The Ambrosian Rite is a Latin Catholic liturgical Western Rite used in the area of Milan. The Traditional Ambrosian Rite is the form of this rite as it was used before the changes that followed the Second Vatican Council.
Nowadays the Traditional Ambrosian Rite is mainly used on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation in the church of Santa Maria della Consolazione in Milan, using the Ambrosian Missal of 1954, as permitted by Cardinal Archbishop of Milan Carlo Maria Martini on 31 July 1985. Another celebration on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation was authorized from 18 October 2008 onward in the town of Legnano.Newspaper Il Giornale: Blog di Antonio Tornielli, 17 October 2008 The Traditional Ambrosian Rite Mass may be said according to the Motu Proprio "Summorum Pontificum".Newspaper Il Giornale: Blog di Antonio Tornielli, 31 maggio 2009
The liturgical year Advent and Christmas The liturgical year of the Ambrosian Rite begins the First Sunday of Advent, which however takes place 2 weeks earlier than in the Roman Rite, so that there are six Sundays in Advent, and the key-day of the beginning of Advent is not St. Andrew's Day (30 November) but St. Martin's Day (11 November), which begins the Sanctorale. The same is true for the Mozarabic Rite.
On the sixth Sunday of Advent the solemnity of the Divine Maternity of the Virgin Mary is celebrated. On this Sunday there are two Masses, one of the Advent and another one of the Incarnation. This day may be compared with the Mozarabic feast of the Annunciation on 18 December.
Christmas Day has three Masses, during the night, at dawn, and during the day, as in the Roman Rite. On the second vespers of Epiphany, right after the Lucernarium (or Rite of the Light) a typical ambrosian antiphon called Omnes Patriarchae is sung four times. In the Cathedral, the Archbishop together with the whole chapter solemnly pay hommage to the statue of Christ child. The day after the Epiphany is the "Christophoria" (the Return from Egypt). The Sundays after the Epiphany vary in number, six being the maximum, as in the Roman Rite. The second is the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus. Then follow Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima Sundays, on which, though Gloria in Excelsis and Hallelujah are used, the vestments are morello.
Lent and Easter There is no Ash Wednesday, and Lent begins liturgically on the first Sunday, the fast beginning on the Monday. Before the reforms issued by St. Charles Borromeo, Lent started on the first Sunday called Dominica in capite Quadragesimae with a particular solemn characterization: it was celebrated in white with Gloria in excelsis Deo and the office of the day was charaacteried by Hallelujah. During the second vespers, a solemn antiphon was sung to dismiss the Hallelujah ("Quadraginta dies et noctes aperti sunt caeli, et omnes animae habentes spiritum vitae ingressae sunt in arca, et clausa est, hallelujah" - For forty days and nights the heavens were open and all souls having the spirit of life entered into the ark, and it closed, alleluja). Litanies substituting the Gloria in excelsis were prescribed in antiphonaries to be sung only from the second to the fifth Sunday of Lent according to two distinct formulas called "Divinae pacis" for odd Sundays and "Dicamus omnes" for even Sundays. After the Borromaic reforms, this liturgy started to be celebrated in violet and with the chant of litanies also on the first Sundays replacing Gloria in Excelsis and the disuse of Hallelujah.
The title of the Sunday litany is Dominica in capite Quadragesimæ. The other Sundays of Lent are styled De Samaritanâ, De Abraham, De Cæco, De Lazaro. The Palm Sunday in Ramis Palmarum or Dominica Olivarum belongs to the Holy Week. The names of the second to the fifth Sundays are in allusion to the subject of the Gospel of the day, not, as in the Roman Rite, to the Introitus. (Cf. nomenclature of Greek Rite.)
Passiontide does not begin until Holy Week. The day before Palm Sunday is styled Sabbatum in Traditione Symboli. This, the Blessing of the Font, the extra Masses pro Baptizatis in Ecclesiâ Hyemali on Easter Eve and every day of Easter Week, and the name of the first Sunday after Easter in albis depositis, show even more of a lingering memory of the old Easter Baptisms than the similar survivals in the Roman Rite. Holy Week is Hebdomada Authentica, whose liturgy is celebrated in red vestments starting from the Palm Sunday. So are Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.
The five Sundays after Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, and Corpus Christi follow, as in the Roman Rite, but the Triduum Litaniarum (Minor Rogations) comes on the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday after, instead of before, Ascension Day.
Ordinary Time The Sundays after Pentecost are designated as such (e.g. 3rd Sunday after Pentecost) until the Decollation of St. John (29 August). There may be as many as fifteen of them. Then follow either four or five Sundays called post Decollationem S. Joannis Baptistæ, then three Sundays of October, the third of which is the feast of the Dedication of Milan Cathedral. The rest of the Sundays until Advent are called post Dedicationem.
