The Rite of Braga (or Bragan Rite) is a Catholic

liturgical rite Christian liturgy is a pattern for worship used (whether recommended or prescribed) by a Christian congregation or denomination on a regular basis. The term liturgy comes from Greek and means "public work". The majority of Christian denominatio ...

associated with the Archdiocese of Braga in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

History

The Rite of Braga belonged to the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

family of liturgical rites and took shape within the Archdiocese of Braga between the 11th and 13th centuries. The Missal of Mateus, which dates to the second quarter of the twelfth century, is the oldest known source for this Rite. It was more than 200 years old at the time of

Pope Pius V Pope Pius V ( it, Pio V; 17 January 1504 – 1 May 1572), born Antonio Ghislieri (from 1518 called Michele Ghislieri, O.P.), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 8 January 1566 to his death in May 1572. He is v ...

's papal bulls ''Quod a nobis'' of 9 July 1568 and ''

Quo primum ''Quo primum'' (''from the first'') is the incipit of an Apostolic constitution in the form of a papal bull issued by Pope Pius V on 14 July 1570. It promulgated the Roman Missal, and made its use obligatory throughout the Latin Church of the ...

'' of 14 July 1570. The rite was unaffected by the imposition of the Roman Rite throughout the

Latin Church , native_name_lang = la , image = San Giovanni in Laterano - Rome.jpg , imagewidth = 250px , alt = Façade of the Archbasilica of St. John in Lateran , caption = Archbasilica of Saint Joh ...

. This was due to the exception made for regions where another rite had been in use for at least two centuries. However, the Roman Rite was increasingly adopted within the archdiocese and non-traditional elements were admitted into celebrations of the archdiocese's rite. In the 20th century an attempt was made by Archbishop

Manuel Vieira de Matos Manuel Vieira de Matos (22 March 1861 – 28 September 1932) was Bishop of Guarda, Archbishop of Braga, and the founder of the Corpo Nacional de Escutas - Escutismo Católico Português. He was born in Poiares, Peso da Régua. On 1 April 1 ...

, with the approval of Pope Pius XI, to expunge these accretions, to revise the texts and to make the rite obligatory within the archdiocese. The Rite of Braga is rarely used after the

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the , or , was the 21st ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions), each lasting between 8 and ...

Rite

A peculiarity of the Rite of Braga was the recitation of the

Ave Maria The Hail Mary ( la, Ave Maria) is a traditional Christian prayer addressing Mary, the mother of Jesus. The prayer is based on two biblical passages featured in the Gospel of Luke: the Angel Gabriel's visit to Mary (the Annunciation) and Mary's ...

at the start of

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different eleme ...

and of the Sub tuum praesidium at the end. In a talk on 24 October 1998, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger cited the Rite of Braga as one of the liturgical rites whose variety within the Latin Church demonstrated that unity does not require liturgical uniformity.Address on 24 October 1998 for the tenth anniversary of the motu proprio ''Ecclesia Dei''
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References

{{Catholic Church Latin liturgical rites Roman Catholic Ecclesiastical Province of Braga