The visit of the Magi appears as the sole event commemorated by Epiphany in the six sermons of Augustine delivered on the feast (Sermons 199-204). Fulgentius in his four sermons on Epiphany treats only of this event and of the slaughter of the innocents.
The Mass in the Gelasian sacramentary refers in the collects and preface only to these mysteries, and not to the two others, and the Gospel[378] relates the visit of the Magi.
The third event commemorated is the first miracle performed at the marriage in Cana, by which our Lord manifested His divine power. This threefold commemoration is still recognised in the present Roman liturgy, and finds expression in the antiphon to the Benedictus, which runs: “On this day the Church is joined to her celestial Bridegroom, because Christ washed away her sins in Jordan, the Magi hasten with gifts to the royal espousals and the guests are gladdened with water changed into wine.”
Polemius Silvius notices the three events in his Calendar on this day. Paulinus of Nola[379] expressly mentions them. They are especially dwelt upon and distinguished in a sermon of Sedatus, Bishop of Béziers, in the sixth century.[380] Maximus of Turin was acquainted with the threefold commemoration, but doubts if they all actually happened on the same day, the 6th January.
Later on, in mediæval times, there was a tendency to include under the Epiphany other manifestations of Christ’s divine power, such as the miracle of the loaves, and the resurrection of Lazarus.[381]
There is hardly any trace in the West of Epiphany as the festival of our Lord’s birth,[382] and even in the East this significance of the feast was forgotten after the institution of Christmas. Lingering traces of the earlier conception which had not quite died out in the East, may perhaps have been the occasion of a polemic from St Jerome,[383] when he declared that the Epiphany had never been regarded as a festival of Christ’s nativity.
By the introduction of Christmas, Epiphany naturally lost its character as the day of Christ’s birth, even in those parts of the Church where it had originally been regarded as such. It is not, therefore, to be wondered at that Chrysostom, as introducer of Christmas, felt compelled to explain to his hearers more particularly the difference between the feasts. Christ, he says, did not appear at His birth openly and to all, but only to a few persons, and so little was His divinity manifested thereby that St John the Baptist was able to say: “There hath stood one in the midst of you, whom you know not.” From the moment of His baptism, His divinity was evident to all, and consequently the festival instituted in honour of the baptism of Jesus bears the name of Epiphany. Moreover, there is yet another and a fuller appearance of the Lord which will take place at the end of the world. Hence the necessity, according to St Chrysostom, of celebrating in addition to the Epiphany a special festival in honour of Christ’s birth.[384]
Epiphany first appears with an octave in the Calendars of the eighth century. In the Gregorian sacramentary it is without an octave, but has a vigil. In the Calendar of Fronteau the festival is kept up for three days.
One of the special observances connected with the feast was the publication on the 6th January of the annual pastoral letter of the Patriarchs of Alexandria—the epistola festalis—announcing the date of Easter for the current year. In 541, the fourth Council of Orleans (can. 1) ordered the same thing for the West, also the Councils of Auxerre in 578 and 585 (can. 2). In the Middle Ages the dates of the other movable feasts were added to the date of Easter (Pontif. Rom.), as is still done in some places, as for example, Turin, at the present day.