The Roman Canon

In Brief

The Roman Canon is the ancient eucharistic prayer of the Roman rite. From the Missal of Pius V in 1570 until the reform of 1968 it was the rite's only eucharistic prayer, said at every Mass; the reformed Missal keeps it as the First Eucharistic Prayer.¹² Its core is older than any of its manuscripts: a Latin prayer closely parallel to the Canon's Quam oblationem through Supra quae is already quoted in De sacramentis, around 390.³ The text then stood substantially unchanged for centuries. The one modern change came in December 1962, when St Joseph's name was added to the Communicantes.⁴

The Shape of the Liturgy

Part by Part

Authorship & Date

No one wrote the Roman Canon. It is the slow deposit of the Roman Church's prayer, assembled and ordered over centuries, and the entry treats every papal ascription as tradition rather than authorship. The Liber Pontificalis credits Leo I with words about the holy sacrifice and Gregory I with adding "diesque nostros" to the Hanc igitur; both are reported as the book's tradition, not as established composition.⁵ What can be said with confidence is negative: the Canon has no single author, and the medieval idea that one pope composed it whole does not survive the evidence. The critical text is Bernard Botte's 1935 edition.¹¹

Witnesses & Editions

The earliest witness is also the most disputed. De sacramentis IV quotes the core of the prayer around 390, but whether Ambrose of Milan wrote the treatise was already "much discussed" in 1912: Fortescue records distinguished defenders of Ambrose, the Maurists' doubt, and the theory that ascribes it to Maximus of Turin.³¹⁰ Later scholarship has generally favoured Ambrosian authorship, but the entry does not present the question as closed. What the witness proves is the prayer's antiquity, not its author: a Roman-type canon was already being quoted at Milan by the end of the fourth century.

From there the text's history is one of fixation rather than growth. The Missal of 1570 printed the Canon as the unvarying heart of the Mass, and the 1962 typical edition reprinted it; the printed 1962 book predates the St Joseph decree, so early printings lack him.¹⁴⁶ The decree itself, of 13 November 1962, inserted "sed et beati Ioseph eiusdem Virginis Sponsi" into the Communicantes, in force from 8 December 1962: the feast of the Immaculate Conception carried the foster-father of Christ into the Canon's first list of saints.⁴

Theology & Spirit

The Canon's shape is the Roman shape, and it is unlike every other eucharistic prayer now in use. The intercessions are split around the institution: Te igitur for the Church, the Memento of the living and the Hanc igitur come before the consecration, while the Memento of the dead follows it. The saints are named twice, in the Communicantes before and the Nobis quoque after.⁶ The Church's own grammar for reading the prayer is the eightfold scheme of the General Instruction: thanksgiving, Sanctus, epiclesis, institution narrative and consecration, anamnesis, oblation, intercessions, doxology.⁹

The epiclesis is the Canon's famous crux. There is no single explicit invocation of the Holy Spirit of the Eastern kind. Quam oblationem, the blessing of the gifts before the narrative, is read by some as the consecratory epiclesis; the second half of the Supplices, praying that the gifts borne to the altar on high may bring blessing to the communicants, is read by others as a communion epiclesis. The entry flags both readings as implicit and contested rather than settling the question. The Consilium's own 1968 account of the consecratory epiclesis, "la supplication adressée au Père", describes exactly the form Quam oblationem takes: a supplication addressed to the Father before the institution.¹²

Two prayers deserve their reputation. The Hanc igitur, which Fortescue called "perhaps the most difficult prayer in the Mass", asks God to accept the offering and to order the days of the Church in peace; its very obscurity is part of the Canon's character, a prayer the Church has carried without fully explaining.¹⁰ The Supplices asks that the gifts be borne "per manus sancti Angeli tui", by the hands of God's holy angel, to the altar on high: the Canon's imagery is of the earthly offering taken up, not only of heaven coming down.

Relations

The Canon stands first among four. In 1968 three new eucharistic prayers were added alongside it, and the norms kept the Canon's primacy of place: it "may always be used", and it is fitting on Sundays and on days with a proper Communicantes or Hanc igitur.⁸ The new prayers regroup all the intercessions after the anamnesis and give each a single explicit epiclesis before the institution; the Canon keeps the older Roman order, its petitions and commemorations folded around the consecration.¹²

• Eucharistic Prayer IIcompanionThe first of the three new eucharistic prayers added alongside the Canon in 1968.⁸
• Eucharistic Prayer IIIcompanionThe second new prayer of 1968, with a variable preface, recommended for Sundays and feasts like the Canon.⁸
• Eucharistic Prayer IVcompanionThe third new prayer of 1968, built on an Eastern model.⁸

Disputed Questions

Where is the epiclesis in the Roman Canon? Vagaggini's critique counted the "number and disorder of epicletic-type prayers" among the Canon's defects and found no theology of the Holy Spirit in it.¹³ Against that stands the reading that Quam oblationem functions as the consecratory epiclesis, the supplication to the Father before the institution. The entry reports both and decides neither: the shape flags the readings implicit, and the prose keeps the question open.

