The Roman Breviary of 1962: The Latin Divine Office

The Roman Breviary of 1962 — in Latin the Breviarium Romanum — is the last edition of the traditional Divine Office of the Roman rite: the book from which priests, religious, and many laymen still pray the Church's hours in Latin, as they were prayed before 1970. It is the Office that St. Pius X restored in 1911 and that the rubrics of 1960 lightened, and it is the breviary of every place where the traditional Latin liturgy is kept. We have described the breviary as a book in general in the Breviary: the book of the Divine Office; here we treat this one edition closely — what it is, how it is built, how it differs from the Liturgy of the Hours, and how to begin praying it in Latin.

What is the Roman Breviary?

The Roman Breviary is the official liturgical book of the Officium Divinum, the Divine Office, for the Latin Church of the Roman rite. Officium divinum simply means "the divine duty": the daily service of praise owed to God by the Church, distributed over eight hours of the day and night. The breviary contains everything needed to pray it — the psalter, the hymns, antiphons, chapters, responsories, lessons, and collects — arranged so that each day's Office can be assembled from a few fixed places in the book. The Office itself, hour by hour, is explained in what the Divine Office is.

Three names cover the same thing. Roman Breviary is the English title; Breviarium Romanum is the Latin title printed on the book (the spellings "brevarium romanum" and "breviary romanum" one often sees are slips for it); and the 1962 Breviary or 1962 Divine Office names the edition, the one in force when the Missal of 1962 was published.

The history of the Breviarium Romanum to 1962

From St. Pius V to St. Pius X

The unified Roman Breviary is the work of the Council of Trent. In 1568, by the bull Quod a nobis, St. Pius V promulgated the reformed Breviarium Romanum for the whole Latin Church, sparing only those rites and uses that could show two hundred years of custom. In 1632 Urban VIII revised the hymns, and those revised hymns remain in the 1962 book.

Over three centuries the multiplication of saints' feasts crowded out the weekly psalter: the feasts used a small set of festal psalms, and many psalms were rarely heard. On 1 November 1911, by the apostolic constitution Divino Afflatu, St. Pius X gave the Breviary a new distribution of the psalter, binding from 1 January 1913. Matins was reduced to nine psalms, Vespers kept five, longer psalms were divided into portions of roughly equal length, and the rubrics were changed so that the psalms of the weekday would normally be said even on many feasts.

Pius XII and the simplification of 1955

In 1945 Pius XII permitted, by the motu proprio In cotidianis precibus, the optional use of a new Latin translation of the psalms made from the Hebrew; the Vulgate psalter remained, and most traditional editions print it. Then, by the decree Cum nostra hac aetate of the Sacred Congregation of Rites (23 March 1955), effective 1 January 1956, the rubrics were simplified: semidoubles were abolished and Sundays raised to double rank; many octaves were suppressed, those of the Ascension, Corpus Christi, and the Sacred Heart among them; several vigils were removed; and First Vespers were kept only for Sundays and feasts of the first and second class.

John XXIII and the Code of Rubrics of 1960

On 25 July 1960, by the motu proprio Rubricarum instructum, John XXIII approved a new Code of Rubrics (Codex Rubricarum) for the Breviary and the Missal, promulgated by the Congregation of Rites the next day and in force from 1 January 1961. It replaced the old ranks of double and semidouble with four classes of liturgical day, reduced the number of commemorations, restricted the Athanasian Creed to Trinity Sunday, and shortened Matins on many days. The revised editio typica of the Breviary incorporating these rubrics appeared in 1961; it is this Breviary, as it stood in 1962, that later law calls "the Roman Breviary promulgated in 1962." That is why one meets both "1961 Roman Breviary" and "1962 Roman Breviary": they are the same Office.

The structure of the 1962 Breviary

The eight hours

The 1962 Office keeps the full ancient round of eight hours, each with its traditional place in the day.

Hour	Latin	Traditional time	Psalmody (Divino Afflatu psalter)
Matins	Matutinum	Night or before dawn	Nine psalms; three or nine lessons
Lauds	Laudes	Daybreak	Four psalms and an Old Testament canticle
Prime	Prima	About 6 a.m.	Three psalms or portions
Terce	Tertia	About 9 a.m.	Three psalms or portions
Sext	Sexta	Noon	Three psalms or portions
None	Nona	About 3 p.m.	Three psalms or portions
Vespers	Vesperae	Evening	Five psalms
Compline	Completorium	Before sleep	Three psalms

Matins is the long night office of psalms and readings from Scripture, the Fathers, and the lives of the saints. Lauds, the morning praise, ends with the Benedictus; Vespers, the evening sacrifice of praise, with the Magnificat; and Compline, the night prayer, with the Nunc dimittis and the antiphon of Our Lady. Prime, Terce, Sext, and None are the short "little hours" that sanctify the working day.

Every hour is opened by the same versicle from Psalm 69 (Matins first prefixes Dómine, lábia mea apéries, and Compline places it after the confession):

V. Deus, in adjutórium meum inténde.
R. Dómine, ad adjuvándum me festína.
Glória Patri, et Fílio, et Spirítui Sancto.
Sicut erat in princípio, et nunc, et semper, et in sǽcula sæculórum. Amen. Allelúja.

V. O God, come to my assistance.
R. O Lord, make haste to help me.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. Alleluia.

From Septuagesima until Easter the Allelúja is replaced by Laus tibi, Dómine, Rex ætérnæ glóriæ — "Praise be to Thee, O Lord, King of eternal glory."

Matins under the 1960 rubrics

Matins shows most clearly what 1960 changed. By the Code of Rubrics, Matins has three nocturns with nine lessons on feasts of the first and second class, the ferias of the Sacred Triduum, the octave day of Christmas, and All Souls. It has one nocturn of nine psalms with three lessons on Sundays (except Easter and Pentecost), on ferias, vigils, feasts of the third class, and the days within the octave of Christmas. Easter, Pentecost, and the days of their octaves have a single nocturn of three psalms and three lessons. The Te Deum closes Matins on feasts and on most Sundays, but not in Advent, Septuagesima, Lent, or on the ordinary ferias of the year.

The parts of the book

To pray any day's Office one moves among a few parts of the book:

• The Psalter (Psalterium) — the weekly distribution of the 150 psalms, hour by hour, with the ordinary antiphons and hymns. Lauds has two schemes: the first for most days, the second for the Sundays of Septuagesima, Lent, and Passiontide and for the ferias of Advent, Septuagesima, Lent, and Passiontide, the September Ember Days, and certain vigils.
• The Ordinary (Ordinarium) — the fixed frame of each hour.
• The Proper of the Time (Proprium de Tempore) — the seasons from Advent through the last Sunday after Pentecost.
• The Proper of the Saints (Proprium Sanctorum) — the feasts of the calendar, with their proper lessons and collects.
• The Common of the Saints (Commune Sanctorum) — shared texts for apostles, martyrs, confessors, virgins, holy women, the dedication of a church, and feasts of Our Lady.
• Appendices — the Office of the Blessed Virgin on Saturday, the Office of the Dead, and various blessings and prayers.

Because of its bulk, the Latin Breviary is traditionally printed in four volumes by season: Pars hiemalis (winter, from Advent), Pars verna (spring), Pars aestiva (summer), and Pars autumnalis (autumn). Each volume repeats the psalter and the commons.

The ranks: first to fourth class

Which Office is prayed on a given day depends on rank. Under the 1960 rubrics every liturgical day is of the first, second, third, or fourth class. Sundays are of the first or second class; the great feasts of Our Lord and Our Lady are of the first class; many saints' days are of the third class, which normally keeps the psalms of the weekday. A lesser feast that is impeded is reduced to a commemoration: its antiphon, versicle, and collect are added at Lauds and Vespers. An annual ordo, or the 1962 liturgical calendar, tells you which office falls on each day.

