Whether the accepted date is correct or not, we find it definitely set

down by the chronographer of 354, who directly states that Christ was

born on the 25th December (_natus est octavo Kalendas Januarias_), while

it follows indirectly from his words that this day was solemnly observed

as the day of His nativity. The Calendar ends with the year 354, and

accordingly Christmas was observed then in the same way as at present.

The year 354 brings us within the pontificate of Liberius, and it is just

in his pontificate that we find further authentic evidence concerning the

feast.

During his pontificate Liberius gave the veil to Marcellina, an elder

sister of St Ambrose. This took place on the day of our Lord’s birth

(_Natalis Salvatoris_), and on this occasion Liberius delivered a

sermon preserved for us by Ambrose in his _De Virginitate_. In this

work he recalls to his sister’s memory what the Pope had said: “When

thou sealedst thy vow of virginity in St Peter’s by changing thy habit

on the birth-day of the Redeemer—on what more fitting day could it have

taken place than that on which the Virgin (Mary) brought forth her

child—and in the presence of many of God’s hand-maidens who strove for

thy companionship, he (Liberius) said, ‘Thou hast desired excellent

espousals, my daughter. Thou seest what a crowd of people have come

together to celebrate the birth-day of thy Bridegroom, and that no one

goes away from hence unnourished. He it is who, when invited to the

marriage, changed water into wine. He will vouchsafe the true secrets

of virginity to thee, who until now hast been subject to the beggarly

elements of nature. He it is who, with five loaves and two fishes,

satisfied four thousand men in the wilderness.[324] He could have

satisfied more had more been there. Finally, He has invited still more

to thine espousals, not to give them barley-bread, but a Body from

heaven.’”[325]

Liberius here represents taking the vows of religion under the familiar

figure of a marriage. The marriage feast always forms part of every

marriage, and accordingly it was the duty of the Bridegroom whom

Marcellina had chosen to provide one. He had changed water into wine and

fed thousands with a few loaves, but now He feeds a still greater number

with His mystical Body in the Holy Eucharist. This is the thought running

through the Pope’s address.

St Ambrose does not inform us of the year in which the ceremony took

place at which Liberius spoke the above words. Liberius had been elected

bishop of Rome (17th May 352) in troublous times under the Emperor

Constantius, a strong Arian. As he refused to communicate with the

Eusebius and protected St Athanasius, he was banished to Berœa at the end

of 355, where he was compelled to remain until 357. The Archdeacon Felix,

relying on the Emperor’s support, allowed himself to be consecrated

bishop in his stead, but found no following in Rome. On this account,

Constantius consented to the recall of the lawful bishop, and Liberius

resided in Rome for the remainder of his pontificate, and died there in

366.

It is more probable that Marcellina’s clothing with the religious habit

took place during the latter part of this pontificate. For according to

the received opinion, St Ambrose was born about the year 340,[326] and

thus in 353 he would have been only thirteen years old, and although

his sister was older, yet in 353 she would not have been twenty-five,

the canonical age for taking the veil.[327] Still it is not impossible

that the ceremony and the address of Liberius took place between 352

and 354, and at any rate this much is certain that it took place on the

25th December and not on the Epiphany (6th January), according to the

view formerly held.[328] There is no evidence that the Epiphany was

observed in Rome, as it had been in the East, as the day of Christ’s

birth, and Liberius in this address does not say that the commemoration

of the miracles of the loaves and of the changing water into wine was

being celebrated precisely on the day of Marcellina’s taking the veil,

_i.e._ on the day of the Saviour’s birth (_Natalis Salvatoris_). These

things were alluded to only because of their connection with the train of

thought followed by Liberius in his address.

Nothing can be gathered from the words of Liberius as to when Christmas

was first observed in Rome on the 25th December. In any case, it did not

come into existence suddenly, but would require time, and, like other

festivals, a considerable period would have to elapse before it became

general and gained official recognition. Contemporary evidence on this

point is wanting; one ancient witness, unfortunately not altogether

reliable, speaks of Julius I. and not Liberius as the originator of

Christmas.

We must now conclude by giving the view we have arrived at. In Rome

a distinctive custom had arisen of celebrating Christ’s nativity on

the 25th December, while in other quarters it was celebrated on the

6th January. How this was brought about must remain a matter for

conjecture. It has been thought that in some places heathen festivals

of various kinds were kept in the month of December; in particular, the

Kikellia[329] was kept at Alexandria on the 25th December, in Bostra and

Pella, a festival of local observance,[330] and in Rome, the Saturnalia

began on the 17th December and lasted until the 23rd.[331] It is only

natural that the winter solstice should give rise to a festival, and find

its place marked in the Calendar of Feasts. Indeed, in the Roman Calendar

of much later date—that of Philocalus—the 25th December is marked as the

birth-day of the unconquerable Sun-God (_Natalis Solis Invicti_).

Since on the 21st December the sun reaches its lowest point, and then

begins once more to rise higher in the heavens, man, in his simplicity,

marked the day on which this change in the sun became perceptible as

the new birth or birth-day of the sun, the invincible Sun-God. What

was more natural for the Christians of that age than to connect this

obvious natural event with the thought of the nativity of Him who is

the Light of the World! Even if the Holy Scriptures had not suggested

this idea, it must have presented itself to the Christian mind. The

comparison of Christ with the sun, and of His work with the victory

of light over darkness, frequently appears in the writings of the

Fathers. St Cyprian[332] spoke of Christ as the true sun (_sol verus_).

St Ambrose[333] says precisely, “He is our new sun” (_Hic sol novus

noster_). Similar figures are employed by Gregory of Nazianzus, Zeno of

Verona, Leo the Great, Gregory the Great, etc.[334]

Every child knows that Simeon addressed the new-born Messias as “a

light to the revelation of the Gentiles,” and, since the Messias is also

called by the Prophets the light in the darkness and the Sun of Justice,

it is easy to see how such expressions passed into the Church’s liturgy

for this festival.[335] It was natural for the Romans to set down the

birth-day of this new Sun on the day marked of old time in their Calendar

as a _Natalis Solis_, and observed as a festival by all the heathen

inhabitants of Rome.[336] The choice of the day cannot be due to the

desire to supplant the heathen festival, for it was not a festival of

any special importance. But the similarity between the natural fact (the

solstice) and the revolution in the spiritual sphere (Christ’s nativity),

was sufficient to suggest the idea. It was not necessary to wait for the

time of Constantine in order to hit upon this idea.

We must now return once more to the usages of the Church of Jerusalem

and the festival observed there. The 6th January, indeed, was called

in Jerusalem Epiphany, nevertheless the nativity of Christ formed an

especially prominent feature of the commemoration.

A detailed description of the function is given in Silvia’s diary.

Unfortunately the beginning is missing,[337] and the account opens

with the return of the great procession which took place annually from

Jerusalem to Bethlehem the evening before the feast. The next morning,

the procession returned to Jerusalem and proceeded to the Church of the

Anastasis, which was richly decorated. The monks remained all night in

the church at Bethlehem, which, all through the octave, remained in

festal array.[338] A procession to Bethlehem, on the Epiphany would have

no meaning, if the baptism of Christ was the only event commemorated at

that feast, for this, of course, took place in the Jordan. In Jerusalem,

as in the other Eastern Churches, no special Christmas festival had been

as yet instituted, still at the commencement of the fifth century there

were some who regarded the Epiphany as the day of Christ’s nativity in

the flesh, although, as St Jerome says,[339] the Son of God did not

reveal Himself in flesh but rather concealed Himself. Indeed, if we are

to believe Cosmas Indicopleustes, who lived in the middle of the sixth

century, the nativity of Christ was commemorated at Jerusalem, and there

only on the Epiphany—“a superstitious fancy,” as he calls it.[340]

On the other hand, it has been stated that Bishop Juvenal (425-458), who

obtained for the Church of Jerusalem patriarchal rank, introduced the

feast of Christ’s birth.[341]

Perhaps it was specially difficult to establish this festival in

Jerusalem on the 25th December because another festival was already

observed there on that day—the commemoration of David and the Apostle St

James.[342] Their commemoration, along with that of St Joseph, is kept

both by the Greek Church and the Church of Jerusalem on the Sunday before

Christmas.[343]

A document already referred to, dating from the end of the ninth or

beginning of the tenth century, affords an interesting proof of the

manner in which these matters which we have placed before the reader

were regarded at a later date. John, Bishop of Nicæa, who flourished

about the year 900, endeavoured to induce the Armenians to adopt the

25th December as the day of Christ’s birth, and set down in an elaborate

treatise the reasons he thought calculated to influence them. This

composition is especially interesting because in it the introduction of

Christmas is ascribed to a particular individual, none other than Pope

Julius I. (337-352). Bishop Cyril of Jerusalem (348-386) is said to have

corresponded with him on this question. Even if, from point of view of

dates, this were not impossible, the letter of Cyril would in itself

give rise to suspicion.[344] For Cyril would have been more likely to

introduce or establish the feast on another day, while it is historically

certain it was not yet observed in Jerusalem in 385.

