The New Murrey and Blue blog

If, like me, you are confounded by the canonical hours that are so often mentioned in books, fiction and non-fiction, then I hope the article you’ll find at this link will be of some help.

I’m not a Catholic, or indeed particularly religious, and it doesn’t help when some of the hours are still used, when others aren’t. Knowing which ones were current in the 14th century is important to me as a writer, so I find the article very useful. It contains more than just a simple explanation.

On the other hand, if you just want something plain and straightforward, then Wikipedia has this list:

“….In general, when modern secular books reference canonical hours in the Middle Ages, these are the equivalent times:

• Vigil (eighth hour of night: 2 a.m.)
• Matins (a later portion of Vigil, from 3 a.m. to dawn)
• Lauds (dawn; approximately 5 a.m., but varies seasonally)
• Prime (early morning, the first hour of daylight, approximately 6 a.m.)
• Terce (third hour, 9 a.m.)
• Sext (sixth hour, noon)
• Nones (ninth hour, 3 p.m.)
• Vespers (sunset, approximately 6 p.m.)
• Compline (end of the day before retiring, approximately 7 p.m.)….”