BCP Reference · Annotated Sources

Sources of Evening Prayer

Tracing each part of the Office to its historical origin

Cranmer’s great compression of the seven monastic Hours into two Offices, made for the first English Prayer Book of 1549, gave Evening Prayer the same shape as Morning Prayer — the same Penitential Introduction, the same psalter, the same Apostles’ Creed, the same suffrages, the same final prayers. What the Evening Office preserves distinctively is its canticles: the Magnificat, sung at Vespers in the Western monasteries from the early sixth century, and the Nunc Dimittis, sung at Compline as the last words of the day. These two ancient evening songs, with their alternative psalms (Cantate Domino and Deus Misereatur, both introduced by Cranmer in 1552), are the principal element on this page that does not also appear in the order for Morning Prayer.

The Office also preserves two distinctly evening Collects — the Second Collect for Peace, drawn from the Gelasian Sacramentary, and the Third Collect, for Aid against all Perils, taken from the medieval Office of Compline as it stood in the Sarum Breviary. Both ask for the protection of the Church through the night that is coming, in the same spirit as the older monastic prayer at sundown.

This page is organised by the order in which the parts occur. Where elements are shared with Morning Prayer, the page directs the reader to the corresponding section there rather than repeating the annotation; where the elements are unique to Evening Prayer, each is given its own card with date and source.

I.The Opening and Penitential Introduction

The Order for Evening Prayer opens with the same elements as the Order for Morning Prayer: the Sentences of Scripture, the Exhortation, the General Confession, the Absolution, the Lord’s Prayer, the Versicles, and the Gloria Patri. Each was added or set in its present form between 1552 and 1662, and the dates and sources are the same as for the morning use.

II.The First Canticle: Magnificat or Cantate Domino

After the Old Testament Lesson follows the first of the two great evening canticles — either the Magnificat from the Lukan infancy narrative, or, since 1552, the alternative Psalm 98 (Cantate Domino).

• Magnificat (St. Luke 1:46)

  Song of the Blessed Virgin · Vespers in Rule of St. Benedict, c. 530

  The song of the Blessed Virgin Mary upon her visitation to Elisabeth, included in the Vespers Office in the Rule of St. Benedict (c. 530) and from there carried into the daily Vespers of the Western Church. Cranmer placed it after the Old Testament Lesson at Evening Prayer in 1549, where it has remained — the first explicitly Christian canticle of the Office, sung by the people in the place of an evening psalm.

• Cantate Domino (Psalm 98)

  Introduced 1552

  Introduced as an alternative to the Magnificat in the second Edwardine Prayer Book of 1552. A psalm of new song to the Lord, fitting for the evening as for any festal moment.

III.The Second Canticle: Nunc Dimittis or Deus Misereatur

After the New Testament Lesson follows the second canticle — either the Nunc Dimittis, the song of Simeon at the close of his life, or, since 1552, the alternative Psalm 67 (Deus Misereatur).

• Nunc Dimittis (St. Luke 2:29)

  Song of Simeon · Compline of St. Gregory the Great, 590–604

  The song of Simeon as he received the infant Christ in the Temple. Set as a canticle in the Compline Office under Pope Gregory the Great (590–604), it is the last sung text of the monastic day — the Church’s nightly prayer to depart in peace, having seen the salvation prepared before the face of all peoples. Cranmer placed it at the close of the second Lesson at Evening Prayer in 1549.

• Deus Misereatur (Psalm 67)

  Introduced 1552

  Introduced as an alternative to the Nunc Dimittis in 1552. Its missionary tone — “That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations” — carries the evening Office out from the gathered congregation toward the world.

IV.The Apostles’ Creed and Suffrages

After the canticles, the Office turns to the Apostles’ Creed, the Salutation, the Kyrie, the second saying of the Lord’s Prayer, and the Suffrages. As at Morning Prayer, these are the older medieval material around which the Reformation Office was built.

V.The Two Evening Collects

After the Collect of the Day, two further Collects follow — both ancient, both Latin in origin, both drawn from the medieval Western evening Hours. Together they ask for peace and protection through the coming night, in the same spirit as the older monastic prayer at sundown.

• The Second Collect, for Peace at Evening Prayer

  Gelasian Sacramentary · Sarum Breviary · Fourth Collect after the Litany

  An ancient Latin collect — “O God, from whom all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works do proceed” — preserved in the Gelasian Sacramentary, retained in the Sarum Breviary, and used as the Fourth Collect after the Litany. Cranmer brought it into Evening Prayer in 1549 as the second of the three fixed Collects.

• The Third Collect, for Aid against all Perils

  Gelasian Sacramentary · Compline in the Sarum Breviary

  “Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord; and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night” — one of the most ancient and most loved of the Anglican Collects. Drawn from the Gelasian Sacramentary; in medieval use it stood as a Collect at Compline in the Sarum Breviary, where its evening character was already long established. Cranmer placed it as the third Collect of Evening Prayer in 1549, and it has stood there ever since.

VI.The Final Prayers

The Office closes with a sequence of additional prayers shared with the close of Morning Prayer.

VII.A Note on the Athanasian Creed

In the source from which this page is drawn, the Quicunque Vult — commonly called the Creed of Saint Athanasius — is printed between the Orders for Morning and Evening Prayer. It is included here because of that placement.

• Quicunque Vult (the Athanasian Creed)

  Attributed to St. Athanasius, c. 350 · probably Southern Gaul, c. 425 · canticle since 700–800

  Long ascribed to Athanasius (c. 350), the Creed is now thought to have been composed in Southern Gaul about 425. It was used as a liturgical canticle from the eighth century onward. In the English Book of Common Prayer it is rubrically directed to be sung or said in place of the Apostles’ Creed at Morning Prayer on certain feasts — among them Christmas, the Epiphany, Easter, Whitsunday, and Trinity Sunday.

  In the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer the Creed is preserved as an appendix at the end of the Daily Office, where it remains available for private or congregational use, but is not appointed for any specific day. Its uncompromising trinitarian and christological clauses give the Creed a place of honour in Anglican formation, even where its liturgical use has fallen away.

Evening Prayer at New Every Morning is said on Wednesdays and on Sundays at five o’clock, in conjunction with the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer and the 1945 Lectionary. To say the Office is to take part in a continuous evening prayer that began in the lamp-lit gatherings of the early Church, was given monastic form by St. Benedict, and was distilled into English for parish and household use by Cranmer in 1549. Each canticle, each Collect, each suffrage carries its own age-old voice; to pray them is to pray with the company of those who have prayed them at evening for fifteen centuries before us.