Procession

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Blessing of the Wheat Fields at Artois , oil painting by Jules Breton , 1857

A prayer procession (also prayer or corridor or Ösch procession ) is a corridor passage in Christianity with which God's blessing or the averting of dangers and emergency situations is requested. Petition processions can take place annually, but also depending on the situation in special emergency situations.

Theological meaning

Petitions occur in all religions. In Christianity they are a sign of the belief in God, in the power of trusting prayer and the helping intercession of the saints.

“Why do you go around the corridors, fields and fields in the processions? - To ask the gracious God that he would bless the meadows with his mild fatherly hand, preserve the fruits of the earth, and how he fills all animals with blessings and gives them their food at the appropriate time, so also us humans the necessary food share "

says Leonhard Goffiné in 1690 in his "Christ Catholic Teaching Book" about the function of petitions in the Catholic tradition .

Calamity was seen as a consequence of human guilt. Prayer processions therefore have a penitential character , the liturgical color is purple.

According to canon law ( Codex Iuris Canonici ) of 1917, only those petitions that were "organized under the leadership of the clergy" were considered processions (approx. 1290 § 1). If there were no clerics present or if they were not in charge, the Congregation of Rites decided that there was no procession. Such processions are considered pia exercitia ( pious exercises ).

The ritual Romanum in the version that was valid until the Second Vatican Council provided for prayer orders for “extraordinary processions”, including rain, good weather and storms.

The regulation of the Roman Catholic Church , which has been in force since 1969, leaves it to the local bishops to determine when and in what form regular petition processions take place. In the German-speaking area, the supplication services (with or without a procession) should be preserved where possible and "all essential areas and dangers of present life" should be included in the prayer. The originally agrarian orientation of the petition processions has been expanded in recent years. The missal of the Catholic Church says: "On the days of supplication and the quaternary , the Church prays for a variety of human concerns, especially for the fruits of the earth and for human work". In addition to “preservation of creation”, work for all, peace, bread for the world and reverence for human life can also be motives.

Processions on the days of prayer

The Latin designation of the days of prayer in the Catholic liturgy as litaniae “ litanies ” comes from the fact that processions on these days began with the chanting of the All Saints litany and were accompanied by pleading supplication.

Litaniae maiores: St. Mark's procession

Until the Second Vatican Council , a procession was held on April 25th, the feast of Mark the Evangelist . On this date, the 7th calendar of May, the Robigalia took place in ancient Rome , sacrificial ceremonies against plant diseases. The liturgical name of the petition was litaniae maiores "great litanies", popularly one spoke of the "St. Mark's procession". In some places this procession continues.

Processions in the Week of Prayer for Ascension Day

The story of a petition to the Löschem chapel in Moselle Franconian dialect

Traditionally, most of the liturgical processions take place in the week in which the feast of the Ascension takes place. It is therefore also referred to as walking week, prayer week, praying week or cross week - because the processions on these days were preceded by the cross .

The three days of petition on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before the feast of the Ascension of Christ were called rogationes (from: rogare "to beg, plead") or litaniae minores ("little litanies ") in Latin . The petition processions on these days go back to Bishop Mamertus in the 5th century.

There are also corridor processions on the feast of Ascension and in the following days up to Sunday. In Swabia, the Ösch procession takes place in many places on Ascension Day , a large corridor procession through the fields of the city. The word is derived from the old German esch "grain part of the district". Walking or riding the Esch is documented as a request to go around Swabia in Zimmerchen's chronicle around the middle of the 16th century on Ascension Day ( Uffart Dag ):

"On the vest of our Lord Corpus Christi Dag and then on the Uffart Dag, if one is obliged to ride around the Esch"

- Zimmer Chronicle, 1st edition, Vol. 2, p. 223

It was a Eucharistic procession: “Carrying the Sacrament umb den Esch”.

On various days in the week of prayer or the week of the cross, the prayer processions were held as a hail procession in some places : on Tuesday, Friday, the "Hagelfreytag" (old Bavarian: " Schauerprozession " on the so-called " Schauerfreitag " derived from this name ) or on Saturday or Sunday. (See: List of hail and fire processions .)

In the Protestant order of worship, the 5th Sunday after Easter , Vocem jucunditatis , also called Rogate (Latin rogate , "prays / begs") or Prayer Sunday , in line with the pre-Reformation tradition of Prayer days.

