''Benedicamus Domino'' (

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

: "Let us bless the Lord") is a closing salutation that was formerly used in the Latin

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 elementar ...

instead of the ''

Ite, missa est ''Ite, missa est'' are the concluding Latin words addressed to the people in the Mass of the Roman Rite, as well as the Lutheran Divine Service. Until the reforms of 1962, at Masses without the Gloria, '' Benedicamus Domino'' was said instead. ...

'' in Masses which lack the Gloria (i.e., Masses of the season during

Advent Advent is a Christian season of preparation for the Nativity of Christ at Christmas. It is the beginning of the liturgical year in Western Christianity. The name was adopted from Latin "coming; arrival", translating Greek ''parousia''. In ...

Septuagesima Septuagesima (; in full, Septuagesima Sunday) is the name for the ninth Sunday before Easter, the third before Ash Wednesday. The term is sometimes applied to the seventy days starting on Septuagesima Sunday and ending on the Saturday after Easte ...

Lent Lent ( la, Quadragesima, 'Fortieth') is a solemn religious observance in the liturgical calendar commemorating the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring temptation by Satan, according to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke ...

, and

Passiontide Passiontide (in the Christian liturgical year) is a name for the last two weeks of Lent, beginning on the Fifth Sunday of Lent, long celebrated as Passion Sunday, and continuing through Lazarus Saturday. The second week of Passiontide is Holy We ...

; ferial Masses ''per annum'' at which the Mass of the preceding Sunday was repeated, except in Eastertide; most

votive Mass In the liturgy of the Catholic Church, a votive Mass (Latin ''missa votiva'') is a Mass offered for a ''votum'', a special intention. Such a Mass does not correspond to the Divine Office for the day on which it is celebrated. Every day in the yea ...

es). The response, said afterwards, is ''Deo gratias'' ("Thanks be to God"). It is also sung as a

versicle In Christian liturgical worship, preces ( ; ), also known in the Anglican prayer book tradition as the suffrages, are short petitions that are said or sung as versicles and responses by the officiant and congregation respectively. It is one of th ...

at the end of all

Offices An office is a space where an organization's employees perform administrative work in order to support and realize objects and goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific dut ...

History and liturgical use

Apparently the chant was unknown in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

before about AD 1000, and may have originated in the Gallican liturgy. In modern chantbooks, the music given for the chant is exactly the same as for the ''

Ite missa est ''Ite, missa est'' are the concluding Latin words addressed to the people in the Mass of the Roman Rite, as well as the Lutheran Divine Service. Until the reforms of 1962, at Masses without the Gloria, '' Benedicamus Domino'' was said instead. ...

'', but it is not known how much that was true in the medieval period as well.Hoppin, Richard. ''Medieval Music''. New York: Norton, 1977. Page 142. The text was frequently troped, especially by adding text between the two words, or using the melody as the ''

cantus firmus In music, a ''cantus firmus'' ("fixed melody") is a pre-existing melody forming the basis of a polyphonic composition. The plural of this Latin term is , although the corrupt form ''canti firmi'' (resulting from the grammatically incorrect tr ...

'' for an ''

organum ''Organum'' () is, in general, a plainchant melody with at least one added voice to enhance the harmony, developed in the Middle Ages. Depending on the mode and form of the chant, a supporting bass line (or '' bourdon'') may be sung on the same ...

''. The use of this chant as a tenor was common in the St. Martial and

Notre Dame school The Notre-Dame school or the Notre-Dame school of polyphony refers to the group of composers working at or near the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris from about 1160 to 1250, along with the music they produced. The only composers whose names hav ...

s of polyphony, including a dozen settings in the ''

Magnus Liber Organi The ''Magnus Liber'' or ''Magnus liber organi'' (English translation: ''Great Book of Organum''), written in Latin, was a repertory of medieval music known as organum. This collection of organum survives today in three major manuscripts. This re ...

''. During the liturgical reforms of Pope

Pius XII Pius ( , ) Latin for "pious", is a masculine given name. Its feminine form is Pia. It may refer to: People Popes * Pope Pius (disambiguation) * Antipope Pius XIII (1918-2009), who led the breakaway True Catholic Church sect Given name * Pius B ...

(1938–1958) and

Pope John XXIII Pope John XXIII ( la, Ioannes XXIII; it, Giovanni XXIII; born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, ; 25 November 18813 June 1963) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 28 October 1958 until his death in June 19 ...

(1958–1963) the use of the ''Benedicamus Domino'' was much restricted. By 1963, it was only recited or chanted when an

exposition Exposition (also the French for exhibition) may refer to: *Universal exposition or World's Fair * Expository writing ** Exposition (narrative) * Exposition (music) *Trade fair A trade fair, also known as trade show, trade exhibition, or trade e ...

immediately follows the Mass (''Eucharisticum Mysterium'', 120). It is rarely heard in Anglo-Saxon countries, processions being rarities there. It is still however, used in the Divine Office.

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

s continue to use it in the Divine Office and at the end of their Divine Service. Some orders of

traditionalist Catholics Traditionalist Catholicism is the set of beliefs, practices, customs, traditions, liturgical forms, devotions, and presentations of Catholic teaching that existed in the Catholic Church before the liberal reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1 ...

continue to use the pre-1955 liturgical books without the permission of the Holy See, such as the

Society of Saint Pius V The Society of Saint Pius V (SSPV; lat, Societas Sacerdotalis Sancti Pii Quinti), is a Traditionalist Catholicism, traditionalist Catholic society of priests, formed in 1983, and based in Oyster Bay Cove, New York, Oyster Bay Cove, New York (stat ...

(SSPV), the Institute of the Mother of Good Counsel (IMBC), and Bp. Donald J. Sanborn's Roman Catholic Institute (RCI), and thus use the ''Benedicamus Domino'' in the traditional manner.

Notes

{{italic title

Bibliography

Mario Giuseppe Genesi, "Un Benedicamus Domino congetturalmente bivocale dei secc. XII-XIII nei Codici Bobbiesi: considerazioni a latere e comparazioni repertoriali";sta in "Archivum Bobiense",Rivista degli Archivi Storici della Città di Bobbio, 2007/2008, pp. 201–394. Order of Mass Latin religious words and phrases