The Exsultet, a Christian hymn intoned by the deacon during the Easter Vigil in western-rite churches.
Since the 1955 revision of the Holy Week rites, the Roman Missal explicitly gives the title "Praeconium" to the Exsultet, as it already did implicitly in the formula it provided for blessing the deacon before the chant: "ut digne et competenter annunties suum Paschale praeconium".
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The head of the Holy Roman Empire alone could be prayed for with this formula, and the resignation in 1806 of the prerogatives of that position by Emperor Francis II of Austria, left that position unfilled thereafter, so that the prayer was in practice not used.
Exsultet |