In the middle ages, the anniversary of the dedication (natale ecclesiæ) was observed as a general festival of obligation for the local congregation irrespective of whether it fell on a week-day or on a Sunday; it was also to be observed with an octave.[441] In Germany it was ordered by the Synod of Mainz in 813, and, along with the feast of the Patron Saint, in the statute of Bishop Hetto of Basel about 827. Both festivals are found together in the statutes of Lanfranc of Canterbury and in the decrees of the Council of Szabolcs in Hungary, in 1092. The ecclesiastical celebration consisted of a vigil, solemn High Mass, and procession in which the relics of the saints belonging to the church were carried. A flag was wont to fly from the church tower, the floor was strewn with green leaves, the altar and pulpit were decorated with boughs, and a bunch of flowers was placed before the picture of the Patron Saint. The anniversary of the dedication of each altar was also observed, but only inside the walls of the church.[442]
Festivals of the Patron Saints were not enjoined as of obligation in the decretal of Gregory IX. in 1232, although placed by Lanfranc in the highest class of feasts. They were regarded as such in various countries, especially throughout Germany. Thus, the diocesan Synod of Cologne, under Archbishop Heinrich II., placed them along with the dedication of churches among the holy days of obligation,[443] and so also did the statute of Archbishop Baldwin of Treves in 1338. On the other hand, the provincial Synod of Cologne in 1549, under Adolf III., expressly suppressed them as holy days of obligation, and desired they should be celebrated only in choir, in order, as it said, festivals should not become too numerous. It also forbade noisy revels, such as dancing, etc., at the festival of the dedication of a church.
To have a church of its own, especially a parish church, was of the greatest importance to each district, on account of the spiritual and even material benefits of which it was the source. This explains the enthusiasm with which the dedication of the church was observed. With the ecclesiastical festival were soon associated secular amusements, fairs, merry-makings, and shows. The dedication was especially the festival of the people in the middle ages, and, as always happens in such cases, the secular influences proved stronger than the spiritual, although the dedication was one of the days on which indulgences were usually granted.
As parishes and churches became more numerous, the number of these festivals increased also, and the result was that not only the parish in question observed the feast, but all the neighbouring parishes joined in the celebration. Thus these feasts and the merry-making associated with them increased without limit. Among the country people especially it was inevitable that excess and licence should give rise to grave disorders.
At the outbreak of the Reformation, the innovators availed themselves of these abuses to wage war against all Dedication Feasts,[444] and some provincial Synods of the sixteenth century directed that all the dedications in a diocese should be kept on one and the same day. In the bull of Urban VIII. in 1642, reducing the number of festivals, the dedication is no longer named among the festivals which were to be retained. By a decree of Clement XIV. in 1772, the festival of the Patron Saint was to be celebrated on its proper day, and if there were more than one patron, only the chief patron was to be commemorated. The brief of Pius VI. of 1788 for Breslau removed the festival of the Patron Saint out of the range of the ordinary life of the people by transferring its celebration to the Sunday.[445] Finally, the French revolution and the Concordat abolished these celebrations altogether, and put an end to all Dedication Festivals throughout the extent of the French Empire. This caused the churches in most dioceses to keep a general Dedication Festival on some one Sunday in the year, and only inside the walls of the church. The dedication of the cathedral is either included in this general celebration, or, in some instances as in Cologne, is still celebrated by itself.
The people were by no means pleased at the suppression of these popular feasts, but consoled themselves by transferring to the festival of the Patron Saint, even when transferred to the Sunday, the rejoicings which they had hitherto associated with the Dedication Festival.
In those parts of Germany which in 1802 did not belong to France, the earlier usages continued and the traditional rejoicings still continue to be observed, but in a manner corresponding to the more refined spirit of the time.
The custom of keeping the day of the Patron Saint as a holiday of ecclesiastical and civil obligation still continues in all the several Austrian crown lands. In Bavaria each diocese celebrates the feast of the Patron Saint of the diocese on the proper date.
As regards the present usage, the law for every parish is that the feast of the patron of the church, or, if the church is dedicated to a mystery, the day on which that mystery is commemorated in the calendar, is to be kept as a double of the first class with an octave. The popular festival, called in Germany Kirmes, takes place on the following Sunday. The existence of these popular feasts to the present day, in spite of so much opposition, proves their inherent right to exist, for each part of a great whole, having its own separate existence, naturally wishes to have something distinctively its own in addition to what it shares in common with others.[446]