Canon of the Mass

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The Canon of the Mass (Latin: Canon Missæ), also known as the Canon of the Roman Mass^[1][2][3] and in the Mass of Paul VI as the Roman Canon or Eucharistic Prayer I, is the oldest anaphora used in the Roman Rite of Mass. The name Canon Missæ was used in the Tridentine Missal from the first typical edition of Pope Pius V in 1570 to that of Pope John XXIII in 1962 to describe the part of the Mass of the Roman Rite that began after the Sanctus with the words Te igitur. All editions preceding that of 1962^[a] place the indication "Canon Missae" at the head of each page from that point until the end of the Mass; that of 1962 does so only until the page preceding the Pater Noster and places the heading "Ordo Missae" on the following pages.^[5]

Before 1962, there were divergent opinions about the point where the Canon of the Mass ended. Some considered that it ended where indicated in the 1962 Roman Missal,^[b] others where indicated in the earlier editions from 1570 onwards (the end of Mass), others at the conclusion of the Embolism (Libera nos...) that expands on the final "Sed libera nos a malo" petition of the Pater Noster.

Before the 1970 revision of the Roman Missal, the Canon was the only anaphora used in the Roman Rite. The editions of the Roman Missal issued since 1970, which contain three other newly composed Eucharistic prayers, names it as the "Roman Canon" and places it as the first^[c] of its four Eucharistic prayers, and place the words "Prex Eucharistica" before the dialogue that precedes the Preface^[d] and the new heading "Ritus communionis" before the introduction to the Pater Noster.

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