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Question

Dear Father Angelo,

I contact you to ask for some clarifications: how does the Mass celebrated according to the Ambrosian rite differ from the traditional one from a structural / formal point of view and how did these differences historically originate ?

Thanks for your response.

Answer

Dear friend

1. between the Ambrosian  and the Roman rite, after all, the external differences concern only accidental elements of the Mass.

The structure of the Mass is practically identical,  both at the table of God’s Word (Liturgy of the Word) and of the  Body of Christ (Liturgy of the Eucharist).                                   From an external point of view, the variations concern some invocations or acclamations, the introductory greeting and the dismissal.

The Rite of Peace is probably the most striking variant: it precedes the Preparation of the Gifts in the Ambrosian rite, while in the Roman rite it is celebrated  after the Agnus Dei and before the Fraction of the Bread.

2. The most consistent difference instead is found in the contents of the prayers and the readings.

The Ambrosian rite follows its own lectionary, which is different from the one used in the Roman rite.

Therefore, for those who are used to a common missal and Sunday leaflets according to the Roman rite it might be disorienting to attend the Mass which is celebrated in the Ambrosian rite.

3. Another dissimilarity occurs when the Ambrosiani do not celebrate Mass on Fridays of Lent.

4. In the following, I list the variants of the Ambrosian rite.

Ambrosian Rite – Differences for the Mass

Penitential act

If the trope is used, the final invocation is always Kyrie eleison, also the second, where instead the Roman rite has Christe eleison.

Readings

The reader requests the blessing before the first and second reading:

“May the Reading of the Prophet (or Apostle) grant us saving knowledge”.

After the Gospel or after the Homily

Canto (antiphon) of its own.

Prayer of the Faithful

It has its own conclusion found in the Missal.

Rite of Peace

Possible and generally practiced before the Offertory.

Eucharistic prayer

Arms in the shape of a cross during the anamnesis.

Fraction of the Bread

After the conclusion of the Eucharistic Prayer and before the Lord’s Prayer, there is a song or an antiphon recited “At the Fraction of the Bread”.

Lamb of God

It is not expected.

Dismissal

“Let’s go” and not “Go”, as in the Roman rite.

5. Furthermore, the prayers and prefaces are generally different and they are broader than in the Roman rite.

The prefaces are much more numerous, also including those specific for the celebration of the feasts of saints whose memory is a solemnity  .

6. You also asked how the Ambrosian rite had originated.

‘The liturgy, that is called Ambrosian, is proper to the Church of Milan and to some other Churches that were subject to its jurisdiction or under its influence. (…).

The name of “Ambrosian” was not given to the Milanese rite because Saint Ambrose was

its founder, but due to the fact that he personified all the greatest religious and liturgical traditions as he had been one of the most illustrious bishops of Milan.

The name of the Ambrosian rite is encountered for the first time in the Ordo by Giovanni Arcicantore of S. Peter (680 c.). Later Walfrido Strabone († 846) was the first to attest that the whole Ambrosian liturgy is a work by St. Ambrose, but we do not know precisely in which documents. A statement that is impossible to sustain today.

When Ambrose was elected bishop of Milan, that important metropolitan see had already had at least ten bishops. Therefore, there already was a well-defined church with its own liturgical tradition.

How was the liturgy in Milan at that time? One can answer with no doubt: the Roman liturgy with many oriental elements. Moreover, keeping in mind the greater freedom of the bishops in organizing the worship in their churches during the fourth century, it is easily inferred that the liturgy in Milan admitted some differences from the Roman one. That is confirmed by the exam of the writings of St. Ambrose.

Here are some Ambrosian characteristics: on Saturdays there is no fasting, not even on Lenten Saturdays; the whole liturgy of that day is marked by celebrations; in the Holy Week the Books of Job, Jonah and Tobias are read; the greeting of peace (pacem habete) is given before the anaphora (Eucharistic Prayer, editor’s note); the Washing of the Feet was done after Baptism still in the time of Beroldo (XII century) …

Some of these characteristics originally belonged to the Roman rite; but later, and perhaps immediately after the Peace of Constantine, they were modified, while in Milan and elsewhere they were kept. Even the anaphora used in the Milanese church was not marked, as some believe, by the variable form of the Gallican type, but it rather followed the traditional pattern in use between the third and fourth centuries, that is, it was an anaphora with a fixed and uniform tenor, with the admission of some slight formal differences only  permitted at that time.

When in 374, Bishop Aussentius, an Arian, was succeeded by Ambrose, a Roman, he introduced some changes to conform the local liturgy to the Roman practice: a new Canon was adopted, the one just introduced in Rome, and a part of it has been handed down to us in the De Sacramentis.

 The Milanese liturgy, with a Roman background, soon adopted new elements of different origins: Gallican elements were included during the period of the Lombard invasion (569-643), when the Milanese bishops and clergy had to take refuge in Genoa, where they could more easily feel the Gallican influences introduced from across the sea ; Byzantine elements were incorporated in the same period through the work of Greek-Syriac monks who settled in Milan;  the presence of the military force who occupied  the Upper Italy and  gave the cities their magistrates and their civil officers,played a part as well.

We can conclude this historical synthesis about the origins of the Ambrosian liturgy with  the words  by Righetti from whose work all this information has been taken: “Now, it was so possible to insert a complex of oriental elements in Milan, significantly altering the liturgical physiognomy of the primitive and substantial root of the Roman liturgy, adding as well small local variations, common fact to all the great churches in ancient centuries. Having entered the daily use, they consolidated themselves firmly and were defended by that tenacious pride that allowed the Milanese the fortune of retaining their centuries-old liturgy” (Storia lit., vol. I, page  146, ed. 2 *)’ ([Tr.] R. Aigrain, Enciclopedia liturgica, pages 748-750).

In the hope of having resolved your question, and also let many visitors know something about the Ambrosian Rite, I wish you all the best and I bless you.

Father Angelo