A further consideration of the question shows that an agreement was arrived at by both parties. The Spaniards, in their Missale Mixtum, celebrated the feast twice—on the 18th December and the 25th March—with the same Mass,[508] and in Rome, in eighteenth century,[509] the feast of the Expectatio Partus B.M.V., was placed on the 18th December, the Gospel for the Mass being that of the Annunciation.
The sermons of Proclus already referred to give rise to an important observation. This preacher in other passages of his works enumerates the festivals celebrated in his time and in his diocese, among which, strange to say, the Annunciation does not appear.[510] Since there are not only two sermons of his composed for this feast, but the day itself is clearly marked out as a festival, this contradiction can only be explained by the fact that in the fifth century the Annunciation was kept simply as a festival inside the Church, but had not yet won its way to public recognition.
If the conception of the ecclesiastical year taken in Section I. of this chapter be assumed as correct, the Annunciation is most suitably observed in Advent, where it was correctly placed in the ancient Spanish liturgy. But owing to the fact that the Eastern Church did not sufficiently carry out the idea which underlay the ecclesiastical year, the feasts of our Lady were not incorporated therein, but were treated as ordinary saints’ days by being tied down to fixed dates. And so it comes to pass that with us the Annunciation, instead of coming in Advent, falls in Lent, and from time to time even in Holy Week, where it is singularly out of place. In North America, when this feast falls on one of the three last days of Holy Week or in Easter Week, it is now transferred, which on the whole may be regarded as a desirable arrangement.
(3) THE DEATH AND ASSUMPTION OF OUR LADY
In all probability this is the earliest of our Lady’s feasts. From the beginning, there was a general sentiment in the Church which led to the days on which the martyrs suffered being kept as solemn commemorations. The same thing took place at a later date with regard to the other classes of saints—confessors, virgins, etc.—and so Christian sentiment was soon directed towards the question of our Blessed Lady’s death. It is highly probable, if not certain, that the feast of our Lady, mentioned above as having been celebrated by the monks in Palestine, was that which we are now considering. Both in the East and in Rome the 15th August was kept as the day of our Lady’s death, while we find another date observed in Gaul.
As regards the references to the decease of the Holy Virgin found in patristic literature, we find Epiphanius alluding to it, but in such general terms as to show he knew nothing about it for certain.[511] Then we have a letter of the so-called Areopagite Dionysius containing the essential points of the tradition for the death and burial of the Holy Virgin, which we find later on in St John Damascene. The date of this letter depends upon the view taken of the author and date of the pseudo-Dionysian writings. The garden of Gethsemani is named as the place of burial.[512] The same tradition appears in the apocryphal Apocalypse on the “transitus” of Mary, where the year of her death is given as the third after our Lord’s resurrection,[513] while other authorities give it as the twelfth.
The chief authority, however, for the event is St John Damascene. Relying on the history of an otherwise unknown Euthymius, he describes the circumstances in detail. According to this informant, Pulcheria, wife of the Emperor Marcian (450-457), had erected a Church in honour of the Holy Virgin in the suburb of Constantinople called Blachernæ, to which she wished to translate the earthly remains of our Lady. With this end in view, she addressed herself to Bishop Juvenal of Jerusalem during the sitting of the Council of Chalcedon, but he informed the Emperor and Empress that the body of the Mother of God was not to be found in Jerusalem. She had indeed been buried there in the Garden of Gethsemani in the presence of all the Apostles; Thomas alone was absent, and only arrived on the third day after the burial; in order that he too might venerate the body of the Mother of God, the tomb was opened, but nothing was found save the linen grave-clothes, which gave forth a fragrant perfume. Whereupon the Apostles concluded that our Lord had taken up into heaven the body which had borne Him. In his panegyric on the Holy Virgin, Modestus, Patriarch of Jerusalem († 634), states that already in the seventh century there was a special festival in Jerusalem to celebrate her decease (κοίμησις). In addition, we have sermons dealing with this event by Andrew of Crete († 720 circ.) and Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople († 733).[514] The bodily assumption of Mary into heaven was already known in the West in the sixth century, and is alluded to in Gregory of Tours.[515]
The Emperor Maurice is said to have appointed the festival of our Lady’s death (κοίμησις τῆς παναγίου καί θεομητέρος), and fixed it on the 15th August. Although this information is given by an historian of a much later date,[516] it must not be altogether set aside. Maurice may well have given official recognition to the festival, and by so doing settled the question of the day on which it was to be kept. The festival itself was, however, much older, for not only the heretical sects, which separated from the Church in the fifth century, such as the Monophysites and Nestorians, preserved this festival at the time of their separation, but most ancient national Churches, such as the Armenian and Ethiopian, have it in their Calendars. Accordingly the 15th August must have already been generally regarded in the Church as the day of our Lady’s death before the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon, although not mentioned by historians of that time.
We have unfortunately no information concerning the introduction of this festival in Rome. All we know is that it was celebrated there along with our Lady’s Nativity and Annunciation under Sergius I., at the end of the seventh century. About 847 Leo IV. ordained that it should be celebrated with a vigil and octave in the basilica of St Lawrence without the Walls. In the Gothico-Gallican missal of the seventh or eighth century, edited by Mabillon,[517] the festival is placed on the 18th January,[518] and not on the 15th August, as is also the case in the Lectionary of Luxeuil of the seventh century. This circumstance points to the conclusion that, independently of Byzantine influence, it was observed already at an earlier date in other parts of the Church as well, and came into existence spontaneously, so to speak.