In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of
Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was
Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And the
angel came in unto her, and said, "Hail, full of Grace, the Lord is
with thee: Blessed art thou among women."[87]
[87] S. Luke, i. 26-28.
The angel, to manifest his reverence and love, saluted the holy virgin
with an "Ave," or Hail, and he named not her proper name, Mary,
but gave her the title "Full of Grace." This he did that we might
understand, that as Almighty God gave to the Messiah the names of
"Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the
Prince of Peace,"[88] so also He gave to the Virgin a new and most
glorious name, which, for excellency, is to be attributed to her in the
Church; so that as we call Solomon "the Wise," and S. Paul "the Apostle
of the Gentiles," so we should call the Blessed Virgin the "Full of
Grace," and the "Blessed among women."
[88] Isaiah ix. 6.
[Illustration: THE HEAVENLY MESSENGER.
"The angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named
Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the
house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary."
March 25.]
The festival of the Annunciation is at least as ancient as the Council
in Trullo (A.D. 680), and is supposed, on the authority of a sermon
attributed to S. Cyril, to have been kept in the 5th century. It has
always been very highly observed in England. The Synod of Worcester,
A.D. 1240, by one of its canons, forbade all servile work upon it,
and this was afterwards confirmed by various provincial and diocesan
councils in all respects except agricultural labour.
The tenth council of Toledo, in 656, ordered that this festival
should be solemnized on December 18th, eight days before Christmas,
because of its proper day arriving in Lent, and sometimes in Holy
Week. Nevertheless, it has been observed on its proper day, but is
transferred in the Western Church to after Easter, whenever it occurs
in Holy Week or on Easter-day.
It is said that in the church of Notre Dame du Puy en Valey has the
privilege of making it over-ride Good Friday, when it occurs on that
day; and that on that day there are great indulgences as a jubilee
in that church. The Council of Constantinople, in "Trullo," already
mentioned, ordered that the mass of the pre-sanctified should be said
on all days in Lent except the Sabbath, the Lord's day, and the Feast
of the Annunciation. Pope Urban II., in a council held at Clermont, in
1095, ordered that every day the church bell should be rung, morning,
noon, and evening, and that each time it was rung the faithful should
recite the Angelic Salutation. This is called the Angelus. The object
of the Holy Father was to stir up the faithful to thank God for the
benefit of the Incarnation. Popes John XXII., Calixtus III., Paul III.,
Alexander VII., and Clement X., have recommended this practice and
attached indulgences to it. These were confirmed by Benedict XIII.
The Greeks observe the same day as the Latins. In the Menologium of the
emperor Basil the younger, it is thus described: "On the 25th day of
March, the Annunciation of the most holy Mother of God. Our God, most
loving and merciful to human salvation, who ever careth for the sons
of men, when He beheld man, the work of His hands, brought under the
bondage of Satan, willed to send His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ,
our Lord, into the world, to pluck man out of the power of the devil.
But willing not that Satan, nay, nor the celestial powers should know
thereof, he committed this secret to one of the archangels, Gabriel
the Glorious. And having made by His providence that a Virgin pure
and immaculate should be born meet for so high an honour, to her was
Gabriel sent, and he came to the city called Nazareth, and said to her,
'Hail, Full of Grace, the Lord is with thee!' But she asked, 'How shall
these things be?' To whom he made reply, 'The Holy Ghost shall descend
on thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee.' And she
said, 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy
word.' And having thus spoken, she conceived above nature a son, the
Word of God; and thereafter were fulfilled all the mysteries of the
Word of God incarnate pertaining to our salvation."
In the Greek Menæa also, it is said, "March 25th, the commemoration
of the Annunciation of the most holy Mother of God, our Lady, when
the arch-warrior, Gabriel, captain of the celestial armies, being
instructed in the secret from eternity and unknown to angels, the
mystery hidden of the divine incarnation of the Son of God, was sent
to the most pure Mary, unstained with any spot of sin, in the city of
Nazareth, that he might declare to her the will of God the Father,
and the favour and efficacious help of the life-giving Spirit for the
salvation of man. And he said to her, 'Hail, Full of Grace, the Lord is
with thee.'"
[Illustration: THE ANNUNCIATION. After Israel Van Mecken, in the Museum
at Munich. March 25.]
This is the exordium of a Greek hymn on the Annunciation, by S. Joseph,
the hymnographer:--"When Gabriel, the great archangel, saw thee, O
pure one! the living book of Christ, sealed with the Holy Ghost, he
cried to thee, 'Rejoice, oh house of joy! through whom is abolished the
malediction pronounced on our first parents.'"
The ancient Arabian-Egyptian church also observed this festival. In
an Arabic martyrology, the entry on March 25th is as follows, "The
memorial of the Annunciation of the Mother of God, and the Incarnation
of the Son of God, this day the first-fruits of our salvation and the
manifestation of a mystery kept hidden from all ages. The Son of God
issued forth Son of the Virgin, and Gabriel announced the favour. And
now we with him exclaim, 'Rejoice, O Full of Grace, the Lord is with
thee!'" The same festival is observed by the Copts, and found in the
Syriac and Chaldee, and Russian Kalendars.
In the sacramentary of S. Gregory the Great, the proper preface for
this day runs thus: " ... through Christ our Lord, whom Gabriel,
the archangel, announced was to be born for man's salvation, the
Virgin Mary, by the co-operation of the Holy Ghost, conceived; that
what angelic sublimity announced, virginal purity might believe, and
ineffable Deity might perform. And thus we hope, by Thy assistance,
to behold His face without confusion, in the solemnity of whose
Incarnation we now rejoice."
In the Church of Milan, according to the Ambrosian rite, "throughout
the whole of Lent, no festival of any saint is observed, and the office
for the Annunciation of S. Mary is celebrated on the last Sunday in
Advent."