Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 1.djvu/360

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ALLELUIA
320
ALLEN

its own. Even as a form of divine acclaim its force was intensified, the feeling it evoked deepened, the ideas it suggested widened and elevated, and, above all, purified under the spiritualizing influence of Christian thought. As that thought's supreme expression of thanksgiving, joy, and triumph, "Alleluia" assumed a wider and deeper, a higher and holier, meaning than it earlier had in the liturgy of the Hebrew people. With such supreme Christian significance it appears in the earliest portion of the earliest liturgies of which we have written remains, in the so-called "primitive liturgies of the East." These may be reduced to four, called respectively, and in the supposed order of their antiquity, those of St. Mark, St. James, St. Clement, and St. Chrysostom. The last, now more commonly known as that of Constantinople, is the normal liturgy of the Eastern Churches, used not only by the "Orthodox", or Schismatic, but by the Catholic, or "United", Greeks throughout the world. The Greek Liturgy of St. James is still used by the schismatic Greeks at Jerusalem on his feast day, and in its Syriac recension is the prototype of that of the Maronites who are Catholics. That of St. Mark, apparently the most ancient of all, is very often in verbal agreement with the Coptic Liturgy of St. Cyril and other similar forms, notably that of the Catholic Copts. The liturgy called that of St. Clement, though undoubtedly very ancient, seems to have never been actually used in any Church, so may be here passed over. Now, first glancing through the liturgy of St. Mark, as presumably the most ancient, we find this rubric, just before the Gospel: "Attend: the Apostle; the Prologue of Alleluia."—"The Apostle" is the usual ancient Eastern title for the Epistle, which the "Prologue of Alleluia" would seem to be some prayer recited by the priest before Alleluia was sung by the choir or people. Then, for Alleluiatic anthem, comes the somewhat later insertion known as the Cherubic hymn, before the Consecration: "Let us who mystically represent the Cherubim, and sing the holy hymn to the quickening Trinity, now lay by all worldly cares, that we may receive the King of Glory invisibly attended by the Angelic orders: Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!" In the next most ancient of these primitive Greek liturgies of the East, that known as the Liturgy of St. James, we find the following rubric: "Priest: Peace be with all. People: And with thy Spirit. Singers: Alleluia!" Further on, immediately after the Cherubic anthem above noticed, there is the following beautiful invocation before the Consecration, "Priest: Let all mortal flesh keep silence and stand with fear and trembling and ponder naught of itself earthly; for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Christ our God, cometh forward to be sacrificed and to be given for food to the faithful; and He is preceded by the Choirs of His Angels with every Dominion and Power, by the many-eyed Cherubim and the six-winged Seraphim who covering their faces sing aloud the Hymn: Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!" Finally, in the ancient Greek Liturgy of Constantinople, we find the word used, as acclaiming expression to a kind of chorus, apparently intended to be repeated by the congregation or assistant ministers, thus: "V. The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble; the Name of the God of Jacob defend thee; ℞. Save us, O Good Paraclete, who chant to thee Alleluia. V. Send thee help from the Sanctuary; and strengthen thee out of Sion. ℞. Save us, O Good Paraclete, who chant to thee Alleluia. V. Remember all thy offerings; and accept thy burnt sacrifice. ℞. Save us, O Good Paraclete, who chant to thee Alleluia." Further on, when the choir has finished the Trisagion, we have the rubric—"Deacon: Attend! Reader: Alleluia!" The reading of the Apostle being concluded, the rubric gives—"Priest: Peace be to thee. Reader: Alleluia!" Then, when the catechumens have departed, after the "prayers for the faithful" before the Consecration, we have the Cherubic anthem, with its triple Alleluia for "Holy hymn to the quickening Trinity" as above in the Liturgies of St. Mark and St. James. These extracts will suffice to show that the word from the first has been as it still is used in the liturgies of the East and in our own day, a supreme form of Christian acclamation, or lyric cry, before, in the middle, and at the end, of the versicles and responses, and anthems and hymns. The only difference in regard to it between those of the East and West is that in the former it is still, as it seems at first to have been generally, used all through the year, even during Lent, and in Offices for the dead, as the Christian cry of victory over sin and death. Thus St. Jerome tells us it was sung at the obsequies of his sister Fabiola. With a kind of holy pride, in his own strong way he writes:—"Sonabant psalmi et aurata temporum reboans in sublime quatiebat Alleluia." (See Hammond's Ancient Liturgies.)

Neale, The Liturgies of St. Mark. St. James etc. (London, 1868); Mabillon, De Liturgiâ Gallicanâ (Paris, 1685); Renaudot, Liturgiarum Orientatium Collectio (Paris, 1715); Hammond, Liturgies, Eastern and Western (Oxford, 1878 and 1896—); Lebrun, Explication de la Messe (Paris, 1777); Menard, D. Gregorii Papæ Sacramentorum Liber (Paris, 1642).

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Alleluia Saturday. See Holy Week.

Alleluiatic Psalms. See Psalms.

Allemand, Jean, a French priest and Orientalist, b. 19 November, 1799; d. 9 August, 1833. After his ordination he was made professor of Sacred Scripture in the Roman Seminary, Consultor of the Congregation of the Index, Censor of the Academy of the Catholic Religion, and editor of the "Annales des sciences religieuses". He wrote on Purgatory against Dudley, and a warning against the hieroglyphic discoveries of Champollion (Rome, 1834).

Allen, Edward Patrick, fifth Bishop of Mobile, Alabama, U. S., b. at Lowell, Mass., 17 March, 1853. He made his college course at Mount St. Mary's, Emmittsburg, Md., graduating 26 June, 1878, and then entered the seminary there for his theological studies. He was ordained priest 17 December, 1881, and remained at Mount St. Mary's, as a member of the faculty, until early in 1882, when he was made an assistant at the cathedral in Boston, and later at Framingham, Mass. In 1884 he returned to Mount St. Mary's to assume the presidency of the college, which office he held until he was appointed Bishop of Mobile. He was consecrated at Baltimore, Md., 16 May, 1897. In 1889 Georgetown University conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Divinity.

Allen, Frances, the first woman of New England birth to become a nun, b. 13 Nov., 1784, at Sunderland, Vt.; d. 10 Sept., 1819, at Montreal. Her origin, education, and environment were calculated to make her the least likely woman in the United States to take such a step. Her father was Ethan Allen the patriot, soldier of the Revolution, and pioneer of the State of Vermont, and an atheist. He married as his third wife a widow, Frances Montressor, 16 Feb., 1784, and Frances was born 13 Nov., of the same year. After Ethan Allen's death, 12 Feb., 1789, Mrs. Allen, five years later, married Dr. Jabez Penniman. While not an atheist, like Allen, Dr. Penniman was sufficiently averse to religion to exclude every thought of it, as far as possible, from his stepdaughter's mind. Notwithstanding this, her keen and inquiring intellect led to her acquiring such a knowledge of the Catholic religion that when she was twenty-one she asked