Note 126 — CHAP. VI.
Reading edition
Footnote 126:
(return)
Gavant and others, following Walafridus Strabo and the abbot Berno, think that the Offertory and Agnus Dei are not said, in order to signify the silence of the holy women returning from the sepulchre (Mark XVI, 8). Others attribute some of these omissions to the circumstance, that there is no communion; on this day, and therefore neither offertory or postcommunion; anciently however communion was given on this occasion, as is evident from the Gelasian sacramentary (See Bened. XIV, De Festis c. VIII). The kiss of peace, as Grancolas observes, is not given, because formerly at the dawn of easter-sunday, soon after the mass of easter-eve, the faithful used to assemble in the church "and kissing one another with mutual charity to say, Surrexit Dominus "; (the Lord is risen) Ordo Rom. ab Hittorpio ed. p. 55. Merati says, that the Agnus Dei is omitted because it is of recent origin, having been first introduced into the liturgy by Pope Sergius A.D. 688 (lib. Pont.), whereas the Mass of the day is of greater antiquity.