Labadists

 Laban

 Labarum

 Jean-Baptiste Labat

 Philippe Labbe

 Labour and Labour Legislation

 Moral Aspects of Labour Unions

 Jean de La Bruyère

 Labyrinth

 Stanislas Du Lac

 Lace

 Diocese of Lacedonia

 François d'Aix de la Chaise

 Jean-Baptiste-Henri Dominique Lacordaire

 Diocese of La Crosse

 Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius

 James Laderchi

 St. Ladislaus

 René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laennec

 Laetare Sunday

 Pomponius Laetus

 Marie Madeleine Pioche de la Vergne, Comtesse de La Fayette

 Joseph-François Lafitau

 Louis-François Richer Laflèche

 Jean de La Fontaine

 Nicolas-Joseph Laforêt

 Charles de La Fosse

 Modesto Lafuente y Zamalloa

 Lagania

 Pierre Lagrené

 Jean-François La Harpe

 Jean de La Haye (Jesuit Biblical scholar)

 Jean de La Haye

 Philippe de la Hire

 Diocese of Lahore

 Diocese of Laibach

 Laicization

 James Lainez

 Laity

 Lake Indians

 Charles Lalemant

 Gabriel Lalemant

 Jerome Lalemant

 Jacques-Philippe Lallemant

 Louis Lallemant

 Teresa Lalor

 César-Guillaume La Luzerne

 Jean-Baptiste-Pierre-Antoine de Monet, Chevalier de Lamarck

 Alphonse de Lamartine

 Paschal Lamb

 Lamb in Early Christian Symbolism

 Peter Lambeck

 St. Lambert

 Lambert Le Bègue

 Lambert of Hersfeld

 Lambert of St-Bertin

 Jacques and Jean de Lamberville

 Louis Lambillotte

 Denis Lambin

 Luigi Lambruschini

 Ven. Joseph Lambton

 Diocese of Lamego

 Félicité Robert de Lamennais

 Jean-Marie-Robert de Lamennais

 Family of Lamoignon

 Johann von Lamont

 Louis-Christophe-Leon Juchault de la Moricière

 Wilhelm Lamormaini

 Lampa

 Lamp and Lampadarii

 Lamprecht

 Early Christian Lamps

 Lampsacus

 Lamuel

 Lamus

 Bernard Lamy

 François Lamy

 Thomas Joseph Lamy

 Francesco Lana

 The Holy Lance

 Giovanni Paolo Lancelotti

 Archdiocese of Lanciano and Ortona

 Land-Tenure in the Christian Era

 Pope Lando

 Jean-François-Anne Landriot

 Lanfranc

 Giovanni Lanfranco

 Matthew Lang

 Rudolph von Langen

 Benoit-Marie Langénieux

 Simon Langham

 Langheim

 Ven. Richard Langhorne

 Richard Langley

 Diocese of Langres

 Stephen Langton

 Lanspergius

 Lantern

 Luigi Lanzi

 Laodicea

 Vicariate Apostolic of Laos

 Diocese of La Paz

 Pierre-Simon Laplace

 Lapland and Lapps

 Diocese of La Plata

 Archdiocese of La Plata

 Albert Auguste de Lapparent

 Volume 10

 Victor de Laprade

 Lapsi

 Ven. Luis de Lapuente

 Laranda

 Lares

 Armand de La Richardie

 Diocese of Larino

 Larissa

 Joseph de La Roche Daillon

 The Duke of La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt

 Henri-Auguste-Georges du Vergier, Comte de la Rochejacquelein

 Diocese of La Rochelle

 Dominique-Jean Larrey

 Charles de Larue

 Charles de La Rue

 La Salette

 Missionaries of La Salette

 René-Robert-Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

 Ernst von Lasaulx

 Constantine Lascaris

 Janus Lascaris

 John Laski

 Baron Joseph Maria Christoph von Lassberg

 Orlandus de Lassus

 Marie Lataste

 Flaminius Annibali de Latera

 Christian Museum of Lateran

 Saint John Lateran

 Lateran Councils

 Ecclesiastical Latin

