Eucharistic Prayer IV

In Brief

Eucharistic Prayer IV is the new eucharistic prayer of 1968 with a preface of its own that may never be exchanged. Where EP III takes the preface of the day, the Fourth Prayer carries its preface and its post-Sanctus as one continuous narration of salvation history, from creation through the prophets and Christ to the sending of the Spirit.¹ Promulgated with the other new prayers on 23 May 1968 and usable from 15 August 1968, it was commended for Masses with no proper preface and for especially solemn occasions.²² It is a twentieth-century composition whose principal scholarly model is the Egyptian anaphora of St Basil: an adaptation of that prayer's spirit and structure, not a translation of it.

The Shape of the Liturgy

Part by Part

Authorship & Date

The prayer's relators in the Consilium's working group were Joseph Gelineau and Cipriano Vagaggini. An early proposal had considered adopting an Eastern anaphora in full, with a Basil anaphora among those considered; the group instead composed a new prayer on the Eastern model.³ The design, as Bugnini describes it, is a fixed preface with a long salvation-history account running from creation through Christ and Pentecost.³ The genealogy needs stating with precision, because two accounts circulate. The Consilium's own 1968 catechesis says Prayer IV follows "la tradition antiochienne" and insists the new prayers "remain Roman in style"; it names Alexandria twice and never names Basil anywhere in the fascicle.⁶ The Basil genealogy, that the principal model was the Egyptian anaphora of Basil, "which follows the Antiochene pattern", is scholarship's account, not the Holy See's stated one.⁴ The entry keeps the two distinct: Antiochene is what the Church said; Alexandrian Basil is what the scholars say she meant.

Witnesses & Editions

The first witness is the decree: Notitiae 4 (1968), Prot. R. 26/967, with the norms for the prayer's use.²² The 1970 typical edition gives the definitive text, Prex Eucharistica IV, nn. 117–124: the dialogue, the fixed preface ("vere dignum est tibi gratias agere, vere iustum est te glorificare, Pater sancte"), the Sanctus, the post-Sanctus "Confitemur tibi, Pater sancte, quia magnus es", the epiclesis "Quaesumus igitur, Domine, ut idem Spiritus Sanctus haec munera sanctificare dignetur", the institution introduced by "Ipse enim, cum hora venisset", the Unde et nos with its offering "sacrificium tibi acceptabile", the "Respice, Domine", the intercessions "Nunc ergo, Domine, omnium recordare" and "Memento etiam illorum", the saints, "per quem mundo bona cuncta largiris", and the Per ipsum.¹

The 1970 saints' commemoration reads "cum beata Virgine, Dei Genetrice, Maria, cum Apostolis et Sanctis tuis": no St Joseph. His name entered all three new prayers by the decree of 1 May 2013.⁸ EP IV provides no special formula for a named deceased person, a deliberate omission given its structure.

Theology & Spirit

EP IV is the Antiochene shape at its fullest. The fixed preface confesses the one living and true God, dwelling in unapproachable light, the maker of all things; the post-Sanctus then narrates the whole economy, man's creation and fall, the covenants, the prophets, the sending of the Son, his life, death, resurrection, and the Spirit sent as first-fruits to bring the work to perfection.¹ Only then comes the epiclesis, Roman in placement before the narrative, and the institution. The order is the Consilium's catechesis in action: Antiochene in its regrouped intercessions after the anamnesis, Roman in the epiclesis before the institution, Roman throughout in style.⁶

The post-anamnesis petition is the prayer's theological centre: "Respice, Domine, in Hostiam, quam Ecclesiae tuae ipse parasti" (look on the Victim you yourself prepared for your Church), and grant that all who share the one bread and cup, "gathered into one body by the Holy Spirit, may become in Christ a living victim".¹ The intercessions that follow are correspondingly wide: the pope, the bishop, the whole clergy, the offerers, the bystanders, all God's people, "and all who seek you with a sincere heart". The prayer ends where the preface began, with the confession of the one God, now doxological: through him, with him, in him.

Relations

EP IV stands fourth among four. The Roman Canon, which "may always be used", is its ancient companion; EP II its shorter fellow new prayer for weekdays; EP III its fellow new prayer with a variable preface for Sundays and feasts.² Behind EP IV stands the Egyptian anaphora of St Basil, the principal scholarly model of its spirit and structure: an Antiochene-patterned prayer that the Consilium's composers adapted, not adopted.⁴

• Roman CanoncompanionThe ancient Canon alongside which EP IV was added in 1968; the Canon may always be used instead.²
• Eucharistic Prayer IIcompanionThe first new prayer of 1968, shorter, recommended for weekdays and special occasions.²
• Eucharistic Prayer IIIcompanionThe second new prayer of 1968, with a variable preface, recommended for Sundays and feasts.²
• Anaphora of St Basil (Egyptian)sourceThe Egyptian anaphora of St Basil: the principal scholarly model of EP IV's spirit and structure, itself of the Antiochene pattern.⁴

Disputed Questions

Is Eucharistic Prayer IV a translation or adaptation of the anaphora of St Basil? It is neither, in the strict sense. Scholarship describes it as an adaptation of the Egyptian Basil's spirit and structure; Scerri's study finds it closely following an Antiochene structural type and resembling a Basilian anaphora while remaining the Consilium's own design; and the Consilium's catechesis never names Basil at all, speaking only of the Antiochene tradition.⁴³⁶ The entry's position: a twentieth-century composition with an Eastern model, Roman in style and in the placement of its epiclesis.

Go Deeper

The prayer's interest is its preface, which is really an anaphora in miniature. No other eucharistic prayer in the Missal narrates the whole of salvation history before the Sanctus; the fixed text makes EP IV the least flexible and the most catechetical of the four, which is why the norms commend it both to Masses with no proper preface and to congregations credited with a deeper knowledge of Scripture. For the text, the 1970 Missal; for the design and the relators, Scerri's study; for the official account, the Consilium's catechesis.¹³⁶

On Domus Dei

• The Roman Rite

Recommended reading

• Consilium ad exsequendam Constitutionem de sacra Liturgia, Notitiae 4 (1968), no. 40: the new Eucharistic Prayers, 1968.The decree of 23 May 1968 (p. 156); the norms on use: when a Mass has no proper preface (pp. 157–159) (pp. 156–160). Read online
• Consilium ad exsequendam Constitutionem de sacra Liturgia, “Catechesis on the new Eucharistic Prayers”, Notitiae 4 (1968), 1968, pp. 148-155.Prayer IV follows 'la tradition antiochienne'; the new prayers remain Roman in style; Basil is never named (pp. 150–153). Read online
• Scerri, Hector, “The Fourth Eucharistic Prayer”, Melita Theologica 51:1 (2000), 2000, 1–21.The relators Gelineau and Vagaggini (pp. 5–7); the design; EP IV's Antiochene type and Basilian resemblance.
• Missale Romanum ex decreto Sacrosancti Oecumenici Concilii Vaticani II instauratum, auctoritate Pauli PP. VI promulgatum (editio typica 1970), Vatican City: Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1970.The editio typica text of the prayer (nn. 117–124). Read online

Sources

1. 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, Prex Eucharistica IV (nn. 117–124). 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
2. 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
3. ScholarshipScerri, Hector, “The Fourth Eucharistic Prayer”, Melita Theologica 51:1 (2000), 2000, 1–21, pp. 5–7.Verified 2026-09-20 · Seen (FT) 2026-09-20: pp. 5–7, Joseph Gelineau and Cipriano Vagaggini as relators of the EP IV subgroup and the early proposal to adopt an Eastern anaphora (a Basil anaphora considered); the design per Bugnini pp. 452–453 (fixed preface, long salvation-history account); promulgated 23 May 1968, first used 15 Aug 1968; EP IV closely follows an Antiochene structural type and resembles a Basilian anaphora
4. Reference“The introductory rites / the Eucharistic Prayer (study text)”, eucharistia.org. LinkVerified 2026-09-20 · Catalogued 2026-09-20 from the page's documented claims in the roman research tables: the 8 principal elements of the Eucharistic Prayer (per the General Instruction); 'on May 23, 1968 Pope Paul VI approved three new eucharistic prayers'; EP II 'very closely modeled on that of Hippolytus, with some modifications'; 'The principal model on which the new Roman prayers were based was the Egyptian anaphora of Basil (or Alexandrian Basil, as it is called) which follows the Antiochene pattern'; EP IV 'an adaptation of the spirit and structure of this prayer'. A later access attempt the same day failed to open the site, so the full page was not re-read; authorship of the site not established. Used here only where corroborated by Notitiae1968, Consilium1968Cat, Scerri2000 and MR1970
5. 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')
6. Magisterial / canonicalConsilium ad exsequendam Constitutionem de sacra Liturgia, “Catechesis on the new Eucharistic Prayers”, Notitiae 4 (1968), 1968, pp. 148-155, pp. 150–153. 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'
7. 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')
8. Magisterial / canonicalCongregatio de Cultu Divino et Disciplina Sacramentorum, “Decretum 'Paternas vices' (Prot. N. 215/11/L)”, Notitiae 49 (2013) 217–218, 2013. LinkVerified 2026-09-20 · Catalogued 2026-09-20 from the canon (latin-roman.md §1.1): the Latin on vatican.va; protocol number in Notitiae 49 (2013) 217; signed Card. Cañizares Llovera and Abp Roche, acting 'vigore facultatum a Summo Pontifice Francisco tributarum' — a Congregation decree by papal faculty, not a papal act. Inserts St Joseph into Eucharistic Prayers II, III and IV (EP II: 'beato Ioseph, eius Sponso'), 1 May 2013