Adalékok a magyarországi XVIII. századi liturgia történetéhez: Könyvbejegyzések tanulságai

Two items in the liturgical history collection of the Diocesan Library of Vác contain noteworthy manuscript entries. The first item, the book titled Gospels and Epistles …, features two entries written by the Pauline monk Demeter Gaál.

One of these entries describes the rite of conversion, a ceremony detailed in various ritual books. Conversion to Catholicism required an oath, and this necessity explains the handwritten record of the conversion rite in this book.

Another significant entry describes the candle-lighting ceremony for the Feast of the Martyrs St. John and St. Paul. This entry provided instructions to ensure that, using the missal and this liturgical book, the candle-lighting ceremony could be correctly performed on the feast day of these two patron saints.

The second liturgical book, titled Rituale Agriense seu formula agendorum in administratione Sacramentorum, ac caeteris Ecclesiae Publicis Functionibus …, contains manuscript entries including two petitions, or suffragia, one dedicated to St. Lawrence and the other to the Holy Spirit. This raises two questions: first, why were these specific petitions included in this liturgical book, and second, where and by whom might they have been used? The location would need to be a site with two churches where both saints are commemorated in a single service. Given that this is a ritual book from the Archdiocese of Eger, it is likely it was used in one of its parishes. In Pásztó, for example, this inclusion is realized in the liturgies for the Days of the Cross (in litaniis minoribus).

Additionally, this book was used by Canon József Haulik of Vác, who recorded in his own handwriting the Libera me Domine … ritual for funeral masses. The fact that this book—an official liturgical text from the Archdiocese of Eger—also contains an entry from the Canon of Vác suggests that the ritual books of one diocese were sometimes used within another.