All that we can with certainty deduct therefrom is that these three principal feasts of our Lady were introduced in the Roman Church only in the course of the seventh century. The sermons belonging to the same period also support this conclusion. The rich collections of sermons of St Augustine, St Leo the Great, Peter Chrysologus,[501] Fulgentius, and Maximus of Turin, contain no sermons for feasts of the Mother of God. All the chief, and also the majority of the lesser, feasts of our Lady had their origin rather in the East, and only at a comparatively late date made their way into the West. This also explains why none of them have been incorporated, as most of them might easily have been, into the ecclesiastical year. Their adoption by Rome resulted from the political dependence of Italy on Byzantium and from the intimate relations existing between the Apostolic See and the Imperial Court.
4. The Three Ancient Festivals of our Blessed Lady—the Nativity, the Annunciation, the Assumption
(1) THE NATIVITY OF OUR LADY
The spread of this feast seems to have been retarded, for it does not appear in many Calendars which contain the Assumption, i.e. in the Gotho-Gallican, in that of Luxeuil, in the Toledan Calendar of the tenth century, and in the Mozarabic; that it is not to be found in older Calendars goes without saying. On the other hand, it appears along with the Assumption in the Gelasianum and in the Frankish Calendars drawn up under Roman influence in the Carolingian period, the earliest being those of Reims and Bede. It cannot be said to have been generally celebrated in the eighth and ninth centuries, although in many places it makes its appearance much earlier. Some writers have maintained that, on the whole, Fulbert of Chartres († 1028) was the first to introduce it.[502] But this is certainly wrong. Nevertheless he probably exerted himself to spread the observance of the feast in the northern parts of France, since we have two sermons of his preached on the feast, the oldest genuine Latin sermons on this festival, as it seems. In Greek there are two sermons of Andrew of Crete dealing also with the festival.[503] Evidence is wanting to show why the 8th September was chosen for the Nativity of our Lady.
(2) THE ANNUNCIATION
The official title of this feast is now Annuntiatio B. Mariæ Virginis, but formerly other titles were used, i.e. Annuntiatio Angeli ad B.V.M., Annuntiatio Domini,[504] Annuntiatio Christi, or even Conceptio Christi, etc., showing that it was regarded more as a festival of our Lord than of our Lady. That it owes its existence entirely to Christmas, and depends upon the date (25th December) assigned to the birth of Christ, requires no proof. But the reference to Mary is so striking that it could not fail to be regarded as essentially one of her feasts.
It is well known that the custom of the ancient Church was not to celebrate the festivals of martyrs and other saints during Lent, which rule the Spanish Church followed even with regard to this feast. But in Constantinople an exception was made in its favour, which was expressly approved by the fifty-second canon of the Trullan Council. The feast is absent from the ancient Gallican Missal and the Lectionary of Luxeuil, but in Rome, according to the evidence afforded by the Gelasianum and Gregorianum, the feast was observed on the same date as in the East.
The feast of our Lady in Advent (S. Mariæ), noted, without further specification, in the Lectionary of Silos dating from about 650, can be no other than the Annunciation. Soon afterwards, however, the tenth Council of Toledo (656) took occasion to remark upon the difference of date. External influences (traducti homines) had been the cause. The Council decided in favour of the date hitherto observed in Spain, and ordained in its first canon that the feast should be celebrated throughout Spain eight days before Christmas—on the 18th December.
But in the East the other date was already so widely observed that it was even employed as a fixed indication of time, as, for example, when the Alexandrian Paschal Chronicle states in 624 that Heraclius and his forces started for the East on the day of Mary’s Annunciation.[505] This, along with other indications, shows that in the East the festival had been earlier adopted and was widely spread. A circumstance of special importance is that the schismatic Armenians, whose ecclesiastical year in other respects is very primitive in character, observe this feast. They keep it, however, on the 7th April. This is due to the fact that they have not adopted Christmas, and still celebrate the birth of Christ in the ancient manner on the 6th January. Counting back nine months from this date one arrives at the 7th April. The Armenians certainly celebrated this festival before their separation from the Church. It was known and loved in the East as early as the fifth century, as the sermons of Proclus, Patriarch of Constantinople († 446), and of Peter Chrysologus of Ravenna († 450), prove.[506]
Both methods of dating the festival existed side by side for a long period. The majority was in favour of the 25th March, but the other date was not without supporters, especially in Upper Italy, for according to the Milanese rite the Annuntiatio falls in Advent, and, indeed, on the fourth Sunday. In southern France the difference in date gave rise to sundry differences and disputes which terminated in a victory for the Roman usage. Certain Spanish monks, who came to Cluny under Abbot Odilo, desired to celebrate the festival after their own fashion, which was at first allowed them. In the eleventh century several Councils occupied themselves with the question, and decided, obviously out of regard for Rome, for the 25th March.[507]