Visigothic rite

The Mozarabic Rite, also called the Visigothic Rite or the Hispanic Rite, is a form of Christian worship within the Latin Catholic Church, the Western Rite liturgical family of the Eastern Orthodox Church and in the Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church. Its beginning dates to the 7th century, and is localized in the Iberian Peninsula (Hispania). "Mozarab" is a modern historical term used to refer to Christians that lived under Muslim rulers in Al-Andalus. The Visigothic/Mozarabic Rite's origins predates the Al-Andalus to the time of the Christian Visigothic Kingdom. The rite was superseded by the Roman Rite as part of a wider programme of liturgical standardization within the Catholic Church.

Ritual worship surrounding the Eucharist in the early Church was not scripted with precise rubrics as is the norm today. One of the earliest known documents setting down the nature of Eucharistic celebration is the Didache, dating from 70–140 (see historical roots of Catholic Eucharistic theology). Few details are known of early forms of the liturgy, or worship, in the first three centuries, but there was some diversity of practice; Justin Martyr, however gave one example of the early Christian Liturgy in one of his apologies. As Christianity gained dominance in the wake of the conversion of Constantine I early in the fourth century, there was a period of liturgical development as the communities emerged from smaller gatherings to large assemblies in public halls and new churches. This time of development saw the combination of embellishment of existing practices with the exchange of ideas and practices from other communities. These mutual processes resulted both in greater diversity and in certain unifying factors within the liturgy from the merging of forms throughout major cities and regions. The liturgies of the patriarchal cities in particular had greater influence on their regions so that by the 5th century it becomes possible to distinguish among several families of liturgies, in particular the Jerusalem, Alexandrian, Antiochene, Byzantine, and Syrian families in the East, and in the Latin West, the African (completely lost), Gallican, Celtic, Ambrosian, Roman, and Hispanic (Mozarabic) families. These settled into fairly stable forms that continued to evolve, but none without some influence from outside. In the West, however, the liturgy in Roman Africa was lost as the Church there was weakened by internal division and then the Vandal invasion, and then was extinguished in the wake of the Islamic ascendancy. In Gaul, the fascination of the Franks with Roman liturgy led them to begin adopting the Roman Rite, a process that was confirmed and promoted by Charlemagne as an aid to imperial unity.

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