Heortology

by K. A. Heinrich Kellner

We have, however, sure proof of the introduction of Rogations by Bishop Mamertus of Vienne. That part of the country had been visited for a considerable period by various calamities and earthquakes. On Easter night, 469, the royal palace in Vienne was struck by lightning, which caused such a panic among the entire congregation assembled in church, that they fled from the building. Mamertus put himself into connection with the civil authorities and along with them organised the Litanies, which had been used before this time, but in an informal and irregular manner. It was ordained they should take place on the three days before the Ascension, that they should be accompanied by a fast, and that the slaves should do no servile work. This institution was soon imitated throughout the whole of Gaul. Under Bishop Sidonius Apollinaris they were adopted at Clermont, next the first Council of Orleans (511), in its twenty-seventh canon, prescribes them for the Frankish part of the country, and Avitus could say they had already spread throughout the whole world, and been accepted with eagerness.[425]

Nevertheless there is no clear evidence in antiquity, to show how matters were arranged in Rome. Only when we come to the time of Gregory the Great, do we get detailed accounts which have been preserved by Gregory of Tours. In autumn of the year 589, a terrible inundation devastated the city of Rome, overthrowing the ancient buildings, destroying all provisions, and leaving behind it a pestilence which carried away Pope Pelagius II. in February 590. To avert the divine wrath, Gregory, as administrator of the vacant see, ordered a procession of especial solemnity.[426] It was apparently the procession of the 25th April, but carried out on a larger scale than heretofore. It may, however, have been an extraordinary procession such as had never before taken place, for its date is unknown, and it is not certain if the often quoted statement of Gregory really refers to it. In his numerous letters there is no mention of this procession.

Gregory prepared the people for the procession some days before by a sermon. The procession was divided into seven parts, and hence received the name of Litania Septiformis. Each division started from a different church, and all met in the basilica of St Mary Major. As Gregory says in another place, “The return of this annual solemnity warns us to keep it with devout hearts,” we conclude it was not a new observance just introduced.[427] In Rome the litaniæ of Rogation Week, as the Liber Pontificalis informs us, were first adopted under Leo III. (795-816), through the Frankish influence[428] then dominant there. The observance of days of penitence in this season of the year was a departure from the original principle that the Quinquagesima was a time of ecclesiastical joy, as Amalarius rightly observes. The procession of the 25th April belonged especially to the city of Rome, and the name litania major is due to the fact that the processions of Rogation Week were only introduced later. They too were performed with great solemnity. In other places there were yet other days appointed for litanies, but whether in addition to those already mentioned or in place of them is not clear. Thus the second Council of Lyons in 567, in its sixth canon, enjoined that in the first week of November, litanies similar to those customary before the Ascension should be performed. The Church of Milan celebrated the Rogations in the week after the Ascension. The Council of Gerunda in 517, in its second canon, places them in the week after Pentecost, and a second litania on the first of November when it was not a Sunday (Ib., Can. 3). The second canon of the sixth Council of Toledo (638) places them on the Ides of December. It may be conjectured from this that the litanies in Spain developed on peculiar lines.[429] Here as in Gaul, the Rogation Days were kept as fasts. In Germany, the Rogations were only introduced in the ninth century, for the Council of Mainz in 813 (Can. 33), prescribed they should be observed by a three days’ fast, and the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle in 836 (Can. 11), ordered expressly the performance of the processions after the Roman manner.

3. The Dedication of a Church and the Festival of the Patron Saint

The festival of the dedication of a Church has indeed no connection with the ecclesiastical year, and the festival of the patron saint belongs to the same category as the ordinary saints’ days, but formerly, and even to some extent at the present time, both have such a marked position among the festivals that they deserve some special mention.

