New Translation Monday: The Roman Canon, Part III (Communicantes)

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We continue our catechesis of the first Eucharistic Prayer, known as the Roman Canon.  The first week we discussed the Te igitur (“To you, therefore”), followed by the “Commemoration of the Living,” or Memento, Domine (Remember, Lord).  This week we drill into the next part: the Communicantes.  As usual, the prayer takes its title from the first word in the Latin text: literally, “Communing” or “Communicating.”*  This is the portion of the Eucharistic Canon in which we recognize our communion not only with each other and those living member of the Church (which were mentioned in the Memento, Domine), but also with the saints and angels who have gone before us.  In other words, after recognizing the Church Militant, we now turn towards the Church Triumphant.

The current translation reads:

“In union with the whole Church, we honor Mary, the ever-virgin mother of Jesus Christ our Lord and God. We honor Joseph, her husband, the apostles and martyrs, Peter and Paul, Andrew, James, John, Thomas, James, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Simon and Jude; we honor Linus, Cletus, Clement and Sixtus, Cornelius, Cyprian, Lawrence, Chrysogonus, John and Paul, Cosmas and Damian and all the saints. May their merits and prayers grant us your constant help and protection.”

Before looking at the changes to the translation, a few comments about the listing of saints are appropriate.  First, we begin with the ever-virgin mother of Jesus Christ.  Indeed, our Blessed Mother is the first among the saints and rightly deserves a place at the head of this listing.  The addition of Joseph is quite late in the history of the Canon, added by Pope John XXIII in 1962.  What follows is a listing of the Apostles, headed by Peter and Paul.  The apostle Matthias (who was elected to take the place of Judas) is left out, presumedly (with the naming of Paul) to leave the number at a significant twelve men.  After the Apostles, there are five martyr popes (Linus, Cletus, and Clement immediately succeeded Peter; Sixtus was the seventh Pope, and Cornelius was the twenty-first Pope.)  Cyprian is a non-Roman bishop and martyr.  Lawrence is the great Roman deacon martyr from the third century.  The rest are five Roman lay martyrs.  Note that the number of men named in the second half comes to twelve, presumedly to balance the twelve Apostles.  If the Apostles represent the beginnings of the Church, the subsequent martyrs remind us that the Church is a living reality that produces faithful men and women in every age, and that the faith of these martyrs is properly founded upon the faith of the Apostles.

We now turn to the new translation of the Communicantes:

“In communion with those whose memory we venerate, especially the glorious ever-Virgin Mary, Mother of our God and Lord, Jesus Christ, and blessed Joseph, her Spouse, your blessed Apostles and Martyrs, Peter and Paul, Andrew, (James, John, Thomas, James, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Simon and Jude: Linus, Cletus, Clement, Sixtus, Cornelius, Cyprian, Lawrence, Chrysogonus, John and Paul, Cosmas and Damian) and all your Saints: we ask that through their merits and prayers, in all things we may be defended by your protecting help.”

The first change comes in the leading phrase.  We have “In communion with” rather than “In union with.”  It isn’t that communicantes cannot mean “union”, but rather that the use of “communion” is far stronger and more appropriate to the Eucharistic action.  Intercessory prayer always (at least implicitly) contains a litany of Saints.  When we pray for the universal Church of Christ it is natural that we remember those who already reign with him triumphantly.  This prayer is a beautiful recognition that we are one in the Mystical Body of Christ with those in heaven.  “Communion” offers a much better descriptor of this reality.

Second, we find the restoration of the phrase “whose memory we venerate,” a good rendering of the tricky Latin phrase et memoriam venerantes.  The problem with the current translation is that it incorrectly places the subject-verb phrase “we honor.”  In fact, the Latin reflects that the listing of saints is not the object of the action of honoring but is rather an extended adjective of the previously mentioned “communion.”   Of course, it isn’t that we don’t honor the saints, simply that the Latin in this phrase does not reflect this.  The purpose of the prayer is not to indicate that “the whole Church” honors the subsequent list of saints, but instead to specifically indicate that the saints are part of the Church.  Once more, this prayer, which recognizes our communion with the Church Triumphant, serves as a complement to the previous Commemoration of the Living, which recognizes our communion with the Church Militant.