In this pretended letter, Cyril alleges as a reason for transferring the

feast to a different day from the Epiphany, that it is impossible for

the inhabitants of Jerusalem to keep both feasts on the same day with

befitting solemnity. Bethlehem lies three miles west, and the Jordan

fifteen miles east of Jerusalem. It is stated in this letter that a

procession went to both places on the same day, and so it was impossible

for the clergy to accompany both. The often quoted diary of the Gallic

Pilgrim[345] shows us that the procession to Bethlehem actually took

place, but she is silent about a procession to the Jordan. This is first

mentioned by Gregory of Tours in the sixth century.[346] It only was

possible when the Nativity had been transferred to another day. The

writer of the letter has antedated a later practice and certainly was not

Bishop Cyril of Jerusalem.

The manner in which this letter brings forth evidence in favour

of choosing the 25th December for the Nativity of Christ is also

interesting. Titus, says the supposed Cyril in this letter to Pope

Julius, had carried off all the books of the Jews to Rome after

the destruction of Jerusalem. There they still remain, and Julius

might make a search to see if the true birth-day of Christ cannot be

discovered.[347] Julius then discovered from the writings of Josephus

that Zachary had seen the vision of the angel in the Temple in the

seventh month, on the Day of Atonement, which on that occasion had fallen

on the 23rd September. On that day his son, St John the Baptist, was

conceived, who was born on the 24th June following, but Christ, according

to St Luke i. 36, was born six months later, on the 25th December.

As regards the liturgical celebration of the feast, the oldest sermons

on the _Nativitas Domini_ which have come down to us, are those of Zeno

of Verona († 380).[348] They are purely moral exhortations, and throw no

light upon the date of the feast. He has no sermon for the Epiphany, and

it may be inferred he did not observe it or that it was identified with

the Nativity.

The representation of the crib on a side-altar or some other conspicuous

place in the church is a special feature of the Christmas festival at

the present day. This remains in the church until Epiphany, or even to

the 2nd February. The Christmas crib dates back to St Francis of Assisi,

who, with the permission of the Pope, set up in 1223 for the first time a

representation of the child Jesus in the manger.

It is also the custom to celebrate three Masses, of which the first,

according to the ancient use, commenced at midnight. As the words of the

Mass show, this first Mass commemorates the eternal generation of the Son

from the Father, the second commemorates His Incarnation and birth into

this world, the third His birth through grace, in the hearts of sinners.

The Gelasian sacramentary mentions the _trina celebratio_. The custom

is one which reaches back to early Christian times. Gregory the Great

mentions it in _Hom. viii._ in _Evang._ The Leonine sacramentary contains

nine different formularies for Christmas, but the other western rites,

including the Mozarabic, have only one Mass for the feast. The Menology

of Basil Porphyrogenitus gives the flight of Mary into Egypt on the 26th

December, and St Stephen only on the following day.

Since the 25th December was only chosen for reasons of a more or less

accidental and external character, so too the days which immediately

follow—St Stephen, St John the Evangelist, and the Holy Innocents—have

no real connection with Christmas, although they are of very ancient

institution. The 26th December was already a special festival in the

fourth century, as appears from the sermons of St Augustine (_Sermo_

314, c. 1), though he knows nothing of the two following days. The 220th

sermon, which celebrates the Holy Innocents, is spurious.[349] They

appear, however, in the African Calendar of the sixth century. On the

Innocents’ Day in the Middle Ages the schoolboys used to elect a bishop

who was nothing more than their leader, and the ceremony was quite

harmless. For this ceremony, as well as for the crib and other popular

customs still practised, the reader is referred to Heuser’s elaborate

articles in the _Kirchenlexikon_, iv²., 1395-1436.

The introduction of Christmas and its appointment on the 25th December

brought about the establishment of three other festivals: 1. the feast

of the _Circumcisio Domini_, eight days after the Nativity, according to

St Luke ii. 21, (_postquam consummati sunt dies octo, ut circumcideretur

puer, vocatum est nomen ejus Jesus_). 2. The Annunciation on the 25th

March, which is also the day of Christ’s conception, and so is placed

nine months before the 25th December. The historical evidence for this

day is on a par with that for Christmas. 3. The Nativity of St John the

Baptist, on the 24th June. Another consequence was that the festival of

the _Occursus Domini_ (ὑπαπάτη), _i.e._ the meeting of our Lord with

Simeon in the Temple, on Candlemas Day, which was observed in Jerusalem

before the introduction of Christmas, had to be transferred to another

day. According to the regulations of the Jewish Law in Lev. xii. 6, the

period of uncleanness after birth lasted forty days. And according to St

Luke ii. 22, Mary submitted to the Law in this respect. So long as our

Lord’s birth was commemorated at Epiphany on the 6th January, the 15th

February was the fortieth day after the Nativity, and so, as a matter of

fact, the festival of the _Occursus Domini_ was celebrated in Jerusalem

on this day in 385.[350] But when the Nativity came to be celebrated on

the 25th December, the other festival had to be placed thirteen days

earlier, on the 2nd February, as it is at the present time.[351]

2. _Advent and the Sundays until Septuagesima_

Christmas, like Easter, besides its Vigil and Octave, has also a

considerable period of preparation. This, naturally, could only come into

existence after the institution of the festival, and indeed a certain

time had to elapse before it was organised. Since Christmas itself was

first observed in the middle of the fourth century, it is not remarkable

that the earliest clear reference to Advent, from an official source,

dates from the end of the sixth century.

Some sort of preparatory season to Christmas, however, existed before

this. As in the case of Easter, this preparatory season was marked by a

fast commencing on St Martin’s Day (11th November), and lasting until

Christmas. All Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays were fasted as in Lent.

Such was the preparation observed in Gaul since the appointment of the

festival by Bishop Perpetuus of Tours († 491). The same observance

existed in other parts of Gaul, for the first Council of Maçon (581)

prescribes exactly the same order, and also that from St Martin’s Day

to Christmas the Mass shall be the same as during Lent—the first sign

of the liturgy for Advent. In the province of Tours there was a similar

enactment, although affecting the monks alone, ordering them to fast

through the whole of December.[352] The Roman Church did not observe the

fast, although she treated Advent as a liturgical portion of the Church’s

year and incorporated it therein.

Although the Greek Church has not marked the preparation for Christmas in

her liturgy, still she has observed the fast since the eighth century.

This begins on St Philip’s day (the 14th November), and continues for six

weeks until Christmas. According to the Mozarabic and Milanese rites,

this is the length of Advent. The Copts observe an Advent fast beginning

on the 19th Athyr (15th November).[353]

Once the observance of Advent had been established in Rome, it spread

throughout the entire West. In Spain we find it extended over five

Sundays according to the Lectionary of Silos, dating from about 650.

It took longer to make its way in France, although the way had already

been prepared for it by Perpetuus of Tours. The service-books of the

seventh century, the Lectionary of Luxeuil, and the so-called _Missale

Gothico-Gallicanum_, edited by Mabillon, commence with the _Vigilia

Natalis Domini_, without Advent. In Rome, the institution of Advent

cannot be traced further back than to the sixth century, for the sermons

of St Augustine and Leo I. make no mention of it. Unmistakable evidence

for its observance is found for the first time in the homilies of Gregory

the Great.[354]

The want of uniformity in the duration of Advent in different parts

of the Church is due to the fact that local Churches, conformably to

the ancient discipline, acted independently of each other. Thus, in

Rome Advent lasted only four weeks, as we gather from the Gregorian

sacramentary, which provides three Sundays in December with collects _de

adventu Domini_, and a _dominica vacans_; in the Appendix, however, five

Sundays are reckoned before Christmas.[355] The first traces of Advent

are to be sought for in the lectionaries, as, for instance, in that drawn

up by Bishop Victor of Capua (546-547), and used by St Boniface.[356]

This contains four Epistles for the Sundays before Christmas (de

Adventu). The Gelasian sacramentary has five Sundays in Advent, but it

has obviously been revised for the use of the Frankish Churches. All

service-books containing only four Sundays in Advent belong to the Roman

rite.

In course of time the divergence between the Roman and Frankish uses

became noticeable and gave rise to confusion. Amalarius remarks: In all

missals and lectionaries there are five Sundays in Advent, but in the

Antiphoner there are only three offices and a _Dominica vacans_, and the

Gregorian missal has only four Sundays in Advent. In support of five

Sundays, it was urged that from the beginning of the world until the

Christian era five of the seven ages of the world had passed. Even in

the tenth century, opinions were expressed in favour of five weeks. It

was urged that, according to the other practice, if Christmas fell on a

Monday, Advent strictly speaking lasted only three weeks. Abbo of Fleury

(† 1004) is witness to the existence of a twofold practice in a later

period.[357] In the eighth century, an Advent of four weeks was observed

in France wherever Roman influence extended. Berno of Reichenau in his

writings on Advent is only occupied with the question how to deal with

the vigil of Christmas when the 25th December falls on a Monday. The

Micrologus does not mention an Advent season of five weeks, nor does

Beleth.[358] A deviation from this custom appears in the Milanese and

Mozarabic rites which prescribe a duration of six weeks for Advent, thus

bringing it into conformity in this respect with Lent.

