A Short History of the Roman Mass

A Short History of the Roman Mass delivers a clear and authoritative account of how the Church’s central act of worship developed from the Last Supper into the Roman Rite handed down through the centuries. This is not a speculative history. It is a grounded explanation of continuity, showing how the Mass has been received, preserved, and safeguarded within the life of the Church. Against the modern assumption that liturgy is something constructed or reinvented, this work demonstrates that the Mass grew organically. The great reforms of figures like St. Gregory the Great and St. Pius V did not create something new. They clarified and protected what had already been received. What emerges is a vision of the Mass not as a product of history, but as a living inheritance.