Calendar of the Saints There are many local saints, and several feasts which are given in the Roman Calendar in late February, March, and early April are given on other days, because of the rule against feasts in Lent. Only St. Joseph and the Annunciation come in the Lenten part of the Calendar, but the Masses of these are given on 12 December and the sixth Sunday of Advent respectively. The days are classified as follows:
Solemnitates Domini First Class: the Annunciation, Christmas Day, Epiphany, Easter Day with its Monday and Tuesday, Ascension Day, Pentecost, with its Monday and Tuesday, Corpus Domini, the Dedication of the Cathedral or of the local church, Solemnitas Domini titularis propriæ Ecclesiæ. First class, secondary: the Feast of the Sacred Heart. Second class: the Visitation, Circumcision, Purification, Transfiguration, Invention of the Cross, Trinity Sunday. Second class, secondary: the Name of Jesus, the Holy Family, the Exaltation of the Cross. The Octaves of Christmas, Epiphany, Easter Day, Pentecost and Corpus Domini also count as Solemnitates Domini. Sundays Solemnia B. M. V. et Sanctorum First class: the Immaculate Conception, Assumption, Nativity of St. John the Baptist, St. Joseph, Saints Peter and Paul, All Saints, the Ordination of St. Ambrose, and the Patron of the local church. Second class: other feasts of Our Lady, St. Michael and the Archangels, and the Guardian Angels, Decollation of St. John, Feasts of Apostles and Evangelists, St. Anne, St. Charles Borromeo, the Holy Innocents, St. Joachim, St. Laurence, St. Martin, Saints Nazarius and Celsus, Saints Protasius and Gervasius, St. Stephen, St. Thomas of Canterbury. Second class, secondary: the two Chairs of St. Peter, the Conversion of St. Paul. Solemnia Majora: St. Agatha, St. Agnes, St. Anthony, St. Apollinaris, St. Benedict, St. Dominic, the Translations of Saints Ambrose, Protasius, and Gervasius, St. Francis, St. Mary Magdalene, Sts. Nabor and Felix, St. Sebastian, St. Victor, St. Vincent. Alia Solemnia are days noted as such in the Calendar, and the days of saints whose bodies or important relics are preserved in any particular church become Solemnia for that church. Non-Solemnia Privilegiata Non-Solemnia Simplicia
Feasts Feasts are also grouped into four classes:
First class of Solemnitates Domini and Solemnia; second class of the same; greater and ordinary Solemnia; non-Solemnia, divided into privilegiata and simplicia.
Solemnia have two vespers, non-Solemnia only one, the first. The privilegiata have certain propria and the simplicia only the communia. The general principle of occurrences is that common to the whole Western Church. If two festivals fall on the same day, the lesser is either transferred, merely commemorated, or omitted.
But the Ambrosian Rite differs materially from the Roman in the rank given to Sunday, which is only superseded by a Solemnitas Domini, and not always then, for if the Name of Jesus or the Purification falls on Septuagesima, Sexagesima, or Quinquagesima Sunday, it is transferred, though the distribution and procession of candles takes place on the Sunday on which the Purification actually falls. If a Solemne Sanctorum or a privileged non-Solemne falls on a Sunday, a Solemnitas Domini, the Friday or Saturday of the fourth or fifth week of Advent, a Feria de Exceptato, within an Octave of a great Feast, a Feria Litaniarum, or a Feria of Lent, the whole office is of the Sunday, Solemnitas Domini, etc., and the Solemne or non-Solemne privilegiatum is transferred, in most cases to the next clear day, but in the case of Solemnia of the first or second class to the next Feria, quocumque festo etiam solemni impedita. A simple non-Solemne is never transferred, but it is omitted altogether if a Solemne of the first class falls on the same day, and in other cases of occurrences it is commemorated, though of course it supersedes an ordinary Feria.
The concurrences of the first Vespers of one feast with the second of another are arranged on much the same principle, the chief peculiarity being that if a Solemne Sanctorum falls on a Monday its first Vespers is kept not on the Sunday, but on the preceding Saturday, except in Advent, when this rule applies only to Solemnia of the first and second class, and other Solemnia are only commemorated at Sunday Vespers.
Vestments The liturgical colours of the Ambrosian Rite are very similar to those of the Roman, but with some differences. For example, ambrosian deacon use to wear the stole over the dalmatic. Colours used in the Ambrosian Rite are five: white, red, green, morello (a nuance of violet more similar to prune) and black. The most important differences in its use are:
white is used for Solemnitates Domini and for all feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary (and on the VI Sunday of Advent, Divine Maternity of the Virgin), of Angels, for All Saints, in the Birth of Saint John the Baptist, for the Feast of Saint John the Evangelist for the Feasts of the two Chairs of Saint Peter (Rome and Antioch), for the Conversion of Saint Paul, for the Elevation of the relics of Saints Ambrose, Gervasius and Protasius, for all feasts of saint popes, or Priests, or Confessors who never were abbots, for all Virgins non martyr, for the dedication of a church and in its anniversary. White is used also for the whole week in albis. Afterwards, starting from the first Sunday after Easter called in albis depositis, white vestments are set down literally and green vestments are used. red is the colour of the blood and charity and is used for the Blessed Sacrament, in the Feast of the Circumcision of the Lord, for the Saturday in Traditione Symboli, for the Holy Week, for the Feasts of the Pentecost, Corpus Domini, Sacred Heart of the Lord, for the feasts of the Holy Cross, for all the Apostles and Martyrs (except for what stated before). It is the colour used for Sundays and feriae after Pentecost and the Decollation of St. John until the second Sunday of October included. green is the colour of hope and its use is prescribed for Sundays and feriae after the Epiphany and before Septuagesima, for Sundays after Easter starting from the Sunday in albis depositis (literally) to the Vigil of Pentecost excluded (red is used for this mass) and from the Dedication of Milan Cathedral to the first Sunday of Advent (both excluded). It is used also for abbots. morello - a nuance of violet more similar to prune or brown (literally blackberry colour) - is used for Sundays and feriae of Advent, Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima and Lent Sundays, in the Vigils of Saints and for the feasts of Matrons. black is used in feriae of Lent, for Requiem Mass and during the Minor Rogation days (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before Pentecost).