The Church Year and Kalendar

by John Dowden

A SHORT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Achelis, H. Die Martyrologien, ihre Geschichte und ihr Werth. (Berlin, 1900.)

ACTA SANCTORVM. [Of the Bollandists. This vast collection, of which the first volume appeared in 1643, had attained by the middle of the nineteenth century, after various interruptions in the labours of the compilers, to 55 volumes, folio, and the work is still in process, having now reached the early days of November. Various Kalendars and Martyrologies have been printed in the work. The Martyrology of Venerable Bede, with the additions of Florus and others, will be found in the second volume for March; the metrical Ephemerides of the Greeks and Russians in the first volume for May; Usuard’s Martyrology in the sixth and seventh volumes for June, and also an abbreviated form of the Hieronymian. The second volume for November contains the Syriac Martyrology of Dr Wright edited afresh by R. Graffin with a translation into Greek by Duchesne. The same volume contains the Hieronymian Martyrology edited by De Rossi and Duchesne.]

Assemanus, Josephus Simon. Kalendaria Ecclesiae Universae, in quibus tum ex vetustis marmoribus, tum ex codicibus, tabulis, parietinis, pictis, scriptis scalptisve Sanctorum nomina, imagines, et festi per annum dies Ecclesiarum Orientis et Occidentis, praemissis uniuscujusque Ecclesiae originibus, recensentur, describuntur, notisque illustrantur. 4to, 6 tom. Romae, 1755. The title raises hopes which are not verified. [This work of the learned Syrian, who for his services to sacred erudition was made Prefect of the Library of the Vatican, was planned on a colossal scale, but it was never completed, and indeed we may truly say only begun. The six volumes which alone remain are wholly concerned with the Slavonic Church. The first four volumes, together with a large part of the fifth, are devoted mainly to the history of Slavonic Christianity. The concluding part of the fifth and the whole of the sixth volume deal with a Russian Kalendar, commencing the year, as in the Greek Church, with 1 September. This is treated very fully, but the work ends here.]

Baillet, Adrien. Les Vies des Saints. 2nd Ed. 10 vols. 4to. 1739. [The ninth volume on the moveable feasts abounds in valuable information; and, generally, this work may be consulted on the history of the festivals with much profit.]

Bingham, Joseph. Origines Ecclesiasticae, or the Antiquities of the Christian Church, etc. [Of the numerous editions of this important work, which has been by no means superseded, the most serviceable is the edition to be found in Bingham’s Works, 9 vols. 8vo. (1840) ‘with the quotations at length in the original languages.’ The editor is J. R. Pitman. Volume 7 contains most of what is pertinent to the antiquities of the feasts and fasts of the early Church.]

Binterim, A. J. Die vorzüglichsten Denkwürdigkeiten der Christ-Kathol. Kirche. Vol. V. (Mainz, 1829.)

Cabrol, Fernand. Dictionnaire d’archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie. Paris, 1907 (in process of publication).

D’Achery, Lucas. Spicilegium. Tom. II. fol. Paris, 1723. [This contains the Hieronymian Martyrology; the metrical Martyrology attributed to Bede; the Martyrology known as Gellonense (from the monastery at Gellone, on the borders of the diocese of Lodève in the province of Narbonne), assigned to about A.D. 804; the metrical Martyrology of Wandalbert the deacon, of the diocese of Trèves, about A.D. 850; and an old Kalendar (A.D. 826) from a manuscript of Corbie.]

Duchesne, L. Origines du Culte chrétien. 3rd Ed. 8vo. Paris, 1902. [There is an English translation by M. L. McClure, London (S.P.C.K.), 1903. The merits of Duchesne are so generally recognised that it is unnecessary to speak of them here.]

Grotefend, H. Zeitrechnung des deutschen Mittelalters und der Neuzeit. 4to. 2 vols. Hanover, 1891, 1892-8. [Besides exhibiting in full a large collection of Kalendars of Dioceses and Monastic Orders, not only of Germany, but also of Denmark, Scandinavia, and Switzerland, this work contains an index of Saints marking their days in various Kalendars, including certain Kalendars of England. There is also a Glossary, explaining both technical terms and the words of popular speech and folk-lore in connexion with days and seasons.]

Hampson, R. T. Medii Ævi Kalendarium, or dates, charters, and customs of the middle ages, with Kalendars from the tenth to the fifteenth century; and an alphabetical digest of obsolete names of days: forming a Glossary of the dates of the middle ages, with Tables and other aids for ascertaining dates. 8vo. 2 vols. London, 1841. [The first volume is mainly occupied with ‘popular customs and superstitions’; but it also contains reprints of various Anglo-Saxon and early English Kalendars. The second volume is given over wholly to a useful, though occasionally somewhat uncritical glossary.]

Hospinian, Rudolph. Festa Christianorum, hoc est, De origine, progressu, ceremoniis et ritibus festorum dierum Christianorum Liber unus (folio). Tiguri, 1593. [This is a work of considerable learning for its day, written from the standpoint of a Swiss Protestant. A second edition, in which replies are made to the criticisms of Cardinal Bellarmine and Gretser, appeared, also at Zurich, and in folio, in 1612.]

Ideler, Ludwig. Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie. 8vo. 2 vols. Berlin, 1825-26. [Ideler was Royal Astronomer and Professor in the University of Berlin. His discussion of the Easter cycles cannot be dispensed with. This and his account of the computation of time in the Christian Church will be found in Vol. 2 (pp. 175-470). The Gregorian reform is well dealt with.]

Kellner, K. A. Heinrich. Heortology: a history of the Christian Festivals from their origin to the present day. Translated from the second German edition. 8vo. London, 1908. [Dr Kellner is Professor of Catholic Theology in the University of Bonn. An interesting and useful volume, though occasionally exhibiting, as is not unnatural, marked ecclesiastical predilections. It contains prefixed a useful bibliography.]

Lietzmann, H. Die drei ältesten Martyrologien. E. tr. 8vo. Cambridge, 1904. [This little pamphlet of 16 pages exhibits conveniently the texts of (1) what is variously known as the Bucherian, or Liberian, or Philocalian Martyrology, (2) The Martyrology of Carthage, and (3) Wright’s Syrian Martyrology.]

Maclean, Arthur John (Bishop of Moray). The article ‘Calendar, the Christian’ in Hastings’ Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels [admirable, generally, for the early period.]

Maclean, Arthur John (Bishop of Moray). East Syrian Daily Offices. London, 8vo., 1894. [An appendix deals with the Kalendar of the modern Nestorians (Assyrian Christians).]

Neale, John Mason. A History of the Holy Eastern Church. General Introduction. London, 8vo., 1850. [Vol. II. gives information at considerable length on the Kalendars of the Byzantine, Russian, Armenian, and Ethiopic Churches.]

Nilles, Nicolaus. Kalendarium Manuale utriusque Ecclesiae Orientalis et Occidentalis, academiis clericorum accommodatum. 2 tom. 8vo. Oeniponte, 1896, 1897. [N. Nilles, S.J., Professor in the University of Innsbruck, deals mainly in these volumes with the ecclesiastical year in Eastern Churches.]

Quentin, Henri. Les Martyrologes historiques du moyen age, étude sur la formation du Martyrologe romain. 8vo. Paris, 1907.

Saxony, Maximilian, Prince of. Praelectiones de Liturgiis Orientalibus. Tom. I. 8vo. Friburgi Brisgoviae, 1908. [This volume is mainly concerned with the Kalendars and Liturgical Year of the Greek and Slavonic Churches. It is lucid and interesting.]

Seabury, Samuel, D.D. The Theory and Use of the Church Calendar in the measurement and distribution of Time; being an account of the origin and use of the Calendar; of its reformation from the Old to the New Style; and of its adaptation to the use of the English Church by the British Parliament under George II. 8vo. New York, 1872. [Excellent on the restricted subject with which it deals. It does not deal with Christian Festivals beyond the question of the determination of Easter, but is largely concerned with matters of technical chronology, the ancient cycles, golden numbers, epacts, etc.]

Smith, William, and Cheetham, Samuel. A Dictionary of Christian Antiquities. 2 vols. London, 1875, 1880. [The articles contributed by various scholars, as was inevitable, vary much in merit. Those on the festivals by the Rev. Robert Sinker are particularly valuable. This work is cited in the following pages as D. C. A.]

Wordsworth, John, Bishop of Salisbury. The Ministry of Grace. London, 8vo., 1901. [This learned work, under a not very illuminative title, discusses, inter alia, with a thorough knowledge of the best and most recent literature of the subject, the development of the Church’s fasts and festivals. It stands pre-eminent among English works dealing with the subject.]

[Gasquet, Abbot, and Bishop, Edmund. The Bosworth Psalter. London, 1908. Contains valuable information about some Mediaeval Kalendars, with discussions of them. Edd.]

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CHAPTER I
THE WEEK

The Church of Christ, founded in Judaea by Him who, after the flesh, was of the family of David, and advanced and guided in its earlier years by leaders of Jewish descent, could not fail to bear traces of its Hebrew origin. The attitude and trend of minds that had been long familiar with the religious polity of the Hebrews, and with the worship of the Temple and the Synagogue, showed themselves in the institutions and worship of the early Church. This truth is observable to some extent in the Church’s polity and scheme of government, and even more clearly in the methods and forms of its liturgical worship. It is not then to be wondered at that the same influences were at work in the ordering of the times and seasons, the fasts and festivals, of the Church’s year.

The Week and the Lord’s Day.

Most potent in affecting the whole daily life of Christendom in all ages was the passing on from Judaism of the Week of seven days. Inwoven, as it is, with the history of our lives, and taken very much as matter of course, as if it were something like a law of nature, the dominating influence and far reaching effects of this seven-day division of time are seldom fully realised.

The Week, known in the Roman world at the time of our Lord only in connexion with the obscure speculations of Eastern astrology, or as a feature, in its Sabbath, of the lives of the widely-spread Jewish settlers in the great cities of the Empire, had been from remote times accepted among various oriental peoples. It would be outside our province to enquire into its origin, though much can be said in favour of the view that it took its rise out of a rough division into four of the lunar month. But, so far as Christianity is concerned, it is enough to know that it was beyond all doubt taken over from the religion of the Hebrews.

It is not improbable that at the outset some of the Christian converts from Judaism may have continued to observe the Jewish Sabbath, the seventh or last day of the week: and that attempts were made to fasten its obligations upon Gentile converts is evident from St Paul’s Epistle to the Colossians (ii. 16). But it is certain that at an early date among Christians the first day of the week was marked by special religious observances. The testimony of the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of St Paul shows us the first day of the week as a time for the assembling of Christians for instruction and for worship, when ‘the breaking of bread’ formed part of the service, and when offerings for charitable and religious purposes might be laid up in store[2]. The name ‘the Lord’s day,’ applied to the first day of the week, may probably be traced to New Testament times. The occurrence of the expression in the Revelation of St John (i. 10) has been commonly regarded as a testimony to this application[3].

In the Epistle of Barnabas (tentatively assigned by Bishop Lightfoot to between A.D. 70 and 79, and by others to about A.D. 130-131) we find the passage (c. 15), ‘We keep the eighth day for rejoicing, in the which also Jesus rose from the dead.’ The date of the Teaching of the Apostles is still reckoned by some scholars as sub judice. But, if it is rightly assigned to the first century, its testimony may be cited here. In it is the following passage:—‘On the Lord’s own day (κατὰ κυριακὴν δὲ Κυρίον) gather yourselves together and break bread, and give thanks, first confessing your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure’ (c. 14).

