Wednesday, December 8, 2021

A worthy little habitation for the Verbum abbreviatum

Monasteriaka
"O God, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin prepared a worthy [little] dwelling [(dignum . . . habitaculum)] for your Son, grant, we pray, that, as you preserved her from every stain by virtue of the Death of your Son, which you foresaw, so, through her intercession, we, too, may be cleansed and admitted to your presence.  Through."

"Deus, qui per immaculatam Virginis Conceptionem dignum Filio tuo habitaculum praeparasti, quaesumus, ut, qui ex morte eiusdem Filii tui praevisa, eam ab omni labe praeservasti, nos quoque mundos, eius intercessione, ad te pervenire concedas.  Per."

     Collect for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.  Habita-culum is morphologically a diminutive (Allen & Greenough no. 243), though the ICEL doesn't and the lexica don't emphasize the fact.  It is also post-classical, and not surprisingly quite common in the Vulgate, whence, presumably, it makes its way into the Gelasian Sacramentary.  It would be interesting to look further into the earliest occurrences of the word, but my assumption would be that it functioned in Christian circles as a term associated not just with churches and such, but also the doctrine the Verbum abbreviatum.

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