Third, we have a much stronger Marian tribute in the new translation.  The Latin phrase in primis (which I would have like to have seen translated as “in the first place” or “firstly” to indicate Mary’s place of priority among the Saints) is restored as “especially.”  We also see the Latin word gloriosae restored as “glorious.”  Finally, although it seems slight, the new translation uses “Mother of our God and Lord, Jesus Christ,” rather than “mother of Jesus Christ our Lord and God.”  The new translation preserves the rhythm and order (and capitalization) of the Latin: Genetrícis Dei et Dómini nostri Iesu Christi.  Upon closer inspection, the proper order of the Latin reflects an important Catholic truth.  Mary was not simply the “mother of Jesus,” where the man Jesus also happens to be God.  Rather, Mary is Theotokos, the Mother of God.  It was the Council of Ephesus (431) that declared the doctrine of Theotokos, against the heretic Nestorian who claimed that, while Mary was the mother of Jesus humanity, she was not the mother of the divine Logos, the second person of the Trinity.  Such a heresy splits the person of Jesus into two (human and divine), and the Council of Ephesus solemnly declared that Jesus did indeed have two natures, but was one person, and as such, not only is Mary the mother of Jesus, but she is also the Mother of God.

Fourth, there is a reworking of the phrase pertaining to St. Joseph.  We first see the restoration of the word “blessed” (from the Latin beati).  However, the next phrase is strangely not literal, though it is better than the current translation.  The Latin reads eiusdem Virginis Sponsi, which translates literally, “the Spouse of the same Virgin.”  I would like to have seen the retention of “the same Virgin,” as it serves to emphasize Mary’s perpetual virginity.  In fact, a previous draft of the new translation had precisely this phrase; why it was eliminated in the final version seems to be a mystery.  It is particularly important when we consider that Pope John XXIII, in adding St. Joseph to the Canon, specifically wanted to avoid the confusion that often surrounds Mary’s relationship with Joseph.  (Some authors have postulated that fear of this common confusion was the reason it took so long to place the name of Joseph in the Canon.)  Hence, the twice-repeated “Virgin” was deliberate in the Latin.  Mary was not only a virgin at the time of the Incarnation, but remained so her entire married life.  “Spouse” rather than “husband” attempts to make this distinction, but keeping the second reference to Mary’s virginity in connection with her relationship to St. Joseph would have been better.

Following this, there is a minor change of “the apostles and martyrs” to “your Apostles and Martyrs,” emphasizing their belonging to God the Father.  In other words, they were not martyrs for just anything, but for Jesus Christ.  (The same changes occurs at the end of the litany: “the saints” becomes “your Saints.”)

Finally, we have a substantial change in the last phrase.  The current, “May their merits and prayers grant us your constant help and protection,” will be changed to, “we ask that through their merits and prayers, in all things we may be defended by your protecting help.”  The new translation is a much better rendering of the Latin, but there is also an important change in emphasis.  It is not that the merits and prayers themselves grant us God’s protection, but rather that God himself, through the merits and prayers of the saints, defends and protects us.  The new translation is a much better description of the reality of intercessory prayer, something often misunderstood in non-Catholic circles.

I would be remiss if I did not mention that that first part (through the intercession of our Blessed Mother) changes during five important times of the year*: the Octave of Christmas, Epiphany, the Octave of Easter, the Ascension, and Pentecost.  For instance, during the Octave of Christmas, the priest will say,

“Celebrating the most sacred night (day) when blessed Mary the immaculate Virgin brought forth the Savior for this world, and in communion with those whose memory we venerate, especially the glorious ever-Virgin Mary, Mother of our God and Lord, Jesus Christ” (new translation),

and then continue with the litany beginning with St. Joseph.  Each of these five “proper Communicantes” will receive new translations, but certainly it would be tedious to go through each one of them individually.

Next week we will discuss the subsequent two parts of the Roman Canon, the Hanc Igitur and the Quam oblationem tu.

*  Historically, this prayer is often referred to as the Infra Actionem, though such a title is perhaps not quite accurate.  In fact, even in the Missal, the text bears the English title “Within the action.”  Adrian Fortesque explains the Latin title Infra Actionem.  While the form of the Communicantes is consistent for most of the year, there are certain feasts/octaves that have a proper form.  Thus, “at Christmas we say the proper Preface and then, infra actionem (within the Canon) the proper Communicantes.  Then that heading was looked upon as the regular title of this prayer and so was used, superfluously, at its normal place too” (The Mass: A Study of the Roman Liturgy, page 330).