[846] Epist. I. ad Gundobadum, c. i., and Epist., 3.
[847] Test. De Anima, c. 9.
[848] The formula in question runs: Ἀπολύεσθε ἐν εἰρήνῃ, i.e. “Depart in peace,” or, Πορεύεσθε ἐν εἰρήνῃ, or, Ἐν εἰρήνῃ προελθῶμεν. Daniel, Cod. Lit., iv. 79, 131, 370, 449. “Ite missa est” literally means: Go, it is the dismissal.
[849] Peregr. Silviæ, ed. Geyer, c. 24 seqq.
[850] “Missa autem quæ fit ... hoc est oblatio”; the passage seems to have been corrected. The other passage adduced by Professor Funk (Tüb. Theol. Quartalschr., 1904, 56) to prove the contrary—“fit oblatio in Anastase maturius, ita ut fiat missa ante solem”—ought to be translated: “the Mass took place earlier, so that its conclusion came before sunrise.” Missa here = the dismissal at the end of Mass.
[851] Cassian, De Cœnobiorum Institutis, 2, 7, 13 and 15; 3, 7; 11, 15.
[852] See Leo I., Sermo, 41, c. 3; Epist., 156, c. 5. Once, in Epist., 9, c. 8, we find “missa.” But the general employment of the term cannot be inferred from its use in one isolated instance.
[853] “Missa catechumenorum” meant originally not that part of the Mass at which the catechumens assisted, but the dismissal of the catechumens.
[854] For missæ in the sense of the canonical hours, we may cite Gregor. M., Epist., 2, 12; 3, 63; 11, 64; Migne, Patr. Lat., lxxvii. 1187; in the sense of the Mass: Epist., 4, 39; Hom., 50, 8; as a general term for both, Epist., 3, 63; 4, 18, etc. As regards St Benedict’s usage, Fr. Lindenbauer, O.S.B., draws our attention to Mattins. It means dismissal at the hours: Regula, c. 17 (Migne, lxvi. 460), but Mass, ib. c. 35, 60.
[855] Acta S. Ludgeri, c. 20. Migne, Patr. Lat., xcix. 779.