Officium divinum od IV do XIII wieku
The Divine Office from the four to the thirteen century

Summary/Abstract: The article discusses the development of the Divine Office from the four to the thirteen century. Research in this field makes possible to discern various performing traditions of the Officium Divinum. Two among them seemed to be the most important and widespread: the cathedral tradition and the monastic tradition. They had not mostly been based on geographical foundations but on the structure of groups performing the analyzed prayer. But on the whole, although there were some differences between them they very often influenced each other and their elements intertwined. The structure of the hours and the ways and places of their performing as well as the people involved in the service have been also discussed in the study. Here, historical background of the times when the Officium was performed have been described as well. The final section of the article discusses the problem of the Roman Breviary’s creation and its influence on the transformation of the Church’s public prayer into a predominantly individual practice. The intertwining influences between cursus monachorum and cursus cathedralis resulted in the “overabundance” of the contents of the prayer hours and in loosing the prayer harmony with the natural, cosmic rhythm of time. In addition to that the widespread development of the offices to local saints brought about the destruction of the original, well — composed structure of the prayer hours. Thus, the attempts to introduce some reforms into the Divine Office could be observed since the thirteen century.

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