Processions on specific occasions

Plague procession in Rome with Pope Gregory I in 590

In addition to the periodically recurring processions, special emergencies gave rise to one-time or - often as vows - repeated apotrophic processions to avert danger:

  • Hail processions as regular corridor procession or praised after severe storms
  • Plague processions, praised after plague epidemics
  • Fire processions, praised after city fires.

Festivals and memorial days as dates for supplication processions

Origin and development

The processions can be understood as a late antique transformation of the Roman corridors, the Ambarvalia . They may also be related to Germanic legal customs, according to which every landowner had to circumnavigate his property once a year in order to maintain ownership.

Saint John Chrysostom ordered a petition in April 399 because of the persistent rain. The corridor processions on the three days of petition can be traced back to an order of the Bishop of Vienne , Mamertus in the year 469/470. Because of widespread earthquakes , storms and bad harvests in several countries, especially in France, and the resulting famine, he ordered penitential processions connected with fasting on the three days before Ascension Day . The Council of Orléans made it mandatory for all churches in Gaul in 511. Around 800 the three days of petition of Pope Leo III. also introduced in Rome and the entire area of ​​the Roman liturgy, but without prescribed fasting.

Initially, petition processions were not Eucharistic processions . They could and can therefore take place without the participation of the priest . With the advent of the sacrament processions in the 13th century and increasingly since the Counter-Reformation in the 16th century, there was often a merging of the types of procession, and also with the request processions - in whole or in part - the " holiest of holies ", the body of Christ in the monstrance , and at the four stations on the way - also known as " altars " - the sacramental blessing was given.

In the early modern era, according to the traditional researcher Manfred Becker-Huberti , corridors were "often held to the exclusion of the pastor" and "degenerated into wild actions with plenty of alcohol". Such processions began after midnight and lasted for many hours. The clergy was either not involved at all or only occasionally, as short sermons were given at the stations on the way or the priest met the procession on the last part with the Holy of Holies .

In Bösensell , the day before the feast of John the Baptist in 1662, a corridor ride lasted from 4 in the morning to around 2 pm; Pastor Johannes Beckhaus reported during an episcopal visitation that during this processio incongrua (“disordered procession”) the Holy of Holies was not shown the necessary reverence. In Marl , the local riflemen received a ton of beer as compensation for their police-like assistance and their efforts in the hail procession in the 18th century.

In 1616, the Prince-Bishop of Münster, Christoph Bernhard von Galen , ordered the merging of the Corpus Christi procession and the hail celebration, also in order to express the worship of the Eucharist by celebrating the Holy Mass more often and not by extensive processions. He implemented the intention of the Council of Trent (1545–1563) to “fight the secular influences in the veneration of saints and the processions and to fix the cult as a whole to the extent desired by the council” and the “superstition that is alive in agrarian societies to push back the hope for help through supernatural appearances in pseudo-religious areas ”.

Prince-Bishop Bernhard's instructions, however, were followed only hesitantly. In 1662, for example , two processions took place in Ostbevern : a hail celebration on the day after Ascension Day and a second procession on the Friday before the feast of John the Baptist, i.e. not on the feast of Corpus Christi.

In the Eifel , processions were banned on various occasions in the 17th and 18th centuries, and in 1830 the Trier bishop v. Hommer suggests that the procession to the town fountain in Hillesheim (Eifel) on Vigil Day on St. John's Day, the rest of the three-day Hillesheim hail celebration, should in future be avoided as improper.

Processions are rejected in Protestantism and - in Braunschweig, for example - were also banned by sovereigns. Nevertheless, corridor walkways were still kept in isolated cases in Protestant parishes until the 18th century . In the church ordinance of Braunschweig from 1709, Duke Anton Ulrich ordered a " hail celebration " as a day of prayer (without procession) for the "Monday post Vocem Jucunditatis" (5th Sunday after Easter). In 1968 the Synod of the Braunschweigische Landeskirche renewed the practice of the hail holiday, which was celebrated with school and evening services, as harvest day and set the first Sunday after Trinity or one day in the week after that as the date .

Course of the procession

In the 17th century a procession like the Ösch procession in Rottenburg could have taken place:

“The unmarried young people followed the cross carried forward, then came a red flag and two procession lanterns, behind them the clergy and the people.” After the second station, the procession split up. The clergy rode to the third station, accompanied by acolytes, the choir regent, the flag and lantern bearers and a mounted group of believers. Before the fourth station they met again with the foot procession. During the procession a small altar was carried for the stations on the way. At the end of the procession, all those involved were “fed wine and bread on account of the hospital”.