At first Advent was regarded merely as a time for penance and

mortification in the same way as Lent. On this account, it was widely

observed as a time of fasting, although the Church had nowhere so ordered

it. Later on, again, Advent was regarded as a type or memorial of the

Old Testament or the time before Christ. However, the view that the four

weeks of Advent typify the four thousand years from Adam to Christ,

impressive as it is, finds no support from the Liturgy. On the contrary,

the lections from Genesis in the Breviary begin in Septuagesima, while

during Advent the lections are taken from the Prophet Isaias.

As far as the lections from Scripture are concerned, the Gospel for

the second Sunday in Advent recounts our Lord’s Messianic labours,

while His birth is only commemorated some two or three weeks later. The

Gospel for the first Sunday speaks of the end of the world, not, as one

would expect, of its creation. The mediæval lectionaries, moreover,

replace St Luke xxi. 25 _et seqq._ on this Sunday with the Gospel _Cum

appropinquasset Jerusalem_, etc. (St Matthew xxi. 1 _et seqq._),[359]

and the preceding Sunday is sometimes called _Dominica in præparatione

Adventus_, or _Dominica Quinta ante Natalem Domini_, in which we see a

remnant of the more ancient reckoning. The collects of the Mass express

the hope of the Messias and the longing for His appearance.

We must also consider Christmas in connection with the festivals which

follow in the course of the year, such as the Circumcision of our Lord,

which, of course, falls on the eighth day after Christmas, the _Octava

Domini_, the Epiphany, and Candlemas Day. Thus quite naturally, as it

were, a cycle of festivals has grown up round Christmas Day.

We may also mention the Sunday in the Octave of Christmas with its

Gospel giving the account of the meeting of Jesus and His parents with

Simeon and Anna. The Gospel for the Sunday after New Year’s Day records

the flight into Egypt. The Sundays after Epiphany form connecting links

between Christmas and Easter, varying from two to six, according as

Easter falls earlier or later. Only the two first Sundays have any

distinctive character, the first commemorating the visit of our Lord to

the Temple at the age of twelve years, and the second His first miracle

at Cana of Galilee.[360] The remaining Sundays, along with Septuagesima

and Sexagesima, do not commemorate any historical event in their lections

from Scripture; Quinquagesima and the Sundays in Lent direct our

attention to the approaching Passion. In the case of the Sundays three

to six after Epiphany, this is intentional, since they are liable to be

transferred from their proper place to the end of the year when necessary.

The Sunday in the Octave of Christmas, or, as it was formerly called, the

Sunday after Christmas, has as its Gospel St Luke ii. 33-40, which gives

the account of Simeon’s prophecy. Chronologically speaking, this passage

comes before its time, for, in St Luke’s Gospel, it comes after the

passage chosen as the Gospel for Candlemas (St Luke ii. 22-32), of which

it forms the continuation. In the last verse (ii. 39), mention is made of

the return from Jerusalem or Bethlehem to Nazareth. The events, however,

which follow in the course of the Church’s year—the circumcision and the

arrival of the Wise Men—must have happened before the return to Galilee.

3. _The Octave of Christmas. The Circumcision. The New Year_

Since Easter, after the example given by the Synagogue, was from the

first observed with an octave, and, since Epiphany had its octave already

in the eighth century, it was inevitable that Christmas should be

provided with one also. Accordingly, the eighth day after Christmas bears

the name _Octava Domini_ (In Octavas Domini) in the Gelasian[361] and

Gregorian sacramentaries, whence it may be inferred that it was not yet

regarded as an independent festival and passed unnoticed if it fell on a

week-day.

On the other hand, it was partially observed as a popular holiday, at

least it gave occasion in many places for popular rejoicings,[362] being

the day on which the Roman Calendar began a new year. In Ravenna it

was marked by dancing and masquerades, against which Peter Chrysologus

inveighed in his 155th Sermon. Since he forbids Christians to put in

even an appearance at these entertainments, they must have been of

an objectionable nature. It was the same in Gaul even in the sixth

century and later. The second Council of Tours, and the Councils of

Auxerre and Rouen (650) were compelled to forbid these rejoicings.

With a view to counteracting their influence, the bishops exhorted the

faithful to attend divine service on this day, and appointed somewhat

earlier penitential processions (_litaniæ_) to be privately performed

in atonement for the sins committed at this season.[363] In Spain, the

eleventh canon of the fourth Council of Toledo commanded a strict fast

and abstinence for the same object, and the Allelujah was omitted from

the psalmody. In 650, a law of the Kings Recceswinth and Erwig made

the Kalends of January a festival of obligation.[364] In Rome, in the

eighth century, the people spent the nights dancing in the streets

to the scandal of pilgrims from the north, as Boniface informed Pope

Zacharias. These abuses lingered longest in France though divested of

their heathen character. Late on in the Middle Ages, we find a remnant

of them in the so-called Feast of Fools, at which ecclesiastical customs

were travestied by the election of a Bishop of Fools and by all sorts

of misconduct in the churches. Things became so bad that the papal

legate, Cardinal Peter, felt compelled to order Odo, Bishop of Paris, to

pronounce excommunication on all who took part in such proceedings. The

bishop prohibited the abuse in the strongest manner in 1199, but in spite

of repeated ecclesiastical censures, it continued on into the fifteenth

century, as appears from a report of the theological faculty of Paris in

1444.[365]

The 1st January appears as an ecclesiastical festival at Rome for the

first time at the beginning of the ninth century, where it is called from

the first _Circumcisio Domini_, the name which it bears among the Greeks,

Syrians, and Copts.

We have already observed that in the Gregorian sacramentary the 1st

January is simply called _Octava Domini_. The same is also the case in

the Calendar of St Geneviève, edited by Fronteau, which was written

between 714 and 731.[366] In the _Homiliarium_ of Charlemagne compiled

by Paul the Deacon between 786 and 797, the day is still called _in

octavas Domini_, i.e. _Calendas Januarias_.[367] The change of name

must have been effected shortly after this. Although among the sermons

of Zeno of Verona,[368] there is one on the circumcision of our Lord,

this only proves that he treated of this subject in his discourse, and

affords no evidence for the existence of the festival. In the Calendar

of Charlemagne, edited by Piper, dating from between 731 and 781, the

name _Circumcisio_ occurs, so too in the list of Festivals of Sonnatius.

On the other hand, the Gregorian sacramentary written, under Archbishop

Otgar, about 840 for the monastery of St Alban near Mainz, has only

_Octava Domini_.

The idea and date of this festival are derived from St Luke ii. 21, since

eight days after birth our Lord was circumcised and received His human

name, which, according to Jewish usage, was given at the same time.

Later on, a special feast in honour of the Holy Name was instituted and

appointed for the second Sunday after Epiphany. Its celebration was

permitted to the Franciscans by Clement VII. in 1530, but the cultus of

the Holy Name is due in a great measure to the influence of St Bernardine

of Siena. On 20th December 1721, Innocent XIII. appointed this feast to

be observed by the whole Church.

The Liturgy makes no reference to the commencement of the civil year,

although in the lectionary of Silos this day is called _Caput Anni_.

4. _The Epiphany_

As the name Epiphany implies, the origin and early celebration of this

festival is to be sought in the East. Among the Syrians, it is called

_denho_, or “Going forth,” in the sense of “_oriens ex alto_” (St Luke i.

78). Among the Greeks, it goes by the name of τά ἐπιφάνια or ἡ ἐπιφάνιος

sc. ἡμέρα, and θεοφάνεια. For the most part, the Latins employed the

Greek name, or an equivalent, such as _Festivitas Declarationis_, used

by Leo the Great, _manifestatio_, by Fulgentius, or _apparitio_ by

others.[369] The root, from which the Greek ἐπιφαίνω is derived, was

employed to describe the dawn, and the adjective ἐπιφανής was applied to

the appearances of the gods bringing help to men.

These names sufficiently disclose the idea commemorated by the feast—the

commemoration of the appearance of the Son of God on earth in general,

with special reference to those occasions in His life on which His divine

sonship was revealed in some distinctive manner. Prominent among those

occasions were His Nativity, the worship of the three wise men from the

East, the baptism in Jordan with its accompanying theophany, and the

miracles through which He manifested His divine power, especially the

first miracle at the marriage in Cana. Accordingly people spoke of divine

manifestations, in the plural, for the name _dies epiphaniarum sive

manifestationum_ was known to the heathen.[370]

The feast was kept on the 6th January. The first indication that this

day was marked in some special way in the Christian Calendar is given

by Clement of Alexandria, who says that some of the orthodox in his day

regarded it as the birth-day of Christ, while the Basilidians observed

the 10th January.[371] This of course does not prove that the 6th January

was observed at that time in Alexandria as a festival. Origen omits it

from the list of festivals he gives in _C. Cels._, 8, 22. It appears,

however, among the writings of Hippolytus, in an earnest exhortation

which he addressed to a candidate for baptism shortly before the day of

the “Divine Manifestations” (εἰς τὰ ἅγια ἐπιφάνεια), when baptism was to

be received. He starts with the baptism of Jesus, and then treats of the

effects of baptism, and of worthy preparation for its reception.[372] A

much later writer, who is however not to be quite disregarded, Bishop

John of Nicæa in the ninth century, traces back the institution of the

festival to disciples of St John.

