The Letters of S. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan

by Bishop of Milan Saint Ambrose

5. Hence it is that our Lord Himself also, when He had performed His wonderful works upon the earth, as if the faith of human minds were now established, observed that it was the time of His Passion, saying, S. John xvii. 1. Father, the hour is come, glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee. For He teaches elsewhere that He sought this glory of celebrating His Passion, where He says, S. Luke xiii. 32. Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day I am perfected. In them indeed is Jesus perfected, who begin to be perfect, that with their faith they may believe on the fulness of His Divinity and His Redemption.

6. Therefore we seek out both the day and the hour, as the Scripture teaches us. The prophet David also says, Ps. cxix. 126. It is time for thee, Lord, to work, when he sought understanding to know the testimonies of the Lord. The Preacher also saith, Eccl. iii. 1. To every thing there is a season; Jeremy exclaims, Jerem. viii. 7. The turtle and the swallow and the sparrows of the ground observe the time of their coming. But what can appear more evident than that it is of the Passion of our Lord that it is said, Isaiah i. 3. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib? Let us then acknowledge this crib of our Master, wherein we are nourished, fed, and refreshed.

7. We ought therefore especially to know this time, at which over the universal world the accordant prayers of the sacred night are to be poured forth; for prayers are commended by season also, as it is written, Isa. xlix. 8. In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee. This is the time of which the Apostle said, 2 Cor. vi. 2. Behold, now is the accepted time, behold, now is the day of salvation.

8. Accordingly, since, even after the calculations of the Egyptians, and the definitions of the church of Alexandria, and also of the Bishop of the church of Rome, several persons are still waiting my judgement by letter, it is needful that I should write what my opinion is about the day of the Passover. For though the question which has arisen is about the approaching Paschal day, yet we state what we think should be maintained for all subsequent time, in case any question of the kind should come up.

9. But there are two things to be observed in the solemnity of the passover, the fourteenth moon, and the first month,which is called Exod. xiii. 4. the month of the new fruits[132]. Therefore that we may not appear to be departing from the Old Testament, let us recite the words of the section concerning the day of celebrating the Passover. Moses warns the people, saying that they must keep the month of the new fruits, proclaiming that it is the first month, for he says, Exod. xii. 2. This month shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you, and Lev. xxiii. 5. thou shalt offer the Passover of the Lord thy God on the fourteenth day of the first month.

10. S. John i. 17. The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. He therefore, Who spake the law, afterwards coming by the Virgin in the last times, accomplished the fulness of the Law, for He came S. Matt. v. 17. not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it, and He celebrated the Passover in the week in which the fourteenth moon was the fifth day of the week, and then on that very day, as what is said before teaches us, He ate the Passover with his disciples: but on the following day, on the sixth day of the week, Hewas crucified on the fifteenth moon. But the sixteenth moon was the Sabbath which was an high day, and so on the seventeenth moon He rose again from the dead.

11. We must then keep this law of Easter, not to keep the fourteenth day as the day of the Resurrection, but rather as the day of the Passion, or at least one of the next preceding days, because the feast of the Resurrection is kept on the Lord’s day; and on the Lord’s day we cannot fast; for we rightly condemn the Manichæans for their fast upon this day. For it is unbelief in Christ’s Resurrection, to appoint a rule of fasting for the day of the Resurrection,since the Law says that the Passion is to be eaten with bitterness[133], that is, with grief, because the Author of Salvation was slain by so great a sacrilege on the part of men; but on the Lord’s day the Prophet teaches us that we should rejoice, saying, Ps. cxviii. 24. This is the day which the Lord hath made: let us rejoice and be glad in it.

12. Therefore it is fit that not only the day of the Passion, but also that of the Resurrection be observed by us, that we may have a day both of bitterness and of joy; fast on the one, on the other be refreshed. Consequently, if the fourteenth moon of the first month fall, as will be the case next time, on the Lord’s day, inasmuch as we ought neither to fast on the Lord’s day, nor on the thirteenth moon which falls on the Sabbath-day to break the fast, which must especially be observed on the day of the Passion, the celebration of Easter must be postponed to the next week. For the fifteenth day of the month follows, on which Christ suffered, and it will be the second day of the week. The third day of the week will be the sixteenth moon, on which our Lord’s Flesh rested in the tomb; and the fourth day of the week will be the seventeenth moon on which our Lord rose again.

13. When therefore these three sacred days run as they do next time into the further week, within which three days He both suffered and rested and rose again, of which three days He says, S. John ii. 19. Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up, what can bring us trouble or doubt? For if it raises a scruple that we do not on the fourteenth moon celebrate the particular day either of His Passion or Resurrection,we may remember that our Lord Himself did not suffer on the fourteenth moon, but on the fifteenth, and on the seventeenth He rose again. But if any are troubled at our passing over the fourteenth moon, which falls upon the Lord’s day, that is the 18th of April, and recommending its celebration on the following Lord’s day, there is this authority for doing so.

14. In times lately past, when the fourteenth moon of the first month fell on the Lord’s day, the solemnity was celebrated on the Lord’s day next ensuing.But in the eighty-ninth year of the Era of Diocletian[134], when the fourteenth moon was on the 24th of March, Easter was kept by us on the last day of March. The Alexandrians and Egyptians also, as they wrote themselves, when the fourteenth day of the moon fell on the 28th day of the month Phamenoth, kept Easter on the fifth day of the month Pharmuthi, which is the last day of March, and so agreed with us. Again in the ninety-third year of the Era of Diocletian, when the fourteenth moon fell on the fourteenth day of the month Pharmuthi, which is the 9th of April, and was the Lord’s day, Easter was kept on the Lord’s day, the 21st day of Pharmuthi, or according to us on the 16th of April. Wherefore since we have both reason and precedent, nothing should disturb us upon this head.