Current practice

The custom of petitions has often been preserved in rural regions and in some cases has even been revived. Rural communities are rediscovering the old processional routes, new forms are being tried out in the cities - not infrequently also in the evening hours, adapted to today's rhythm of work and life. Design elements are traditionally the All Saints' Litany , other litanies, psalms and alternating prayers as well as the rosary .

On the way, “stations” are usually held, for example at field chapels or crossroads, where the Bible is read and intercession is held. During the Eucharistic processions , the sacramental blessing is given at these stations on the way. Eucharistic processions begin after a Holy Mass in the parish church. The Holy Mass can - as the "center of the procession" - also be celebrated at a station on the way, as in Rottenburg since the 1960s, or at the destination. In Ostbevern in the 1970s, the hail procession ran as a prayer procession without a stop to the Anna Chapel , where Holy Mass was celebrated. As a sacrament procession it goes to the parish church for the final blessing.

The course of a procession today could look like this:

First stop

At the first station, the congregation asks for a blessing for their work. The Bible passage Gen 1,26-29 EU Submit  the earth will be read.

Second stop

At the second station the request for daily bread is central to the worship. The pericope Mt 6.25-33  EU Sorget is not read anxiously .

Third station

At the third station, the community asks for safety on the street. He will read the gospel passage Mk 4,35-41  EU Even the wind and sea obey him .

Fourth station

At the fourth station, the focus is on peace within the assembled community. It is read: Joh 15,9-15  EU Remain in my love .