The next evidence, in point of time, is a passage in the Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians (cc. 8, 9, 10), in which the writer dissuades those to whom he wrote from observing sabbaths (μηκέτι σαββατίζοντες) and urges them to live ‘according to the Lord’s day (κατὰ κυριακὴν) on which our life also rose through Him.’ It is impossible to suppose that in early times the Lord’s day was held to be a day of rest. The work of the servant and labouring class had to be done; and it has been reasonably conjectured that the assemblies of Christians before dawn were to meet the necessities of the situation. Lastly, the passage from the Apology of Justin Martyr (Ap. i. 67) is too well known to be cited in full. He describes to the Emperor the character and procedure of the Christian assemblies on ‘the day of the sun,’ which we know from other sources to have been the first day of the week. Writings of the Apostles or of the Prophets were read: the President of the assembly instructed and exhorted: bread, and wine and water were consecrated and distributed to those present and sent by the Deacons to the absent: alms were collected and deposited with the President for the relief of widows and orphans, the sick and the poor, prisoners and strangers. Later than Justin we need not go, as the evidence from all quarters pours in abundantly to establish the universal observance of ‘the first day of the week,’ ‘Sunday,’ ‘the Lord’s day,’ as a day for worship and religious instruction[4].

The Sabbath (Saturday).

Lack of positive evidence prevents us from speaking with any certainty as to whether there was among Christians any recognised and approved observance of Saturday (the Sabbath) in the first, second and third centuries. There is no hint of such observance in early Christian literature; and there are passages which rather go to discountenance the notion[5].

Duchesne, whose opinion deservedly carries much weight, comes to the conclusion that the observance of Saturday in the fourth century was not a survival of an attempt of primitive times to effect a conciliation between Jewish and Christian practices, but an institution of comparatively late date[6]. Certainly one cannot speak confidently of the existence of Saturday as a day of religious observance among Christians before the fourth century.

Epiphanius[7], in the second half of the fourth century, speaks of synaxes being held in some places on the Sabbath; from which it may probably be inferred that it was not so in his time in Cyprus.

In the Canons of the Council of Laodicea (which can hardly be placed earlier than about the middle of the fourth century, and is probably later) we find it enjoined that ‘on the Sabbath the Gospels with other Scriptures shall be read’ (16); that ‘in Lent bread ought not to be offered, save only on the Sabbath and the Lord’s day’ (49); and that ‘in Lent the feasts of martyrs should not be kept, but that a commemoration of the holy martyrs should be made on Sabbaths and Lord’s days’ (50). Yet it was forbidden ‘to Judaize and be idle on the Sabbath,’ while, ‘if they can,’ Christians are directed to rest on the Lord’s day. The Apostolic Constitutions go further; and, under the names of St Peter and St Paul, it is enjoined that servants should work only five days in the week, and be free from labour on the Sabbath and the Lord’s day ‘with a view to the teaching of godliness’ (viii. 33). Uncertain as are the date and origin of the Constitutions they may be regarded as in some measure reflecting the general sentiment in the East in the fifth, or possibly the close of the fourth century[8]. From these testimonies it appears that the Sabbath was a day of special religious observance, and that in the East it partook of a festal character. Falling in with this way of regarding Saturday we find Canon 64 of the so-called Apostolic Canons (of uncertain date, but possibly early in the fifth century[9]) declaring, ‘If any cleric be found fasting on the Lord’s day, or on the Sabbath, except one only [that is, doubtless “the Great Sabbath,” or Easter Eve], let him be deprived, and, if he be a layman, let him be segregated[10].’ The Apostolic Constitutions emphasise the position of the Sabbath by the exhortation that Christians should ‘gather together especially on the Sabbath, and on the Lord’s day, the day of the Resurrection’ (ii. 59); and again, ‘Keep the Sabbath and the Lord’s day as feasts, for the one is the commemoration of the Creation, the other of the Resurrection’ (vii. 23³). We find also that one of the canons of Laodicea referred to above is in substance re-enacted at a much later date by the Council in Trullo (A.D. 692) in this form, that except on the Sabbath, the Lord’s day, and the Feast of the Annunciation, the Liturgy of the Pre-sanctified should be said on all days in Lent (c. 52).

In the city of Alexandria in the time of the historian Socrates the Eucharist was not celebrated on Saturday; but other parts of Egypt followed the general practice of the East. Socrates says that Rome agreed with Alexandria in this respect[11].

It is certain that very commonly, though not universally, in the East the Sabbath was regarded as possessing the features of a weekly festival (with a eucharistic celebration) second in importance only to the Lord’s day. And Gregory of Nyssa says, ‘If thou hast despised the Sabbath, with what face wilt thou dare to behold the Lord’s day.... They are sister days’ (de Castigatione, Migne, P.G. xlvi. 309).

In the West we find also that the Sabbath was a day of special religious observance; but there was a variety of local usage in regard to the mode of its observance. At Rome the Sabbath was a fast-day in the time of St Augustine[12]; and the same is true of some other places; but the majority of the Western Churches, like the East, did not so regard it. In North Africa there was a variety of practice, some places observed the day as a fast, others as a feast. At Milan the day was not treated as a fast; and St Ambrose, in reply to a question put by Augustine at the instance of his mother Monnica, stated that he regarded the matter as one of local discipline, and gave the sensible rule to do in such matters at Rome as the Romans do[13]. In the early part of the fourth century the Spanish Council of Elvira corrected the error that every Sabbath should be observed as a fast[14].

As to the origin of the Saturday fast we are left almost wholly to conjecture. It has been supposed by some to be an exhibition of antagonism to Judaism, which regarded the Sabbath as a festival; while others consider that it is a continuation of the Friday fast, as a kind of preparatory vigil of the Lord’s day. It is outside our scope to go into this question.

A relic of the ancient position of distinction occupied by Saturday may perhaps be found in the persistence of the name ‘Sabbatum’ in the Western service-books. Abstinence (from flesh) continued, ‘de mandate ecclesiae,’ on Saturdays in the Roman Church. For Roman Catholics in England it ceased in 1830 by authority of Pope Pius VIII.

This seems a convenient place for saying something as to the use of the word Feria in ecclesiastical language to designate an ordinary week-day. The names most commonly given to the days of the week in the service-books and other ecclesiastical records are ‘Dies Dominica’ (rarely ‘Dominicus’) for the Lord’s Day, or Sunday; ‘Feria II’ for Monday; ‘Feria III’ for Tuesday, and so on to Saturday which (with rare exceptions) is not Feria VII but ‘Sabbatum.’

Why the ordinary week-day is called ‘Feria,’ when in classical Latin ‘feriae’ was used for ‘days of rest,’ ‘holidays,’ ‘festivals,’ is a question that cannot be answered with any confidence. A conjecture which seems open to various objections, though it has found supporters, is as follows: all the days of Easter week were holidays, ‘feriatae’; and, this being the first week of the ecclesiastical year, the other weeks followed the mode of naming the days which had been used in regard to the first week. A fatal objection to this theory, for which the authority of St Jerome has been claimed, is that we find ‘feria’ used, as in Tertullian, for an ordinary week-day long before we have any reason to think that there was any ordinance for the observance of the whole of Easter week by a cessation from labour[15].

Another conjecture, presented however with too much confidence, is that put forward on the authority of Isidore of Seville[16] by the learned Henri de Valois (Valesius). He alleges that the ancient Christians, receiving, as they did, the week of seven days from the Jews, imitated the Jewish practice, which used the expression ‘the second of the Sabbath,’ ‘the third of the Sabbath,’ and so on for the days of the week: that ‘Feria’ means a day of rest, in effect the same as ‘Sabbath,’ and that in this way the ‘second Feria’ and ‘third Feria,’ etc., came to be used for the second and third days of the week[17].

The astrological names for the days of the week, as of the Sun, of the Moon, of Mars, of Mercury, etc., were generally avoided by Christians; but they are not wholly unknown in Christian writers, and sometimes appear even in Christian epitaphs.

In the ecclesiastical records of the Greeks the first day of the week is ‘the Lord’s day’; and the seventh, the Sabbath, as in the West. But Friday is Parasceve (παρασκευή), a name which in the Latin Church is confined to one Friday in the year, the Friday of the Lord’s Passion, which day in the Eastern Church is known as ‘the Great Parasceve.’ With these exceptions the days of the week are ‘the second,’ ‘the third,’ ‘the fourth,’ etc., the word ‘day’ being understood.

It is worth recording that among the Portuguese the current names for the week-days are: segunda feira, terça feira, etc.

Wednesday and Friday.

Long prior to any clear evidence for the special observance among Christians of the last day of the week we find testimonies to a religious character attaching to the fourth and sixth days.

The devout Jews were accustomed to observe a fast twice a week, on the second and fifth days, Monday and Thursday[18]; and these days, together with the Christian fasts substituted for them, are referred to in the Teaching of the Apostles (8), ‘Let not your fastings be with the hypocrites, for they fast on the second and fifth day of the week; but do ye keep your fast on the fourth and parasceve (the sixth).’ In the Shepherd of Hermas we find the writer relating that he was fasting and holding a station[19]. And this peculiar term is applied by Tertullian to fasts (whether partial or entire we need not here discuss) observed on the fourth and sixth days of the week[20]. Clement of Alexandria, though not using the word station, speaks of fasts being held on the fourth day of the week and on the parasceve[21].

At a much later date than the authorities cited above we find the Apostolic Canons decreeing under severe penalties that, unless for reasons of bodily infirmity, not only the clergy but the laity must fast on the fourth day of the week and on the sixth (parasceve). And the rule of fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays still obtains in the Eastern Church[22].

These two days were marked by the assembling of Christians for worship. But the character of the service was not everywhere the same. Duchesne[23] has exhibited the facts thus: In Africa in the time of Tertullian the Eucharist was celebrated, and it was so at Jerusalem towards the close of the fourth century. In the Church of Alexandria the Eucharist was not celebrated on these days; but the Scriptures were read and interpreted. And in this matter, as in many others, the Church at Rome probably agreed with Alexandria. It is certain, at least as regards Friday, that the mysteries were not publicly celebrated on these days at Rome about the beginning of the fifth century. The observance of Friday as a day of abstinence is still of obligation in the West.

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CHAPTER II
DAYS OF THE MARTYRS

We now pass from features of every week to days and seasons of yearly occurrence.

In point of time the celebrations connected with the Pascha are the earliest to emerge of sacred days observed annually by the whole Church. But for reasons of convenience it has been thought better to defer the consideration of the difficult questions relating to the Easter controversies till the origin of the days of Martyrs and Saints has been dealt with.

The Kalendar in some of its later stages exhibits a highly artificial elaboration. But in its beginnings it was, to a large extent, the outcome of a natural and spontaneous feeling which could not fail to remember in various localities the cruel deaths of men and women who had suffered for the Faith with courage and constancy in such places, or their neighbourhoods. The origins of the Kalendar show in various churches, widely separated, the natural desire to commemorate their own local martyrs on the days on which they had actually suffered.

As regards the order of time there is ample reason to convince us that the commemorations of martyrs were features of Church life much earlier than those of St Mary the Virgin, of most of the Apostles, and even of many of the festivals of the Lord Himself.

The marks of antiquity that characterise generally the older Kalendars and Martyrologies are (1) the comparative paucity of entries, (2) the fewness of festivals of the Virgin, (3) the fewness of saints who were not martyrs, (4) the absence of the title ‘saint,’ and (5) the absence of feasts in Lent.

Again, the local character of the observance of the days of martyrs is a marked feature of the earlier records which illustrate the subject. Now and then the name of some martyr of pre-eminent distinction in other lands finds its way into the lists; but it remains generally true that in each place the martyrs and saints of that place and its neighbourhood form the great body of those commemorated. And in addition to the natural feeling that prompted the remembrance of those more particularly associated with a particular place, the fact that the commemorations were originally observed by religious services in cemeteries, at the tombs or burial places of the martyrs, tended at first to discountenance the commemoration of the martyrs of other places whose story was known only by report, whether written or oral.

The day of a martyr’s death was by an exercise of the triumphant faith of the Church known as his birthday (natale, or dies natalis, or natalitia). It was regarded as the day of his entrance into a new and better world. The expression occurs in its Greek form as early as the letter of the Church of Smyrna concerning the martyrdom of Polycarp (c. 18).

