Christian Calendar
�GENERALITIES
�FOUNDATIONS OF THE CHRISTIAN CALENDAR
�The Easter Cycle
�The Nativity of Christ
�Saints' Days
�OUR EARLIEST CALENDARS
�FEASTS OF OUR LADY
�THE APOSTLES AND OTHER NEW TESTAMENT SAINTS
�LATER DEVELOPMENTS
�VARIOUS PECULIARITIES OF CALENDARS
�THE MODERN CALENDAR IMPOSED BY AUTHORITY
�THE CHURCHES OF THE EAST
GENERALITIES
All civilized peoples and even those which seem to be only just
emerging from utter barbarism keep some kind of record of the
flight of time and are prone to recognize certain days, recurring
at regular intervals, as days of special rejoicing or mourning, or
occasions for the propitiation of the powers of the unseen world.
In ancient Egypt and Babylonia, in China and Hindostan, and again
on the American Continent, among the Aztecs or the ancient
Peruvians, definite traces have been found of a more or less
elaborate calculation of seasons serving as a basis for religious
observances. In 1897, a remarkable discovery was made at Coligny
in the department of Ain, France, when certain inscribed stone
slabs were brought to light in which all are agreed in recognizing
an ancient Celtic calendar, probably pre-Christian, though the
precise interpretation of the details still remains a matter of
lively controversy. Again, both Greece and Rome possessed highly
developed calendars, and the Fasti of Ovid, for example, preserve
a detailed description in verse of the chief celebrations of the
Roman year.
What more nearly concerns us here is the Jewish calendar, outlined
in Lev. 23. The computation of time among the Jews was based
primarily upon the lunar month. The year consisted normally of
twelve such months, alternately of 29 and 30 days each; such a
year, however, contains only 354 days, which by no means agrees
with the number of days in the mean solar year. Moreover, the
exact length of the mean lunar month is not exactly 29 1/2 days as
the above arrangement would suggest. To compensate for the
irregularity two corrections were introduced. First, a day was
added to the month Hesvan (Heshwan) or subtracted from the month
Kislev (Kislew), as need arose, in order to keep the months in
agreement with the moon; secondly, eight years out of every
nineteen were made "embolismic", i.e. an intercalary month seems
to have been introduced when necessary, at this point, in order to
prevent the 14th day of Nisan from arriving too early. On that day
(Lev. 23:5, 10) the firstfruits of corn in the ear had to be
brought to the priests and the paschal lamb sacrificed. This made
it necessary to delay the Pasch (14 Nisan) until the corn was in
ear and the lambs were ready, and the rule was accordingly
established that 14 Nisan must fall when the sun had passed the
equinox and was in the constellation of Aries (en krio tou heliou
kathestotos--Josephus, Ant., I, i, 3). Down to the time of the
destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, it would seem that in the
insertion of this intercalary month the Jews followed no fixed
rule based on astronomical principles, but that the Sanhedrim
decided each time whether the year should be embolismic or not,
being influenced in their decision not by astronomical
considerations alone, but also, in some measure, by the
forwardness or backwardness of the season. It was the difficulty
created by such a system and by the impossibility of accommodating
it to the Julian chronology, adopted throughout the greater part
of the Roman Empire, which led to those troubles about the
determination of Easter (the Paschal controversy) that played so
important a part in the history of the early Church. Besides the
Pasch and the week of the unleavened bread (or azymes), of which
the Pasch formed the first day, the Jewish calendar, of course,
included many other feasts. That of Pentecost, or, "of the weeks",
50 days after the Pasch, is of importance because it also found a
place in the Christian Dispensation. The other great celebrations
of the Jewish year occurred in autumn, in the month Tishri. The
Day of Atonement fell on 10 Tishri and the Feast of Tabernacles
extended from the 14th to the 21st, with a sort of octave day on
the 22nd, but these had no direct bearing on the calendar of the
Christian Church. The same may be said of the minor Jewish
festivals, e.g. the Encoenia mentioned in the Gospel of St. John,
which were, for the most part, of later institution.