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Andreas Heinz : Prayer procession. In: Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, Freiburg, 3rd edition 1993-2001, Volume 2, Col. 512.
  2. ↑ Sacrorum Congregation Rituum 3217 of August 20, 1870; see Aimé-Georges Martimort (Ed.): Handbuch der Liturgiewwissenschaft. II. The other sacraments and the sacramentals. The sanctification of time. Freiburg-Basel-Vienna 1965, pp. 169f.
  3. ↑ Aimé-Georges Martimort (ed.): Handbook of liturgical science. I. General introduction. Freiburg-Basel-Vienna 1963, p. 9f. - Aimé-Georges Martimort (ed.): Handbook of liturgical science. II. The other sacraments and the sacramentals. The sanctification of time. Freiburg-Basel-Vienna 1965, p. 176f.
  4. ↑ Aimé-Georges Martimort (ed.): Handbook of liturgical science. II. The other sacraments and the sacramentals. The sanctification of time. Freiburg-Basel-Vienna 1965, p. 176f.
  5. ↑ Lexicon for Theology and Church. 3rd edition, Freiburg 1993-2001, Vol. 2 Col. 512f
  6. ↑ Andreas Heinz: Petition processions. In: Wolfgang Meurer (ed.): People of God on the way. Movement elements in worship. Matthias Grünewald Verlag, Mainz 1989, ISBN 3-7867-1433-9 , p. 130.
  7. ^ Liber Usualis , Parisii, Tornaci, Romae 1954, pp. 835ff.
  8. ^ Dieter Manz: The pious city. The episcopal city of Rottenburg aN in the mirror of its church and piety history. Kunstverlag Josef Fink, Lindenberg im Allgäu 2009, ISBN 978-3-89870-596-7 , p. 211.
  9. ↑ Kluge: Etymological dictionary of the German language. 23rd edition, Berlin - New York 1999, p. 233. - See Peter Stotz in Cannstatter Zeitung, accessed on March 11, 2012
  10. ↑ Andreae, Pred. too awake. 310, after: Hermann Fischer (edit.): Swabian dictionary. 2nd volume. Tübingen 1908, p. 865; there also the quote from Zimmer's chronicle.
  11. ↑ Evangelical church service book. Agenda for the EKU and the VELKD. Verlagsgemeinschaft Evangelisches Gottesdienstbuch, Berlin 1999, pocket edition, ISBN 3-7461-0141-7 , p. 703.
  12. ↑ Andreas Heinz: Petition processions. In: Wolfgang Meurer (ed.): People of God on the way. Movement elements in worship. Matthias Grünewald Verlag, Mainz 1989, ISBN 3-7867-1433-9 , p. 128.
  13. ↑ Manfred Becker-Huberti: Celebrations, festivals, seasons. Living customs throughout the year , Freiburg-Basel-Vienna 1998, ISBN 3-451-27702-6 , 300, 373
  14. ↑ Aimé-Georges Martimort (ed.): Handbook of liturgical science. II. The other sacraments and the sacramentals. The sanctification of time. Freiburg-Basel-Vienna 1965, p. 264. - Hans Ehlert: The hail holiday in the state of Braunschweig . In: Braunschweigische Heimat . 60, 1, 1974, ZDB -ID 400448-6 , pp. 16-18, here p. 17. - Andreas Heinz: Bitt processions. In: Wolfgang Meurer (ed.): People of God on the way. Movement elements in worship. Matthias Grünewald Verlag, Mainz 1989, ISBN 3-7867-1433-9 , p. 128.
  15. ↑ Manfred Becker-Huberti: Lexicon of customs and festivals. Section: Johannes und Paulus (June 26th) Herder-Verlag Freiburg-Basel-Wien 2000, ISBN 3-451-27317-9 , p. 147
  16. ↑ so with the Ascheberger Katharinentracht
  17. ↑ Manfred Becker-Huberti: The Tridentine Reform in the Diocese of Münster under Prince-Bishop Christoph Bernhard v. Galen 1650 to 1678. Münster 1978, p. 299f. 301f.
  18. ↑ Lt. Former homepage of the Marl Citizens' Rifle Guild, "Schützenwesen in Marl"
  19. ↑ J. Niesert (Ed.): Münsterische Urkundensammlung. Coesfeld 1826-1837, Vol. VII p. 76f. - Manfred Becker-Huberti: The Tridentine Reform in the Diocese of Münster under Prince-Bishop Christoph Bernhard v. Galen 1650 to 1678. Münster 1978, p. 300.
  20. ↑ Manfred Becker-Huberti: The Tridentine Reform in the Diocese of Münster under Prince-Bishop Christoph Bernhard v. Galen 1650 to 1678. Münster 1978, pp. 304f.
  21. ↑ Manfred Becker-Huberti: The Tridentine Reform in the Diocese of Münster under Prince-Bishop Christoph Bernhard v. Galen 1650 to 1678. Münster 1978, pp. 301f; Sources: Episcopal Diocesan Archives Münster: General Vicariate Archive Münster - Cathedral A 56. AR 1662 Ostbevern: f. 33v; Lippramsdorf: f. 16v.
  22. ^ Diocesan archives Trier, visitation protocol 1830 (sc. Hillesheim). Also: Schiffhauer: The pilgrimage in the Diocese of Trier under Bishop Josef v. Hommer. In: Festschrift for Alois Thomas. Trier 1967. p. 345 ff; Location: Herbert Wagner: Hail processions from earlier times in today's Hillesheim deanery , Daun yearbook 1974 ( Memento of the original from March 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed February 10, 2012 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.jahrbuch-daun.de
  23. ↑ Hans Ehlert: The hail holiday in the state of Braunschweig. In: Braunschweigische Heimat Volume 60 (1974) Issue 1, pp. 16-18 - here, however, it is called “Vocum Jucunditatis”.
  24. ^ Dieter Manz: The pious city. The episcopal city of Rottenburg aN in the mirror of its church and piety history. Kunstverlag Josef Fink, Lindenberg im Allgäu 2009, ISBN 978-3-89870-596-7 , p. 212.
  25. ^ Dieter Manz: The pious city. The episcopal city of Rottenburg aN in the mirror of its church and piety history. Kunstverlag Josef Fink, Lindenberg im Allgäu 2009, ISBN 978-3-89870-596-7 , p. 212.
  26. ↑ Vicar Gr. Vorspohl in connection with the parish of St. Ambrosius Ostbevern (ed.): Wayside crosses and wayside shrines in the parish of St. Ambrosius Ostbevern. Krimphoff, Füchtorf 1978, introduction ( ISBN 3-921787-03-9 )

literature

  • Andreas Heinz: Petition processions. In: Wolfgang Meurer (ed.): People of God on the way. Movement elements in worship. Matthias Grünewald Verlag, Mainz 1989, ISBN 3-7867-1433-9 , pp. 127-131.

Web links

Wiktionary: Request procession  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations