The Spanish Liturgy

Ecclesiastical leadership in the Iberian peninsula held the liturgy in high esteem as a means of communicating the truths of the Christian faith. Spanish liturgical creativity, therefore, was marked by a stress on doctrinal precision. The Spanish liturgy, also known rather inaccurately as Mozarabic or Visigothic, is the autonomous liturgy which was in constant use in Spain from the beginning of the sixth century until it was suppressed by the Council of Braga (1080) at the insistence of Pope Gregory VII (10731085). At the time of its codification, when Visigothic rule reached its greatest extension (seventh century), the Spanish rite was celebrated throughout the Iberian peninsula and in the religion of southwestern France known as Gallia Narbonese. After its suppression, it continued to be celebrated in a few parish churches for a time, and with intermittent periods of complete abandonment, in a single chapel at the cathedral of Toledo into the twentieth century. Among the survivi…