Matins

Matins is the monastic nighttime liturgy, ending at dawn, of the canonical hours. In the Roman Catholic pre-Vatican-II breviary, it is divided into three nocturns. The name "matins" originally referred to the morning office also known as lauds. When the nocturnal monastic services called vigils or nocturns were joined with lauds, the name of "matins" was applied at first to the concluding morning service and later still to the entire series of vigils.

In the Orthodox Church these vigils correspond to the aggregate comprising the midnight office, orthros, and the first hour.

Mattins, often spelled in the Anglican tradition with a double "t", is the morning prayer which consolidated the hours of matins, lauds and prime. Lutherans preserve recognizably traditional matins distinct from morning prayer, but "matins" is sometimes used in other Protestant denominations to describe any morning service.

Matins (Office of Readings) in Roman Catholicism

Name

The word "matins" is derived from Latin matutinum or matutinae, meaning "of or belonging to the morning". It was at first applied to the office of Lauds, celebrated at dawn, but later became attached to the prayer originally offered, according to the fourth-century Apostolic Constitutions, at cock-crow.