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Bible Encyclopedias
Magnificat
The Catholic Encyclopedia
or The title commonly given to the Latin text and vernacular translation of the Canticle (or Song) of Mary. It is the opening word of the Vulgate text (Luke 1:46-55): "Magnificat anima mea, Dominum", etc. (My soul doth magnify the Lord, etc.). In ancient antiphonaries it was often styled Evangelium Mariæ, the "Gospel of Mary". In the Roman Breviary it is entitled (Vespers for Sunday) Canticum B.M.V. (Canticle of the Blessed Virgin Mary). The "Magnificat", "Benedictus" (Canticle of Zachary — Luke 1:68-79), and "Nunc Dimittis" (Canticle of Simeon — Luke 2:29-32) are also styled "evangelical canticles", as they are found in the Gospel (Evangelium) of St. Luke.
Commentators divide it into three or four stanzas, of which easily accessible illustrations may be found in McEvilly, "Exposition of the Gospel of St. Luke" (triple-division: verses 46-49, 50-53, 54-55); in Maas, "Life of Jesus Christ" (also triple, but slightly different: vv. 46-50, 51-43, 54-55); and in Schaff and Riddle, "Popular Commentary on the New Testament" (division into four stanzas: vv. 46-48, 49-50, 51-52, 53-55). The Magnificat is in many places very similar in thought and phrase to the Canticle of Anna (1 Samuel 2:1-10), and to various psalms (xxxiii, 3-5; xxxiv, 9; cxxxvii, 6; lxx, 19; cxxv, 2-3; cx, 9; xcvii, 1; cxvii, 16; xxxii, 10; cxii, 7; xxxii, 11; xcvii, 3; cxxxi, 11). Similarities are found with Hab., iii, 18; Mal., iii, 12; Job 5:11; Isaiah 12:8 and 49:3; Genesis 17:19. Steeped thus in Scriptural thought and phraseology, summing up in its inspired ecstasy the economy of God with His Chosen People, indicating the fulfillment of the olden prophecy and prophesying anew until the end of time, the Magnificat is the crown of the Old Testament singing, the last canticle of the Old and the first of the New Testament. It was uttered (or, not improbably, chanted) by the Blessed Virgin, when she visited her cousin Elizabeth under the circumstances narrated by St. Luke in the first chapter of his Gospel. It is an ecstasy of praise for the inestimable favour bestowed by God on the Virgin, for the mercies shown to Israel, and for the fulfillment of the promises made to Abraham and to the patriarchs. Only four points of exegesis will be noted here. Some commentators distinguish the meaning of "soul" (or "intellect") and "spirit" (or "will") in the first two verses; but, in view of Hebrew usage, probably both words mean the same thing, "the soul with all its faculties". In v. 48, "humility" probably means the "low estate", or "lowliness", rather than the virtue of humility. The second half of v. 48 utters a prophecy which has been fulfilled ever since, and which adds to the overwhelming reasons for rejecting the Elizabethan authorship of the canticle. Finally the first half of v. 55 (As he spoke to our fathers) is probably parenthetical.
The past decade has witnessed a discussion of the authorship of the Magnificat, based on the fact that three ancient codices (Vercellensis, Veronensis, Rhedigerianus) have: "Et ait Elisabeth: Magnificat anima mea", etc. (And Elizabeth said: My soul doth magnify, etc.); and also on some very slight patristic use of the variant reading. Harnack in "Berliner Sitzungsberichte" (17 May, 1900), 538-56, announced his view of the Elizabethan authorship, contending that the original reading is neither "Mary" nor "Elizabeth", but merely "she" (said). About two years previously, Durand had criticized, in the "Revue Biblique", the argument of Jacobé for a probable ascription to Elizabeth. Dom Morin had called attention ("Revue Biblique", 1897) to the words of Nicetas (Niceta) of Remesiana, in a Vatican manuscript of his "De psalmodiæ bono": "Cum Helisabeth Dominum anima nostra magnificat" (With Elizabeth our soul doth magnify the Lord). The works of Nicetas have been edited recently by Burn, and give (De psalmodiæ bono, ix, xi) evidence of Nicetas's view (see note 4, p. 79, ibid.). In the introduction to Burn's volume, Burkit rejects the reading "Et ait Elisabeth" as wholly untenable in view of the contradictory testimony of Tertullian and of all the Greek and Syriac texts, but contends for the original reading "she" (said) and for the Elizabethan authorship. He is answered by the Anglican Bishop of Salisbury, who supports the probability of an original reading "she", but rejects the ascription to Elizabeth (pp. clv-clviii). The witness of the codices and of the Fathers is practically unanimous for the Vulgate reading: "Et ait Maria"; but, apart from this, the attribution of the Magnificat to Elizabeth would, in St. Luke's context, be highly abnormal. Long before the recent discussion, Westcott and Hort, in the appendix (52) to their "Introduction to the New Testament in the Original Greek" (New York, 1882), had briefly discussed and rejected the reading "Elisabeth"; and this rejection is summarily confirmed in their revised text of the "N. T. in the Original Greek" (London, 1895), 523.