 Latin Church

 Christian Latin Literature

 Classical Latin Literature in the Church

 Brunetto Latini

 La Trappe

 Pierre-André Latreille

 Latria

 Lauda Sion

 Lauds

 Laura

 Pierre-Sébastien Laurentie

 Diocese of Lausanne and Geneva

 Jean de Lauzon

 Pierre de Lauzon

 Lavabo

 Diocese of Laval

 François de Montmorency Laval

 Jean Parisot de La Valette

 Laval University of Quebec

 Lavant

 Charles-Honoré Laverdière

 Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de Lavérendrye

 Jean-Nicolas Laverlochère

 Charles-Martial-Allemand Lavigerie

 Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier

 Law

 Canon Law

 Influence of the Church on Civil Law

 Common Law

 Moral Aspect of Divine Law

 International Law

 Natural Law

 Roman Law

 St. Lawrence (2)

 St. Lawrence (1)

 St. Lawrence Justinian

 St. Lawrence O'Toole

 Lay Abbot

 Lay Brothers

 Lay Communion

 Lay Confession

 Paul Laymann

 Lay Tithes

 Lazarus

 Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem

 St. Lazarus of Bethany

 Diocese of Lead

 The League

 German (Catholic) League

 League of the Cross

 St. Leander of Seville

 Diocese of Leavenworth

 Lebanon

 Lebedus

 Edmond-Frederic Le Blant

 Charles Lebrun

 St. Lebwin

 Emile-Paul-Constant-Ange Le Camus

 Etienne Le Camus

 Joseph Le Caron

 Diocese of Lecce

 François Leclerc du Tremblay

 Chrestien Leclercq

 Lecoy de La Marche

 Claude Le Coz

 Lectern

 Lectionary

 Lector

 Miecislas Halka Ledochowski

 Diocese of Leeds

 Camille Lefebvre

 Family of Lefèvre

 Jacques Le Fèvre

 Guy Lefèvre de la Boderie

 Jacques Lefèvre d'Etaples

 Legacies

 Legate

 Literary or Profane Legends

 Legends of the Saints

 Diocese of Leghorn

 Legio

 Oliver Legipont

 Legists

 Legitimation

 Charles Le Gobien

 Louis Legrand

 Ven. Louise de Marillac Le Gras

 Arthur-Marie Le Hir

 Abbey of Lehnin

 The System of Leibniz

 Ven. Richard Leigh

 Leipzig

 University of Leipzig

 Diocese of Leitmeritz

 Jean Lejeune

 Jacques Lelong

 Louis-Joseph Le Loutre

 Diocese of Le Mans

 Lemberg

 Henry Lemcke

 François Le Mercier

 Jacques Lemercier

 Thomas de Lemos

 Le Moyne

 Simon Le Moyne

 Pierre-Charles L'Enfant

 Adam Franz Lennig

 Charles Lenormant

 François Lenormant

 Denis-Nicolas Le Nourry

 Lent

 Publius Lentulus

 Pope St. Leo I (the Great)

 Pope St. Leo II

 Pope St. Leo III

 Pope St. Leo IV

 Pope Leo V

 Pope Leo VI

 Pope Leo VII

 Pope Leo VIII

 Pope St. Leo IX

 Pope Leo X

 Pope Leo XI

 Pope Leo XII

 Pope Leo XIII

 Brother Leo

 St. Leocadia

 St. Leodegar

 Leo Diaconus

 Diocese and Civil Province of Leon

 Diocese of León

 Luis de León

 Leonard of Chios

 St. Leonard of Limousin

 St. Leonard of Port Maurice

 St. Leonidas

 St. Leontius

 Leontius Byzantinus

 Leontopolis

 Lepanto

 Leprosy

 Leptis Magna

 Diocese of Le Puy

 Michel Le Quien

 Diocese of Lérida

 Abbey of Lérins

 Leros

 Alain-René Le Sage

 Lesbi

 Marc Lescarbot

 Pierre Lescot

 Diocese of Lesina

 John Leslie

 Leonard Lessius

 Lessons in the Liturgy

 Louis-Henri de Lestrange

 François Eustache Lesueur

 Lete

 Charles-Maurice Le Tellier

 Michel Le Tellier (1)

