LECTIONARY (Lat. lectionarium), orig inally a service-book of the church of the Middle Ages, so termed as it contained the les sons (lectiones) or passages of Scriptures, read in the church service. The Roman Catholic Lectionary contained the epistles and gospels of the Roman missals, sometimes also all the les sons of the various services in the Church. in which case it was termed the Plenarium. The most ancient known, the Galilean Lectionary, is believed to represent the rite of the ancient Gallican Church. It was published from a manuscript of the monastery of Luxeuil in 1685, by Mabillon (q.v.), who attributed it to the 7th century. It was written in Merovingian characters, it names the festival of Saint Gene vieve, and assigns three lessons to each mass, in accordance with the ancient Gallican liturgy.
In the Greek Church the lectionaries consist of lessons from the Gospels, from the Acts and Epistles. The Greek lectionary is called Syn
axarion (Sap o), and the oldest synaxarion extant is that prefixed to the Codex Cyprius (K), a manuscript of the New Testament which belongs to the 8th century.
The lectionary or calendar of the English Book of Common Prayer was first published in 1559, and contained two lessons, one from the Old Testament and one from the New for daily morning and evening prayer, and special lessons for Sundays and holidays. This lection ary was adopted by the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States in 1789, but in 1883 the General Convention changed it by re vision into the form which it now bears. In accordance with this assignment the Old Testa ment is appointed to be read through in the course of public worship once a year; the New Testament being read three times in the same period.