There can be no doubt that at an early date records were kept of the day of the death of martyrs. Cyprian required that even the death-days of those who died in prison for the faith should be communicated to him with a view to his offering an oblation on that day (Ep. xii. (xxxvii.) 2). It is in this way probably that the earliest Kalendars of the Church originated.

Ancient Syriac Martyrology, written A D. 412

(Brit. Mus. Or. Add. 12150, fol. 252 v, ll. 1-20, col. 1.) The plate shows the entries from St Stephen’s Day to Epiphany.

We purpose dealing more particularly with the early Roman Kalendars. The earliest martyrology that has survived is contained in a Roman record transcribed in A.D. 354. It is known, sometimes as the Liberian Martyrology (from the name of Liberius, who was bishop of Rome at the time), sometimes as the Bucherian Martyrology, from the name of the scholar who first made it known to the learned world[24], and not uncommonly as the Philocalian, from the name of the scribe. It presents many interesting, and some perplexing features, which cannot be dealt with here. We must content ourselves with noticing that, besides recording, as in a serviceable almanack, several pagan festivals, it marks the days of the month of the burials (depositiones) of the bishops of Rome from A.D. 254 to A.D. 354, and also the burial-days of martyrs, twenty-five in number. In both lists the cemeteries at Rome where the burials took place are noted. But there are also entered three ecclesiastical commemorations which do not mark entombments, (1) ‘viij Kal. Jan. (Dec. 25) Natus Christus in Bethleem Judeae’; (2) ‘viij Kal. Mart. (Feb. 22) Natale (sic) Petri de Cathedra’; (3) ‘Nonis Martii (March 7) Perpetuae et Felicitatis Africae[25].’ The appearance of St Perpetua and St Felicitas in a characteristically Roman document is a striking testimony to the fame of these two African sufferers for the Faith[26]. The use of the word natale in connexion with St Peter’s chair not improbably marks the dedication of a church; and, at all events at a later period, the word seems sometimes used as equivalent simply to a festival, or perhaps a festival marking an origin or beginning—as, for example, Natale Calicis, of which something will be said hereafter (p. 40). Easter could not appear in the Kalendar properly so-called; but the document contains cycles for the calculation of Easter, and a list of the days on which it would fall from A.D. 312 to A.D. 412.

Early Kalendars would be of much value in our enquiries; but they are few in number. The following three deserve notice. (1) The Syrian Martyrology first published by Dr W. Wright in the Journal of Sacred Literature (Oct. 1866). It was written in A.D. 411-12, but represents an original of perhaps about A.D. 380. It is Arian in origin, and has elements that show connexions with Alexandria, Antioch, and Nicomedia; and its range of martyrs is much wider than that of other early documents of the kind. Yet of Western martyrs we find only in Africa Perpetua and Satornilos and ten other martyrs[27] (March 7) and ‘Akistus (?Xystus II) bishop of Rome’ (Aug. 1). We find St Peter and St Paul on Dec. 28; St John and St James on Dec. 27; and ‘St Stephen, apostle’ on the 26th[28]. (2) The Kalendar of Polemius Silvius, bishop of Sedunum, in the upper valley of the Rhone (A.D. 448). It contains the birthdays of the Emperors and some of the more eminent of the heathen festivals, such as the Lupercalia and Caristia, but with a view, apparently, of supplanting them by Christian commemorations. The Christian festivals recorded are few in number, those of our Lord being Christmas, Epiphany, and the fixed dates, March 25 for the Crucifixion, and March 27 for the Resurrection. There are only six saints’ days. The depositio of Peter and Paul on Feb. 22; Vincent, Lawrence, Hippolytus, Stephen, and the Maccabees on their usual days. Other features of interest must be passed over[29]. (3) The Carthaginian Kalendar[30] has been assigned as probably about A.D. 500[31]. It is thus described by Bishop J. Wordsworth, ‘It has, in the Eastern manner, no entries between February 16 and April 19, i.e. during Lent. Its Saints are mostly local, but some twenty are Roman, and a few other Italian, Sicilian, and Spanish. It also marks SS. John Baptist (June 24), Maccabees, Luke [Oct. 13], Andrew, Christmas, Stephen [Dec. 26], John Baptist [probably an error of the pen for John the Evangelist] and James (Dec. 27) [‘the Apostle whom Herod slew’], Infants [Dec. 28] and Epiphany [sanctum Epefania][32].’ It may be added that this Kalendar marks the depositiones of seven bishops of Carthage, not martyrs, whose anniversaries were kept.

In one of the African Councils of the fourth century it was enacted that the Acts of the martyrs should be read in the church on their anniversaries. But Rome was slow in adopting this practice[33].

It will be seen that as time went on the strictly local character of the martyrs commemorated was invaded by a desire to record the famous sufferers of other parts of the Christian world. Rome, with its characteristic conservatism in matters liturgical, seems to have been slower than other places to yield to this impulse. At Hippo we find Augustine commemorating, beside local martyrs, the Roman Lawrence and Agnes, the Spanish Vincent and Fructuosus, and the Milanese Protasius and Gervasius whose bones (as was believed) had been recently discovered. He also commemorated the Maccabees, St Stephen, and both the Nativity and Decollation of the Baptist. On the other hand in the laudatory sermons that have come down to us we find Chrysostom at Antioch commemorating only the saints of Antioch, and Basil, at Caesarea in Cappadocia, only those of his own country.

The Sacramentary, which is called after Pope Leo (A.D. 440-461), shows signs of a somewhat later date; but it is unquestionably a Roman book; and the Kalendar which we can construct from it represents the Kalendar of Rome as it was not later than about the middle of the sixth century. It gives us the following days; but it must be observed that the months of January, February, March, and part of April are unfortunately missing[34].

The first is April 14, Tiburtius (a Roman martyr). There follow ‘Paschal time’: April 23, George (Eastern)[?][35]; Dedication of the Basilica of St Peter, the Apostle; the Ascension of the Lord; the day before Pentecost; the Sunday of Pentecost; the fast of the fourth month; June 24, natale of St John Baptist; June 26, natale of SS. John and Paul (two Romans, brothers, martyrs under Julian); June 29, natale of the Apostles Peter and Paul (at Rome); July 10, natale of seven martyrs who are named (all at Rome; and the cemeteries where their bodies rest are named); Aug. 3[36], natale of St Stephen (bishop of Rome and martyr, more commonly commemorated on Aug. 2); Aug. 6, natale of St Xystus and of Felicissimus and Agapitus (all martyrs at Rome); Aug. 10, natale of St Lawrence (Rome); Aug. 13, natale of SS. Hippolytus and Pontianus (Romans); Aug. 30, natale of Adauctus and Felix (at Rome); Sept. 14, natale of SS. Cornelius and Cyprian (the former bishop of Rome, the latter bishop of Carthage, his contemporary); Sept. 16, natale of St Euphemia (at Rome); Fast of the seventh month; Sept. 30, natale (sic) of the basilica of the Angel in Salaria (on the Via Salaria: evidently for the foundation or the dedication of a church at Rome, probably under the name of St Michael); Depositio of St Silvester (bishop of Rome, no date: in the Bucherian Martyrology it is at Dec. 31); Nov. 8 (or 9), natale of the four crowned saints (all at Rome); Nov. 22, natale of St Caecilia (Roman martyr); Nov. 23, natale of SS. Clement and Felicitas (both Roman martyrs); Nov. 24, natale of SS. Chrysogonus and Gregorius (the first, a Roman martyr, the second, uncertain[37]); Nov. 30, natale of St Andrew, Apostle; Dec. 25, natale of the Lord; and of the martyrs, Pastor, Basilius, Jovianus, Victorinus, Eugenia, Felicitas, and Anastasia (Eugenia was perhaps the Roman lady martyred with Agape; Anastasia was of Roman origin, though she suffered death in Illyria: her name appears in the canon of the Roman mass. The persons intended by the other names are more uncertain); Dec. 27, natale of St John, Evangelist; Dec. 28, natale of the Innocents.

It has been thought well to give in full this list, defective though it is (as lacking the opening months of the year). It exhibits indeed a large preponderance of celebrations of local interest; but there are clear indications that already the martyrs of other places than Rome are securing themselves positions in the Roman Kalendar.

The collection of masses and other liturgical offices known as the Gelasian Sacramentary are not without interest in illustrating the development of the Kalendar, more particularly among the Franks. But we pass on to consider the features of the distinctively Roman service book, which, by a somewhat misleading name, has been called the Gregorian Sacramentary. In its present form (though it contains many ancient elements) it is probably not earlier than the close of the eighth century. Omitting notices of moveable days, and exhibiting the dates by the days of the month in our modern fashion, the Kalendar runs as follows[38], some remarks being added within marks of parenthesis.

January. 1. Octava Domini (the octave of Christmas). 6. Epiphania (called in the older Roman Kalendar ‘Theophania,’ as by the Greeks). 14. St Felix ‘in Pincis’ (on the Pincian). 16. St Marcellus, Pope. 18. St Prisca (at Rome). 20. SS. Fabian and Sebastian (both at Rome). 21. St Agnes (at Rome)[39]. 22. St Vincent (Spain). 28. Second of St Agnes (Octave).

February. 2. Ypapante, or Purification of St Mary. 5. St Agatha (Sicily: a church at Rome dedicated to her). 14. St Valentine (presbyter at Rome).

March. 12. St Gregory, Pope. 25. Annunciation of St Mary.

April. 14. SS. Tiburtius and Valerian (at Rome). 23. St George (Eastern: church ‘in Velabro’ at Rome). 28. St Vitalis (of Ravenna: a church at Rome).

May. 1. SS. Philip and James, Apostles. 3. SS. Alexander, Eventius and Theodulus (Pope, and two presbyters at Rome). 6. Natale of St John before the Latin gate (Rome). 10. SS. Gordian and Epimachus (both at Rome). 12. St Pancratius (at Rome, where a church was dedicated to him). 13. Natale of St Mary ‘ad Martyres’ (dedication of the Pantheon at Rome by Boniface IV). 25. St Urban, Pope.

June. 1. Dedication of the Basilica of St Nicomedes (at Rome). 2. SS. Marcellinus and Peter (at Rome: a church in their honour is said to have been erected by the Emperor Constantine on the Via Lavicana). 18. SS. Marcus and Marcellianus (both at Rome). 19. SS. Protasius and Gervasius (Milan). 24. Natale of St John Baptist. 26. SS. John and Paul (two brothers at Rome). 28. St Leo, Pope. 29. Natale of SS. Peter and Paul, Apostles (Rome). 30. Natale of St Paul (the Apostle).

July. 2. SS. Processus and Martinianus (legendary soldier-martyrs at Rome). 10. Natale of the Seven Brethren (at Rome). 29. SS. Felix, Simplicius, Faustinus and Beatrix (Pope Felix II; the others commemorated at Rome on the Via Portuensis). 30. SS. Abdon and Sennen (martyrs at Rome).

August. 1. St Peter ‘in Vincula’ (more commonly ‘ad Vincula’: it is probable that the date marks the dedication of a church at Rome). 2. St Stephen, bishop (of Rome). 5. SS. Xystus, bishop, Felicissimus and Agapitus (all of Rome). 8. St Cyriacus (deacon, at Rome: perhaps marks the date of his translation by Pope Marcellus). 10. Natale of St Lawrence (Rome). 11. St Tiburtius (martyred outside Rome on the Via Lavicana). 13. St Hippolytus (martyr according to the legend at Rome). 14. St Eusebius, presbyter (at Rome). 15. Assumption of St Mary. 17. St Agapitus (at Praeneste). 22. St Timotheus (martyr at Rome). 28. St Hermes (at Rome). 29. St Sabina (virgin-martyr at Rome). 30. SS. Felix and Adauctus (both at Rome).