 Nicolas Letourneux

 Ecclesiastical Letters

 Leubus

 Leuce

 Michael Levadoux

 Louis Levau

 Urbain-Jean-Joseph Le Verrier

 Levites

 Leviticus

 Lex

 Juan Bautista de Lezana

 Michel de L'Hospital

 Libel

 Libellatici, Libelli

 Liberalism

 Libera Me

 Libera Nos

 Matteo Liberatore

 Liberatus of Carthage

 Liber Diurnus Romanorum Pontificum

 Liberia

 Pope Liberius

 Ven. Francis Mary Paul Libermann

 Liber Pontificalis

 Liber Septimus

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 Libraries

 Ancient Diocese of Lichfield

 St. Lidwina

 Ernst Maria Lieber

 Moriz Lieber

 Bruno Franz Leopold Liebermann

 Diocese of Liège

 Liesborn

 The Master of Liesborn

 Liessies

 Life

 Methodius I

 Ligamen

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 Ligugé

 Lilienfeld

 Aloisius Lilius

 Lille

 Lillooet Indians

 Archdiocese of Lima

 Limbo

 Pol de Limbourg

 Diocese of Limburg

 Diocese of Limerick

 Diocese of Limoges

 Limyra

 Thomas Linacre

 Archdiocese of Linares

 Diocese of Lincoln

 Diocese of Lincoln (Ancient)

 William Damasus Lindanus

 Justin Timotheus Balthasar, Freiherr von Linde

 Wilhelm Lindemann

 Ancient Diocese and Monastery of Lindisfarne

 Abbey of Lindores

 Anne Line

 John Lingard

 Linoe

 Pope St. Linus

 Diocese of Linz

 Lippe

 Filippino Lippi

 Filippo Lippi

 Luigi Lippomano

 Lipsanotheca

 Justus Lipsius

 Patriarchate of Lisbon

 Diocese of Lismore

 School of Lismore

 Thomas Lister

 Franz Liszt

 Litany

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 Litany of the Holy Name

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 Lithuania

 Litta

 Little Office of Our Lady

 Diocese of Little Rock

 Paul-Maximilien-Emile Littré

 Liturgical Books

 Liturgical Chant

 Liturgy

 Liutprand of Cremona

 Diocese of Liverpool

 Livias

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 Diocese of Llandaff

 Llanthony Priory

 Ven. John Lloyd

 Garcia de Loaisa

 Vicariate Apostolic of Loango

 Loaves of Proposition

 Benedictine Abbey of Lobbes

 Ann Lobera

 Loccum

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 Stephan Lochner

 Loci Theologici

 Matthew Locke

 William Lockhart

 Ven. John Lockwood

 Diocese of Lodi

 Logia Jesu

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 The Logos

 Johann Lohel

 Tobias Lohner

 Diocese of Loja

 Lollards

 St. Loman

 Peter Lombard (1)

 Lombardy

 Etienne-Charles de Loménie de Brienne

 London

 Diocese of London (Ontario)

 James Longstreet

 Félix Lope de Vega Carpio

 Francisco Lopez-Caro

 The Lord's Prayer

 Lorea

 Francisco Antonio de Lorenzana

 Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti

 St. Lorenzo da Brindisi

 Lorette

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 Claude de Lorrain

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 Karl August Lossen

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 Lorenzo Lotto

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 Louisiana

 St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort

 Ven. Louis of Casoria

 Louis of Granada

 St. Louis of Toulouse

 Diocese of Louisville

 Brothers of Our Lady of Lourdes

 Notre-Dame de Lourdes

 University of Louvain

 Love (Theological Virtue)

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 Giovanni Battista de Luca

 Frederick Lucas

 Archdiocese of Lucca

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 Lucerne

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 Ludolph of Saxony

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 Francisco de Lugo

 John de Lugo

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 Bernardino Luini

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 Gottfried Lumper

 Pedro de Luna

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 Diocese of Luni-Sarzana-Brugnato

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 Ottmar Luscinius

 Jean-Baptiste-Alphonse Lusignan

 Melchior Lussy

 Lust

 Martin Luther

 Lutheranism

 Aloys Lütolf

 Diocese of Lutzk, Zhitomir, and Kamenetz

 Luxemburg

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 Lycopolis

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 John Lydgate

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 John Lynch

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 Archdiocese of Lyons

 Councils of Lyons

 First Council of Lyons (1245)

 Second Council of Lyons (1274)