Epiphany commemorates several events in the life of Jesus by which He

manifested His divinity. One of these is His baptism by St John in

Jordan,[373] for, according to the scriptural narrative, at the time of

His baptism a voice from heaven was heard proclaiming Jesus to be the

Son of God, and the Holy Ghost visibly appeared in bodily shape as a

dove. The baptism in Jordan is the special event commemorated by Epiphany

among the Easterns, _e.g._, in the oldest Coptic Calendar Epiphany

is called _Dies Baptismi Sanctificati_, and in a later one _Immersio

Domini_.[374] The earliest existing sermon on the day—the homily of

Hippolytus—treats exclusively of the baptism of Jesus. Chrysostom, in

addition to the baptism, speaks of our Lord’s second coming in Judgment

as an event commemorated by the festival. On account of its connection

with the baptism, this festival has among the Greeks the secondary title

of “Feast of Lights,” (ἑορτὴ τῶν φώτων);[375] and in Ireland, contrary to

the ancient custom of the Church, solemn baptism was administered on this

day.[376]

The second event commemorated on the 6th January is the visit of the

three Wise Men who, by their gifts, recognised Christ as God and Man and

Redeemer, and worshipped Him as the long expected King of the Jews. The

Wise Men found the divine Child still in Bethlehem, though no longer

in the stable, as artists usually represent the scene, but in a roofed

house[377] where His parents were temporarily lodged. The evangelists

give no indication how long after the Nativity this took place.

The visit of the Magi appears as the sole event commemorated by Epiphany

in the six sermons of Augustine delivered on the feast (Sermons 199-204).

Fulgentius in his four sermons on Epiphany treats only of this event and

of the slaughter of the innocents.

The Mass in the Gelasian sacramentary refers in the collects and preface

only to these mysteries, and not to the two others, and the Gospel[378]

relates the visit of the Magi.

The third event commemorated is the first miracle performed at the

marriage in Cana, by which our Lord manifested His divine power. This

threefold commemoration is still recognised in the present Roman liturgy,

and finds expression in the antiphon to the _Benedictus_, which runs: “On

this day the Church is joined to her celestial Bridegroom, because Christ

washed away her sins in Jordan, the Magi hasten with gifts to the royal

espousals and the guests are gladdened with water changed into wine.”

Polemius Silvius notices the three events in his Calendar on this day.

Paulinus of Nola[379] expressly mentions them. They are especially dwelt

upon and distinguished in a sermon of Sedatus, Bishop of Béziers, in the

sixth century.[380] Maximus of Turin was acquainted with the threefold

commemoration, but doubts if they all actually happened on the same day,

the 6th January.

Later on, in mediæval times, there was a tendency to include under the

Epiphany other manifestations of Christ’s divine power, such as the

miracle of the loaves, and the resurrection of Lazarus.[381]

There is hardly any trace in the West of Epiphany as the festival of our

Lord’s birth,[382] and even in the East this significance of the feast

was forgotten after the institution of Christmas. Lingering traces of the

earlier conception which had not quite died out in the East, may perhaps

have been the occasion of a polemic from St Jerome,[383] when he declared

that the Epiphany had never been regarded as a festival of Christ’s

nativity.

By the introduction of Christmas, Epiphany naturally lost its character

as the day of Christ’s birth, even in those parts of the Church where

it had originally been regarded as such. It is not, therefore, to be

wondered at that Chrysostom, as introducer of Christmas, felt compelled

to explain to his hearers more particularly the difference between the

feasts. Christ, he says, did not appear at His birth openly and to all,

but only to a few persons, and so little was His divinity manifested

thereby that St John the Baptist was able to say: “There hath stood one

in the midst of you, whom you know not.” From the moment of His baptism,

His divinity was evident to all, and consequently the festival instituted

in honour of the baptism of Jesus bears the name of Epiphany. Moreover,

there is yet another and a fuller appearance of the Lord which will take

place at the end of the world. Hence the necessity, according to St

Chrysostom, of celebrating in addition to the Epiphany a special festival

in honour of Christ’s birth.[384]

Epiphany first appears with an octave in the Calendars of the eighth

century. In the Gregorian sacramentary it is without an octave, but has a

vigil. In the Calendar of Fronteau the festival is kept up for three days.

One of the special observances connected with the feast was the

publication on the 6th January of the annual pastoral letter of the

Patriarchs of Alexandria—the _epistola festalis_—announcing the date of

Easter for the current year. In 541, the fourth Council of Orleans (can.

1) ordered the same thing for the West, also the Councils of Auxerre in

578 and 585 (can. 2). In the Middle Ages the dates of the other movable

feasts were added to the date of Easter (Pontif. Rom.), as is still done

in some places, as for example, Turin, at the present day.

The festival was kept with special solemnity at Jerusalem, as we learn

from the description of it given by the Gallic Pilgrim. Unfortunately,

the beginning with the special account of the feast is missing, but there

is no doubt that the foregoing paragraph described the Epiphany, for the

succeeding festival is spoken of as _quadragesima de Epiphania_ (c. 26).

According to this document a procession from Jerusalem to Bethlehem

took place on the eve, returning in the early morning. After a time for

rest, the service commenced about the second hour of the day in the

great church on Golgotha, which was richly decorated. At the conclusion

of the function the faithful proceeded to the church of the Anastasis,

and, about the sixth hour, or twelve o’clock, the festival was at an

end. In the evening vespers (_lucernare_) were sung. On the second and

third days service was held in the same church, on the fourth day in the

church called Eleona on the Mount of Olives, on the fifth day in the

_Lazarium_, the grave of Lazarus in Bethania, on the sixth day in Sion,

on the seventh day in the church of the Anastasis, on the eighth day in

the church of the Holy Cross. Thus both in Jerusalem and in Bethlehem the

feast lasted eight days—a kind of octave.

In the Eastern Churches the day is further distinguished by the solemn

blessing of the water, mentioned by Chrysostom and intended to recall the

miracle at Cana. This is a very popular festival, but in many places has

been stripped of its religious character; it is performed by the clergy

going in procession to the sea or to a river, reciting a prayer, and then

throwing a crucifix into the water which is fetched out again by swimmers

and takes place on the 18th January (old style).

With regard to the antiquity and spread of the feast, it was unknown in

North Africa during the third century, for Tertullian makes no reference

to it, and even in the time of St Augustine it was rejected by the

Donatists as an Oriental novelty.[385] In Origen’s time, at least, it

was not generally observed as a festival in Alexandria, since he does

not reckon it as such. For Rome, evidence is wanting for the earliest

times, but since the daughter Church of North Africa knew nothing of the

festival at first, it may be inferred that originally it was not kept at

Rome but was introduced there in the course of time. In Spain, it was a

feast-day in 380, in Gaul, in 361, and there is evidence of its existence

in Thrace as early as 304.[386] In the East it generally held the place

of Christmas as our Lord’s birth-day,[387] and as such it had already,

as early as the first half of the third century, become domiciled in

the Church, as is shown by the recently published _Testamentum Jesu

Christi_, where it is twice named as a high festival along with Easter

and Pentecost.[388] In the Roman Empire, as early as A.D. 400, Epiphany

was one of the days on which games in the circus were forbidden by law.

Not until Justinian’s[389] time were the law courts closed[390] on this

day also.

5. _The Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary_

(CANDLEMAS)

By the mosaic law, every mother, after giving birth to a son, remained

unclean for seven days, in the first instance, and then, for thirty-three

days longer, was excluded from participation in public worship. After

the birth of a daughter the period of ceremonial uncleanness was twice

as long. Thus the whole period lasted for forty or eighty days, and at

its conclusion the woman had to bring a yearling lamb for a holocaust and

a pigeon for a sin-offering. In case of poverty, two young pigeons or

turtle-doves sufficed as an offering (Lev. xii. 2-8). According to the

narrative in the Gospels, Mary, after the birth of Jesus, fulfilled the

commands of this law and brought the prescribed offering to the Temple on

the fortieth day, on which occasion the meeting with Simeon and Anna took

place (St Luke ii. 22 _et seqq._).

Our Blessed Lady and her divine Son, in the first place, and,

secondarily, Simeon and Anna are the actors in this scene, and it would

have been strange had this event not been commemorated very early among

the Church’s festivals.

The first reference to such a commemoration belongs to the last decades

of the fourth century and comes from Jerusalem. It is contained in

the diary of the so-called Silvia. The day was ushered in by a solemn

procession, followed by a sermon on St Luke ii. 22 _seqq._, and a Mass.

It had as yet no special name, but was known merely as the fortieth day

after the Epiphany. This goes to prove that at that time the Epiphany

was regarded in Jerusalem as the day of the Lord’s birth, and it follows

indirectly from the expressions used (_hic_) that the festival was not

yet known in the Pilgrim’s home.[391]

It seems probable that the festival was first of all observed in

Jerusalem from whence it spread through out the whole Church. The person

by whom, and the time when it was first introduced into Constantinople

and the Byzantine empire, are known to us. A plague having caused

frightful mortality, the Emperor Justinian, as soon as it had passed

away, ordered the Purification to be observed for the first time

in 542.[392] The contradictory evidence in Georgius Hamartolus and

Nicephorus[393] that it was the Emperor Justin, Justinian’s predecessor,

who introduced the festival and ordered it to be observed throughout the

world, seems due simply to a confusion between the two emperors. In any

case the spread of the feast throughout a wider area dates from this time.

