Breviaries

A breviary is a liturgical book used in Western Christianity to organize the Divine Office, the daily cycle of prayers, psalms, and readings recited by clergy and religious. It provides a portable, standardized framework for the hours of prayer across the day.

Historically, the breviary developed in the early Middle Ages as monastic communities sought to unify and simplify the many different offices they observed. By compiling the material for the daily prayers into a single volume, the breviary enabled clergy to pray the canonical hours more consistently, whether in the monastery, the parish, or the field.

A typical breviary includes the liturgical calendar with saints’ feast days, the Psalter (the book of psalms and canticles), Scriptural and patristic readings, hymns, and a set of prayers and collects for the hours. The daily offices usually cover Matins (or the Office of Readings), Lauds, Prime (in some traditions), Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline, with variations and optional components such as the Common of Saints or offices for special occasions.

In the Catholic Church, the breviary was revised multiple times, and the 20th century brought major reforms. Since the 1970 reform, the Liturgy of the Hours serves as the official daily prayer book for the Roman Rite, though traditional Latin forms of the breviary remain in use among some communities.

Breviaries also appear in other Western Christian traditions, where analogous daily prayer books exist, reflecting a broader historical emphasis on structured, communal prayer throughout the day.