The liturgical reforms of Pope Pius XII took place mostly between 1947 and 1958. Background The celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ has been celebrated since the 2nd and 3rd century as Vigil, that is, night watch, celebrated on the night of Easter Sunday, from which the name Easter Night or Easter Vigil derived. In two successive phases, a nocturnal mourning phase and a morning joy phase with Easter Eucharistic celebration, the saving action of God is remembered for man. In the following centuries came a baptism service from the 4th century and a light celebration from the 6th and 7th century.
Since the 4th century, the Easter celebration unfolded into a Triduum with a focus on the memory of the suffering and death of Jesus (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday) and a second as a memory of the resurrection (Easter Sunday to Easter Tuesday). Since late antiquity, the individual days and their liturgical celebrations have become independent.
The liturgy of the Easter Vigil as a Night Watch lasted several hours. Over time, the number of adult baptisms continued to decline, and the duration of the vigil shortened from the 6th century; finally, the celebration of Easter Vigil ended before midnight. The donation of baptism was omitted, the consecration of baptismal water remained. From the 8th century, the celebration began under Gallic influence earlier in the evening, in the afternoon and finally already in the morning of Holy Saturday. The requirement that the vigil could only begin after None was met by also moving None forward. The Matins for Holy Saturday already began on the evening of Good Friday. This initially occurred with the Church's tacit approval, until Pope Pius V made it a requirement and prohibited evening Masses on Easter Vigil. In the Roman Missal of 1570, the Easter Vigil was defined as follows: Blessing of the Fire – Service of Light – Liturgy of the Word (Old Testament) – Blessing of the Baptismal Waters – Liturgy of the Word (New Testament) – Eucharist – Vespers. Since 1570, the time for the only Holy Mass on Holy Thursday has also been in the morning.
Groundwork
On 20 November 1947, Pius XII issued the encyclical Mediator Dei. It included the statement: "the use of the mother tongue in connection with several of the rites may be of much advantage to the people", while reaffirming the normativity of Latin.
Eucharistic fast Pius XII changed the requirements for fasting before receiving communion in two stages. In 1953, by the apostolic constitution Christus Dominus, he continued to require not ingesting from midnight before receiving communion, but ruled that water did not break the fast. He also relaxed the fasting requirement for the sick and travelers, those engaged in exhausting physical labor, and priests who celebrate several Masses on the same day. In 1957, with Sacram Communionem, he replaced the fast from midnight with a three-hour fast from solid food and alcohol and a one-hour fast from other liquids. Ordinary communicants would calculate the time until the moment they took communion; priests fasted based on the time they began saying Mass. The new fasting rules opened the way to scheduling evening Masses, which the fast from midnight regime made all but impossible for those desiring to receive communion.
Use of the vernacular Permission for the use of the vernacular for parts of the Mass had been granted on occasion long before the papacy of Pius XII; including in 1906 by Pius X (parts of Yugoslavia), Benedict XV in 1920 (Croatian, Slovenian, and Czech), Pius XI in 1929 (Bavaria).
Under Pius XII, the Sacred Congregation of Rites granted permission for the use of local languages in countries with expanding Catholic mission activities, including in Indonesia and Japan in 1941–2. In 1949 permission was granted for using Mandarin Chinese in Mass except for the Canon, and for the use of Hindi in India in 1950. Permission was also granted to use a French (1948) and German (1951) translation for rituals other than Mass.
As a means of increasing the participation of the congregation in the celebration of Mass, recognizing that joining in chant is not possible at a Mass that is "read" rather than sung, in 1958 Pius approved the use of hymns in the vernacular at appropriate points in the service. The document was De musica sacra et sacra liturgia (Sacred Music and Liturgy). As a means to closer awareness by the congregation he also allowed the epistle and gospel to be read aloud by a layman while the celebrant read them quietly in Latin.
Though insisting on the primacy of Latin in the liturgy of the Western Church (cf. Mediator Dei, par. 60), Pius XII approves the use of the vernacular in the Ritual for sacraments and other rites outside the Mass. All such permissions, however, were to be granted by the Holy See, and Pius XII strongly condemned the efforts of individual priests and communities to introduce the vernacular on their own authority. He allowed the use of the vernacular in other rites and sacraments outside the Mass, in the service for Baptism and Extreme Unction.
Liturgical propers and other directives Following in the footsteps of his predecessors, Pius XII instituted a number of new feasts and approved new propers. After defining the Dogma of the Assumption in 1950, a new mass formula (the mass Signum magnum) was introduced for the feast, which falls on August 15.AAS 1950, 795 Pius XII also instituted the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which he established as a double of the second class and fixed to August 22, the octave day of the Assumption.AAS 1944, 44 Other new feasts included the feast of the Queenship of Mary (May 31) and the feast of Saint Joseph the Worker (to coincide with the socialist holiday of May 1), which thus replaced the Feast of Saint Joseph Patron of the Universal Church, observed until then (from 1870) as a movable feast on the third Wednesday after Easter.
