April 25.] ST. MARK’S DAY.
April 25.]
ST. MARK’S DAY.
This day is distinguished in old kalendars by a second appellation, Litania Major, which had reference to the prayers, and solemn processions of covered crosses on this day. It was frequently confounded with the processions of the Rogations, which depended upon the movable feast of the Ascension, and were also called Litanies, though it does not appear that the processions of St. Mark were ever called Rogations. A mistake of this kind was committed by the author of a Saxon homily on the Litania Major, by applying to it the term Gang Days, the Saxon name of the three days preceding Holy Thursday.—Med. Ævi Kalend. vol. i. p. 219.