Go Deeper

Read the Canon slowly and the difficulties become the devotion. The Te igitur names the Church, the pope and the bishop before any petition is made for the living by name; the Communicantes binds the living Church to Mary, the apostles and the Roman martyrs; the Nobis quoque, said aloud with the breast struck, begs the sinner's share with them. The doxology's Per ipsum closes with the people's Amen, the oldest acclamation in the rite. For the history of the text, Fortescue's 1912 study remains the best single older guide in English; for the text itself, Botte's critical edition.¹⁰¹¹

On Domus Dei

• The Roman Rite

Recommended reading

• Missale Romanum ex decreto SS. Concilii Tridentini restitutum Summorum Pontificum cura recognitum (editio typica 1962), Vatican City: Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1962.The editio typica text of the Canon as prayed today in the Vetus Ordo; the Ordo with the Canon Missae. Read online
• Botte, Bernard, Le canon de la messe romaine: édition critique, introduction et notes, Louvain: Abbaye du Mont César, 1935.The critical edition of the Canon's text, introduction and notes.
• Fortescue, Adrian, The Mass: A Study of the Roman Liturgy, London: Longmans, Green, 1912.The classic English history of the Roman Mass: the De sacramentis question (p. 129), the Hanc igitur (p. 333) (pp. 129, 333). Read online
• Sacred Congregation of Rites, “Decree inserting the name of St Joseph in the Canon of the Mass (13 November 1962)”, Acta Apostolicae Sedis 54 (1962), 1962, p. 873.The decree inserting St Joseph into the Communicantes, in force 8 December 1962. Read online
• Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, General Instruction of the Roman Missal (third typical edition; English translation), United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.The eight principal elements by which the Church reads every eucharistic prayer (§79). Read online

