Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary

It may have originally been put together to be prayed in connection with the Votive Masses of Our Lady on Saturday, which were written by Alcuin, the liturgical master of Charlemagne’s court.

Pre-English Reformation versions varied considerably, and in England in medieval times the main differences were between the Sarum and York uses.

The Austin Canons also used it, and, perhaps through their influence, it developed from a private devotion into part of the daily duty of the secular clergy as well in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

[2] Down to the Reformation it formed a central part of the primer and was customarily recited by devout laity,[1] by whom the practice was continued for long afterwards among Catholics.

In 1963, following the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI promulgated Sacrosanctum Concilium which stated: "Members of any institute dedicated to acquiring perfection who, according to their constitutions, are to recite any parts of the divine office are thereby performing the public prayer of the Church.

According to Pope Paul VI's later Apostolic Letter Ecclesiae sanctae of 6 August 1966, "although Religious who recite a duly approved Little Office perform the public prayer of the Church (cf.

Additionally Tony Horner, a layman, and John Rotelle, a priest, both formulated their own editions of the Little Office which conformed to the revised Liturgy of the Hours, both of these are approved for private use.

[6] At the same time, despite its decline among religious orders after the Council, the traditional Little Office in English and Latin continue to be printed.

Other publishers like St. Bonaventure Publications make editions available according to the 1910 text, before the reforms of Pius X. Saints throughout history who have prayed the Little Office regularly as part of their spiritual practice include: