Ordo of the Coronation and Consecration of Napoleon I (Sacre de Napoléon)
Procès-Verbal de la Cérémonie du Sacre et du Couronnement de LL. MM. L'Empereur Napoléon et L'Impératrice Joséphine
Veni Creator Spiritus, mentes tuorum visita, imple superna gratia quae tu creasti pectora.
Our renderingCome, Creator Spirit, visit the minds of your people; fill with heavenly grace the hearts you yourself created.
What it is
A hybrid coronation rite negotiated between French and papal representatives for Napoleon's coronation at Notre-Dame de Paris on 2 December 1804, blending the ancient Rheims coronation rite with elements of the Roman Pontifical. Pope Pius VII performed the triple anointing with chrism on forehead and hands; the Veni Creator Spiritus was sung at the entrance procession; the antiphon Unxerunt Salomonem was chanted at the anointing; Paisiello's Mass and Te Deum followed; and the ceremony concluded with Domine salvum fac imperatorem nostrum Napoleonem. Napoleon famously crowned himself and then Joséphine. The official Procès-Verbal of 1805, compiled by de Ségur, is held at the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
Why it still matters
The liturgical core of this rite — the Veni Creator, the anointing prayers, and the Te Deum — are all ancient Catholic texts still in active use; reading the anointing prayers in particular offers a theologically rich meditation on divine vocation, consecration, and the sacred character of earthly office.
Kept alongside
Mass for Napoleon's Coronation (Messe du Sacre)
Messe pour le sacre de Napoléon
A solemn Mass in B-flat major composed by Giovanni Paisiello and performed on 2 December 1804 at Notre-Dame de Paris with a 400-voice choir and double orchestra, though Paisiello himself had left France by August 1804 and did not attend. The work sets the full Latin Ordinary — Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei — together with the Te Deum and the newly mandated Domine salvum fac imperatorem nostrum Napoleonem. In the Et incarnatus est, Paisiello introduced a dialogue between concertante harp and orchestral horn, an allusion to Josephine's salon tastes. Rediscovered in the Tuileries archives, the Mass was issued in a modern critical edition by the Palazzetto Bru Zane, which has made it once again performable.
Baptismal Rite of the King of Rome (Baptême du Roi de Rome)
Cérémonie du Baptême du Roi de Rome, Notre-Dame de Paris, 9 juin 1811
The baptism of Napoleon's son and heir (Napoleon II, King of Rome) was celebrated on 9 June 1811 at Notre-Dame de Paris in a ceremony consciously modelled on the baptism of Louis XVI's dauphin. Cardinal Fesch — Napoleon's maternal great-uncle and Grand Almoner — opened the rite by intoning the Veni Creator Spiritus; Le Sueur's imperial musicians performed throughout; the choir concluded with the Te Deum and the Domine salvum fac imperatorem. The imperial couple processed to the chancel beneath individual canopies carried by cathedral canons, fusing traditional Catholic baptismal rite with the full ceremonial apparatus of the Napoleonic state liturgy. No original musical score or liturgical booklet for this specific ceremony has been identified in accessible repositories.
Feast of Saint Napoleon / Feast of the Assumption — Imperial Liturgical Decree
Décret impérial concernant la Fête de Saint-Napoléon et celle du rétablissement de la Religion catholique en France (19 février 1806)
By imperial decree of 19 February 1806, Napoleon established 15 August as the feast of 'Saint Napoleon' throughout the Empire, fusing it with the ancient Marian feast of the Assumption and the commemoration of the Concordat of 1801. Cardinal Caprara supplied a third-century Roman martyr named Neopolis as the saint's historical basis, though most historians regard the existence of this figure as doubtful; on 21 May 1806 Caprara circulated a 'Lectio s. Napoleonis' to all bishops providing the saint's legend. Every church in the Empire was required to celebrate the day with Mass, Te Deum, and public festivities, making it the most widely observed devotional obligation tied to Napoleon's person. The specific liturgical formulary for the Feast of Saint Napoleon has not been located as an extant devotional text in accessible archives.