The monastic office for Louis IX of France : Lauda Celestis Regio

Abstract

This article introduces an unknown version of the monastic office for Saint Louis of France († 1270, canonized 1297). The monastic office, Lauda Celestis, published in the Analecta Hymnica (1892) on the basis of manuscripts associated with the Benedictine abbeys of Saint-Denis and Saint-Germain-des-Prés (v. 13, no. 72, pp. 188-191), is in fact the third version of that office, a double reworking of an office originally composed by the Cistercians. The Cistercian office, composed after Louis’ canonization, was first adapted to secular use by a reduction from (the monastic) twelve antiphons, responses, and lections to (the secular) nine. This modified secular version of the office was then re-expanded for use at Saint-Denis and then at Saint- Germain by incorporating texts from the secular/royal office, Ludovicus Decus Regnantium. This article introduces the evidence for the composition, transmission, and dissemination of these traditions, and discusses briefly some of the themes of the different traditions. The Cistercian version of the office used biblical evocation and royal typology in such a way as to spiritualize and asceticize the image of Louis’ sanctity. As revised in Paris, the office incorporated chant texts that emphasized Louis’ royalty. The material presented in this article thus introduces new evidence for the Cistercians’ role in Louis’ cult and demonstrates how liturgical offices participated in the construction and contestation of the interpretation of Louis’ sanctity. None of these breviaries is notated, and so we can talk only of the chant texts, and not the music these were designed to accompany. The three versions of the office are given in an appendix at the end.