September. 8. Nativity of St Mary. 11. SS. Protus and Hyacinthus (both at Rome). 14. SS. Cornelius and Cyprian: also Exaltation of Holy Cross (Cornelius, Pope, Cyprian of Carthage). 15. Natale of St Nicomedes (presbyter martyr at Rome). 16. Natale of St Euphemia, and of SS. Lucia and Geminianus (all at Rome). 27. SS. Cosmas and Damian (Eastern). 29. Dedication of the Basilica of the Holy Angel Michael.

October. 7. Natale of St Marcus, Pope. 14. Natale of St Callistus, Pope.

November. 1. St Caesarius (an African deacon martyred in Campania). 8. The four crowned saints (at Rome). 9. Natale of St Theodorus (Asia Minor). 11. Natale of St Menna: likewise St Martin, bishop (Menna, Asia Minor: Martin of Tours). 22. St Caecilia (Roman). 23. St Clement: likewise St Felicitas (both Roman). 24. St Chrysogonus (Roman). 29. St Saturninus (a Roman, martyred at Toulouse). 30. St Andrew, Apostle.

December. 13. St Lucia (Syracuse). 25. Nativity of the Lord. 26. Natale of St Stephen. 27. St John, Evangelist. 28. Holy Innocents. 31. St Silvester, Pope.

When we examine these lists we find (1) the principal festivals of the Lord, of His Mother, and of His Apostles placed as they are still noted in the Kalendar. It may be observed that Jan. 1 is not styled the Circumcision; and there is no reference to the Circumcision in the collect. In the mass for the Epiphany the leading of the Gentiles by a star and the gifts of the Magi are the prominent features. The use of the name Ypapante as the first name for the Purification (Feb. 2) suggests the Eastern origin of the festival. We find (2) the great majority of the saints recorded to be Roman martyrs—or of martyrs connected with Rome, either in fact or by legend; but (3) there are a few famous martyrs from other regions of the world, as St George, St Vincent, SS. Cosmas and Damian, and St Lucy, of Dec. 13. And Martin of Tours has a place. We also find that some of the obscurer saints of the earlier list disappear. Frequent pilgrimages to the East, together with the interchange of literary correspondence between the churches, are sufficient to account for the appearance of the Oriental martyrs. The leading features of the Western Kalendar, as it prevailed in the mediaeval period, and has subsisted to the present day, are already apparent.

It will be seen that All Saints does not appear on Nov. 1; and yet it was certainly observed in many churches in England, France, and Germany during the eighth century. It is placed at Nov. 1 in the Metrical Martyrology attributed to Bede, who died in A.D. 735. Though therefore this Martyrology, as we now possess it, shows signs of having been re-handled, it seems hazardous to attribute the origin of the festival, as is done by some, to the dedication of a church at Rome ‘in honorem Omnium Sanctorum’ by Pope Gregory III (A.D. 731-741).

Much obscurity attends the origin of All Souls’ Day. It would seem that Amalarius of Metz, early in the ninth century, had inserted in his Kalendar an anniversary commemoration of all the departed, and this was probably (as the context suggests) immediately after All Saints’ Day; but the practice of observing the day did not at once become general, and the earliest clear testimony to Nov. 2 does not emerge till the end of the tenth century, when Odilo, abbot of Clugny, stimulated by a vision of the sufferings of souls in purgatory, reported to him by a pilgrim returning from Jerusalem, enjoined on the monastic churches subject to Clugny the observance of Nov. 2. The practice rapidly spread.

The dominant influence of the Roman Church in Europe carried eventually the main features of the Roman Kalendar into all regions of the West. In early times at Rome the anniversary of a martyr was ordinarily kept, not in the various churches of the city and suburbs, but at the particular cemetery or catacomb where he was buried, or at the tomb within some church which had been erected over the place where his remains rested. Outside the walls, and at various distances along the great roads that led from the city, most of these commemorations were celebrated. As M. Batiffol has put it, with substantial correctness, ‘the old Roman Sanctorale is the Sanctorale of the cemeteries[40].’ It is a striking and impressive illustration of the looking of the Western peoples to Rome for guidance in matters of religion that even obscure saints buried in the cemeteries of the neighbourhood of the Apostolic See now have places in the religious commemorations of all the remotest Churches of the Roman obedience.

The study of the origins of the Kalendar of the city of Rome illustrates the general proposition that the martyrdoms of a particular city or district form the main feature of each local Kalendar. To enter into detail in respect to the early Kalendars of the other provinces and dioceses of Europe, even when the scanty evidence surviving makes the enquiry possible, is too large a task to be attempted here.

The account of the commemorations of the early martyrs may be brought to a close by calling attention to a festival of general and perhaps universal observance before the fifth century—the festival of the pre-Christian martyrs, the seven Maccabees, on Aug. 1. It was not unnatural in the age of persecution, or when the memories of the great persecutions were still fresh, to fasten upon the Old Testament story of heroic constancy. After the Feast of St Peter’s Chains in the West, and the Procession of the Holy Cross in the East had displaced it from a position of primary importance, it was not wholly forgotten; and even now in both East and West in a subsidiary manner the memory of the Maccabees is still preserved in the services of the Church on Aug. 1. Chrysostom speaks of the celebration being attended in his day by a great concourse of the faithful, and we possess three homilies of his for the festival. Augustine shows us that the festival was observed in Africa in his time, and mentions that there was a church called after the Maccabees at Antioch, a city named, he makes a point to inform us, after their persecutor, Antiochus Epiphanes. There are still extant sermons for the festival preached by Gregory Nazianzen, and, at a later date, by Pope Leo the Great.

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CHAPTER III
THE LORD’S NATIVITY: THE EPIPHANY: THE FESTIVALS WHICH IN EARLY TIMES FOLLOWED IMMEDIATELY ON THE NATIVITY

It is certain that the assigning of the birth of the Lord to Dec. 25 appears first in the West; and it is not till the last quarter of the fourth century that we find it becoming established in some parts of the East. St Chrysostom in a homily delivered in A.D. 386 distinctly relates that it was about ten years earlier the festival of Dec. 25 came to be observed at Antioch, and that the festival had been observed in the West from early times (ἄνωθεν)[41]. At Constantinople the festival was kept on Dec. 25, apparently for the first time, in A.D. 379 or 380; and about the same time it appears in Cappadocia, as we learn from the funeral oration on Basil the Great pronounced by his brother, Gregory of Nyssa. At Alexandria this date was adopted before A.D. 432. At Jerusalem, however, the Nativity was observed on Jan. 6 not only in the time of the Pilgrimage of ‘Silvia,’ but, if we may credit the Egyptian monk Cosmas Indicopleustes, even as late as at the middle of the sixth century. This writer relates that the people of Jerusalem, arguing from Luke iii. 23 (where, as he interprets the passage, Jesus is said to be beginning to be thirty years of age at His baptism) celebrated the Nativity together with the Baptism on Jan. 6[42].

But when did the observance of Dec. 25 make its appearance in the West? It must have been a well-marked festival at Rome when it appeared in the Bucherian Kalendar in A.D. 336 (see p. 15). And about one hundred years earlier (as we learn from his commentaries on Daniel) Hippolytus was led to infer, partly from a belief (however it originated) that the Incarnation took place at the Passover, and partly by a process of calculation with the help of his cycle, that the actual Incarnation took place on March 25 in the year of the world 5500 (or B.C. 3), and consequently the Nativity on Dec. 25[43].

The Bishop of Salisbury (J. Wordsworth) offers an ingenious conjecture which may possibly point to the early Eastern practice of commemorating the Nativity on Jan. 6 having originated in a similar way. Sozomen, the historian, writing in the fifth century, states that the Montanists always celebrated the pascha on the eighth day before the Ides of April (i.e. April 6), if it fell on a Sunday, otherwise on the following Sunday (H.E. vii. 18). The Bishop thinks that the belief that April 6 was the proper day of the pascha ‘may probably have been an opinion quite unconnected with their [the Montanists’] sect.’ But he rightly admits that ‘actual facts are not yet forthcoming[44].’

Conjectures of this kind, though at present unsupported, are well worth remembering, if for no other reason, because students of early Christian literature are thus put on the alert to note any testimonies which make for, or else go to invalidate, the suggestion offered. I may add that the Montanist notion, as recorded by Sozomen, that the creation of the sun in the heavens took place on April 6, is of a kind that would well fall in, among fanciful speculators, with the notion that the Incarnation also took place on the same day[45].

Why this time of the year, late in December or early in January, was assigned for the Nativity is a question which it is not possible to answer with confidence. It is conceivable that the insecure and blundering argument alleged, among others, by Chrysostom may have had weight. He supposes that Zacharias, the father of the Baptist, was the High Priest, and that he had entered the Holy of Holies on the day of Atonement when the angel appeared to him. The day of Atonement was in September. Six months later (Luke i. 26) the Annunciation was made to St Mary; and after nine months the Saviour was born.

By others it has been suggested that the festival of Christmas on Dec. 25 did not originate in any such calculations; but was suggested by the pagan festival Natalis Solis Invicti marked at that day. The solstice was passed. The sun was entering on its new increases. ‘The Light of the world,’ ‘the Sun of righteousness’ was to take the place of the sun-god in the heavens[46].

The Theophany, or Epiphany (Jan. 6), is, like its name, as characteristically Eastern in its origin as the feast of the Nativity (Dec. 25) is Western; but when it passed into the West it was in thought, either at the outset or certainly soon, separated from the Nativity; and eventually, while the baptism of Christ was not ignored, the main stress of liturgical allusion was on the visit of the Magi, so that the festival is not uncommonly designated simply as the feast of the Three Kings. In the East the dominant thought is the manifestation of Christ’s divinity at his baptism: and in the Basilian Menology the day is simply named ‘The Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ And it is to this connexion, baptism among the Greeks being known as ‘illumination,’ that has been attributed another name for the day, ‘the lights’ (τὰ φῶτα)[47].

It is not improbable that the feast of the Epiphany made its way to the West, through the churches of Southern Gaul, whose affinities with the East are recognised facts of history. At all events it is in connexion with Gaul that we find the first reference to the Epiphany in the West. The pagan historian Ammianus Marcellinus, in his account of the Emperor Julian in A.D. 361 visiting a Christian church at Vienne, says that it happened on the day in the month of January which Christians call ‘Epiphania’ (Hist. xxi. 2).

The Epiphany was observed in the African Church by the orthodox in the time of Augustine, but he tells us that the Donatists did not observe it, ‘because they love not unity, nor do they communicate with the Eastern Church.’ The latter expression falls in with the supposition that the West derived the festival from the East. In the ancient Kalendar called the Kalendar of Carthage (unfortunately of uncertain date) we find at Jan. 6 the entry ‘Sanctum Epefania’ (sic). In Spain, as we learn from the canons of the Council of Saragossa (can. 4), the festival was recognised as a considerable commemoration before A.D. 380. For Rome, we have to note the silence of the Bucherian Kalendar; but for the fifth century we have the testimony of Pope Leo, and we possess no fewer than eight sermons of his upon the festival of the Epiphany; in these the manifestation of Christ to the Magi is the truth upon which he chiefly enlarges. Elsewhere in the West we have references to other manifestations of the Deity of Christ, as at His baptism, and His first miracle at Cana. But generally, as in the East the baptism, so in the West the manifestation to the Gentiles is the leading note of preachers or theologians[48].

Among the Armenians the Epiphany is reckoned one of the five chief festivals: it is preceded by a week’s fast, and is followed by an octave. It is by them still reckoned as the day of the Nativity.

The festivals of the days immediately following Christmas.

We see that in the Gregorian Kalendar the commemorations of St Stephen (Dec. 26), St John the Evangelist (Dec. 27), and Holy Innocents (Dec. 28), in the order with which we are familiar, were already established in the West. And long before the period of the Gregorian Kalendar we have evidence that in some parts of the East before the close of the fourth century a group of festivals commemorating eminent saints of the New Testament were celebrated between the feast of the Nativity and the first of January. Basil the Great died on Jan. 1 A.D. 379; and his brother Gregory of Nyssa delivered the funeral oration at his burial. In this discourse the preacher speaks of a group of feasts preceding the first of January, namely of St Stephen, St Peter, St James and St John, and St Paul. It may with some reason be believed that the dates of these festivals had no relation, real or fancied, to the days of the deaths of these saints of the Church’s beginnings.

