The Roman Martyrology Hardcover – September 2, 2014

Great for Prime in the Monastic Diurnal or your 1961 Roman Breviary. Impressed with the quality. Paper is not bible paper so no bleed through and thicker so will not rip easily. The dust jacket also is thicker and laminated I have confidence it won't wear as easily as many other books. My only complaint is the ribbon is awfully short. It is an inch past the edge of the pages. Not long enough to reach bottom corner of book especially towards the end of the book as the ribbon is glued in at the front.

Not much to compare this too. if you are praying the Roman Breviary Prime this is wonderful.Only minus a star as it's rather bare bones, set like a cheap novel. No graphics, just the facts.Does the job though!

This book puts us in mind with all the saint who suffered martyrdom through the centuries. Their suffering were incredibly cruel. Helps us to humble ourselves and appreciate what others did for the Faith to prosper.

Excellent!

A+++

Priests and monks, in addition to offering the Mass every day, must also pray the Divine Office (also called the Breviary, or Liturgy of the Hours). This involves stopping 6 to 7 times a day to pray: by reciting assigned psalms, a hymn, and some particular prayers of the day. This is the Church's prayer. Anyone who prays these "hours" is praying with, through and for the Church as part of her official, daily liturgy.Until the late 1960s, part of praying the Office was to pray the morning "hour" called "Prime" (meaning the first hour after sunrise). After praying "Lauds" at dawn, praising nature and the wonder of a new day, "Prime" then brought one's focus to the day ahead, asking God to sanctify your work for the coming day. In the late 1960s, in an effort to reduce the burden of praying the Office on busy priests (it is a sin for them not to pray the Office very day), the Pope abolished the hour of "Prime".Part of praying "Prime" was to recite the day's entry from the "Martyrologium Romanum" (in Latin, of course!). This book was the Church's official list which, for each day of the year, listed all those Saints and Martyrs who were to be remembered on that day, usually for having died on that day. The Martyrology is therefore (along with the Breviary, the Missal, and the Ritual) one of the traditional liturgical books of the Church.This present volume is the English translation of the Martyrology as it was immediately before the suppression of the hour of Prime. It can therefore serve its original purpose of being used for those who still pray (as is their right) the 1961 version of the Breviary, and therefore the hour of Prime. It can also serve as a wonderful daily meditation on all those holy men and women who have gone before us heroic in their faith, and who do not necessarily have feastdays celebrated in their honour or Churches named after them.Because this version dates form the 1960s, it does not include any of those holy people beatified or canonized by Paul VI or later Popes. Pope John Paul II, in his long reign, is said to have canonized more saints than all his predecessors put together. There was also a general rearrangement of the calendar of saints by the Vatican in the early 1970s, removing the feastdays for some (especially those for whom there is scant historical data), moving them for others. The Vatican always had it on its to-do list to update and republish the Martyrologium - to accommodate the changes in dates for some saints, and to include the explosion of saint-making activity of Pope John Paul II. However, since the Martyrologium was no longer a part of the daily liturgy of the Church, there was no hurry.Rome has now published the updated Martyrologium (in Latin), and an English translation will eventually be forthcoming.In the meantime (and even afterwards) this English version of the pre-Vatican II Martyrology is excellent and nourishing, and a reminder to us all of those who have died for their faith, or who went to their deaths having lived heroic virtuous lives.This book deserves to be in every Catholic household. It deserves to still be part of the morning prayer of every priest and monk in the world!