The Introit (Introitus) of
the Mass is the fragment of a psalm with its antiphon sung while the
celebrant and ministers enter the church and approach the altar. In all
Western rites the Mass began with such a processional psalm since the
earliest times of which we have any record. As it was sung by the choir
it is not, of course, to be found in sacramentaries; but introits are
contained in the first antiphonaries known (the Gregorian Antiphonary
at Montpellier, the St. Gall manuscript, that represent a
seventh-century tradition, etc.; see Leclercq in "Dict. d'archéologie
chrétienne", s. v. "Antiphonaire"). The First Roman Ordo (sixth to
seventh century) says that as soon as the candles are lit and
everything is ready, the singers come and stand before the altar on
either side, "and presently the leader of the choir begins the antiphon
for the entrance (antiphona ad introitum)". As soon as the deacons hear
his voice they go to the pope, who rises and comes from the sacristy to
the altar in procession ("Ordo Rom. I", ed. Atchley, London, 1905, p.
128). There is every reason to suppose that as soon as the Western
liturgies were arranged in definite forms, the entrance was always
accompanied by the chant of a psalm, which from that circumstance was
called at Rome Introitus or Psalmus or Antiphona ad Introitum. The old
Gallican Rite called it Antiphona ad Pr legendum; at Milan it is the
Ingressa; in the Mozarabic, Carthusian, Dominican, and Carmelite books,
Officium. The Introit was a whole psalm sung with the Gloria Patri and
Sicut erat verses, preceded and followed by an antiphon in the usual
way. No doubt originally it was sung as a solo while the choir repeated
a response after each verse (the psalmus responsorius of which we still
have an example in the Invitatorium at Matins), then the later way of
singing psalms (psalmus antiphonarius) was adopted for the Introit too.
The "Liber Pontificalis" ascribes this antiphonal chant at the Introit
to Pope Celestine I (422-32): "He ordered that the psalms of David be
sung antiphonally [antiphonatim, by two choirs alternately] by all
before the Sacrifice, which was not done before; but only the epistle
of St. Paul was read and the holy Gospel" (ed. Duchesne, I, Paris,
1886, 230). The text seems even to attribute the use of the
Introit-psalm in any form to this pope. Medieval writers take this idea
from the "Liber Pontificalis", e.g. Honorius of Autun, "Gemma animæ"
(in P. L., CLXXII): "Pope Celestine ordered psalms to be sung at the
entrance (ad introitum) of the Mass. Pope Gregory [I] afterwards
composed antiphons in modulation for the entrance of the Mass" (I,
lxxxvii). Probst thought that Gelasius I (492-96) invented the Introit
(Die abendländische Messe vom 5 bis zum 8 Jahrhundert, Münster, 1896,
36). It is perhaps safest to account for our Introit merely as a
development of the processional psalm sung during the entrance of the
celebrant and his ministers, as psalms were sung in processions from
very early times. But it soon began to be curtailed. Its object was
only to accompany the entrance, so there was no reason for going on
with it after the celebrant had arrived at the altar. Already in the
First Roman Ordo as soon as the pope is ready to begin Mass he signs to
the choir-master to leave out the rest of the psalm and go on at once
to the Gloria Patri (ed. Atchley, p. 128). Since the early Middle Ages
the psalm has been further shortened to one verse (Durandus,
"Rationale", IV, 5). So it received the form it still has, namely: an
antiphon, one verse of a psalm, Gloria Patri, Sicut erat, the antiphon
repeated. In the Milanese Rite the antiphon of the Ingressa is not
repeated except in Requiem Masses; on the other hand, in some medieval
uses it was repeated several times (Durandus, loc. cit.). On great
feasts the Carmelites still repeat it twice at the end. The antiphon is
taken as a rule from the Psalter (Durandus calls such introits
regulares); sometimes (e.g. second and third Christmas Mass,
Ascension-Day, Whit-Sunday, etc.) from another part of the Bible; more
rarely (Assumption, All Saints, many Masses of Our Lady -- "Salve
sancta parens", Requiems, etc.) it is a composition by some later
