The Gallic pilgrim gives a detailed and circumstantial account of the manner in which the feast was observed in Jerusalem.[257] On the night before Whitsunday, the vigil was celebrated in the Church of the Anastasis, at which the bishop, according to the usual custom in Jerusalem on Sundays, read the Gospel of the Resurrection, and the customary psalmody was performed. At dawn, all the people proceeded to the principal church (Martyrium), where a sermon was preached and Mass celebrated. About the third hour, when the psalmody was finished, the people accompanied the bishop with singing to Sion. There, the passage from the Acts of the Apostles, describing the descent of the Holy Ghost, was read, and a second Mass was celebrated, after which the psalmody was resumed. Afterwards the archdeacon invited the people to assemble in the “Eleona,” from whence a procession was made to the summit of the Mount of Olives. Here psalms and antiphons were sung, the Gospel was read, and the blessing given. After this, the people descended again into the “Eleona,” where Vespers were sung, and then, with the bishop at their head, proceeded in a solemn procession with singing back to the principal church, which was reached towards 8 P.M. At the city gate, the procession was met by torch-bearers who accompanied it to the Martyrium. Here, as well as in the Anastasis, to which the people proceeded in turn, and in the Chapel of the Holy Cross, the usual prayers, hymns, and blessings took place, so that the festival did not conclude until midnight.
The Pilgrim makes no mention of rites or preparations connected with the administration of baptism. It seems, then, that in Jerusalem, Whitsunday was not observed as a second or supplementary time for baptism, or may not have been required as such. Nevertheless, this feature appears in the Western liturgies, and had much to do, for instance, in the determining the manner in which the vigil of the feast was observed.
According to the more ancient service-books, the catechumens were to assemble at midday on Saturday. Lections from Scripture, less numerous than on Holy Saturday, were read, and then, after suitable prayers, took place the blessing of the baptismal water, the baptism, and, during the night, the Mass of the vigil.[258] St Augustine shows that, in Africa as well, the people assembled in the afternoon, and that the Mass was celebrated during the night. He thus addresses the newly baptised on Whitsunday: “What you here see before you on the altar, you have already seen during the past night.”[259]
In order to complete the resemblance to Easter, a large candle was, in some churches, blessed and set up during the singing of the Exsultet in a slightly altered form.[260] In monastic churches, in which baptism was not administered, the baptismal ceremonies were omitted, though the special celebration of the vigil still commenced in the afternoon.[261]
As far as the most ancient period is concerned, the so-called Leonine Missal contains a Mass for Whitsunday, and the ceremonies for baptism. The Gelasian Sacramentary also has numerous directions for the administration of baptism on this day, but no form for the blessing of a candle. It seems to imply that the candidates for baptism shall be especially invalids, or such as for some reason or other had been prevented from receiving baptism at Easter, or Energumens, etc. These directions, however, are absent from the Gregorian Sacramentary, and only two lections from the prophets are given. In the present Roman rite, the function takes place in the forenoon; still the prophecies and the blessing of the font remain as survivals of the ancient practice. The litany of the saints is also sung, upon the last Kyrie of which the Mass of the vigil follows immediately without an introit. The office of the day until nones belongs to the Octave of the Ascension.
The Apostolic Constitutions[262] speak of the feast of Pentecost lasting for eight days, but in the West it was not kept with an octave until quite a late date, and the last day was never called dies octava, but merely the first Sunday after Pentecost, and the days within the octave were merely called the first or second day after Pentecost, and so on. As appears from Berno of Reichenau,[263] it was a debatable point in his day whether Whitsunday ought to be kept with, or without, a dies octava. Berno relied upon the analogy of Easter, the special time for baptisms, which was observed with an octave. Whitsunday was the day on which the Apostles received their baptism of fire, and so it too ought to have an octave. He had other reasons besides which would have no weight at the present time. It is obvious that Whitsunday had at first no octave, which can be inferred also from the whole scheme of the Church’s feasts. Whitsunday was merely the fiftieth day after Easter, the end of the period called Pentecost, and so in itself brought the season to a conclusion.
The Mass for Whitsunday had a sequence which was repeated daily during the week. Formerly the law-courts did not sit during the entire week, and even servile work was forbidden as well.[264] A Council of Constance, in 1094, limited this to the first three days of the week. With us, at the present time, only the second day is observed in foro, but not even this is observed any longer in Rome.
In earlier times it was customary in many places to scatter roses from the roof of the church to recall the miracle of Pentecost. Hence in Sicily, Whitsunday is called pascha rosatum. The Italian name, pasqua rossa, however, comes from the colour of the vestments. In many districts of France it was usual to blow trombones or trumpets during divine service in memory of the sound of the “mighty wind” which accompanied the Holy Spirit’s descent.