While the canticles taken by the Roman Breviary from the Old Testament are located with the psalms, and are so distributed as to be sung only once a week, the Magnificat shares with the other two "evangelical canticles" the honour of a daily recitation and of a singularly prominent location immediately before the Oratio, or Prayer of the daily Office (or, if there be preces, immediately before these). The "Magnificat" is assigned to Vespers, the "Benedictus" to Lauds, and the "Nunc Dimittis" to Compline. Six reasons are given by Durandus for the assignment of the Magnificat to Vespers, the first being that the world was saved in its eventide by the assent of Mary to the Divine plan of Redemption. Another reason is found by Colvenarius in the probability that it was towards evening when Our Lady arrived at the house of St. Elizabeth. However this may be, in the Rule (written before 502) of St. Cæsarius of Arles, the earliest extant account of its liturgical use, it is assigned to Lauds, as it is in the Greek Churches of to-day. The ceremonies attending its singing in the choir at solemn Vespers are notably impressive. At the intonation "Magnificat", all who are in the sanctuary arise, and the celebrant (having first removed his biretta "in honour of the canticles") goes with his assistants to the altar, where, with the customary reverences, etc., he blesses the incense and incenses the altar as at the beginning of solemn Mass. In order to permit the elaborate ceremony of incensing, the Magnificat is sung much more slowly than the psalms. A similar ceremony attends the singing of the Benedictus at solemn Lauds, but not of the Nunc Dimittis at Compline.
At the first word of the Magnificat and of the Benedictus (but not of the Nunc Dimittis, save where custom has made it lawful) the Sign of the Cross is made. In some churches the Magnificat is sung at devotions outside of Vespers. Answering a question from Canada, the "Ecclesiastical Review" (XXIII, 74) declares that the rubrics allow such a separation, but forbids the incensing of the altar in such a case. The same review (XXIII, 173) remarks that "the practice of making the Sign of the Cross at the opening of the Magnificat, the Benedictus, and the Nunc Dimittis in the Office is of very ancient usage, and is sanctioned by the very best authority", and refers to the Congregation of Sacred Rites, 20 December, 1861.
Like the canticles and psalms, the Magnificat is preceeded and followed by an antiphon varying for the feast or ferial Office, and is sung to the eight modes of plain song. The first verse has, however, no mediation, because of the brevity (the one word Magnificat) of the first half. The Canticles of Mary and of Zachary share (even in the Office of the Dead) the peculiar honour of commencing every verse with an initium or intonation. This intonation varies for the varying modes; and the Magnificat has a special solemn intonation for the second, seventh, and eighth modes, although in this case the usual festive intonation applies, in the second and eighth modes, to all the verses except the first. The "musical", as distinguished from the "plainsong", treating of the canticle has been very varied. Sometimes the chanted verses alternated with harmonized plainsong, sometimes with falso bordone having original melodies in the same mode as the plain song. But there are innumerable settings which are entirely original, and which run through the whole range of musical expression, from the simplest harmony up to the most elaborate dramatic treatment, with orchestral accompaniment of the text. Almost every great church composer has worked often and zealously on this theme. Palestrina published two settings in each of the eight modes, and left in manuscript almost as many more. Fifty settings by Orlando di Lasso are in the Royal Library at Munich, and tradition credits him with twice as many more. In our own days, César Franck (1822-90) is said to have completed sixty-three out of the hundred he had planned. In addition to such names as Palestrina, di Lasso, Josquin des Prés, Morales, Goudimal, Animuccia, Vittoria, Anerio, Gabrieli, Suriano, who with their contemporaries contributed innumerable settings, the modern Cecilian School has done much work on the Magnificat both as a separate canticle, and as one of the numbers in a "Complete Vespers" of many feasts. In Anglican services the Magnificat receives a musical treatment not different from that accorded to the other canticles, and therefore quite dissimilar to that for Catholic Vespers, in which the length of time consumed in incensing the altar allows much greater musical elaboration. A glance through the pages of Novello's catalogue of "Services" leads to the estimate of upwards of one thousand settings of the Magnificat for Anglican services by a single publishing house. Altogether, the estimate of Krebbiel that this canticle "has probably been set to music oftener than any hymn in the liturgy" seems well within the truth.
