Abbey of Cluny at the same time also displays the same type of Mass with deacon and subdeacon.
In general the rite of high Mass has not changed much since the eleventh century, if we except the peculiar usages of certain regions and certain monasteries.
The High Mass was exported out of the monasteries and into the mission territories by the Order of Preachers as exposed in the Missale convetuale of Humbert of Romans published in 1256, the Carmelite order publishing its own similar rite seven years later. Just as the Dominicans simplified the Gregorian chant for their missionary convents, they also exported the High Mass in a slightly simplified ritual. The careful description of the priestly High Mass which is presented in the 1256 Ordinarium of the Dominicans reveals in all essentials the present-day arrangement. The solemn vesting program is dropped, two to four candles are found sufficient, and they stand on the altar. The priest no longer employs the phrase Pax vobis but only Dominus vobiscum, he says the oration, and likewise the Gloria and the Credo, at the altar, and washes his hands only after the incensing. The solemn blessing, as well as the assisting priest, substitute for the old colleger of priests, were still in the foreground in the 12th century.
Rarification of the High Mass
The movement towards the rarification of the Solemn Mass was a slow process through the Middle Ages which worsened after the Renaissance as it retained only for great feast days. While the Capuchins had made their conventual mass a Low Mass, the Jesuits were the first to exclude the Solemn High Mass from their ordinary practise in their second constitution, after the 1550 papal bull, Exposcit debitum, "out of duty". The Society of Jesus not only had no choral Office but also no high Mass, since for the latter the contemporary arrangements usually presupposed the presence of the community to take care of the singing; pastoral activity in the wake of the Counter-Reformation was seen as the reason for this abandonment:On the other hand, other movements, such as the French school of spirituality, promoted the High Mass in its parochial form, as a way to introduce the faithful to a more mystical faith. Such was Jean-Jacques Olier who, in 1657, published an explanation of the rites of the High Mass for the parochial use. In this classical period, the Missa solemnis developed as a genre of musical settings for the High Mass, which were festively scored and rendered the Latin text extensively, opposed to the more modest Missa brevis. Its complexity, however, also contributed to make it into a rarity.
By the mid-twentieth century, the missa cantata had, in most dioceses, become the predominant solemn form the Mass of parish service for Sunday services, while the low mass took over the rest of the week. The High Mass came to mean the summum officium of any determined community, reaching a high-point in a solemn Mass with deacon and subdeacon and an introductory procession of the clergy, which was not necessarily even weekly in some parishes. Among the various daily services, the High Mass became a Sunday summum officium distinguished, marking the climax of the morning service and capable of many varying degrees, only rarely reaching a high-point in a solemn Mass with deacon and subdeacon.
Liturgical Movement: between antiquarianism and active participation
From the 19th century onwards, in the context of the Liturgical Movement, various currents existed with some leaning towards antiquarianism while others favoured active participation within the dialogue Mass.Pope Pius XII did not think that the Dialogue Mass was an absolute replacement of the High Mass. In his landmark encyclical Mediator Dei, Pius XII explains that High Masses possess their “own special dignity due to the impressive character of its ritual and the magnificence of its ceremonies.” Pius XII encouraged the dialogue Mass and external lay participation but still retains the honor of the High Mass:
One year later, in 1948, the Jesuit priest, Josef Andreas Jungmann, published the most in-depth study of the Solemn Mass, Missarum Sollemnia, showing both its antiquity and its rarity in the parochial structure, arguably proving that the missa cantata was "the unbroken continuation of the presbyter Mass of Christian antiquity.".
Vatican II and the High Mass
The Second Vatican Council, while calling for a reform of the liturgy, insisted on the solemnity of the sacred rites:Since its 1970 revision, the Roman Missal no longer categorizes Mass as High or Low, and distinguishes Mass only as celebrated with a congregation or with participation by only one minister, and as celebrated with or without concelebrating priests. It recommends singing at all Masses, saying, for instance: "Although it is not always necessary to sing all the texts that are of themselves meant to be sung, every care should be taken that singing by the ministers and the people is not absent in celebrations that occur on Sundays and on holy days of obligation"; and: "It is very appropriate that the priest sing those parts of the Eucharistic Prayer for which musical notation is provided." The term "High Mass" is sometimes encountered also, both in Anglican and certain Roman Catholic circles, to describe any Mass celebrated with greater solemnity. While some have argued that simplifying the Solemn High Mass removed barriers between the Protestant and the Catholic liturgies, others have argued that it led to the destruction of traditions held in common by Latin Christians and the Eastern Orthodox.
However, the Solemn High Mass continues to be celebrated around the world, in parishes as well as during Catholic meetings for youth, such as the World Youth Day in Panama in January 2019. However, in Catholic communities which continue to celebrate the Mass according to the pre-Vatican II missals, the Low Mass appears to sometimes attract more faithful than the High Mass. Of the two most recent motu proprio concerning the pre-Vatican II celebration of the Mass, neither Summorum Pontificum nor Traditionis Custodes mention the High Mass.