In the Ambrosian Psalter, while the first part "Benedictus es" is said daily at Matins as stated above, the usual Benedicite is said at Lauds on Sundays. In the Mozarabic Psalter an abridgment of both parts is said at Lauds, but not "in feriis." "Benedictus es" also comes on weekdays at Prime. In the Mozarabic Missal Benedicite occurs in the service for the first Sunday in Lent. In the use arranged by Cæsarius of Aries (†542) for the Gallican Church Benedicite was sung at Sunday Lauds.
Duchesne says (Christian Worship, Eng. tr. S.P.C.K. 1903, p. 195), "In the Gallican Mass between the Apostolic and the Evangelic lections the Hymn of the Three Children was sung. It was known also by the name of the Benediction (Benedicite) because in it the word 'Benedicite' is continually repeated." In a note he adds, "The Luxeuil Lectionary, however, prescribes for the Nativity, Daniel cum Benedictione, i.e., the Hymn of the Three Children before the Apostolic Lection. It is true that in the Mass of Clausum Paschale it places it after this lection."
The fourth council of Toledo in 633, condemns the omission of the Song at Mass, threatens with excommunication those who in Spain or Gaul (or Gallicia, margin) persist in leaving it out, and styles it "Hymnum quoque trium puerorum in quo universa coeli terræque creatura dominum collaudat et quem ecclesia catholica per totum orbem diffusa celebrat" (Mansi, Concil., Florence, 1764, X. 623).
In the Roman Missal at the end of the Canon, the last Rubric is "Discedens ab Altari, pro gratiarum actione dicit Antiphonam Trium Puerorum cum reliquis, ut habetur in principio Missalis;" where is given as an antiphon before it these words, "Trium puerorum cantemus hymnum quem cantabant sancti in camino ignis, benedicentes Dominum."
Possibly there is a reference to this Eucharistic use in Bishop Wordsworth's Michaelmas Hymn, No. CII. in his Holy Year, 1864.
Angelic voices we shall hear
Joined in our jubilee,
In this thy Church and echoing
Our Benedicite.Angelic faces we shall see
Angelic songs o'erspread
Above thy holy Altar, Lord,
And Thou, the Living Bread.
In the Saram Breviary (and in Cardinal Quignon's) Benedicite is a canticle at Lauds on Sundays only. It is to be said without "Glory"; "dicatur sine Gloria Patri per totum annum quandocunque dicitur" (Procter, p. 188); but a doxology is provided in the Roman Breviary, "Benedicamus Patrem et Filium cum Sancto Spiritu," etc., and 'Amen' is directed not to be said at the end. This doxology is said to have been added by Pope Damasus I., who also transposed v. 56 to stand as the finale of the Song (see James M'Swiney, Psalms and Canticles, Lond. 1901, p. 643). This R.C. writer calls the use of the canticle on Sundays "a thanksgiving for the resurrection of the Crucified, the earnest of the glories wherewith nature is to be invested at His second coming." But this sounds like an ex post facto reason for its appropriateness.
Benedicite appears, at any rate sometimes, to have been said subsequently to Te Deum after the election of an Abbot (see Jocelin of Brakelond's Chronicle, Sir E. Clarke's ed., 1903, p. 38). It also appears in the Cantica after the Psalter, between Te Deum and Benedictus, in the Scottish Breviarium Bothanum, which is thought to be of about 15th century (Lond. 1900).
Thus it is evident that the use of this hymn became general at an early period, and so continued, having never receded in Christian esteem as a valued factor in public worship.
Besides the use of the Song, or part of it, as a canticle, verses or small portions often occur in liturgies; e.g., vv. 28-30 are borrowed in an Ἐκφώνησις before the offertory prayers in the Liturgy of St. James; at the censing of the Gospel in that of St. Mark; in a Byzantine Liturgy of the ninth century in the second prayer of the faithful; in that of St. Chrysostom immediately before the lections in the Mass of the Catechumens; and v. 19 in the Ἐπίκλησις in that of the Coptic Jacobites (Brightman's Liturgies, I. Oxf. 1896). In the Leonine Sacramentary, in a Preface, Mense Junio, IIII. 1. 13, ad Fontem, the last words of the Song appear to be cited "plena sunt omnia saccula misericordia tua" (Dr. Feltoe's ed., Camb. 1896, p. 31). The verse "Benedicite omnes angeli" occurs in a "Communio" for Michaelmas in the Rosslyn Missal; "Benedictus es Domine patrum nostrorum" occurs in the Mass of the Holy Trinity in the Westminster Missal as a "gradale," also in a Mass "pro sponsis", and other places (Hen. Bradshaw Soc., Lond. 1899, p. 70, 1897, p. 1239). v. 34 (56) occurs in the Sarum Compline after the Creed, as also in the Roman.