The Missa Sancti Bernardi von Offida is a mass in B-flat major by
Joseph Haydn, Hob. XXII:10, Novello 1, was written the same year as the
Missa in tempore belli (1796), and it "may have been the first mass Haydn wrote after his return from England." Yet it may also have been the second. It is usually given as Haydn's ninth setting of the mass, though its Hoboken number is XXII:10. This mass was written in honor of St. Bernard of Offida, a Capuchin monk who devoted himself to helping the poor; a century after the monk's death, he was beatified by Pope Pius VI.
Scored for four soloists, choir, 2 oboes, clarinets (a later revision expanded their part), 2 bassoons, 2 trumpets in B-flat, timpani, strings and organ, the latter supplying figured bass for most of the duration.
The setting is divided into six movements.
The Sanctus section of the mass is a setting of a then-popular Austrian tune to the German translation of Sanctus, "Heilig". The Mass takes its popular German title Heiligmesse from this section. The mass includes what are, for the time, unexpected modulations and innovative use of third relations that would influence later mass settings by nineteenth-century composers. The Quoniam in
Anton Bruckner's Missa Solemnis in B-flat minor quotes this mass.
