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The Missa Sicca (Latin: "dry Mass") was a common form of devotion used in the medieval Roman Catholic Church for funerals or marriages which were served in the afternoon, when a real Mass could not be said. It consisted of all the Mass except the Offertory, Consecration and Communion (Durandus, "Rationale", IV, i, 23).

The missa nautica and missa venatoria, said at sea in rough weather and for hunters in a hurry, were kinds of dry Masses.

In some monasteries each priest was obliged to say a dry Mass after the real (conventual) Mass. Cardinal Giovanni Bona (Rerum liturg. libr. duo, I, xv) argues against the practice of saying dry Masses. Following the reform of Pope Pius V it gradually disappeared.

Mass of the Presanctified

Mass of the Presanctified celebrated on Good Friday, Our Lady of Lourdes, Philadelphia.

The Mass of the Presanctified (Latin: missa præsanctificatorum, Greek: leitourgia ton proegiasmenon) is a very old custom described by the Quinisext Council (Second Trullan Synod, 692). It is a Liturgy in which the Sacrifice of Calvary is not re-presented, and in which Holy Communion is given from an oblation consecrated at a previous Mass which had been reserved. In the Roman and Anglican Rites it is used only on Good Friday, and in some Old Catholic Rites, it is used on both Good Friday and Holy Saturday.

The Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is used in the Eastern Orthodox Church and those Eastern Catholic Churches which follow the Byzantine Rite only on the weekdays (Monday through Friday) of Great Lent, and on Monday through Wednesday of Holy Week. At each of these Presanctified Liturgies, the Sacred Mysteries (Reserved Sacrament) would have been consecrated the previous Sunday.

See also[]

This article incorporates text from the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913, a publication now in the public domain., s.v. Missa Sicca Sec. D, ¶ 6.

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