You are kindly invited to the seminar entitled ‘The Ordo Missae of Bishop Sigebert of Minden (1022-1036)’ organized by the Department of History and HICOS.
Date: 30 April 2026, Thursday
Time: 16.30
Avenue: A-130 Seminar Room
Title: The Ordo Missae of Bishop Sigebert of Minden (1022-1036)
Speaker: Uwe Michael Lang, St. Mary’s University Twickenham
Abstract:
The talk examines the Ordo Missae (Order of the Mass) commissioned by Bishop Sigebert of Minden in northern Germany in the early eleventh century and situates it within the broader development of Christian worship in medieval Europe. Particular attention is given to the role of the celebrant (bishop or priest), whose liturgical function combined public ritual performance with private, often highly affective prayer. The Minden manuscript contains an unusually large collection of optional prayers intended to accompany almost every moment of the liturgical celebration. Many of these texts emphasize the celebrant’s unworthiness and need for divine mercy, while at the same time expressing his role as a representative of Christ in the local church. This theological self-understanding is expressed not only in the texts themselves but also through visual elements of the manuscript, especially images that depict the bishop in liturgical vestments and underscore his identity and authority. Sigebert’s Ordo Missae is an idiosyncratic and atypical example of its genre, notable for its length and intense penitential character. While it attracted attention in theological debates after its publication in the sixteenth century, it had little direct influence on the standardization of the Roman Mass in the late medieval and early modern period. Instead, it is best understood as part of a broader memorial foundation through which Sigebert intented to his posthumous representation.
Bio:
Revd. Dr. Uwe Michael Lang is a priest of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in London. He holds a doctorate in theology from the University of Oxford and is a Senior Lecturer in Liturgy and Church History at St. Mary’s University Twickenham, London. He is the author of The Roman Mass: From Early Christian Origins to Tridentine Reform (Cambridge University Press, 2022), and A Short History of the Roman Mass (Ignatius Press, 2024). He is the co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to Joseph Ratzinger (Cambridge University Press, 2024).