As regards St James we know that he was killed at the time of the Passover, so that the Hieronymian Martyrology makes the day in December to be the day of his consecration to the episcopate. Liturgists have said it was becoming that the King of glory should come into the world accompanied by the chiefs of his court. And it is not a wholly baseless fancy that already there was a desire (of which at a later period we have many illustrations) to connect a great festival with one or more other commemorations associated with it in thought. The memories of the age of the martyrs would naturally suggest the name of the protomartyr; while the relations of the Lord to St James, St John, and St Peter, and the eminence of St Paul may perhaps sufficiently account for their appearance here.

There is little doubt that at the close of the fourth century the churches of Asia Minor had festivals of St Stephen on Dec. 26, St James and St John on Dec. 27, and St Peter and St Paul on Dec. 28[49]. And in the West our earliest information shows us St Stephen on Dec. 26; but there are variations as regards the other festivals. The ancient Kalendar of Carthage shows us on Dec. 27 ‘St John the Baptist and James the Apostle, whom Herod slew,’ and Holy Innocents on Dec. 28[50].

The earliest Roman service-books show us only St John on Dec. 27, and he is St John the Evangelist[51]. Yet in the so-called Martyrology of St Jerome (which, though interpolated, contains many ancient features), we find at this day, together with ‘the Assumption of St John at Ephesus,’ ‘the ordination to the episcopate of James, the Lord’s brother, who was crowned with martyrdom at the paschal time[52].’ The Holy Innocents (Dec. 28) is known in the Latin books since the sixth century, and may well have been earlier; but Peter and Paul are found together on another day (June 29), the day of their martyrdom at Rome, as was generally assumed. Though we are not able to determine with precision on what day the Innocents of Bethlehem were commemorated in early times, there can be little doubt that there was some commemoration of those whom, as St Augustine says, ‘the Church has received to the honour of the martyrs.’

There are some reasons for conjecturing that the commemoration of the Innocents was at first in association with the Epiphany. In the second half of the fourth century the poet Prudentius has some pretty lines on the Holy Innocents as martyrs in his hymn on the Epiphany[53]. And Leo the Great in more than one of his sermons on the Epiphany has laudatory passages on the martyrdom of the Innocents. Yet in estimating the weight that should attach to such references it should be remembered that Herod’s slaughter of the children at Bethlehem is in the Gospel narrative so closely connected with the visit of the Magi that it would not be unnatural for both poet and preacher to touch on that striking story, although there were no intentional commemoration of the Innocents attached by the Church to that day. In the Byzantine Kalendar the Fourteen Thousand Holy Infants are commemorated on Dec. 29. In the Armenian Kalendar the Fourteen Thousand Innocent Martyrs are commemorated on June 10. It deserves notice that in the Mozarabic Kalendars we find ‘St James the Lord’s Brother’ at Dec. 28; ‘St John Evangelist’ at Dec. 29; and ‘St James the Brother of John’ at Dec. 30.

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CHAPTER IV
OTHER COMMEMORATIONS OF EVENTS IN THE LORD’S LIFE. PENTECOST

The commemoration of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ was in the nature of things a natural and inevitable outcome of the religious beliefs and feelings of the infant Church. The fixing of days for the commemoration of other events in the life of our Lord came with thought and reflection; they belong to the period of constructiveness, and we have no evidence to show that their appearance was very early. Tertullian is silent about other days than Sunday (the Lord’s Day), the Pasch (including the Passion and the Resurrection), and Pentecost[54]; and Origen particularises the Lord’s Day, the Parasceve (perhaps in the sense of the weekly Friday ‘station’), the Pasch, and Pentecost, as being days specially observed by Christians[55].

The Circumcision is obviously dependent on whatever was regarded as the date of the Nativity, and is the result of reflection and ecclesiastical constructiveness. It is eight days after the Nativity on Jan. 1, with all Christendom, save the Armenians, who celebrating the Nativity (together with other Epiphanies of the Lord) on Jan. 6, naturally observe Jan. 13 as the day of the Circumcision. The day is not noted in the Bucherian Kalendar, nor in the Carthaginian. Baillet[56] comes to the conclusion that it appears first as appointed for general observance as a festival, about the middle of the seventh century, and in Spain, where servile work was forbidden on this day. But it would appear from the Canons of the Fourth Council of Toledo that the day was then observed with penitential features (canon 11). From the Sermons of Augustine we learn that in his time Jan. 1 was observed by Christians as a solemn fast, in protest against the licentious revelry and excesses of the pagans at this time of the year[57]. And as late as the Second Council of Tours (A.D. 567) it is enjoined that, while all other days between the Nativity and the Epiphany are to be treated (in regard to use of food) as festivals, an exception is to be made for the space of three days at the beginning of January, for which time the fathers had appointed litanies to be made ‘ad calcandam Gentilium consuetudinem.’ But it should be remarked that the canon (17) dealing with the subject has special reference to fasts to be observed by monks. It is therefore not impossible that the fast had by this time ceased to be observed by the general body of the faithful, but, in a spirit of conservatism, was regarded as proper to be maintained in the monasteries. The canon is interesting for another reason; it affords perhaps the earliest example of the use of the term ‘Circumcision’ as applied to this day, which appears in the Gelasian and Gregorian Sacramentaries simply as Octava Domini, i.e. the octave of the Nativity. In the Gelasian Sacramentary there is no emphasis in the service on the Circumcision, while the prayer called Ad populum distinctly points to a prohibition against partaking of the convivium diabolicum of the pagans. And a mass immediately following that for the Octave, entitled Ad prohibendum ab idolis, points in the same direction. The Gregorian Sacramentary shows no reference to the Circumcision in the prayers of the mass[58].

Even in the early part of the seventh century Isidore of Seville condemns the indecent gaieties indulged in on this day, and recalls the ancient injunction that the day should be observed as a fast[59]. The fourth Council of Toledo (canon 11) represents as the practice of Spain and Gaul the omission of the singing of Alleluia on the Kalends of January, propter errorem gentilium.

In the later Western service-books the thought of the Circumcision is given greater prominence, and intermingles with the thoughts suggested by the Octave. The feast of the Circumcision appears in the Greek Church in the eighth century[60].

Commemoration of Passiontide; Holy Week (the ‘Great Week,’ as it is styled in the East). The commemoration of the death of the Saviour is the primitive and essential element: other days were given places as the result of reflection, and of the desire to reproduce liturgically in a mimetic way the events of the Lord’s history during the last paschal week. We possess the early testimony of Tertullian for the dies Paschae, for so he names the day. He tells us that it was a public and general fast, and that the kiss of peace was omitted from the services of the Church[61]. But for Palm Sunday, Coena Domini, and the Great Sabbath we have no evidence till much later. It is from Palestine that we get the earliest notice of the rites of Palm Sunday. In her account of the ceremonies at Jerusalem ‘Silvia’ describes the procession of palm-bearers on the Sunday of the Great Week. The feast of Palms is also mentioned in the life of Euthymius, abbot in Palestine, who died at a very advanced age in A.D. 473. But in the West the carrying of palms does not appear earlier than the ninth century. The commemoration (Natalis Calicis) of the institution of the Eucharist on the night before the Lord suffered probably had its rise about the same time as Palm Sunday; and a certain mimetic character was given to the rites of the Thursday by delaying the celebration of the Liturgy till the evening. This was further enhanced in the Church of Carthage (A.D. 397), which in view of the original institution of the Eucharist having been after supper, made an express synodical declaration that the rule of fasting communion was binding ‘excepto uno die anniversario, quo coena domini celebratur[62].’ And St Augustine expressly affirms that the practice of the Church did not condemn communion after the evening meal on the Thursday in Holy Week[63]. The name Dies Mandati (which has probably given us our Maundy Thursday) is not very ancient. In mediaeval times the particular mandate of the Lord was taken to be the feet-washing, before or during which were sung the words ‘Mandatum novum do vobis[64].’

At Rome, as late as the time of St Leo, in regard to the days specially observed in Holy Week, the only distinction from ordinary weeks seems to have been the commemoration of the institution of the Eucharist on Thursday. The adoration of the Cross on Good Friday (which we find at Jerusalem in the days of ‘Silvia’) and the mass of the pre-sanctified were later additions, and are regarded by Duchesne as having been introduced into the West in the seventh or eighth century[65]. The observances of the Saturday were those of the vigil of Easter.

The Ascension: in the Greek Kalendar, and frequently in Greek writers, with a different connotation, ‘the Taking up,’ ‘Assumption’ (ἀνάληψις)[66], was celebrated forty days after Easter, as the actual Ascension took place forty days after the Resurrection; it is obviously a festival of the constructive period. There is no mention of it in the earliest Christian writings; but, without here going into details of evidence, it may be stated that the festival was observed, possibly early in, and certainly before, the close of the fourth century. It is noticed by ‘Silvia’ (though the name Ascensa is not given to it) as a day on which at Bethlehem, where the vigil was kept, the bishop of Jerusalem and the presbyters preached, but it does not appear that the Eucharist was celebrated. There was a procession back to Jerusalem in the evening. Augustine classes the day with the Passion, the Resurrection, and the advent of the Holy Spirit (Pentecost), as observed ‘anniversaria solemnitate[67].’ In the Sacramentary of Leo many masses in Ascensa (= Ascensione) Domini are to be found. Both in the East and in some parts of the West it was customary to celebrate the festival outside the cities,—a practice suggested doubtless by Luke xxiv. 50.

It may be remarked that many old English writers, both before and after the Reformation, use the term ‘Holy Thursday’ for this day.

The Transfiguration (Aug. 6 in the Byzantine[68], Ethiopic, and later mediaeval and modern Roman Kalendars: on the 7th Sunday after Pentecost in the Armenian) is of late appearance. If a certain canon (or prose hymn) on the Transfiguration attributed to John of Damascus be really his, it would point to the probable observance of the day in the eighth century in the East. In the West the festival appears much later; but the evidence indicates its having had a partial and local observance long before it was enjoined by Pope Calixtus III for the Church generally in A.D. 1457. This Pope appointed an office for the day, which was afterwards somewhat altered by Pius V. The action of Calixtus was prompted by thankfulness for a victory over the Turks at Belgrade. Among the Greeks the Transfiguration is a day of great solemnity. It is preceded by a ‘proheortia’ and affects the following eight days. The Armenians observe a preparatory fast for a week[69].

Pentecost. This word as commonly employed by early Christian writers signifies the whole period of fifty days after the Resurrection. It is thus that the term is used by Tertullian in a passage (de Idolat. 14) where he compares the number of festival days among the pagans with the number of Christian festivals. The same is probably true where he speaks of Pentecost as ‘ordinandis lavacris latissimum spatium’ (de Baptismo 19). During that period fasting, and kneeling at prayer, at least in the public assemblies, were forbidden: and Alleluia, which had been silent, was resumed. It seems, however, that once at least Tertullian had in view, in the use of the word, the day on which the period closed[70]. Origen in a similar way uses the word for the whole period, but also seems to distinguish between the general and more restricted signification of the word[71]. Earlier than either of these is the testimony of Irenaeus (if we may accept it as his) cited, as from his lost book On the Pascha, by Pseudo-Justin (Quaest. et Respons. ad Orthodoxos, 115), where Irenaeus speaks of not kneeling in Pentecost, as that time is of equal dignity with the Lord’s day, ‘Pentecost’ being here used evidently for a season. On the other hand, the compiler, whoever he was, of the Quaestiones, in which Irenaeus is quoted, in the same place speaks of not kneeling ‘from the Pascha to Pentecost,’ using the latter term in its restricted sense. In the newly-recovered Testament of the Lord[72] Pentecost is used for the fifty days between Easter and our Whitsunday (i. 28, 42; ii. 12). An interesting survival of the old signification of Pentecost is still to be found in the Greek service-books, where the term Mesopentecoste is used for special festal observances mid-way between Easter and Whitsunday, commencing on the Wednesday following the third Sunday after Easter, and lasting for a week.