VIVES, Expositiones SS. Patrum et Doctorum super Canticum "Magnificat", etc. (Rome, 1904), a royal 8vo of 827 double-column pages, containing homilies and commentaries on the Magnificat distributed through every day of the year, prefaced by the Latin paraphrase of URBAN VIII, in thirty-two iambic dimeters; COLERIDGE, The Nine Months (The Life of Our Lord in the Womb) (London, 1885), 161-234, an extended commentary under the title, The Canticle of Mary; NICOLAS, La Vierge Marie d'apres l'Evangile (Paris, 1880), 243-57, argues that the Magnificat alone "proves the divinity of Christianity and even the existence of God"; DEIDIER, L'Extase de Marie, ou le Magnificat (Paris, 1892); M’SWEENY, Translations of the Psalms and Canticles with Commentary (St. Louis, 1901), gives bi columnar trans. from the Vulgate and Peshito, with commentary; A LAPIDE, St. Luke's Gospel, tr. MOSSMAN (London, 1892), 41- 57; MCEVILLY, Exposition of the Gospel of St. Luke (New York, 1888), 27-33; BREEN, A Harmonized Exposition of the Four Gospels, I (Rochester, New York, 1899), 135-45; ARMINIO in Ecclesiastical Review, VIII (321-27), a devotional essay; SHEEHAN, Canticle of the Magnificat (Notre Dame, Ind., 1909), a poetic meditation in one hundred six-lined stanzas; BAGSHAWE, The Psalms and Canticles in English Verse (St. Louis, 1903), gives (353) a metrical version of the canticle, and in the preface proposes metrical versions for use by Catholics; ALLAN in SHIPLEY, Carmina Mariana, 2nd series (London, 1902), 260-63, a poetical commentary on each verse of the Magnificat—this volume gives other poems in English dealing either with the canticles or with the Visitation (17, 321, 490); cf. also Carmina, 1st series (London, 1893), 78, 360. For non-Catholic metrical versions in English, see JULIAN, Dict. of Hymnology, 2nd ed. (London, 1907), 711 (Magnificat); 801, col. 1 (New Version); 1034, col. 1 (Scottish Translations); 1541, col. 1 (Old Version); MARBACH, Carmina Scripturarum, etc. (Strasburg, 1907), 430-33, gives in great detail the antiphons derived from the Magnificat, the feasts to which assigned, etc. For discussion of the Marian authorship and references, see LUKE, GOSPEL OF SAINT, sub- title Who spoke the Magnificat? See also JOHNER, A New School of Gregorian Chant (New York, 1906), 60-69, the various intonations of the Magnificat in the eight modes; ROCESTRO in GROVE, Dict. of Music and Musicians, s.v. Magnificat; SINGENBERGER, Guide to Catholic Church Music (St. Francis, Wis.), gives (148-150) a list of one hundred approved settings; KREHBIEL in New Music Review (Feb., 1910), 147; PIERO, L'Esthétique de JeanSébastien Bach (Paris, 1907), gives various references (519) to author's views of Bach's Magnificat.
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Obstat, Nihil. Lafort, Remy, Censor. Entry for 'Magnificat'. The Catholic Encyclopedia. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/m/magnificat.html. Robert Appleton Company. New York. 1914.
