Liturgia w Liber Pontificalis The liturgy in “Liber Pontificalis”

Jacek Nowak

http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5722-162X

Abstract

The article The liturgy in “Liber Pontificalis” starts with a depiction of the history of the Liber Pontificalis, which shows that the book had more than one author. The elaboration is divided into 5 parts: 1. The Holy Mass; 2. The Sacrament of Holy Orders; 3. The liturgical year; 4. Liturgical space; 5. Other phenomena associated with liturgy. Four parts contain issues which are grouped thematically, because they form a certain whole, whereas the last part encompasses issues appearing in single entries. The critical approach to the Liber Pontificalis, in the juxtaposition of biographies with other historical sources, shows that norms ascribed to some popes are not all credible. These anachronisms result from the fact that the book was not written by a single author, and especially the earliest pontificates were written down much later. Moreover, in this opus, apart from the liturgy, there are pieces of information pertaining to other fields, that were not the object of research of this elaborate.