06 March 2015

Has the Mass really only been celebrated in the vernacular for 50 years?

The Holy Father Pope Francis will offer the Holy Mass tomorrow in the Roman church of Ognissanti (All the Saints) to mark the 50th anniversary of a similar Mass celebrated there by one of his blessed predecessors. As Vatican Radio explains:
It was the morning of the 7th of March 1965, the first Sunday in Lent of that year when in this very same Church Blessed Paul VI celebrated Holy Mass for the first time in the vernacular rather than in Latin, as was the custom at the time.
That last claim is simply not correct.

Before the Holy Mass was offered in the Latin language, it was celebrated in the Greek language, which was the vernacular language at the time. What is more, when the Mass began to be celebrated in Greek and not Latin, the language was changed because, at the time, Latin was the vernacular language. Even today, there remains a clear reminder of the fact that Greek was the original language of the Mass with the Kyrie, which is still chanted in Greek today even if the rest of the Mass is celebrated in Latin and frequently in vernacular languages, as well.


  1. Dear Father, I have a question related to this the answer to which has evaded me for many years and I am hopeful you might be able to provide assistance. When, as you say, the Mass transitioned from Greek to Latin, *why* did the Kyrie remain in Greek? I have found reference to a Papal statement inserting the Kyrie into the Mass as a standard but why it remained in Greek when the rest of the Mass was in Latin is something I've never been able to track down. So far the only answer I've been able to find has been "well, it just did" which, while possibly accurate, isn't exactly satisfying my curiosity. Would you have any ideas?

    1. I don't know that I can point you to any direct source, but I've always been told the Kyrie remained in Greek to keep a historical/linguistic connection with the earliest celebration of the Mass.