In the forty-third canon of the Council of Elvira (A.D. 305) we have a clear example of the use of the word Pentecost for the fiftieth day. And after that date the word is widely used in that sense: while the festival itself assumes gradually more and more dignity and importance. ‘Silvia’ describes the elaborate ceremonial observed on this day at Jerusalem towards the close of the fourth century.

There are considerable difficulties attendant on an attempt to assign a precise date to the addition of an octave to this festival; and the festal character of the octave week was affected by the ember days occurring in that week. In the Gelasian Sacramentary, as it has come down to us, we have the ‘propers’ for a mass on the Sunday of the octave of Pentecost. The mass may be described as a mass of the Holy Spirit, praying for protection for the Church from the allurements of the vain and deceitful philosophy of the world; true knowledge of the nature of God was given by the bestowal of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of wisdom, and knowledge, and understanding, and counsel. The benedictions, which immediately follow, on those who return to the Catholic unity from the Arian and other heresies, suggest that it was in this way that the octave of Pentecost came at a later date to be made a festival in honour of the mystery of the blessed Trinity[73]. The public reception to the Catholic unity of Arian and other heretics would gradually cease to be a feature of the season: but the liturgical colouring of the service would remain, and would have to be accounted for. As a matter of fact, however, the establishment of a festival of the Trinity with a special office and mass was of late date. It makes its appearance in the Low Countries in the tenth century, and made its way but slowly, and with varying success. Pope Alexander II, who died in A.D. 1073, when consulted on the subject, wrote that according to the Roman rite there was no day set apart to commemorate the Trinity any more than the Unity of the Divine Being, and that every day of the year was truly consecrated to the honour of the Trinity in Unity. It was not till the fourteenth century, under the pontificate of John XXII, that the Roman Church received the feast of the Trinity and attached it to the first Sunday after Pentecost[74].

In England, according to Gervase of Canterbury, Archbishop Thomas Becket instituted the principal feast of the Trinity on the octave of Pentecost[75].

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CHAPTER V
FESTIVALS OF ST MARY THE VIRGIN

I. Western Kalendars.

The history of the origin of some of the following festivals is obscure; and it is impossible to be precise as to the dates of their first appearance. We speak with some reservation of the Festival of Feb. 2, known first in the West, as well as in the East, by the name Hypapante (i.e. ‘the Meeting’ of Simeon with the Lord and His Mother), and afterwards as the Purification of the Virgin. It seems at first in the West to have been a festival of our Lord rather than of the Virgin. In the propria for ‘Yppapanti’ (sic) in the Gregorian Sacramentary the allusion to St Mary is of the slightest. Hence at the time when it first appeared in the West it may be reckoned as having no special reference to St Mary. The Church of Rome does not appear (according to Duchesne) to have observed any festival of the Virgin before the seventh century, when it adopted the four following festivals from the Church of Byzantium.

1. The Purification (or, in early times, Hypapante). Its date (Feb. 2) is determined by counting forty days from Christmas (Luke ii. 22: compare Levit. xii. 2, 4).

A feast of much dignity and importance (cum summa laetitia, ac si per Pascha) commemorating the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple is noticed as celebrated (towards the close of the fourth century) at Jerusalem at the time of the pilgrimage of ‘Silvia.’ It was observed on Feb. 14 (the 40th day after the Epiphany, reckoned as the day of the Lord’s Nativity): but ‘Silvia’ does not appear to have regarded it as in any sense having special reference to St Mary. The words of the pilgrim simply record the incident in the Temple; and it looks as if the feast were only commemorative of a remarkable event in the history of the Lord.

It may be pointed out that the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple is still observed by the Armenians on Feb. 14, as they still celebrate the Nativity on Jan. 6.

The origin of the consecrating of candles and carrying them in procession which has given us the low Latin names candelaria and candelcisa, the French chandeleur, the Italian candelora, the German Lichtmesse, and our English name Candlemas, and which from early times formed a striking feature in the ritual of the Feast, has been conjecturally connected by some with a symbolical setting forth of the words of Simeon (Luke ii. 32); and by others with the ceremonial of the heathen Lupercalia. But the matter is still involved in doubt.

In the East the establishment of the festival throughout the Empire is generally assigned to Justinian in the year 542. The appearance of Hypapante in the so-called Gregorian Sacramentary is, it need scarcely be said, no proof that the festival was observed in the time of Gregory the Great.

The word ‘Hypapante’ lingered long in the West. We find it as the only name of the festival in the Martyrology of Bede; and one hundred and fifty years later the day is marked in Usuard as simply ‘Hypapante Domini.’

2. The Annunciation (March 25) like ‘Hypapante’ was probably originally a feast of our Lord, as marking the time of the Incarnation. Inferentially it may be considered as well established both in the East and West considerably before the close of the seventh century. Duchesne considers that we have very clear testimony to this feast before the Council in Trullo (A.D. 692), where it was spoken of as already established. Perhaps earlier, or, at latest, almost contemporary, in the West is the testimony of what is known as the tenth Council of Toledo (?A.D. 694)[76] where the complaint is made that in various parts of Spain the festival of St Mary was observed on various days, and it is further added that as the festival cannot be fitly celebrated either in Lent, or when overshadowed by the Paschal festival, the Council ordains that for the future the day should be xv Kal. Jan. (Dec. 18) and the Nativity of the Lord on viii Kal. Jan. (Dec. 25). It is plain that something of the nature of an octave was to follow the festival of Dec. 18; and there is added in a somewhat apologetic tone, ‘nam quid festum matris nisi incarnatio verbi?’ (canon 1). The Trullan Council took a different course. While continuing to prohibit all other festivals during Lent, it sanctioned the celebration of this. In the Milanese rite the feast was celebrated on the fourth Sunday in Advent. In the Mozarabic Missal we find in the Kalendar the Annunciation of St Mary marked both on March 25 and Dec. 18; the latter being distinguished as the ‘Annunciation of the O,’ referring to the great Antiphons sung at that season.

The older titles of the festival were the ‘Annunciation of the Lord,’ ‘the Annunciation of the Angel to the Blessed Virgin Mary,’ or ‘the Conception of Christ.’

The rules in the Roman rite for transferring the Annunciation to another day under certain circumstances will be found in technical works of the commentators.

3. The Nativity of the Virgin (Sept. 8). This also is found in the West towards the close of the seventh century. Durandus, who is often more fanciful than wise, had in this case perhaps some historical foundation for his assertion that the festival was founded by Pope Sergius I in A.D. 695. The story of Joachim and Anna, the parents of St Mary, is found in certain apocryphal Gospels which circulated among the Gnostics[77].

4. The Sleep, or (later) Assumption, of the Virgin (Aug. 15) appears in the West about the same time as the Annunciation and the Nativity of the Virgin. All three were unknown to Gregory the Great. It originated in the East, and was there known as the Sleep and (afterwards) the Translation. According to the historian, Nicephorus Callistus, the festival was founded by the Emperor Maurice (A.D. 582-602). It is beyond our province here to deal with the legend of St Mary’s body as well as soul being taken up to heaven. The festival made its way slowly in Gaul, but was eventually adopted by Charlemagne. As late as the twelfth century it was not universally observed in the East.

The advance in the titles of the festival from depositio, pausatio, dormitio to transitus and assumptio is not without significance. In Bede the name is Dormitio.

It will be observed that all these four festivals came to Rome from Byzantium. In the later mediaeval period they were of universal obligation in the West[78].

For notices of the observance of the death of St Mary on Jan. 18, see Baillet, op. cit., VI. 11.

5. The Presentation of St Mary (praesentatio, illatio, oblatio) in the Temple at Jerusalem. In the modern Roman Kalendar at Nov. 21, it is a ‘greater double.’ It does not appear in the Kalendar of the Sarum Breviary or Missal; but the Sarum Enchiridion (1530) gives Nov. 21, and the Office is printed in the Breviary. There were many exceptions to this feast being observed[79]. The festival is based on a legend[80] that at an early age Mary was dedicated to the service of God in the Temple, and that there she grew up, and served under the priests and Levites. The first appearance of the festival is at Constantinople; and there is evidence for it there in A.D. 1150. It passed to the West towards the close of the fourteenth century[81]. And with more certainty than is usually possible in such enquiries we can trace its introduction to the impression made by the accounts, brought back from Cyprus, by Philip de Mazières, of the solemnities of the feast in the East. Pius V (A.D. 1566-1572) withdrew it from the Roman Kalendar; but it was restored by Sixtus V (A.D. 1585-1590).

6. The Conception of St Mary (Dec. 8). Since Dec. 8, 1854, when Pius IX (in the Apostolic Letters Ineffabilis Deus) decreed the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception to be a necessary article of the Faith, the epithet Immaculate has been prefixed to the original title in the service-books of the Roman Communion. In the Greek Church the day observed is Dec. 9, and the title is the Conception of St Anna, grandmother of God, the Easterns connecting the word ‘conception’ with the person who conceived, while the Latins connected it with the person who was conceived. The festival was commanded to be observed throughout the Empire of the East by the Emperor Manuel Comnenus in the middle of the twelfth century.

The evidence seems to point to the fact that, like several other festivals of the Virgin, this originated in the East. In the Greek Horologion we find it related that, according to the ancient tradition of the Church, Anna was barren and well stricken in years, and also that her spouse Joachim was an aged man. In sorrow for their childlessness they prayed to the Lord, who hearing their prayers intimated to them by an angel that they would have a child, and in accordance with the promise Anna conceived[82]. It appears that the festival had no dogmatic significance; and it had its parallel in the historical festival, still observed in the Greek Church on Sept. 23, of the Conception of St John the Baptist, a festival which also had a place in the old Latin Martyrologies.

In the West the local observance of the day is associated commonly with the name of St Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, who, in one form of the story, on a voyage from England to Normandy during a storm vowed to establish the festival. But the day is marked in some English Kalendars just before the Norman Conquest, though at first it had a very limited acceptance[83]. It is plain that at an early date there were some who connected the festival with the belief that St Mary differed from other mortals in being without original sin. For when the Chapter of the Cathedral of Lyons were about to institute the festival in that church, St Bernard of Clairvaux wrote (A.D. 1140) expostulating with them partly on the ground that though St Mary was, as he believed, sanctified in the womb, yet her conception was not holy. He added that this was a novel festival, ‘quam ritus Ecclesiae nescit, non probat ratio, non commendat antiqua traditio’; and declares that it was the outcome of the simplicity of a few unlearned persons, the daughter of inconsiderateness (levitatis), and the sister of superstition (Epist. 174).

John Beleth, Dean of the Faculty of Theology at Paris, towards the close of the twelfth century argued much in the same way as St Bernard. And in the following century, and towards its close, such a leading authority as Durandus, bishop of Mende, in his Rationale says that there were some who would celebrate this festival, but that he could not approve of it, because St Mary was conceived in original sin, though she was sanctified in the womb.

As regards the Church of Rome (properly so called), Innocent III in the beginning of the thirteenth century declares in one of his sermons (Serm. II de Joan. Bapt.) that no other conception than that of the Lord Jesus was celebrated in the Church. Nevertheless the celebration of the day spread both in France, and, more particularly, in England. The Council of Oxford (A.D. 1222) approved of the feast, but distinguished it from the other feasts of the Virgin by leaving it to be observed or not at discretion. In the province of Canterbury the day was made of obligation by Archbishop Simon Mepeham (A.D. 1328-33).

In 1263 the Franciscans resolved to celebrate the festival publicly in their churches. But even the Franciscans were not agreed among themselves as to the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. Alvarus Pelagius, the Spanish Theologian, Great Penitentiary of Pope John XXII, in his de Planctu Ecclesiae (1332) declares that ‘the new and fantastic opinion should be cancelled by the faithful.’