The name by which the festival was known, now that it was widely adopted

in different districts, was “The Meeting,” in Greek _Hypapante_, in Latin

_Occursus Domini_, in reference to the meeting between the Child Jesus

and Simeon and Anna; it may be that this festival was introduced at Rome

in consequence of Justinian’s commands, but no evidence to that effect

is extant. As far as Rome is concerned, it appears in the Gelasian

sacramentary with the new name of _Purificatio_, and as a feast of our

Blessed Lady, without any mention of a procession.[394] Pope Sergius

I. (687-701) ordained, however, a procession on this as on the other

principal festivals of Our Lady. In the passage in question of the _Liber

Pontificalis_, the festival has the remarkable name of St Simeon’s Day,

“which the Greeks call Hypapante,” which seems to show that the festival

had not yet been well established in Rome. Moreover, the 2nd February was

observed among the Greeks as the actual day of Simeon’s death, because

in his canticle he had said, “_Now_ Thou dost dismiss Thy servant ...

in peace.”[395] That the festival was only introduced at a late date in

many places in the West is proved by the fact that in the Lectionary of

Silos, the oldest belonging to the Spanish Church, and dating about 650,

it does not appear. The same is the case with regard to the Calendar of

St Geneviève in Paris (731-741) published by Fronteau.

Formerly the general opinion was that it had been introduced in Rome by

Pope Gelasius I. in order that he might replace the heathen _Lupercalia_,

with their midnight torch processions and disorderly proceedings, by a

popular Christian festivity. This opinion[396] cannot be maintained in

the face of the facts referred to above. The _Lupercalia_ indeed fell

on the 15th February, which also happened to be the day on which this

festival was originally kept in Jerusalem, but the Gallic pilgrim makes

no mention of lights carried in the procession. Again, processions, with

or without lights, were so common both among the Christians and heathen

of the early Christian era, that any connection between the procession on

Candlemas Day and the _Lupercalia_ cannot be inferred.

The _Invitatorium_ (_Gaude et lætare, Jerusalem, occurrens Deo tuo_), and

the preface, which is that for Christmas, show that originally the feast

was rather a festival of Our Lord than of Our Lady. The collect for the

day speaks of the presentation of the Lord in the Temple alone, and the

antiphons for the most part refer to the same event, while the psalms are

those of Our Lady’s feasts. The Gospel for the day (St Luke ii. 22-23),

the same now as in the fourth century, chronologically speaking, precedes

the Gospel for the previous Sunday. For the Sunday after Christmas has

St Luke ii. 33-40 for its Gospel, which relates the return of the Holy

Family from Judæa to Galilee.

6. _The Sundays of the Church’s Year as forming connecting-links between

the principal Feasts_

During the age of the persecutions it was scarcely possible for

Christians to observe any other festival than Sunday, and so it is not

surprising that the two writers, who have occasion to speak of the

institution of the festivals of the Church, mention only Easter and

Pentecost, both of which fall on Sundays. To these Christmas was added in

the fourth century, and Epiphany somewhat earlier. These chief festivals,

along with others soon added to their number, formed the elements for the

organisation of a festal system in the Church, as centres round which the

lesser festivals grouped themselves.

The last step of importance, however, in this development of the Church’s

year was to connect these chief festivals with one another, so as to

make them parts of a whole. The Sundays afforded a convenient means

for effecting this. They were associated with the festal character

of the nearest feast and were connected with it as links in a chain.

The way for this development had been prepared by the season of

preparation before Easter, and by the relation in which Easter stood to

Pentecost. The Sundays of Lent had their own character as a preparation

for Easter, and the Sundays in the fifty days between Easter and

Pentecost—Quinquagesima—were marked by the festal character with which

antiquity invested the whole period. All that was needed was, first of

all, to connect Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, and, in the second

place, the institution of a season of preparation before Christmas. This

was accomplished between the sixth and the eighth centuries.

During the first six centuries, the ordinary Sundays of the year had

neither liturgical position or character, since they were not even

enumerated. There was a sort of _commune dominicarum_, _i.e._, a number

of masses existed from which one could be chosen at will for each Sunday.

To these Sundays, which were called simply _dominicæ quotidianæ_, those

after Epiphany and Pentecost belonged.

They numbered altogether twenty-nine or thirty, according as the Calendar

gave fifty-two or fifty-three Sundays in the year. For the sum of the

days of the year, 365, divided by seven makes fifty-two and one over,

and so the year which commences on a Sunday has fifty-three Sundays,

the others only fifty-two. The smaller number of these, six at most,

come between Epiphany and Septuagesima, but the larger, twenty-three

to twenty-eight, between Whitsunday and Advent. The variation depends

upon the date of Easter. There is no historical circumstance forthcoming

to give these Sundays a specially festal character. With Pentecost the

commemoration of Our Lord’s redemptive acts concludes, and it was not the

custom in the West to include events from Church history in the cycle of

feasts, although the East celebrated a few, as, for example, the General

Councils.

With regard to the Roman rite in particular, there are no special masses

for the Sundays after Easter and Pentecost in the Leonine sacramentary.

A further development appears in the Gelasian sacramentary, where the

Sundays in Lent and those between Easter and Pentecost alone have a

clearly defined liturgical character, and keep their special place in

the Calendar. For the remaining Sundays of the year, there was a choice

of only sixteen masses, which are not in the first book of the Gelasian

sacramentary containing the course for the year (_anni circulus_, i.e.,

_Proprium de tempore_), but at the commencement of the third book. Along

with the masses for week-days and masses for special occasions, they form

the contents of this volume. The masses for Advent, however, strange to

say, are contained in the second book, thus out of chronological order.

In the Gregorian sacramentary, at the end of the eighth century, the

Church’s year has the same form as at the present day, with the sole

exception that the Sundays in Advent come at the end, instead of, as at

the present time, at the beginning of the Missal. This is due to the fact

that Christmas was then usually regarded as the commencement of the year.

In the construction of the ecclesiastical year, the Gallic and Spanish

Churches followed the Roman. The Mozarabic breviary has five Sundays in

Advent, but they stand at the beginning. They are in the same position

in the _Liber Responsalis sive Antiphonarius_, contained in a Codex of

Compiègne belonging to the ninth century, and falsely attributed to

Gregory the Great.[397]

The Gregorian sacramentary simply numbers the Sundays consecutively

after Pentecost, but in the Frankish lectionaries there are signs of an

attempt to separate the Sundays after Pentecost into groups—Sundays after

SS. Peter and Paul, Sundays after St Lawrence, etc.—but the custom was

afterwards abandoned.

In France, this division of the Sundays after Pentecost seems to have

been general in the eighth century. The _Homilarium_ of Charlemagne

divides them as follows:—

{ Four Sundays after Epiphany.

{ Three Sundays after Pentecost.

{ Seven Sundays after SS. Peter and Paul (Post Natale Apostolorum).

22 { Five Sundays after St Lawrence.

{ The September Ember Week (Feria iv., vi., et sabb. et Dominica).

{ Six Sundays after St Michael, 29th Sept. (Post S. Angeli).

The _Kalendarium Frontonis_ divides them thus:—

{ Two Sundays after Pentecost.

{ Six Sundays after SS. Peter and Paul (Post Natale Apostolorum).

19 { Four Sundays after St Lawrence.

{ Seven Sundays after St Cyprian (Post S. Cypriani).

This gives only nineteen after Pentecost, and so the _Kalendarium

Frontonis_ has ten Sundays after Epiphany until Septuagesima, which must

clearly have helped to fill up, when necessary, what was wanting at the

end of the year.

The _Comes Albini_ in Ranke (App. iv.) gives:—

Five Sundays after Epiphany.

{ Four Sundays _post Pentecosten_.

{ Five Sundays _post natale SS. Apostolorum_.

21 { Five Sundays _post natale S. Laurentii_.

{ One _Dominica mensis septimi_.

{ Six Sundays _post S. Angeli_ _scil._ _dedicationem basilicæ S.

Archangeli_ (_Michælis_).

Four Sundays in Advent.

The Gregorian sacramentary, written for Mainz under Archbishop Otgar

about 840, has six Sundays after Epiphany, four _post Pentecosten_, then

six _post natale Apostolorum_, six more _post natale S. Laurentii_ and

eight _post S. Archangeli_—in all, twenty-four.

The Lectionary of Luxeuil of the seventh century stands alone in giving

merely two Sundays _post Theophaniam_, and three _post Cathedram S.

Petri_. The Sundays in Lent as well as Septuagesima are not marked in

any special way. The first of these peculiarities is less remarkable

since, even in the Gelasian sacramentary, the Sundays after Epiphany are

not given a distinctive name. All these attempts to split up the Sundays

into small groups were subsequently abandoned, and the simple manner

of enumeration found in the Roman rite was adopted. A careful observer

will have noticed that the year is divided into two very unequal parts.

