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Processions of St Stephen’s

Reinhard Strohm

The Rogation processions (or litaniae maiores et minores) of the fifth week after Easter marked the close of the Easter season and the second Ember period of the liturgical year. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, the clergy of St Stephen’s, accompanied by priests and deacons bearing relics, banners and crosses, took part in Rogation processions, described in » A-Wn Cod. 4712, fol. 54r–55r.[66] Each time, the antiphon Exsurge and the psalm verse Salvum me fac were sung first, followed by the celebrant’s prayer In eternum familie tue intercedente beato Stephano, and then the antiphon Surgite sancti. The procession then exited the church, but in the event of rain (“si tempus fit pluviosum”), it passed only through the schoolhouse and across the cemetery (“claustrum”) into the crypt (“per czecham per claustrum in criptam”); two further antiphons followed, to which the laypeople were to contribute their own cries (“et layci habeant vociferaciones suas”). In fine weather, however (“si tempus serenum fuerit”), the procession continued into the “lower town” to St Mary’s, the Schottenkloster. Upon reaching the parish church of St Michael, the responsory Te sanctum dominum was to be sung, and upon entering the Schottenkloster, the responsory Salve nobilis virga. Here, the Mass prescribed for the day was celebrated, immediately followed by the litany (“nota officium letanie”, fol. 54v). Directly after the Benedicamus Domino of the Mass, the praecentor began the litany with Aufer a nobis iniquitatem, followed by the laypeople’s Kyrie eleison (“layci subiungant kyrieleison”); the clergy sang Miserere, miserere, again answered by the laity with Kyrie eleison. The choir then began Sancta Maria ora pro nobis ad Dominum, again answered by the laity with Kyrie eleison, and so forth. The content of the litany had to be adapted to the length of the return route, which led back after another station at the Schottenkloster. According to a marginal note (fol. 55r), on Tuesday the outward route passed via St Michael and the convent of St Mary Magdalene outside the Schottentor, while the return route led via the Carmelite convent (Am Hof) and St Peter’s.

St Michael’s played a special role in the more extensive Palm Sunday procession (fols. 38v–40v). As the procession passed by St Michael’s (“pretereuntes ecclesiam sancti Michahel”), the responsory Te sanctum dominum was first sung; upon entering the church, the responsory Salve nobilis was sung, answered by the “choir of women” (“Chorus dominarum”) with the verse Odor tuus. The singers were certainly the nuns participating in the procession. A second responsory, Ingressus Pylatus, was again answered by the women with the verse Tunc ait illis, and the “choir of men” (“chorus dominorum”) repeated the responsory. This responsorial style between women and men continued throughout the entire procession, the blessing of the palm branches, and the Mass in the Schottenkloster, as well as on the return route via the Bishop’s Court (“curia episcopi”, Maria am Gestade), where another station was held with alternating women’s and men’s choirs. Then, two boys in choir dress were to scatter the palm branches and carry a veiled cross, which was unveiled during the procession for the singing of the antiphon Pueri hebreorum and other appropriate chants. One might almost overlook in reading the ordo that, before arriving at Maria am Gestade, the laypeople were again permitted to insert a “vociferatio” (fol. 39r), which perhaps corresponded to the Palm Sunday hymn Gloria, laus et honor.

[66] The procession descriptions in the original corpus of » A-Wn Cod. 4712, a Liber ordinarius of the Diocese of Passau, replicate word-for-word the regulations for Passau itself (courtesy of Robert Klugseder), but are also applicable to Vienna due to the similar ecclesiastical topography of both cities. Added marginal notes clarify the route descriptions with direct reference to Vienna: Klugseder 2013 devotes a separate chapter to the Vienna-related marginalia in Cod. 4712. (See also the digital edition of the Passau Liber ordinarius, http://gams.uni-graz.at/o:cantus.passau). The Corpus Christi procession is represented in Cod. 4712 only by a brief marginal note on fol. 67v. However, the list of participants appears in the appendix (fol. 109r), edited in » E. SL Corpus Christi Procession.