The Sacred Congregation of Rites had jurisdiction over the Rites and ceremonies of the Latin Church such as Holy Mass, sacred functions and divine worship. It issued the location of the blessed sacrament within the Church, to be always at the main altar in the centre of the Church.AAS 1957, 425 The Church should display religious objects, but not be overloaded with secondary items or even Kitsch. Modern sacred art should be reverential and still reflect the spirit of our time.AAS 1952, 542–546 Since 1946, priests may officiate confirmations in certain instances.AAS 1946, 349–354
Easter Vigil In 1951 on an experimental basis (ad experimentum),Sacred Congregation of Rites, Dominicae Resurrectionis: De Solemni Vigilia Paschali Instauranda (in Latin), published in Acta Apostolicae Sedis, Vol. XXXXIII (1951), n. 3, pp. 128–137, 9 February 1951, accessed on 4 July 2025 and then permanently in 1956,"Maxima Redemptionis", November 16, 1955 Pope Pius XII introduced the Easter Vigil, a celebration of Easter night based on restoration of ancient forms.AAS 1956, 153 He moved the time of the celebration to after sunset and restructured the service.Bradshaw, 162–163 The Paschal candle is the center of the service of new fire, rather than a three-branched candle of medieval origin which had existed only for use in this service; members of the congregation light their own candles as well, a participatory innovation. The water is blessed in front of the congregation, not at the baptismal font. Among many detailed changes, only four of the traditional Old Testament readings were kept. Then followed only the first part of the Litany of the Saints and possible baptisms. A major innovation occurred with the incorporation of renewal of baptismal promises by the entire congregation, "a milestone" that introduced modern languages into the general Roman liturgy for the first time.
His re-introduction of the Easter Vigil was generally popular, although it faced a cool reception from some prelates. Cardinal Spellman of New York considered asking for a dispensation from performing the new Easter Vigil rite, but relented. Spellman's cathedral scheduled the Easter Vigil for 6 pm with Mass to follow at 7 pm. Another assessment saw initial enthusiasm that lasted only a few years and concluded that only novelty had attracted attention in the first years. Other Christian denominations adopted the popular Roman Catholic Easter ceremonies in later years, an ecumenical influence of Pius XII.Bertoniere, 45
Reform of the Holy Week
By far, the most signifcant of the liturgical reforms carried out under the pontificate of Pius XII was the reforms to the Holy Week ceremonies, between 1951 and 1956. During the 19th century, the resurrection celebration on the morning of Holy Saturday had been increasingly perceived as inappropriate. On the one hand, the early time of the celebration led to the fact that the resurrection celebration was in the middle of the day of the actual burial of Christ, on the other hand, despite the Easter jubilation, the Holy Mass continued fasting, because the Easter fasting ended only at noon. In addition, the faithful could not usually participate in the morning services of the Sacred Triduum, because those days were no longer celebrated as holidays, as in the Middle Ages, but had become normal working days since the beginning of modern times. As a result, Pope Urban VIII crossed the Triduum Sacrum off the list of public holidays. The most important celebrations in the church year now often took place as pure cleric services
Already in the 1930s, there were therefore attempts at the community level to relade the resurrection celebration back to Easter Vigil. Important impulses came from the liturgical scientific research, especially from the Maria Laach Benedictine Odo Casel. In the 1940s, the concern was presented to Pope Pius XII who commissioned the Congregation for the Rites in 1946 to revise the Ordo Hebdomadae Sanctae, the liturgical order for the Holy Week. On February 9, 1951, a decree was issued to restore the Easter Vigil, Dominicae resurrectionis vigiliam. The regulations initially applied "ad experimentum" for one year, in 1952 they were extended for a further three years. On November 16, 1955, the Rite Congregation issued the General Decree Maxima redemptionis nostrae mysteria, which reformed the entire liturgy of the Holy Week. It took effect on Palm Sunday 1956.
Liturgical colors Before 1956Between 1956 and 1969 After 1969Palm SundayVioletMissale Romanum XXVIII. (1920) S. 171 ff. (PDF S. 275); Missale Romanum XXIX. (1953) S. 152. Blessing of palms and procession; red, Celebration of the Mass; violetJohannes Wagner: Die Feier der Karwoche. Ein praktischer Kommentar. In: Johannes Wagner, Balthasar Fischer (Hrsg.): Die Feier der Heiligen Woche. Ein Werkbuch. Paulinus-Verlag, Trier 1957, S. 63–88, hier S. 74. Red Maundy ThursdayWhite White (Violet stole during the stripping of the altar) WhiteGood Friday Black (white humeral veil for the procession of the Blessed Sacrament Albe and black stole, to the intercessions black pluviale, white shoulder vellum for the procession with the Blessed Sacrament, violet for the communion servicehttp://www.ccwatershed.org/media/pdfs/15/03/26/15-50-27_0.pdf The Rites of Holy Week, Fr. McManus, 1956 Saint Anthony Guild Press, Paterson, New Jersey, S. 57; PDF S. 67. RedEaster VigilViolet; deacon wears white during "Lumen Christi" and chanting of the Exsultet, white for the celebration of the Mass Violet, deacon wears white during "Lumen Christi" and chanting of the Exsultet, white, after the blessing of the baptismal water and for the celebration of the Mass White
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