The movable feasts all fall in the first half, leaving the second half

devoid of festivals. Even the week-days in Lent, and in the octaves

of Easter and Pentecost, are each provided with special lections and

masses. Without doubt this is due to the fact that in the earliest times

the entire season before Easter was occupied with the instruction of

Catechumens. The necessity of providing them with as much instruction as

possible led to this increased liturgical activity. It appears almost as

if the abandonment of the Catechumenate resulted in a decrease of this

activity, and brought matters to a standstill. A long period elapsed

before any fresh efforts were made in the direction of completing the

course of the ecclesiastical year.

The Greeks have stopped short with their ecclesiastical year only half

made. They have a fairly complete cycle of Easter festivals, and they

have adopted Christmas, but without its proper setting since they have no

Advent. But their manner of enumerating the Sundays after Pentecost is

very different from that adopted in the West. That is to say, they name

the Sundays after the passages of Scripture read in the Gospel for the

day.

From Easter to Whitsunday, the Gospels for Sundays and other days are

taken from St John; from the Sunday after Pentecost to the exaltation of

the Holy Cross (14th September), from St Matthew; and for the following

fifteen weeks from St Luke. The former Sundays are called Sundays after

St Matthew, the latter, Sundays after St Luke. The latter extend over the

New Year and Epiphany—for no notice is taken of Advent in the lections.

St Mark’s Gospel supplies lections for most of the Saturdays and Sundays

of Lent, as well as for a number of week-days throughout the course of

the year. But the Sundays in question are not called Sundays after St

Mark, any more than the Sundays between Easter and Pentecost are called

Sundays after St John; but they take their names partly from their

position as Sundays in Lent and partly from the incidents related in the

Gospel for the day. In the Eastern system the connection between the

Sundays and the festivals is purely external and not organic.[398]

In speaking of the ecclesiastical year of the Greeks and Orientals, it

must be borne in mind that they do not possess the same quantity of

formularies for the Mass as we do, but, throughout the course of the

year, they employ only two or three. The result is monotony, and it is

practically only the Gospel for the day in which the festal character of

the celebration finds expression. Among the Latins, on the other hand,

the introit, collect, etc., all emphasise the character of the feast, and

still more clearly the lections from Scripture. On this account, a few

remarks as to their origin and that of the lections in the Breviary may

not be out of place.

Evidence for the earliest period is lacking, but there is no doubt the

choice of what was to be read rested with the bishop and that he also

fixed the length of the lections. In certain cases, and for many days,

the choice presented no difficulty, the lections being determined by

the character of the feast itself. We can, for example, determine the

lections for a number of days used in the fourth century in Jerusalem.

Several of them agree with those now in use.[399] Very early, a series

of lections for the canonical hours must have been drawn up for use

in monasteries, and then this in its turn influenced the lections in

the liturgy. In the Middle Ages, it was thought that St Jerome was the

originator of such a series of lections, and accordingly the lectionary

was called by his name. It is certain that a lectionary existed as early

as the fifth century, for which the so-called _Carta Cornutiana_ affords

proof.[400]

When we examine more closely the order of lections, we notice they do

not harmonise with the ideas presented by the different parts of the

ecclesiastical year, as now existing, but they do agree with the form

which it took in the earliest stages of its development. The consequence

is that the lections are appropriately chosen for the pascal season and

for Whitsuntide, but do not fit in with the festal character of Advent

and the Christmas cycle. As we have said, the ecclesiastical year began

originally with the preparation for Easter, _i.e._ Lent. The lections

from the five books of Moses which start with Septuagesima were then in

their proper place, treating as they do of the fall and the divine scheme

for man’s restoration.

C. OTHER INCIDENTS IN THE CHURCH’S YEAR

1. _The Embertides_

The Embertides[401] are peculiar to the Western or Roman Church. In

Rome they have been observed from the earliest times, and so Leo the

Great was inclined to ascribe to them an apostolic origin. This Pope

connects them with the four seasons of the year,[402] and gives them

a special signification in as much as we then give God due honour and

praise for the gifts He gives us to support our bodily life. Again, they

move us to make a good use of the gifts thus bestowed, to abstain from

superfluities, and to impart our gifts generously to those in need. We

must neither murmur over the fewness of some gifts, nor be discontented

with the excess of others, as may even sometimes happen. God’s will

should be our will.[403] The Embertides in general, but especially that

of December, he directly connects with agriculture and the harvest (_ut

omnium fructum collectione conclusa_, etc., _Sermo 16_, c. 2); and the

earliest liturgies[404] contain prayers for the same purpose; such

indications as these give us the clue to the origin of these fasts. By

them practices originally heathen have assumed a Christian form and

character. The Romans, originally, were compelled to be an agricultural

people, and their gods were for the most part deities who presided over

agriculture, as Tertullian early remarked (Sterculus, Epona, Mutunus,

etc.), and their worship was closely connected with the stages of

cultivation. The chief incidents were accompanied by religious ceremonies

and usages. A blessing was asked on the sowing of the seed at the _feriæ

sementivæ_, observed between the end of November and the Winter solstice,

_i.e._ in December. At the time of harvest, the _feriæ messis_ were

celebrated, and at the vintage, the _feriæ vindemiales_.[405]

With the fact that the heathen worship of Rome recognised three sorts

of such _feriæ_ observed thrice in the year (no evidence of a fourth

being forthcoming), agrees a passage in the _Liber Pontificalis_, which

has long been regarded as the earliest evidence for the observance of

Embertides, though it fell short of absolute proof. The passage states

that Calixtus (217-222) ordained a fast on three Saturdays in the

year.[406] The number corresponds well with the three sets of heathen

_feriæ_ mentioned above. As St Leo speaks of four fasts of this kind

yearly in the fifth century, the fourth fast, corresponding to the

fourfold division of the year, must have been added in the course of the

fourth century. It may be that the passage, Zacharias viii. 19, referring

to a Jewish custom of sanctifying by a fast the four seasons of the year,

helped to bring this about.

All four Embertides are mentioned in the sermon of Leo the Great, and

both the Leonine and Gelasian sacramentaries agree in marking Wednesday,

Friday, and Saturday as the days to be observed as fasts.[407] Pope

Gelasius[408] appointed that ordinations of priests and deacons were to

be held on all Embertides, and in the middle of Lent, whereas in St Leo’s

time the ordination of priests took place at Easter only.[409]

The Ember fasts were called _jejunium primi, quarti, septimi et decimi

mensis_, in the earliest service-books, and fell in March, June,

September, and December. The week in each of the aforesaid months,

in which the Ember fast was to be observed, appears not to have been

definitely fixed in earlier days.

If the opinion of Morin is correct, this would agree with the fact that

the harvest feast was not fixed for any day in particular, but was

determined by the pontiffs in each case. However, it remained for a

long period undetermined whether the first Embertide should be observed

before or during the course of Lent, and also in which week of Advent

the last Embertide should fall. The present arrangement, according to

the Micrologus[410] was first made by Gregory VII., _i.e._, the first

Embertide to fall in the first week of Lent, the second in Whitsun week,

the third in the third week of September, the fourth in the third week in

Advent.

According to what has been said the Ember fasts were distinctively Roman

in origin, and indeed belonged to the city of Rome, and the Roman bishops

by repeated injunctions ordered their colleagues in Italy to adopt

them in the first instance. In Gaul and in the Christian districts of

Germany, their adoption was due to the patronage given to Roman usages by

the Carolingians: in Spain the Ember Days were unknown until the Roman

ritual was introduced in the eleventh century, and in Milan they were

introduced much later, in fact by St Charles Borromeo.[411] It does not

appear from history that the original object of the Ember Days was to

petition God to raise up worthy priests in His Church. They are first

mentioned in this connection after the popes had appointed them as the

fixed times for ordinations. They owe their origin to the agricultural

festivals of ancient Rome, as appears plainly from the references of Leo

the Great,[412] to the December fast.

In a later age, they lost entirely their early significance and came to

be regarded solely as days of penitence and prayer. In the prayers of

the actual Roman missal, no trace of their original character is to be

found. The Ember masses of Advent refer to the coming of Christ, those of

Lent to the suffering caused by sin, and its Atonement, those of Whitsun

week to the descent of the Holy Ghost. Where the prayers do not relate

to these subjects they contain no special references, or deal only with

fasting in general and its necessity. The masses for the September Ember

Days alone preserve some traces of their historical origin, in as much as

they are principally of a festive character (_Exultate_, etc.), such as

might refer to a harvest safely gathered in. But such a connection cannot

be proved beyond doubt.

When we go through the prayers in the oldest sacramentaries we find the

same thing. The name of Embertide is not indeed employed, and the days

are not yet marked as fast-days, but the Saturdays are distinguished,

twice in the Gelasian, and on all four Embertides in the Gregorian

sacramentary, by having twelve lessons.[413] With regard to the later

recensions of these two sacramentaries, the Gelasian contains two formulæ

for announcing the Ember fasts to the faithful after the “_Pax Domini sit

semper vobiscum_”[414] in the Mass. In the first part, there is a Mass

for the three Ember Days of the fourth month, June, and, in the second

part, for September and December as well,[415] while the March Ember

Days are merely indicated in Nos. XIX. and XX. of the first part. In the

Frankish Gregorian sacramentary it is the same; masses are given for

March, June, and September but not for December.[416] Few of the prayers

in these two sacramentaries are contained in the missal actually in use.

