Definition of "matins" [matins]

• Ecclesiastical The office that formerly constituted together with lauds the first of the seven canonical hours. (noun)
• The time of day appointed for this service, traditionally midnight or 2 A.M. but often sunrise. (noun)
• See Morning Prayer. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "48The final type of liturgical manuscript from these houses are collectars, which contained the collects or prayers for the different hours of the Divine Office. 124 According to Humbert's prototype, the collectar starts with a calendar and then describes "the manner of singing all the capitula, the blessings before the lessons in matins, the versicles before lauds, all the antiphons, all the prayers (or orationes).""
• "The church commences her solemn service of each of these days with that part of the divine office called matins and lauds, and at this time Tenebrae from the _darkness_ with which it concludes."
• "They went to that office of the night which is called matins in those churches in which it is said at midnight, as is still the custom at Notre Dame, in Paris."