Publisher Desc.  The Messe de Minuit was written around 1694 for the Jesuit church of Saint-Louis in Paris.What is remarkable about this mass is the use of ten French noels (Christmas carols) in the composition. In the liturgy the birth of Christ is celebrated with three masses: the first during the night of December 24th, the second in the early morning of December 25th, and the third on the day itself. A special atmosphere surrounds the first of these masses on account of the midnight hour, and so Charpentier gave special expression to the long observed practice in France of including popular Christmas carols in the Christmas liturgy by including them in the composition of his midnight mass. Although the Council of Trent had forbidden this kind of borrowing of secular melodies in masses in principle, long established customs were tolerated.