It is to be remarked concerning the lections that they numbered twelve

on the Saturdays. The present Roman missal prescribes three lections for

the Wednesdays, but for the Fridays only two as usual. For the Saturdays,

however, the number reaches six, and, in the Advent Embertide, seven,

including the Gospel.

That there were only three Embertides (_i.e._ the _jejunium quarti,

septimi, et decimi mensis_) given in the ancient service-books is not

surprising, since the fast in March fell usually in Lent and so needed no

special mention.

With regard to the spread of Ember Days in the West, they made their way

slowly and seemed to have been earliest adopted by the Anglo-Saxons,

who at their conversion accepted the Roman ritual as a whole. They are

ordered to be observed by the Council of Cloveshoe (can. 18) in 747.

Neither Chrodegang nor Theodulf speak of Ember Days in their writings,

though they seem to have been introduced by St Boniface into Germany and

France. Even if the so-called statutes of St Boniface are not in all

points contemporary with the saint, Ember Days were certainly enjoined

in the Frankish Empire by the Capitulary of Charlemagne in 769, where up

till then they had not been observed.[417] The circumstance, too, that

their observance had to be repeatedly enjoined by the Councils of the

ninth century, _e.g._ the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle in 813, and later

ones, proves that they had not yet won their way as a popular observance

in northern countries.[418]

Moreover, it still remained uncertain in which week of the months in

question the Ember Days should come. In Rome they came in the first week

of the month. Elsewhere doubts arose as to what ought to be done when

the Ember Days in June came in Whitsun Week, and as to whether one ought

to fast when the 1st March fell on a Thursday or Friday, the Wednesday

falling on the last day of February.[419] Gregory VII. put an end to

these variations by establishing the present usage.[420]

2. _Litanies or Rogations_

_Litaniæ_ is the name given to solemn processions of clergy and

people accompanied by prayer at which sacred pictures and emblems are

carried. It was impossible to perform such devotions in the days before

Constantine. But when Christianity became a recognised religion they

were quickly adopted, and all the more so as the heathens had similar

practices which they performed frequently and at stated times.

Litanies were especially frequent in Rome. There, during Lent, the Pope

was wont to set out with his assistants with great solemnity from his

residence to celebrate Mass in the various churches of the city. Each

day he went to a different church, where the halt or station was made. A

survival of this remains in the word _Statio_, which appears so often in

the missal. This custom was abandoned in course of time.

Still some of these _litaniæ_ found their way into the regular worship of

the Church, and have their place in the ecclesiastical year, _i.e._ the

procession on the 25th April, St Mark’s day, called _litania major_, and

those on the three days before the Ascension, called _litania minor_. The

names are remarkable, for the _minor_ lasts three days and the _major_

only one, but it is explained by the history of their institution.

The Christian processions are a continuation of the heathen processions

which they have replaced. This is especially clear with regard to the

_litania major_ which was performed on a stated day, the 25th April.

It has nothing to do with St Mark, whose feast was only much later

introduced in the Roman Church.

The ancient Romans had their processions which took place both within and

without the city, the latter corresponding to our rogation processions;

the former were called _amburbalia_ from _urbs_, and the latter

_ambarvalia_ from _arva_.[421] They served as supplications either for

blessings from the gods on the fruits of the earth, and were observed

yearly on stated days, or to avert calamities and were appointed as need

required.[422]

The better known of these processions of ancient Rome, the _ambarvalia_,

took place on vii. a. Kal. Maias (25th April). The procession passed

along the _Via Flaminia_, the present Corso, and went as far as the fifth

milestone, _i.e._ as far as the Milvian Bridge, where, the entrails of

a dog and of a sheep were offered to the god _Robigus_.[423] As the

procession was primarily intended to ward off blight (_robigo_) from the

crops the day was called “_Robigalia_” in the Calendar. When Rome became

a great city, agriculture and its festivals fell unto the back ground,

and both in the Calendar of the fourth century and in that of Polemius

Silvius the _Robigalia_ is no longer mentioned on this day. There was

another great procession in heathen Rome, the _Argea_, which took place

on the 16th and 17th March, and Bishop Vigilius of Trent, speaks of a

rural festival of the same character.[424]

As to Christian Rome, Rupert of Deutz is of opinion that processions had

been performed there since Constantine’s days, and Beleth names Liberius

as their originator. Although it is not impossible these writers may have

gained their information from ancient sources, still one cannot draw any

certain conclusion from their remarks.

We have, however, sure proof of the introduction of Rogations by Bishop

Mamertus of Vienne. That part of the country had been visited for a

considerable period by various calamities and earthquakes. On Easter

night, 469, the royal palace in Vienne was struck by lightning, which

caused such a panic among the entire congregation assembled in church,

that they fled from the building. Mamertus put himself into connection

with the civil authorities and along with them organised the Litanies,

which had been used before this time, but in an informal and irregular

manner. It was ordained they should take place on the three days before

the Ascension, that they should be accompanied by a fast, and that the

slaves should do no servile work. This institution was soon imitated

throughout the whole of Gaul. Under Bishop Sidonius Apollinaris they

were adopted at Clermont, next the first Council of Orleans (511), in

its twenty-seventh canon, prescribes them for the Frankish part of the

country, and Avitus could say they had already spread throughout the

whole world, and been accepted with eagerness.[425]

Nevertheless there is no clear evidence in antiquity, to show how matters

were arranged in Rome. Only when we come to the time of Gregory the

Great, do we get detailed accounts which have been preserved by Gregory

of Tours. In autumn of the year 589, a terrible inundation devastated

the city of Rome, overthrowing the ancient buildings, destroying all

provisions, and leaving behind it a pestilence which carried away Pope

Pelagius II. in February 590. To avert the divine wrath, Gregory, as

administrator of the vacant see, ordered a procession of especial

solemnity.[426] It was apparently the procession of the 25th April, but

carried out on a larger scale than heretofore. It may, however, have been

an extraordinary procession such as had never before taken place, for its

date is unknown, and it is not certain if the often quoted statement of

Gregory really refers to it. In his numerous letters there is no mention

of this procession.

Gregory prepared the people for the procession some days before by a

sermon. The procession was divided into seven parts, and hence received

the name of _Litania Septiformis_. Each division started from a different

church, and all met in the basilica of St Mary Major. As Gregory says

in another place, “The return of this annual solemnity warns us to keep

it with devout hearts,” we conclude it was not a new observance just

introduced.[427] In Rome the _litaniæ_ of Rogation Week, as the _Liber

Pontificalis_ informs us, were first adopted under Leo III. (795-816),

through the Frankish influence[428] then dominant there. The observance

of days of penitence in this season of the year was a departure from the

original principle that the Quinquagesima was a time of ecclesiastical

joy, as Amalarius rightly observes. The procession of the 25th April

belonged especially to the city of Rome, and the name _litania major_

is due to the fact that the processions of Rogation Week were only

introduced later. They too were performed with great solemnity. In other

places there were yet other days appointed for litanies, but whether in

addition to those already mentioned or in place of them is not clear.

Thus the second Council of Lyons in 567, in its sixth canon, enjoined

that in the first week of November, litanies similar to those customary

before the Ascension should be performed. The Church of Milan celebrated

the Rogations in the week after the Ascension. The Council of Gerunda in

517, in its second canon, places them in the week after Pentecost, and a

second _litania_ on the first of November when it was not a Sunday (Ib.,

Can. 3). The second canon of the sixth Council of Toledo (638) places

them on the Ides of December. It may be conjectured from this that the

litanies in Spain developed on peculiar lines.[429] Here as in Gaul,

the Rogation Days were kept as fasts. In Germany, the Rogations were

only introduced in the ninth century, for the Council of Mainz in 813

(Can. 33), prescribed they should be observed by a three days’ fast, and

the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle in 836 (Can. 11), ordered expressly the

performance of the processions after the Roman manner.

3. _The Dedication of a Church and the Festival of the Patron Saint_

The festival of the dedication of a Church has indeed no connection with

the ecclesiastical year, and the festival of the patron saint belongs to

the same category as the ordinary saints’ days, but formerly, and even to

some extent at the present time, both have such a marked position among

the festivals that they deserve some special mention.

In order to distinguish one church from another, different ways of

naming them were adopted in course of time. In Rome they took their

names originally from their founders and from those to whom the site

on which they stood had previously belonged, _e.g._, the Basilica of

the Lateran, the Sessorian Basilica (Sta. Croce), the Licinian Basilica

(Sta. Bibiana), the Liberian (Sta. Maria Maggiore), etc. Elsewhere they

received their names partly in the same way, and partly from other

reasons, as we see from the oldest churches in Jerusalem—the _Martyrium_

and Anastasis in the city, the Eleona or Imbomon on the Mount of Olives,

and the _Lazarium_ in Bethania, close to Jerusalem.[430] Churches built

over the graves of martyrs, _Martyria_, were naturally called after

the saint over whose tomb they were erected, and as many such churches

served for ordinary divine worship, it gradually became customary to call

churches after a saint, or to dedicate them specially to his honour.[431]

Such was the custom in Carthage. From the point of view of the historical

development, one must consider (1) the day on which the church was made

over for public use, and (2) the patron saint. The former was the day

of the church’s dedication or consecration. The heathen, both civilised

and barbarian, had been accustomed to set apart the edifices erected for

the service of their gods by a special ceremony of consecration.[432]

Everyone knows with what magnificence Solomon dedicated the first temple.