As is well known, the Dominicans took a strong and even violent part against the doctrine. The greatest doctor of the thirteenth century, Thomas Aquinas, had clearly pronounced that St Mary was not sanctified till the infusion of her anima rationalis. But with regard to the feast of the Conception he states that inasmuch as the Roman Church, though not celebrating the Conception of the Blessed Virgin, tolerates the practice of certain Churches which do celebrate it, the celebration of the feast is not to be wholly reprobated; and he adds that we must not infer from the observance of the day that St Mary was holy in her conception, but because we are ignorant as to the time when she was sanctified, the feast of her sanctification rather than of her conception is celebrated on the day of her conception[84]. Accordingly in Dominican Kalendars we find the day marked as Sanctificatio Mariae.

The Council of Bâle (1439) adopted a constitution applicable to the whole Church that the feast should be observed according to the ancient and laudable custom on Dec. 8, and that it should be known under the title of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, forbidding the use of the name Sanctification, as having a less extended use. The Roman See, not recognising this Council, did not take action till A.D. 1477, when Sixtus IV, who had been a Franciscan, published an ordinance (and it is the very first decree of any Pope on the subject) granting large indulgences to all the faithful who celebrated, or assisted at, the Mass and Office of the Conception on the festival or throughout its octave. In 1483 the same Pope pronounced excommunication on any preachers who asserted that St Mary was conceived in original sin or that those who observed the festival sinned[85]. Clement VIII (1592-1605) raised the festival to the rank of a greater double. The later history of the festival can be pursued in Baillet, and in recent writers dealing with Pius IX.

For minor festivals of the Virgin, such as ‘St Mary at Snows,’ the Visitation of St Mary, the Espousals (Desponsatio), the Most Holy Name of Mary, the Seven Sorrows, the Rosary of St Mary, Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel, the Expectation of the Delivery (partûs), and others, the reader may consult Baillet, the Catholic Dictionary, etc.

II. The Orthodox Church of the East.

A reference to the classification of Feasts in the Eastern Church[86] will show that among the twelve principal Feasts are found (1) The Evangelismos of the Theotokos, March 25, corresponding to the Western feast of the Annunciation; (2) the Repose of the Theotokos, Aug. 15; (3) the Nativity of the Theotokos, Sept. 8; and (4) the Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple, Nov. 21, corresponding to the Presentation of the Virgin in the West.

To these have to be added the following feasts of lesser dignity: (5) Hypapante (the Meeting of St Mary with Simeon and Anna in the Temple), Feb. 2, corresponding to the Western Purification. This is a day of obligation: but (as has been already remarked) it is perhaps to be regarded rather as a festival of the Lord than of St Mary. (6) The Deposition of the precious Vestment of the Theotokos in the Church of Blachernae at Constantinople, July 2: (7) the Deposition of the precious Zone of the Theotokos at Constantinople, Aug. 31: (8) the Conception of St Anna (i.e. her conception of St Mary), Dec. 9, a day of obligation: (9) the Synaxis of the Theotokos and Joseph, her spouse, Dec. 26, a day of obligation. This day is also called the Synaxis of the Theotokos fleeing into Egypt. The Greeks consider that the visit of the Magi was exactly one year after the birth of Christ, and that the flight into Egypt was on the day following that visit.

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CHAPTER VI
FESTIVALS OF THE APOSTLES, THE EVANGELISTS, AND OF OTHER PERSONS NAMED IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. OCTAVES AND VIGILS

In the Greek Church there has continued to the present day a Synaxis of the Twelve Apostles on the day following St Peter and St Paul (June 29); and in the West we find a commemoration of all the Apostles, connected with the festival of St Peter and St Paul, in the Leonine Sacramentary[87]. There is a Natale Omnium Apostolorum with a vigil in the Gelasian Sacramentary. This festival may have preceded all separate commemorations. It would seem to have been observed close to the date of St Peter and St Paul.

With certain notable exceptions, feasts of the New Testament Saints came but slowly into the cycle of Christian solemnities. With some exceptions, more or less doubtful, there is no reason to think that the days of the deaths of the Apostles were known to those who gave them places in the Kalendars. It is highly probable in some cases, and not improbable in others, that the dates assigned for the festivals really mark some deposition or translation of the supposed relics of those commemorated, or the dedication of some church named in their honour. Considerations of the space at our disposal demand that the subject should be only lightly touched; but references are given to easily accessible works. And we deal only with the more notable festivals, or festivals of early appearance.

St Peter and St Paul (June 29). There is no question that at an early date this festival was celebrated at Rome. The belief was entertained by several ancient writers that these two Saints suffered death upon the same day of the month, but in different years.

We have seen already (p. 33 f.) that in the East at an early date there was a commemoration of St Peter in close connexion with the commemoration of the Lord’s Nativity. But at Rome in the earliest Western Kalendar (the Bucherian) we find two festivals that deserve consideration: (1) Natale Petri de Cathedra at Feb. 22; and (2) Petri in Catacumbas et Pauli Os[t]iense, at June 29, to which are added the words, Tusco et Basso Coss. To deal first with the latter entry; as the consulate of Tuscus and Bassus marks A.D. 258, it has been not unnaturally conjectured that the record marks the date of some translation of the Apostles’ relics. But that conjecture does not absolutely exclude the supposition that the day chosen for the translation was the day which was believed to have been the day of their martyrdom. The translation, as Bishop Pearson[88] long ago supposed, was the removal, perhaps with a view to safety, of the remains to a place at the third milestone on the Appian Way, called ‘Ad Catacumbas,’ during the heat of the persecution under Valerian.

The observance of a commemoration of St Paul on June 30 (still so marked in the Roman Kalendar), has been accounted for by the fact that the bishop of Rome celebrating mass first at the tomb of St Peter, and afterwards on the same day having to go a long distance to the tomb of St Paul, there to celebrate again, it was arranged to observe the festival of St Paul on the day after June 29, with a view to avoiding the fatigue and inconvenience of the two functions on the one day.

Cathedra Petri. The entry cited above from the Bucherian Kalendar, Natale Petri de cathedra, ‘the Festival of Peter of the Chair,’ looks very like the record of the dedication of a church, where perhaps a seated statue of the Apostle was placed[89]. We are at once reminded of the large seated figure of Hippolytus discovered in 1551 on the Via Tiburtina. Or, as De Rossi supposes, the festival may have had to do with the actual wooden chair (as was supposed) which St Peter had used, and of which we hear in the time of Gregory the Great. But, whatever may have been the origin of the festival, it came at a later time to be regarded as marking the date of the beginning of St Peter’s episcopate; and there is some evidence that the festival was made much of as a Christian set off against the popular pagan solemnity of Cara cognatio on Feb. 22, when the dead members of each family were commemorated.

Duchesne asserts, with something of undue confidence, that this was without doubt the ground for the selection of the date Feb. 22 for the Christian festival; but without committing ourselves to the acceptance of Duchesne’s view, we may say that it may well have been a reason why efforts were made to draw off the faithful, by means of the Christian solemnity, from the temptation to join in rites incompatible with their profession. The festival was unknown in the East, and, what is more remarkable, equally unknown in the Church of North Africa; but it appeared early in Gaul, and, as has been conjectured, with a view to prevent the festival falling, as would occasionally happen, in Lent, the date was pushed back to Jan. 18. At Rome it continued to be observed on Feb. 22.

It would seem to have been due to the anxiety of the early mediaeval Kalendar-makers and Martyrologists to comprehend in their lists everything in the way of church solemnities recorded in any Kalendar that we have the invention of St Peter’s Chair at Antioch. They found some Kalendars marking Cathedra Petri at Jan. 18, and others at Feb. 22. Might not, they would argue, these double dates be accounted for by the old accounts that St Peter had exercised an episcopate at Antioch before he came to Rome?

Venerable Bede does not mark any Festival of St Peter’s Chair at Jan. 18, but at Feb. 22 writes ‘Apud Antiochiam Cathedra S. Petri.’ But in the Martyrology, known as Gellonense (circ. 800), and in Usuard’s Martyrology we find at Jan. 18, ‘Cathedrae S. Petri Apostoli quâ Romae primo sedit,’ and at Feb. 22 ‘Cathedrae S. Petri Apostoli quâ sedit apud Antiochiam’ (Gellonense), ‘Apud Antiochiam Cathedrae S. Petri’ (Usuard). There continued to be a variety of use in different dioceses as to the day on which ‘St Peter’s Chair’ was celebrated; and it was not till as late as 1558 that Pope Paul IV settled the question by ordering that the feast of the Roman Chair should be observed on Jan. 18, while Gregory XIII restored Feb. 22 as the feast of the Chair at Antioch. This is not the place to discuss whether there was, properly speaking, any episcopate of St Peter at Antioch. It is significant that the churches of Greece and the East knew nothing of the feast of St Peter’s Chair at Antioch[90].

St Peter ‘ad vincula,’ ‘St Peter’s Chains.’ The Eastern Church celebrates the festival of St Peter’s Chain on Jan. 16; the Latin Church celebrates the corresponding festival on Aug. 1. Both festivals not improbably had their origins in the dedication of churches, where what were supposed to be a chain or chains which had bound Peter were preserved. The plural, ‘chains,’ in the Roman name is significant, and will be understood by reference to the 4th and 5th Lections for the feast in the Roman Breviary. The feast does not appear in Western Kalendars till the eighth century.

The seventeenth century building, S. Pietro in Vincoli, on the Esquiline, occupies the site of the church of the Apostles, reconstructed at the expense of the imperial family between A.D. 432 and A.D. 440, where the precious relics were deposited.

In connexion with this feast attention should be called to the fact that in the so-called Hieronymian Martyrology at Aug. 1, we find no reference to the chains, but there is the particularly interesting entry: ‘At Rome, dedication of the first church both constructed and consecrated by blessed Peter the Apostle[91].’

St Andrew (Nov. 30). The Martyrologies agree in giving Nov. 30 as the day of the martyrdom. The festival appeared early at Rome, and was given a place of high dignity[92]. In fact there is authority for the feast being kept at Rome in early times with no less solemnity than St Peter’s Day. It will be remembered that in the prayer Libera nos in the Canon of the Mass Andrew is named together with Peter and Paul. The Sacramentary of St Leo has four sets of ‘propers’ for masses on this festival. It is a day of much importance in the Greek Church, as St Andrew, the Protoclete, is reckoned the apostle of Greece. St Andrew is the patron of the Russian Church[93]. Relics of St Andrew, said to have been brought by a monk named Regulus from Patras to Scotland, gave the name of St Andrew to the place in Fife previously known as Kilrymont; and St Andrew became the patron saint of Scotland. In the Aberdeen Breviary his day is a ‘greater double.’

Bishop Wordsworth remarks that St Andrew’s Day ‘is perhaps the only festival of an Apostle claiming to be really on the anniversary of his death.’ Nov. 30 is given as the day of his martyrdom in the apocryphal Acta Andreae, describing his death at Patras[94].

St James the Great (July 25), the son of Zebedee, does not appear very early. The day is not noticed in either the Leonine or the Gelasian Sacramentary, and made its way to general acceptance but slowly. In the canons of the Council of Oxford (A.D. 1222) it does not appear among the chief festivals for general observance in England, although in England it was certainly a festum chori long before that date.

It would seem (Acts xii. 2, 3) that the death of James took place about the time of the Paschal commemoration; the Coptic Kalendar marks St James’s day on April 12, and the Syrian lectionary of Antioch on April 30, on which day also the Greek Church keeps a festival of St James, using for the Epistle Acts xii. 1, etc. The placing of the festival in the West so far from Easter as July 25, suggests that the latter date was connected with some translation of relics, or such like.

As we have already seen (p. 16) the ancient Syriac Kalendar edited originally by Wright, commemorates James together with his brother John on Dec. 27.