In order to distinguish one church from another, different ways of naming them were adopted in course of time. In Rome they took their names originally from their founders and from those to whom the site on which they stood had previously belonged, e.g., the Basilica of the Lateran, the Sessorian Basilica (Sta. Croce), the Licinian Basilica (Sta. Bibiana), the Liberian (Sta. Maria Maggiore), etc. Elsewhere they received their names partly in the same way, and partly from other reasons, as we see from the oldest churches in Jerusalem—the Martyrium and Anastasis in the city, the Eleona or Imbomon on the Mount of Olives, and the Lazarium in Bethania, close to Jerusalem.[430] Churches built over the graves of martyrs, Martyria, were naturally called after the saint over whose tomb they were erected, and as many such churches served for ordinary divine worship, it gradually became customary to call churches after a saint, or to dedicate them specially to his honour.[431] Such was the custom in Carthage. From the point of view of the historical development, one must consider (1) the day on which the church was made over for public use, and (2) the patron saint. The former was the day of the church’s dedication or consecration. The heathen, both civilised and barbarian, had been accustomed to set apart the edifices erected for the service of their gods by a special ceremony of consecration.[432] Everyone knows with what magnificence Solomon dedicated the first temple. Accordingly, it only was to be expected that so symbolical a ceremony would be adopted by the Church, and, as a matter of fact, immediately after the cessation of persecution, under the first Christian Emperor, we find the dedication of churches performed with great display. We have an example of this in the dedication of the Church at Tyre, about which Eusebius has so much to say in his Ecclesiastical History, having himself delivered a long and very tedious and commonplace discourse on that occasion. (Euseb., Hist. Eccl., 10, 3 and 4.)

The dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem in 335, was performed with remarkable magnificence. After the Synod of the Eusebians at Tyre in this year, many bishops at the invitation of the imperial representative proceeded to Jerusalem, for the great basilica which Constantine had commenced to build on Mount Calvary was now finished. The dedication took place on the 14th September, the day on which the Empress Helena had found the Holy Cross, and which, as the Gallic Pilgrim states, was observed later as an annual festival. Two anniversaries fell, in this case, on the same day and consequently we are unable to conclude that the anniversary of a church’s dedication was at this time already celebrated as a regular thing. It became customary to do so, however, shortly afterwards both in the East and in the West.[433] To the same period belongs the consecration of the so-called Golden Basilica at Antioch, also commenced by Constantine but completed under Constantius in 341. On this occasion also a Synod was held.[434]

Unfortunately nothing definite regarding the ceremonies employed at the dedication of a Church can be gathered from Eusebius’ wordy description. He says: “The bishops performed the divine service, and the priests fulfilled their functions, and very magnificent were the ecclesiastical ceremonies. One heard the psalms and the other hymns which come from God, and saw the mystic rites of the service performed; the mystical symbols of the saving Passion were there also. Moreover each of the bishops present delivered a festal address and strove to the best of his ability to promote the festivity.” In the West, even in the fourth century, special ceremonies of dedication were in use, and Ambrose mentions them as generally observed, but the particulars of which they were composed, we cannot now ascertain. However, one of the ceremonies was the placing of relics of the martyrs in the new church, if there were not some there already. In an unconsecrated church there could be no performance of divine service.[435]

Before this, and in many places afterwards, it appears that the consecration of the altar alone was required. At least the oldest Gallic missal[436] contains a mass for the consecration of an altar only, and none for the dedication of a Church. This is borne out by the fact that in the liturgical writings of Ephrem and of the pseudo-Dionysius we find mention of the consecration with holy oil of the altar, while nothing is said of the consecration of churches. Neither the Apostolic Constitutions nor the so-called Testament of Jesus Christ contain any reference to it.[437] The Old Testament furnished models for the elaboration of the liturgical services used at the dedication of churches; in particular, the octave and the annual commemoration of the dedication day follow Jewish precedents.[438] The impressive solemnities with which Solomon dedicated the first temple in the twelfth year of his reign lasted for seven days (iii. Kg. viii. 65). When the second temple, built by Zorobabel, had been defiled by the heathen rites of the Syrians, it was purified by Judas Machabeus, B.C. 165, and restored to the worship of Jehovah. It was then settled that the festival of this purification of the temple should be observed annually for eight days, beginning on the 25th Casleu (1 Mach. iv. 42 et seq., 2 Mach. i, 9 and 18).

The prolongation of the dedication festival for eight days, and the recurring celebration of its anniversary soon make their appearance in liturgical writings and spread throughout all Christian countries. The Leonine Sacramentary contains a mass for the anniversary of the dedication of St Peter’s, the Gelasian Sacramentary has a short rite for the consecration of a church along with forms for the consecration of altars, chalices, and altar cloths, but omits the blessing of the water.[439] At the consecration of a church in St Augustine’s time, the twenty-ninth psalm was directed to be sung. We possess three sermons preached by St Augustine at a Dedicatio (336-338). In the text of the Gregorian sacramentary, there is no Mass for the consecration of a new church, but a special one for the anniversary. That the latter was kept as a festival of obligation is not stated. The form for the consecration of a church, with the Mass belonging to it, is given in the Appendix.[440]