Accordingly, it only was to be expected that so symbolical a ceremony

would be adopted by the Church, and, as a matter of fact, immediately

after the cessation of persecution, under the first Christian Emperor,

we find the dedication of churches performed with great display. We have

an example of this in the dedication of the Church at Tyre, about which

Eusebius has so much to say in his Ecclesiastical History, having himself

delivered a long and very tedious and commonplace discourse on that

occasion. (Euseb., _Hist. Eccl._, 10, 3 and 4.)

The dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem in

335, was performed with remarkable magnificence. After the Synod of

the Eusebians at Tyre in this year, many bishops at the invitation of

the imperial representative proceeded to Jerusalem, for the great

basilica which Constantine had commenced to build on Mount Calvary was

now finished. The dedication took place on the 14th September, the day

on which the Empress Helena had found the Holy Cross, and which, as the

Gallic Pilgrim states, was observed later as an annual festival. Two

anniversaries fell, in this case, on the same day and consequently we are

unable to conclude that the anniversary of a church’s dedication was at

this time already celebrated as a regular thing. It became customary to

do so, however, shortly afterwards both in the East and in the West.[433]

To the same period belongs the consecration of the so-called Golden

Basilica at Antioch, also commenced by Constantine but completed under

Constantius in 341. On this occasion also a Synod was held.[434]

Unfortunately nothing definite regarding the ceremonies employed at the

dedication of a Church can be gathered from Eusebius’ wordy description.

He says: “The bishops performed the divine service, and the priests

fulfilled their functions, and very magnificent were the ecclesiastical

ceremonies. One heard the psalms and the other hymns which come from God,

and saw the mystic rites of the service performed; the mystical symbols

of the saving Passion were there also. Moreover each of the bishops

present delivered a festal address and strove to the best of his ability

to promote the festivity.” In the West, even in the fourth century,

special ceremonies of dedication were in use, and Ambrose mentions them

as generally observed, but the particulars of which they were composed,

we cannot now ascertain. However, one of the ceremonies was the placing

of relics of the martyrs in the new church, if there were not some there

already. In an unconsecrated church there could be no performance of

divine service.[435]

Before this, and in many places afterwards, it appears that the

consecration of the altar alone was required. At least the oldest Gallic

missal[436] contains a mass for the consecration of an altar only, and

none for the dedication of a Church. This is borne out by the fact that

in the liturgical writings of Ephrem and of the pseudo-Dionysius we find

mention of the consecration with holy oil of the altar, while nothing is

said of the consecration of churches. Neither the Apostolic Constitutions

nor the so-called Testament of Jesus Christ contain any reference to

it.[437] The Old Testament furnished models for the elaboration of the

liturgical services used at the dedication of churches; in particular,

the octave and the annual commemoration of the dedication day follow

Jewish precedents.[438] The impressive solemnities with which Solomon

dedicated the first temple in the twelfth year of his reign lasted

for seven days (iii. Kg. viii. 65). When the second temple, built by

Zorobabel, had been defiled by the heathen rites of the Syrians, it was

purified by Judas Machabeus, B.C. 165, and restored to the worship of

Jehovah. It was then settled that the festival of this purification of

the temple should be observed annually for eight days, beginning on the

25th Casleu (1 Mach. iv. 42 _et seq._, 2 Mach. i, 9 and 18).

The prolongation of the dedication festival for eight days, and the

recurring celebration of its anniversary soon make their appearance

in liturgical writings and spread throughout all Christian countries.

The Leonine Sacramentary contains a mass for the anniversary of the

dedication of St Peter’s, the Gelasian Sacramentary has a short rite

for the consecration of a church along with forms for the consecration

of altars, chalices, and altar cloths, but omits the blessing of the

water.[439] At the consecration of a church in St Augustine’s time, the

twenty-ninth psalm was directed to be sung. We possess three sermons

preached by St Augustine at a _Dedicatio_ (336-338). In the text of the

Gregorian sacramentary, there is no Mass for the consecration of a new

church, but a special one for the anniversary. That the latter was kept

as a festival of obligation is not stated. The form for the consecration

of a church, with the Mass belonging to it, is given in the Appendix.[440]

In the middle ages, the anniversary of the dedication (_natale

ecclesiæ_) was observed as a general festival of obligation for the

local congregation irrespective of whether it fell on a week-day or on

a Sunday; it was also to be observed with an octave.[441] In Germany it

was ordered by the Synod of Mainz in 813, and, along with the feast of

the Patron Saint, in the statute of Bishop Hetto of Basel about 827. Both

festivals are found together in the statutes of Lanfranc of Canterbury

and in the decrees of the Council of Szabolcs in Hungary, in 1092. The

ecclesiastical celebration consisted of a vigil, solemn High Mass, and

procession in which the relics of the saints belonging to the church

were carried. A flag was wont to fly from the church tower, the floor

was strewn with green leaves, the altar and pulpit were decorated with

boughs, and a bunch of flowers was placed before the picture of the

Patron Saint. The anniversary of the dedication of each altar was also

observed, but only inside the walls of the church.[442]

Festivals of the Patron Saints were not enjoined as of obligation in

the decretal of Gregory IX. in 1232, although placed by Lanfranc in the

highest class of feasts. They were regarded as such in various countries,

especially throughout Germany. Thus, the diocesan Synod of Cologne,

under Archbishop Heinrich II., placed them along with the dedication of

churches among the holy days of obligation,[443] and so also did the

statute of Archbishop Baldwin of Treves in 1338. On the other hand,

the provincial Synod of Cologne in 1549, under Adolf III., expressly

suppressed them as holy days of obligation, and desired they should be

celebrated only in choir, in order, as it said, festivals should not

become too numerous. It also forbade noisy revels, such as dancing, etc.,

at the festival of the dedication of a church.

To have a church of its own, especially a parish church, was of the

greatest importance to each district, on account of the spiritual and

even material benefits of which it was the source. This explains the

enthusiasm with which the dedication of the church was observed. With the

ecclesiastical festival were soon associated secular amusements, fairs,

merry-makings, and shows. The dedication was especially the festival of

the people in the middle ages, and, as always happens in such cases,

the secular influences proved stronger than the spiritual, although the

dedication was one of the days on which indulgences were usually granted.

As parishes and churches became more numerous, the number of these

festivals increased also, and the result was that not only the parish in

question observed the feast, but all the neighbouring parishes joined in

the celebration. Thus these feasts and the merry-making associated with

them increased without limit. Among the country people especially it was

inevitable that excess and licence should give rise to grave disorders.

At the outbreak of the Reformation, the innovators availed themselves

of these abuses to wage war against all Dedication Feasts,[444] and

some provincial Synods of the sixteenth century directed that all the

dedications in a diocese should be kept on one and the same day. In

the bull of Urban VIII. in 1642, reducing the number of festivals,

the dedication is no longer named among the festivals which were to

be retained. By a decree of Clement XIV. in 1772, the festival of the

Patron Saint was to be celebrated on its proper day, and if there were

more than one patron, only the chief patron was to be commemorated. The

brief of Pius VI. of 1788 for Breslau removed the festival of the Patron

Saint out of the range of the ordinary life of the people by transferring

its celebration to the Sunday.[445] Finally, the French revolution and

the Concordat abolished these celebrations altogether, and put an end

to all Dedication Festivals throughout the extent of the French Empire.

This caused the churches in most dioceses to keep a general Dedication

Festival on some one Sunday in the year, and only inside the walls of

the church. The dedication of the cathedral is either included in this

general celebration, or, in some instances as in Cologne, is still

celebrated by itself.

The people were by no means pleased at the suppression of these popular

feasts, but consoled themselves by transferring to the festival of the

Patron Saint, even when transferred to the Sunday, the rejoicings which

they had hitherto associated with the Dedication Festival.

In those parts of Germany which in 1802 did not belong to France, the

earlier usages continued and the traditional rejoicings still continue to

be observed, but in a manner corresponding to the more refined spirit of

the time.

The custom of keeping the day of the Patron Saint as a holiday of

ecclesiastical and civil obligation still continues in all the several

Austrian crown lands. In Bavaria each diocese celebrates the feast of the

Patron Saint of the diocese on the proper date.

As regards the present usage, the law for every parish is that the feast

of the patron of the church, or, if the church is dedicated to a mystery,

the day on which that mystery is commemorated in the calendar, is to be

kept as a double of the first class with an octave. The popular festival,

called in Germany _Kirmes_, takes place on the following Sunday. The

existence of these popular feasts to the present day, in spite of so much

opposition, proves their inherent right to exist, for each part of a

great whole, having its own separate existence, naturally wishes to have

something distinctively its own in addition to what it shares in common

with others.[446]