In 1914 four additional Commons were introduced in the Roman Breviary:
Commune plurium Confessorum Pontificum
C. pl. Confessorum non Pontificum
C. pl. Virginum
C. pl. non Virginum
They weren't, however, made available for the universal church, but rather as texts pro aliquibus locis: provinces having use for them could ask for a permission to make them part of their breviary propers.
The formularies contain full sets of new proper chants. And my question is: does anyone know of a musical resource?
EDIT 2018-06-30: the decree can be found in AAS 7 (1915), p. 282
@igneus The Mass Propers are in the 1924 printing of the Graduale Romanum pg 77** ... But the 1949 Antiphonal does not have a pro aliquibus locis section... I don't remember seeing any Antiphonal with such a section apart from those published before 1914.
I dug out my copy of the Franciscan Antiphonal and snapped some photos. I hadn't realized these weren't readily available in the many books scanned by CMAA and ccwatershed.
I imagine the ideal/intended use of these offices was for groups of specially related non-martyrs (like Sts. Cyril and Methodius, 7 Holy Founders of the Servites) without having to have full propers written so that the texts make sense.
But the Franciscans got creative with this flexibility, and inscribed dozens of otherwise unrelated blesseds to their calendar three at a time in shared Double feasts. The Franciscan calendar made wide use of these combos until the 1960 rubrics reform, which I think eliminated all uses of these plural offices. Not a bad problem to have though—too many saints and blesseds to fit free days.
I wonder what other places made use of these, and if any continued through 1962?
As for places making use of them, I don't know any other than the diocese of Rome, where they (all four) were introduced by the SRC decree cited in the first post. I have no idea if they remained in use through 1971 or were swept by some earlier reform of the Roman "officia propria", though.
But presumably somewhere the commons remained in use - I only learned about their existence by finding them at the back of the Nova et Vetera breviary edition.
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