It is also the custom to celebrate three Masses, of which the first, according to the ancient use, commenced at midnight. As the words of the Mass show, this first Mass commemorates the eternal generation of the Son from the Father, the second commemorates His Incarnation and birth into this world, the third His birth through grace, in the hearts of sinners. The Gelasian sacramentary mentions the trina celebratio. The custom is one which reaches back to early Christian times. Gregory the Great mentions it in Hom. viii. in Evang. The Leonine sacramentary contains nine different formularies for Christmas, but the other western rites, including the Mozarabic, have only one Mass for the feast. The Menology of Basil Porphyrogenitus gives the flight of Mary into Egypt on the 26th December, and St Stephen only on the following day.
Since the 25th December was only chosen for reasons of a more or less accidental and external character, so too the days which immediately follow—St Stephen, St John the Evangelist, and the Holy Innocents—have no real connection with Christmas, although they are of very ancient institution. The 26th December was already a special festival in the fourth century, as appears from the sermons of St Augustine (Sermo 314, c. 1), though he knows nothing of the two following days. The 220th sermon, which celebrates the Holy Innocents, is spurious.[349] They appear, however, in the African Calendar of the sixth century. On the Innocents’ Day in the Middle Ages the schoolboys used to elect a bishop who was nothing more than their leader, and the ceremony was quite harmless. For this ceremony, as well as for the crib and other popular customs still practised, the reader is referred to Heuser’s elaborate articles in the Kirchenlexikon, iv²., 1395-1436.
The introduction of Christmas and its appointment on the 25th December brought about the establishment of three other festivals: 1. the feast of the Circumcisio Domini, eight days after the Nativity, according to St Luke ii. 21, (postquam consummati sunt dies octo, ut circumcideretur puer, vocatum est nomen ejus Jesus). 2. The Annunciation on the 25th March, which is also the day of Christ’s conception, and so is placed nine months before the 25th December. The historical evidence for this day is on a par with that for Christmas. 3. The Nativity of St John the Baptist, on the 24th June. Another consequence was that the festival of the Occursus Domini (ὑπαπάτη), i.e. the meeting of our Lord with Simeon in the Temple, on Candlemas Day, which was observed in Jerusalem before the introduction of Christmas, had to be transferred to another day. According to the regulations of the Jewish Law in Lev. xii. 6, the period of uncleanness after birth lasted forty days. And according to St Luke ii. 22, Mary submitted to the Law in this respect. So long as our Lord’s birth was commemorated at Epiphany on the 6th January, the 15th February was the fortieth day after the Nativity, and so, as a matter of fact, the festival of the Occursus Domini was celebrated in Jerusalem on this day in 385.[350] But when the Nativity came to be celebrated on the 25th December, the other festival had to be placed thirteen days earlier, on the 2nd February, as it is at the present time.[351]
2. Advent and the Sundays until Septuagesima
Christmas, like Easter, besides its Vigil and Octave, has also a considerable period of preparation. This, naturally, could only come into existence after the institution of the festival, and indeed a certain time had to elapse before it was organised. Since Christmas itself was first observed in the middle of the fourth century, it is not remarkable that the earliest clear reference to Advent, from an official source, dates from the end of the sixth century.
Some sort of preparatory season to Christmas, however, existed before this. As in the case of Easter, this preparatory season was marked by a fast commencing on St Martin’s Day (11th November), and lasting until Christmas. All Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays were fasted as in Lent. Such was the preparation observed in Gaul since the appointment of the festival by Bishop Perpetuus of Tours († 491). The same observance existed in other parts of Gaul, for the first Council of Maçon (581) prescribes exactly the same order, and also that from St Martin’s Day to Christmas the Mass shall be the same as during Lent—the first sign of the liturgy for Advent. In the province of Tours there was a similar enactment, although affecting the monks alone, ordering them to fast through the whole of December.[352] The Roman Church did not observe the fast, although she treated Advent as a liturgical portion of the Church’s year and incorporated it therein.
Although the Greek Church has not marked the preparation for Christmas in her liturgy, still she has observed the fast since the eighth century. This begins on St Philip’s day (the 14th November), and continues for six weeks until Christmas. According to the Mozarabic and Milanese rites, this is the length of Advent. The Copts observe an Advent fast beginning on the 19th Athyr (15th November).[353]
Once the observance of Advent had been established in Rome, it spread throughout the entire West. In Spain we find it extended over five Sundays according to the Lectionary of Silos, dating from about 650. It took longer to make its way in France, although the way had already been prepared for it by Perpetuus of Tours. The service-books of the seventh century, the Lectionary of Luxeuil, and the so-called Missale Gothico-Gallicanum, edited by Mabillon, commence with the Vigilia Natalis Domini, without Advent. In Rome, the institution of Advent cannot be traced further back than to the sixth century, for the sermons of St Augustine and Leo I. make no mention of it. Unmistakable evidence for its observance is found for the first time in the homilies of Gregory the Great.[354]
The want of uniformity in the duration of Advent in different parts of the Church is due to the fact that local Churches, conformably to the ancient discipline, acted independently of each other. Thus, in Rome Advent lasted only four weeks, as we gather from the Gregorian sacramentary, which provides three Sundays in December with collects de adventu Domini, and a dominica vacans; in the Appendix, however, five Sundays are reckoned before Christmas.[355] The first traces of Advent are to be sought for in the lectionaries, as, for instance, in that drawn up by Bishop Victor of Capua (546-547), and used by St Boniface.[356] This contains four Epistles for the Sundays before Christmas (de Adventu). The Gelasian sacramentary has five Sundays in Advent, but it has obviously been revised for the use of the Frankish Churches. All service-books containing only four Sundays in Advent belong to the Roman rite.