 Lyrba

 Lysias

 Lystra

Lector


A lector (reader) in the West is a clerk having the second of the four minor orders. In all Eastern Churches also, readers are ordained to a minor order preparatory to the diaconate. The primary reason for a special class of readers was the need of some persons sufficiently educated to be able to read the books in church, for the Christians continued the Jewish practice of reading the Sacred Books publicly. The first mention of a Christian liturgical reader is by Justin Martyr (d. about 165) in I Apol., lxvii, 3, 4. The homily known as "II Clem. ad Corinthios" also contains a reference to a lector, anaginoskon (xix, 1). The position of reader was honourable and dignified. It involved a higher standard of education than that of most offices. Although Justin says that the bishop preached the sermon, it appears that the reader himself often went on to expound what he had read. As the idea obtained that a special blessing and dedication should be given to everyone who performs an office for the Church, the reader too was instituted by prayers and some ceremony. Readers were blessed and set apart, as were the fossores who dug graves, the notarii who kept registers, and widows. All the group of rituals that depend on the "Apostolic Constitutions" contain the rite of ordaining readers. "Apost. Const.", vii, xxii, tells the bishop to ordain a reader by laying on his hand and saying a prayer, which is given. The derived documents however forbid an imposition of hands. ("Epitome Const. Ap.", xiii; Funk, "Didascalia", Paderborn, 1905, II, p. 82; see also the "Egyptian Church Order", V, ib., p. 105).

During the first centuries all the lessons in the liturgy, including the Epistle and Gospel, were read by the lector. Cornelius I (251-53) in a letter to Fabius of Antioch mentions that the Church of Rome has forty-two acolytes and fifty-two exorcists, readers and doorkeepers. (Denzinger, "Enchiridion", n. 45). In the fourth century in Africa the Church of Cirta had four priests, three deacons, four subdeacons, and seven readers. The account of the persecution ("Gesta apud Zenophilum" printed in the appendix to Optatus of Mileve in the Vienna edition of "Corp. Script. eccl. lat.", XXVI, 185-97) describes how the readers kept the sacred books which the magistrate demanded to be given up (p. 187). An old set of Western canons, ascribed (wrongly) to a supposed Council of Carthage in 398, but really of the sixth century, gives forms for all ordinations. Canon 8 is about our subject: "When a reader is ordained let the bishop speak about him (faciat de illo verbum) to the people, pointing out his faith and life and skill. After this, while the people look on, let him give him the book from which he is to read, saying to him: Receive this and be the spokesman (relator) of the word of God and you shall have, if you do your work faithfully and usefully, a part with those who have administered the word of God" (Denzinger, op. cit., n. 156). But gradually the lectorate lost all importance. The deacon obtained the office of reading the Gospel; in the West the Epistle became the privilege of the subdeacon. In the Eastern Churches this and other lessons are still supposed to be read by a lector, but everywhere his office (as all minor orders) may be supplied by a layman. The lector is still mentioned twice in the Roman Missal. In the rubrics at the beginning it is said that if Mass be sung without deacon and subdeacon a lector wearing a surplice may sing the Epistle in the usual place; but at the end he does not kiss the celebrant's hand (Ritus celebr. Missam", vi, 8). On Good Friday the morning service begins with a prophecy read by a lector at the place where the Epistle is usually read (first rubric on Good Friday).

Everywhere the order of reader has become merely a stepping-stone to major orders, and a memory of early days. In the Roman Rite in is the second minor order (Ostiarius, Lector, Exorcista, Acolythus). The minor orders are conferred during Mass after the first Lesson; but they may be given apart from Mass, on Sundays or doubles, in the morning. The lectorate involves no obligation of celibacy or of any other kind. The Byzantine Office will be found in the "Euchologion" (Euchologion to mega, Venetian 8th edition, 1898, pp. 186-87). The Armenians (Gregorian and Uniate) have adopted the Roman system of four minor orders exactly. Their rite of ordaining a reader also consists essentially in handing to him the book of the Epistles.

WIELAND, Die Genetische Entwickelung der sog. Ordines minores in den 3 ersten Jahrhunderten in Römische Quartalschrift, Suppl. no 7 (Rome, 1892); HARNACK, Über den Ursprung des Lectorats u. der anderen niederen Weihen in Texte u. Untersuchungen, II, 5.

ADRIAN FORTESCUE