Sources

1. Primary text“Missale Romanum ex decreto Sacrosancti Concilii Tridentini restitutum (editio princeps, 1570)”, facsimile ed. Manlio Sodi and Achille Maria Triacca, Monumenta Liturgica Piana 2 (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1998), 1998.Verified 2026-09-20 · Catalogued 2026-09-20 via the canon (latin-roman.md): the 1570 editio princeps in the Sodi-Triacca facsimile; the book itself was not opened
2. Magisterial / canonicalPaul VI, Missale Romanum: Apostolic Constitution on the New Roman Missal, 1969. LinkVerified 2026-09-14 · read on vatican.va (given at Rome, Holy Thursday, 3 April 1969): promulgation of the new Missal, effective the First Sunday of Advent (30 Nov 1969); SC as the basis of the revision. Re-read 14 Sep 2026 in English and Latin for the Eucharistic Prayer: 'The major innovation concerns the Eucharistic Prayer … we have decided to add three new Canons to this Prayer' ('tres novi Canones adderentur statuimus'; vatican.va's Latin prints the typo 'stauiimus')
3. Primary textAmbrose of Milan (attribution disputed), “De sacramentis”, ed. Otto Faller, CSEL 73 (Vienna, 1955); English tr. T. Thompson, ed. J. H. Srawley (London: SPCK, 1919; rev. 1950), 1955, IV.21–27.Verified 2026-09-20 · Catalogued 2026-09-20 via the canon (latin-roman.md §§1.1, 5.1): book IV quotes a Latin prayer closely parallel to the Canon's Quam oblationem–Supra quae, usually cited at IV.21–27; the locator is the usual one, not confirmed in the edition in this pass; authorship disputed (Fortescue 1912 p. 129: 'much discussed'; later consensus favours Ambrose per Connolly 1942, Faller 1955, Botte SC 25 bis, as the canon reports)
4. Magisterial / canonicalSacred Congregation of Rites, “Decree inserting the name of St Joseph in the Canon of the Mass (13 November 1962)”, Acta Apostolicae Sedis 54 (1962), 1962, p. 873. LinkVerified 2026-09-15 · AAS 54 (1962) 873, read: 'sed et beati Ioseph eiusdem Virginis Sponsi'; in force 8 December 1962
5. Primary textLiber Pontificalis, “Le Liber pontificalis: texte, introduction et commentaire”, ed. Louis Duchesne (Paris: Thorin, 1886–1892), 1886, pp. 239, 312.Verified 2026-09-20 · Catalogued 2026-09-20 via the canon (latin-roman.md §5.1, seen in review): Leo I credited with 'sanctum sacrificium…' (p. 239), Gregory I with 'diesque nostros…' (p. 312); the edition was not opened in this pass. Cite these as tradition, not proof
6. Primary textMissale Romanum ex decreto SS. Concilii Tridentini restitutum Summorum Pontificum cura recognitum (editio typica 1962), Vatican City: Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1962, the Canon Missae in the Ordo. LinkVerified 2026-09-15 · archive.org scan (rights not established; consulted; a printing later than 13 Nov 1962, so cited by page as reprinted): the title page; the Ordo Missae and Canon Missae incipits and some twenty Ordo pages in the OCR; Proprium de Tempore and Proprium Sanctorum; Ritus servandus I.3, II.2, II.4, V.3 (p. LVII, page image), VI.6, X.6, X.7 and XII; Rubricae generales nn. 425, 503, 509–510; 'In Missis defunctorum dicitur prædicta oratio: sed aqua non benedicitur' (p. 221)
7. Primary textMissale Romanum ex decreto Sacrosancti Oecumenici Concilii Vaticani II instauratum, auctoritate Pauli PP. VI promulgatum (editio typica 1970), Vatican City: Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1970. LinkVerified 2026-09-15 · archive.org scan, djvu OCR with page images checked: the SCDW decree of 26 Mar 1970 as the Missal prints it, carrying 'Prot. n. 166/70' (the AAS printing at 62 (1970) 554 carries no protocol number); the Normae universales de anno liturgico et de calendario; the Ordo Missae cum populo, whose text begins at p. 385 (p. 383 is the section title page and p. 384 is blank) and ends with n. 145 at p. 476, with Eucharistic Prayer IV's 'Confitémur tibi, Pater sancte' at n. 118, p. 467; the Appendix's alternative penitential acts at pp. 487-489; the Ordo Missae sine populo, pp. 479-486, with the Confiteor at p. 479; the sprinkling rite at p. 889
8. Primary textConsilium ad exsequendam Constitutionem de sacra Liturgia, Notitiae 4 (1968), no. 40: the new Eucharistic Prayers, 1968, p. 156; pp. 157–159. LinkVerified 2026-09-15 · cultodivino.va PDF: the presentation of the prayers ('elle s'inspire de l'anaphore d'Hippolyte'), p. 153; the decree, Prot. R. 26/967, 23 May 1968, p. 156; the norms ('Canon Romanus, qui semper adhiberi potest'), pp. 157-159
9. Magisterial / canonicalCongregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, General Instruction of the Roman Missal (third typical edition; English translation), United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, §79. LinkVerified 2026-09-15 · read on usccb.org: §41 ('Gregorian chant holds pride of place because it is proper to the Roman Liturgy'); §69; §119; §§281-283; §295; §299 ('desirable wherever possible'); §357 ('three readings'); 2026-09-15: §6 ('separated by four centuries, embrace one and the same tradition'), §7 ('only very slight changes'), §157 ('With the people he adds'); 2026-09-16: §§2, 32, 43, 45, 70, 73, 82, 112–113, 160–161, 199, 252–254, 284, 320, 322, 357 and 390 read in the vatican.va English (the same translation), among them §2 ('The sacrificial nature of the Mass, solemnly asserted by the Council of Trent'), §43 ('The faithful should stand from the beginning of the Entrance chant'), §357 ('For Sundays and solemnities, three readings are assigned') and §390 ('It is up to the Conferences of Bishops to decide on the adaptations')
10. ScholarshipFortescue, Adrian, The Mass: A Study of the Roman Liturgy, London: Longmans, Green, 1912, p. 129; p. 333. LinkVerified 2026-09-13 · archive.org full text, pages fixed from the running heads: p. 100, the older theory that the Gallican family came from Asia Minor, 'brought to Lyons by the disciples of St John', and 'This theory is now abandoned'; p. 106, 'That it is related to the Gallican liturgies and not to that of Rome (as the Roman rite is now) seems obvious'; p. 184 (the medieval additions 'take nothing from its dignity') and p. 394 (Pius V's Missal of 1570 'for the first time admits it as part of the Mass'), each between its running heads
11. ScholarshipBotte, Bernard, Le canon de la messe romaine: édition critique, introduction et notes, Louvain: Abbaye du Mont César, 1935.Verified 2026-09-20 · Catalogued 2026-09-20 via the canon (latin-roman.md §5.1): the critical edition of the Roman Canon; the book itself was not opened
12. Magisterial / canonicalConsilium ad exsequendam Constitutionem de sacra Liturgia, “Catechesis on the new Eucharistic Prayers”, Notitiae 4 (1968), 1968, pp. 148-155, p. 152. LinkVerified 2026-09-15 · French text read: Eucharistic Prayer II 's'inspire de l'anaphore d'Hippolyte'; Prayer IV follows 'la tradition antiochienne', and the regrouped intercessions 'suit l'exemple de la tradition antiochienne' while the epiclesis stays Roman, before the institution narrative. Alexandria is named twice (p. 150, on where the epiclesis and intercessions fall); Basil is never named anywhere in the fascicle, so the Basil-Alexandria genealogy of Prayer IV is scholarly, not the Holy See's. p. 151: 'une seule anaphore ne peut contenir toute la richesse pastorale, spirituelle et théologique souhaitable', and every Church but Rome's has always had several; p. 150, the supplication that the Father make the bread and wine the Body and Blood of Christ, and p. 152, 'l'épiclèse consécratoire, c'est-à-dire … la supplication adressée au Père'; p. 153, 'Elles restent néanmoins de style romain'
13. ScholarshipVagaggini, Cipriano, The Canon of the Mass and Liturgical Reform, Staten Island, NY: Alba House, 1967, pp. 90–107.Verified 2026-09-15 · a scan linked from Matthew Hazell's blog (rights not established; consulted), read: 'These defects are undeniable and of no small importance', p. 90; 'the intrinsic value and genuine depth of this theology is undeniable', p. 88 (page image, 2026-09-15)