Mozarabic rite

Mozarabic rite. The conventional name for the liturgical forms which were in use in the Iberian Peninsula from the earliest times until the 11th cent. Its replacement by the Roman rite was a result of the Christian reconquest of Spain. There was resistance to its abolition in Toledo, and here it was allowed to remain in use in six parishes. F. Ximénez de Cisneros caused a missal and breviary to be printed (1500 and 1502). In 1989 permission was given for the general use in the region of Toledo (and, with the permission of the Ordinary, throughout Spain) of a new Missale Hispano-Mozarabicum which had been revised on the basis of the oldest MSS and with regard to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

The Mozarabic rite has affinities with the Gallican, though influences from North Africa and possibly Byzantium have also been detected. Distinctive features of the Mass include the use of the Trisagion in Greek; an elaborate Illatio (corresponding to the Preface) varying each day; and the Fraction of the Host into seven (or according to the Missal of Ximénez, nine) pieces, representing the mysteries of the life of Christ. In the Office a distinction between the secular and monastic Office survived. The secular Office consisted only of Vespers and Mattins; the monastic Office, in its developed form, appears to have had twelve Offices by day and twelve by night.