St John, Apostle and Evangelist. The principal festival on Dec. 27 is found in the fourth century in the East, where he was conjoined with James. Traces of this conjunction are to be found in the West. It is interesting to find in the Gothic Missal, printed by Muratori, a mass for the Natale of the Apostles James and John placed between St Stephen and Holy Innocents. And in the Hieronymian Martyrology we find at Dec. 27 ‘the ordination to the episcopate of St James, the Lord’s brother

The Greek Church commemorates the metastasis, or migration of John, on Sept. 26, and an important festival in honour of the holy dust (called manna) from his tomb at Ephesus on May 8.

St John before the Latin gate (May 6). The story of the caldron of boiling oil is as old as Tertullian (de Praescript. c. 36). But of the festival there is no notice before the closing years of the eighth century. The day of the month probably marks the date of the dedication of a church near the Latin gate[95]. It is characteristically a Western festival. In the Roman rite it was, about the thirteenth century, a semi-double: it was made a double by Pius V (1566-1572), and a greater double by Clement VIII (1592-1605).

St Matthew (Sept. 21): in the Greek, Russian, Syrian and Armenian Churches, Nov. 16: in the Egyptian and Ethiopic Kalendars of Ludolf, Oct. 9. The festival of Sept. 21 is certainly late in appearing. It is wanting in the Leonine, Gelasian, and Gallican Sacramentaries, and in Muratori’s edition of the Gregorian. It is found, however, generally in the martyrologies, which fact, of course, does not necessarily imply that there was any liturgical observance of the day[96].

St Luke (Oct. 18); and on the same day generally in the East. The day perhaps marks a translation of relics in the East, as is stated in the so-called Hieronymian Martyrology. St Luke does not appear in the older Sacramentaries; but in some manuscripts of the Gregorian we find a proper preface for St Luke on v Kal. Nov. (Oct. 28).

St Mark (April 25): on the same day in the East. The day is of late appearance, not perhaps before the ninth century. The great processional litanies on April 25 appear at Rome long before St Mark’s name was attached to the day. In their origin these litanies were distinctively Roman.

St Philip and St James (May 1). This was the day of the dedication of a church at Rome in their honour in the second half of the sixth century. The word natale is applied at a later time to the day; which may have been in error, or, as can be proved by many examples, the word natale came to be used loosely as equivalent to festival or commemoration. In the Greek Church St James, ‘the brother of God,’ is commemorated on Oct. 23, and St Philip, ‘one of the twelve,’ on Nov. 14. The Greeks celebrate Philip, the deacon, on Oct. 11, and he appears in Usuard’s Martyrology at June 6.

Why Philip and James should be associated we know not. The deposition of relics of both at the time of the dedication of the church at Rome may perhaps account for the conjunction of the names.

St Simon and St Jude (Oct. 28). Legend associates these two Apostles as having together laboured for thirteen years in Persia, and as there dying martyrs’ deaths. In the Sacramentaries they do not appear till they are found in a late form of the Gregorian. In the East the commemoration of these Apostles is divided and a day assigned to each. In the Greek Church Simon Zelotes appears at May 10, and Judas (Thaddaeus) at June 19.

St Thomas, Apostle and Martyr (Dec. 21); his Translation is marked at July 3 in the West. In the Greek Church St Thomas is commemorated on Oct. 6, a day also observed by the Syrians, who add a translation on July 3. In the fourth century there was a magnificent basilica of St Thomas at Edessa, and to this church the remains of the Apostle were translated (from India according to the legend) before the close of the century. St Thomas (at Dec. 21) is not found in the Leonine, and only in some texts of the Gregorian Sacramentary. He appears, however, in the Gelasian.

St Bartholomew (Aug. 24); and at Rome on Aug. 25. The Latin churches generally, including that of mediaeval England, observed Aug. 24. The Greek Church commemorates Bartholomew together with Barnabas on June 11, and a translation of the relics of Bartholomew on Aug. 25. In the West the introduction of the feast was late. There is no trace of it in the early forms of the great Sacramentaries[97].

St John the Baptist, the Nativity (June 24); so too in the Greek Church. The date was doubtless assigned on the strength of the inference drawn from the Gospels, that the birth of the baptist preceded that of the Saviour by six months. It appeared early, and was a recognised day in the time of St Augustine[98]. It has its masses in the Sacramentaries from the Leonine downwards.

The Decollation of St John the Baptist (generally Aug. 29). This festival is also early, but, so far as evidence goes, not so early as the Nativity[99]. It was known in Gaul before it was adopted at Rome. The Greek churches celebrate the day on Aug. 29[100].

The Conversion of St Paul (Jan. 25), was of late introduction. It does not appear in the correct text of Bede’s Martyrology, and in only late texts of the Gregorian Sacramentary. There is reason for believing that the day was first observed to mark the translation of relics of St Paul at Rome, for so it appears in the Hieronymian Martyrology, and the period of transition seems to be marked in the Martyrology of Rabanus Maurus (ninth century), where we find at Jan. 25, ‘Translation and Conversion of St Paul.’ It is not found in England in the Pontifical of Egbert, Archbishop of York (A.D. 732-766), but it appears in the Leofric Missal, in the second half of the eleventh century. It is unknown in the Greek Church.

St Mary Magdalene (July 22), who is identified in the West with the woman who was a sinner, and with Mary the sister of Lazarus, is distinguished from each of these in the Greek service-books which also mark her festival on July 22. Among the Easterns she is thought of as ‘the holy myrrh-bearer,’ one of the women who brought the spices to the tomb of the Lord. In various places in the West, though not at Rome, the day was a day of obligation in the middle ages. It appears in some service-books in the tenth and eleventh centuries, but not in missals, secundum consuetudinem Romanae curiae, till the thirteenth[101].

There was a festival of St Mary Magdalene (July 22) in the English Prayer Book of 1549. The collect and gospel (Luke vii. 36 to the end of the chapter) show that no English Reformers identified the Magdalene with the woman who was a sinner. The festival disappears in the Prayer Book of 1552.

St Barnabas, the Apostle (June 11). The Greeks commemorate on this day ‘Bartholomew and Barnabas, Apostles.’ The festival probably marks the supposed finding of the body of Barnabas (having a copy of St Matthew’s Gospel in his hand) in the island of Cyprus in the fifth century. Barnabas is not found at June 11 in the so-called Hieronymian Martyrology; nor in the Martyrology known as Gellonense, but it is noted in Bede (though there is some doubt whether the entry is not due to Florus), and in the later Martyrologies.

The Greek Church commemorates (many of them with proper names attached) the seventy disciples of Luke x. 1, called in the service-books ‘apostles.’

Octaves. The word Octave is used sometimes for the eighth day after a festival, sometimes (in later documents) for the space of eight days which follow the festival. It may be regarded as an echo or prolongation of the festival. In the Eastern Church what is known as the Apodosis (see p. 135) in a measure corresponds to the Western Octave. It has not unreasonably been conjectured that they owe their origin to an imitation of the festal practices of the Hebrews (Levit. xxiii. 6; Num. xxviii. 17; Deut. xvi. 3). Octaves were originally few: they appear first in connexion with Easter and Pentecost, and, occasionally, with the Epiphany. In the eighth and ninth centuries Octaves became more numerous. Yet in the Corbie Kalendar (A.D. 826), assuming that the movable feasts of Easter and Pentecost had their Octaves, we find in addition only the Octaves of Christmas, Epiphany, Peter and Paul, Lawrence and Andrew. This falls in well with what is said by Amalarius (about the same date) who, after noticing the Octaves of Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, and Pentecost, adds, ‘We are accustomed to celebrate the Octaves of the natalitia of some saints, that is, of those whose festivals are esteemed as more illustrious amongst us’ (De ecclesiasticis officiis, iv. 36). At Rome we find St Agnes having an Octave (Jan. 28) at a date earlier than that with which we have been dealing[102]; and even to-day in the Roman Missal and Breviary there is an interesting survival in the persistence of the old name, Agnetis secundo, and of ‘propers’ for the day. Liturgically, the ancient practice in the West was to insert a simple commemoration on the eighth day of festivals.

The prolongation of a festival for eight days may be found illustrated by the practice of the Church at Jerusalem in the fourth century, as recounted by ‘Silvia’ in her descriptions of the Epiphany, the Pascha, and the feast of the dedication of the churches known as the Martyrium and the Church of the Resurrection.

The great multiplication of Octaves in mediaeval times has been attributed to the influence of the Franciscans, who in the language of Kellner ‘provided an inordinate number of Octaves in their Breviary, and observed each day of the Octave with the rite of a festum duplex[103].’

The somewhat elaborate rules with respect to Octaves and their relation to the observance of other festivals, as enjoined in the modern Roman rite, can be found in such technical works as those of Gavantus and Ferraris. It must suffice here to observe that within the Octaves of Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, the Epiphany, and Corpus Christi, Votive and Requiem masses are prohibited.

Vigils. The origin of vigils is obscure. The proper service of each Lord’s Day was preceded in early times by what may be regarded as something like a vigil, a service before the dawn of day; and some think that this view may be deduced from Pliny’s well-known letter to Trajan. But in this there would seem, perhaps, to be a reading into the document of more than its contents warrant. However this may be, we find as early as Tertullian that there were among Christians ‘nocturnae convocationes,’ the solemnities of the Pascha being more particularly referred to[104]. The exact nature and object of these assemblies are not described. Evidence is more full at a later date for vigils of some kind, not only before the Lord’s Day but also before the Sabbath[105]. At the period when ‘Silvia’ visited Jerusalem the faithful seem to have engaged in services before the dawn on every Lord’s Day. And in Gaul in the fifth century, as we gather from Sidonius Apollinaris[106], the vigils were not all night-watches but services before day-break. About a century later than Tertullian, we find the Council of Elvira, near Granada, some time in the first quarter of the fourth century, enacting a canon (35), declaring that women should not spend the night-watches (pervigilent) in cemeteries, ‘because often under the pretext of prayer they secretly commit serious offences (scelera).’ There is no further explanation; and the probable conjecture has been offered that it may have been the practice to have vigils in the cemeteries on the night before the oblation was offered at the tomb of one of the martyrs. That there was in Spain at this date some kind of service in the cemeteries seems not improbable from the fact that the canon immediately preceding that which we have noticed forbids the lighting of wax tapers in cemeteries in the day time.

By the end of the fourth century, there is ample evidence for the observance of nocturnal or early morning vigils before the greater festivals in both East and West. Early in the fifth century Vigilantius protested against the scandals which arose from the nocturnal watchings in the basilicas, and for this, among other assaults upon the current abuses and superstitions of the time, he drew upon himself the violent and coarse invective of Jerome. Yet Jerome himself may be quoted for the fact that there were moral dangers attending these nocturnal vigils, for while advising the lady Laeta to inure her daughter, the younger Paula, to days of vigil and solemn pernoctations, he warns her that she should keep the girl close by her side[107]. To Pope Boniface I (A.D. 418-422) has been attributed the prohibition of nocturnal vigils in the Roman cemeteries.

With regard to the Paschal Vigil, Jerome expresses the opinion that it originated in the belief that Christ would come again in the night of the Pascha[108].

In process of time, the day before the feast (dies profestus) assumed the name of vigil, and was in the West commonly, though not universally, associated with a fast. Mediaeval ritualists, such as Honorius of Autun (who died a little after A.D. 1130), connect the change with the popular abuses of the nocturnal vigils.

There is an interesting letter of Innocent III (about A.D. 1213), laying down the rule in the Roman Church, which still prevails. The vigils of the Apostles are to be observed as fasts, with the exception of St John the Evangelist and St Philip and St James, the former occurring in the season of Christmas, and the latter in that of Easter[109]. Beside the vigils of the Apostles, the vigils of Christmas and the Assumption are fasts de jure, and by custom the vigils of Pentecost, the Nativity of the Baptist, St Lawrence, and All Saints. These rules were often locally modified by papal indults.

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CHAPTER VII
SEASONS OF PREPARATION AND PENITENCE