The Ritual of the Names: A Practice of Intercession in Early Medieval Gaul

Abstract

The recitation of the names of those belonging to the liturgical community of Mass is one of the elements typical of the liturgy in Merovingian Gaul as distinguished from contemporary (Roman) and later (Carolingian) traditions. In recent scholarship, the ritual of the names is often considered in the context of and as preliminary to the development of monastic practices of intercession from the ninth century onwards. The ritual as such, however, provides important information on the character and (self-) understanding of liturgical communities in the early medieval period. This information is primarily conveyed by the prayers that accompanied the ritual of the recitation of the names: the Collects ‘after the names’ (post nomina). The collects express the intrinsic unity of the Eucharistic community as including both the living and the dead members. The intercessory part in the collects underlines this unity in as far as requests are phrased for both categories in more or less synonymous wording. At the same time, however, a number of collects differentiate between the two groups of members particularly in the intercessory part, by asking specific benefits for the deceased members and other good for those living on earth.