Vigil (liturgy)

In Christian liturgy, a vigil is, in origin, a religious service held during the night leading to a Sunday or other feastday.

[6] Pliny the Younger reported in about 112 that Christians gathered on a certain day before light, sang hymns to Christ as to a god and shared a meal.

[7] Tertullian (c. 155 – c. 240) speaks of the "nocturnal convocations" (nocturnae convocationes) of Christians and their "absence all the night long at the paschal solemnities" (sollemnibus Paschae abnoctantes)[8] Cyprian (c. 200 – 258) also speaks of praying at night, but not of doing so as a group: "Let there be no failure of prayers in the hours of night — no idle and reckless waste of the occasions of prayer" (nulla sint horis nocturnis precum damna, nulla orationum pigra et ignava dispendia).

Its liturgical was elastic, involving readings, singing of psalms, homilies, chants, and various prayers, followed by the Eucharistic service.

These developed into the monastic celebrations, still called "vigils" in the Rule of Saint Benedict of the canonical hour that was later given the name of matins.

[12] In the Middle Ages, entertainments such as dramatic representations of the saint or the event celebrated were added to vigils, but these were open to abuse.

[17] In the 1950s Pope Pius XII instituted a reform of the Easter Vigil, first on an experimental basis, then making it obligatory in 1955.

[19] In the Catholic Church, Pope Paul VI's 1969 motu proprio Mysterii Paschalis made the liturgical day correspond in general to what is generally understood today, running from midnight to midnight, instead of beginning with vespers of the evening before.