The Latin text and the bilingual editions

The 1962 Breviary is a Latin breviary: its official text exists only in Latin, and choir and clerical recitation is in Latin. After the Vatican's typical edition, Catholic publishers in Italy, Belgium, and Germany printed the Breviarium Romanum in the early 1960s, most often in four volumes.

For those who need help with the Latin, the Roman Breviary in Latin and English is the usual tool. The best known modern edition is the three-volume Latin-English Breviarium Romanum of Baronius Press, first issued in 2012: the 1961 Office with the traditional psalter, not the Pian version of 1945, and the English on the facing column. A translation helps, but the Latin page beside the English is what makes the Office one's own over time; Spanish speakers look for the same help as the breviario romano latín-español.

The Roman Breviary vs the Liturgy of the Hours

In 1970, by the apostolic constitution Laudis canticum, Paul VI promulgated a new Office, the Liturgia Horarum, whose typical edition appeared from 1971. The Liturgy of the Hours is a different book, not a new printing of the old one, and the differences are substantial.

	Roman Breviary 1962	Liturgy of the Hours (1971)
Psalter cycle	All 150 psalms in one week	Psalms spread over four weeks
Night office	Matins of nine psalms	Office of Readings of three psalms, at any hour
Prime	Kept	Suppressed
Terce, Sext, None	Each prayed	One "daytime prayer" required; the others optional
Psalm texts	Complete	Psalms 57, 82, and 108 and certain verses omitted
Calendar	Traditional 1962 calendar	Reformed calendar of 1969
Language	Latin text	Latin typical edition, prayed mostly in translation

We pray and serve the older book, the Office of St. Pius V and St. Pius X; the comparison is offered so that a newcomer knows which book he is holding.

The Liturgy of the Hours in Latin, or the Latin Breviary?

A search for "Liturgy of the Hours in Latin" or "Latin Liturgy of the Hours" usually means either the Liturgia Horarum itself or, quite often, the traditional Breviarium Romanum: the two are both Latin, but only the second is the Roman Office as it stood before 1970. Anyone who wants the Divine Office in Latin with the weekly psalter, Prime, and the old calendar wants the Breviarium Romanum.

Who may pray the 1962 Breviary today?

Every layman may pray it, always: no permission has ever been needed for a member of the faithful to pray the Church's Office, in any approved form, privately or in common.

For clerics, the 1917 Code of Canon Law (canon 135) obliged those in major orders to recite the entire Office daily. By the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum of Benedict XVI (7 July 2007), art. 9 §3, clerics in holy orders were permitted to satisfy that obligation with "the Roman Breviary promulgated in 1962 by Blessed John XXIII"; the instruction Universae Ecclesiae (2011), no. 32, added that it is to be prayed in full and in Latin (integre et Latino sermone).

The motu proprio Traditionis custodes (16 July 2021) abrogated the earlier norms without naming the Breviary; for the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, the decree of 11 February 2022 expressly confirmed the use of the Roman Breviary in force in 1962. The priests and seminarians of the traditional institutes pray it as their own Office by the law of their constitutions, and many communities sing parts of it in choir.

How to pray the Roman Breviary in Latin

A layman should begin with one hour; the habit will grow.

1. Start with Compline. It is short, nearly the same every night, and largely learned by heart within weeks. Then add Lauds or Prime in the morning and Vespers in the evening.
2. Learn the Ordinary. The opening versicle, the Gloria Patri, the Dominus vobiscum, the closing Fidelium animae: once these are familiar, every hour has a known shape.
3. Find the day. Check the rank of the day in an ordo or the calendar: a first- or second-class feast takes its proper psalms and antiphons; a ferial or third-class day keeps the weekday psalter.
4. Set the ribbons. One in the psalter at the day of the week, one in the Proper of the Time, one in the Proper or Common of the Saints, one at the Ordinary.
5. Pray with the Latin before you. Read the English when you need it, but say the Latin aloud or at least with moving lips. Ecclesiastical Latin is learned fastest through the psalms themselves, which return every week; a grammar written for the purpose, such as the Scanlons' Latin Grammar prepared "for the reading of the Missal and Breviary," helps those who want the language properly.
6. Do not fear mistakes. The rubrics bind the clergy; a layman who prays the wrong commemoration has still prayed the psalms with the Church.

Where to pray the 1962 Roman Breviary online

The Roman Breviary online spares the beginner the hardest part, assembling the day's Office. Each morning we publish today's Lauds from the 1962 Breviary, in Latin and English, with the day's feast already applied. Divinum Officium, a free site, renders every hour of the traditional Office for any date, Latin and English side by side, with the choice of rubrics before or after 1960. On a phone, the Divine Office app gives the hours of the 1962 Breviary with the traditional calendar, in Latin and English, offline and with a daily reminder.

Roman Breviary PDF

Searches for a "Roman Breviary PDF" or "Breviarium Romanum 1962 PDF" are common. We do not offer a PDF of the Breviary: the book runs to thousands of pages, and a file cannot tell you which pages to pray today. The day's Lauds is on our site each morning and prints as is; for every hour, every day, in Latin and English, install Join early access here. instead.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where can I buy a Roman Breviary?

The Latin-English set of Baronius Press, reprinted since its first issue, is the edition in print. Latin-only breviaries of 1961–1962, and older pre-1960 sets, turn up on the second-hand market; check the date of the edition, since a book printed before 1961 follows the earlier rubrics.

How do you use the Roman Breviary?

Look up the day's office and rank in an ordo, then take the fixed frame of the hour from the Ordinary, the psalms from the Psalter, and the antiphons, chapter, hymn, and collect from the Proper or the Common.

What is the difference between the 1961 and 1962 Roman Breviary?

There is no difference in the Office itself. The typical edition incorporating the Code of Rubrics of 1960 was issued in 1961; Church law since 2007 refers to it as the Roman Breviary "promulgated in 1962," because that is the state of the liturgical books in 1962. Editions labelled 1961 and 1962 contain the same Office.

Which psalter does the 1962 Breviary use?

The Vulgate psalter, the Latin of the Church's psalmody for centuries. Since 1945 the new Latin version made from the Hebrew under Pius XII might be used in its place, and some editions of the 1950s and 1960s print it; both satisfy the Office.

Do I have to pray the Breviary in Latin?

A layman may pray it in his own language with a good translation. The obligation to pray it in Latin concerns clerics using it to satisfy their duty under the 2007 law. A bilingual edition lets one pray in English while the Latin gradually becomes familiar.

What is the Monastic Diurnal, and how does it differ from the Roman Breviary?

The Monastic Diurnal contains the day hours, from Lauds to Compline, of the Benedictine Office, whose psalter follows the Rule of St. Benedict rather than the Roman distribution of St. Pius X. It has no Matins, which belongs to the full Monastic Breviary. The Roman Breviary is the Office of secular clergy and of most of the Latin Church.

Is there a Roman Breviary app?

Yes. The Iter Fidei app carries the hours of the 1962 Breviary with the traditional calendar, in Latin and English, and works offline.

The Iter Fidei app gives you the Roman Breviary of 1962 every day — the hours in Latin and English, the traditional calendar, a reminder, and offline use. Join early access here.

Sources. Holy Scripture (Douay-Rheims), Psalm 69; St. Pius V, bull Quod a nobis (1568); St. Pius X, apostolic constitution Divino Afflatu (1911); Pius XII, motu proprio In cotidianis precibus (1945); Sacred Congregation of Rites, decree Cum nostra hac aetate (1955); John XXIII, motu proprio Rubricarum instructum and the Code of Rubrics (1960); Paul VI, apostolic constitution Laudis canticum (1970); Benedict XVI, motu proprio Summorum Pontificum (2007); Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, instruction Universae Ecclesiae (2011); Francis, motu proprio Traditionis custodes (2021) and decree for the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (11 February 2022); 1917 Code of Canon Law, canon 135; Breviarium Romanum, editio typica 1961–1962.