writer. The verse of the psalm in the earlier introits is the first
(obviously still a fragment of the whole), except that when the
antiphon itself is the first verse the "psalm" is the next (twelfth and
fifteenth Sundays after Pentecost, etc.). In later times it has become
common to choose a suitable verse regardless of this rule (e.g. the
Crown of Thorns Mass for Friday after Ash Wednesday, St. Ignatius
Loyola on 31 July, etc.). The text of the psalms used in the introits
(as throughout the Missal) is not the Vulgate but the Itala. In Paschal
time two Alleluias are added to the antiphon, sometimes (Easter Day,
Low Sunday, the Third and Fourth Sundays after Easter, etc.) there are
three. In Requiems and Masses de tempore in Passiontide, when the Psalm
Judica is not said, there is no Gloria Patri at the Introit. On Holy
Saturday and at the chief Mass on Whitsun Eve (when the prophecies are
read) there is no Introit at all. The reason of this is obvious. The
Introit accompanies the entrance; but on these occasions the celebrant
has been at the altar for some time before Mass begins. We name Masses
(that is the complex of changeable prayers that make up the Puerperium)
from the first words of the Introit by which they begin. Thus the Mass
for the first Sunday of Advent is called Ad te leva; the two Masses of
the Sacred Heart are distinguished as Miserability and Exordium; a Mass
for the dead is spoken of as a Requiem, and so on. There is nothing
corresponding to our Introit in the Eastern rites. In all of them the
liturgy begins quite differently. The preparation (vesting, preparation
of the offerings) takes place in the sanctuary, so there is no
procession to the altar.
RITUAL OF THE INTROIT
At high (or sung) Mass till
quite lately the rule had obtained that the choir did not begin the
Introit till the celebrant began the first prayers at the foot of the
altar. Now the new Vatican "Gradual" (1908) has restored the old
principle, that it is to be sung while the procession moves from the
sacristy to the altar. ("De redivivus servanda in cant miss" in the
introduction.) It should therefore be begun as soon as the head of the
procession appears in the church. One or more cantors sing to the
sign*, all continue; the cantors alone sing the first half of the psalm
and the V. Gloria Patri (ibid.). The celebrant, having finished the
preparatory prayers at the altar-steps, goes up to the altar and kisses
it (saying meanwhile the two short prayers, A ufer a nobis and Oranges
te); then, going to the left (Epistle) side, he reads from the Missal
the Introit, just as it is sung. This is one of the continual reactions
of low Mass on high Mass. When the custom of low Mass began (in the
early Middle Ages) the celebrant had to supply all the parts of deacon,
subdeacon, and choir himself. Then, as he became used to saying these
parts, he said them even at high Mass, too; they were, besides, chanted
by others. So the rule has obtained that everything is said by the
celebrant. The recital of the Introit should be considered as the real
beginning of Mass, since what has gone before is rather of the nature
of the celebrant's preparation. For this reason he makes the sign of
the cross at its first words, according to the general rule of
beginning all solemn functions (in this case the Mass) with that sign.
At Requiem Masses he makes the cross not on himself but over the
Missal, quasi aliquem benedicens says the rubric (Ritus cel., xiii, 1).
This is understood as directing the blessing to the souls in purgatory.
At low Mass there is no change here, save the omission of the chant by
the choir.
Publication information
Written by Adrian Fortescue. Transcribed by Douglas J. Potter. Dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ
The Catholic Encyclopedia,
Volume VIII. Published 1910. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Nihil
Obstat, October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John
Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Bibliography
Of the medieval
commentators see especially DURANDUS, Rationale Divinorum Officiorum,
IV, 5; BENEDICT XIV, De S. Miss Sacrificio, II 4; DuCHESNE, Origines du
culte chrétien (Paris, 1898), 154-155; GIHR, Das heilige Messopfer
(Freiburg im Br., 1897), 346-57.
