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The invitatory antiphons in the morning service of Matins marked the beginning of each new liturgical day for the Birgittine sisters.1 Matins was part of the Cantus sororum (the Song of the Sisters) comprising seven Offices which together form a weekly cycle. Each Office illuminates one aspect of the Virgin Mary in her role as the mother of the Redeemer, and it was the particular function of the invitatory antiphon to announce or at least highlight this theme through its text. As such, these invitatories had an especially significant symbolic meaning in the Birgittine liturgy.
The text of Cantus sororum is based on the Officium parvum beate Marie Virginis expanded to a weekly Office comprising numerous text contributions exclusive to the Order.2 It is structured around seven different themes, one for each day of the week. The theological essence of these themes will be discussed below in connection with the invitatory antiphons. As for the chants, the Cantus sororum mixes newly composed as well as material borrowed and adapted from the common stock of medieval plainchant. Melodies unique to the Cantus sororum conform to the modal system and are structured in recognisable ways though with a Birgittine twist, as will be demonstrated later.
The Birgittine Order
The Order of the Birgittines3 was founded in the fourteenth century by the mystic St Birgitta of Sweden, whose religious work began in the 1340s when she received revelations instructing her to found a new order open to both men and women. Before setting off for Rome in 1349, however, Christ informed her in a vision that the order should be foremost for women and for the purpose of honouring His mother.4 Although no new monastic rules were allowed at this time – the Birgittine rule was an addition to the Augustinian – Birgitta and her collaborator and confessor, Petrus Olavi of Skänninge, outlined the order's principal features and part of its liturgy in the 1350s and 1360s.5 This was to be an order of double abbeys where the Birgittine sisters and brothers would share the same church but live in separate quarters within the abbey precincts.6 The brothers observed the cathedral liturgy of the diocese where a given abbey was situated;...