Commemorationday

Commemoration-day in the University of Oxford, is an annual solemnity in remembrance of the founders and benefactors of the university, when speeches are made, prize compositions recited, and honorary degrees conferred upon distinguished persons. In colleges a form of prayer, prescribed in queen Elizabeth's reign, is used during term, in pious memory of founders and benefactors. The proper Psalms are 145, 146, 147; the lesson, Ecclesiasticus 44. The suffrage is:

"The just shall be had in everlasting remembrance; He shall not be afraid of evil tidings. The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God; Neither doth any torment touch them."

Then follows a collect. At Oxford the commemoration by the university is also called encaenia.