It might almost be laid down as a general law that in the ancient
world holy days were also holidays. In the Jewish system, besides
the weekly sabbath, rest from work was enjoined on seven other
days of the year, to wit: the first and last day of the Azymes,
the feast of Pentecost, the Neomenia of the Seventh month, the day
of Propitiation, the first day of Tabernacles, and 22 Tishri which
immediately followed. It is not wonderful that this principle was
recognized later in the Christian Church, for it had pagan example
also in its favour. "The Greeks and barbarians", says Strabo (X,
39), "have this in common that they accompany their sacred rites
by a festal remission of labour". So without seeking to derive the
Jewish sabbath from any Babylonian institution, for which there is
certainly no warrant, we may note that the new moon and the 7th,
15th, and 22nd seem to have been regarded among the Babylonians as
times for propitiating the gods and unlucky; the result being that
on these days no new work was begun and affairs of importance were
suspended. In the Christian system the day of rest has been
transferred from the Sabbath to the Sunday. Constantine made
provision that his Christian soldiers should be free to attend
service on the Sunday (Euseb., Vita Const., IV, 19, 20), and he
also forbade the courts of justice to sit on that day (Sozom., I,
8). Theodosius II in 425 decreed that games in the circus and
theatrical representations should also be prohibited on the day of
rest, and these and similar edicts were frequently repeated.
In the Roman chronological system of the Augustan age the week as
a division of time was practically unknown, though the twelve
calendar months existed as we have them now. In the course of the
first and second century after Christ, the hebdomadal or seven-day
period became universally familiar, though not immediately through
Jewish or Christian influence. The arrangement seems to have been
astrological in origin and to have come to Rome from Egypt. The
seven planets, as then conceived of--Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the
Sun, Venus, Mercury, and the Moon, thus arranged in the order of
their periodic times (Saturn taking the longest and the Moon the
shortest time to complete the round of the heavens by their proper
motion)--were supposed to preside over each hour successively, and
the day was designated by that planet which presided over its
first hour. Beginning on the first day with the planets in order,
the first hour would be Saturn's, the second Jupiter's, the
seventh the Moon's, the eighth Saturn's again, and so on.
Continuing thus, the twenty-fifth hour, i.e. the first hour of the
second day, and consequently the second day itself, would belong
to the Sun; and the forty-ninth hour, and consequently the third
day, to the Moon. Following always the same plan the seventy-third
hour and the fourth day would fall to Mars, the fifth day to
Mercury, the sixth to Jupiter, the seventh to Venus, and the
eighth again to Saturn. Hence, apparently, were derived the Latin
names for the days of the week, which are still retained (except
Samedi and Dimanche) in modern French and other Romance tongues.
These names from an early date were often used by the Christians
themselves, and we find them already in Justin Martyr. The special
honour which the faithful paid to the Sunday (dies solis), coupled
perhaps with the celebration of Christmas on the day designated
the natalis invicti [solis] (see CHRISTMAS), may have helped,
later on, to produce the impression that the Christians had much
in common with the worshippers of Mithras.
FOUNDATIONS OF THE CHRISTIAN CALENDAR
The Easter Cycle
The starting-point of the Christian system of feasts was of course
the commemoration of the Resurrection of Christ on Easter day (q.
v.). The fact that for a long time Jews must have formed the vast
majority of the members of the infant Church, rendered it
impossible for them to forget that each returning Passover
celebrated by their countrymen brought with it the anniversary of
their Redeemer's Passion and of His glorious Resurrection from the
dead. Moreover, as they had all their lives been accustomed to
observe a weekly day of rest and prayer, it must have been almost
inevitable that they should wish so to modify this holiday that it
might serve as a weekly commemoration of the source of all their
new hopes. Probably at first they did not wholly withdraw from the
Synagogue, and the Sunday must have seemed rather a prolongation
of, than a substitution for, the old familiar Sabbath. But it was
not long before the observance of the first day of the week became
distinctive of Christian worship. St. Paul (Coloss. 2:16)
evidently considered that the converts from paganism were not
bound to the observance of the Jewish festivals or of the Sabbath
proper. On the other hand, the name "the Lord's day" (dies
dominica, he kuriake) meets us in the Apocalypse 1:10, and was no
doubt familiar at a much earlier date (cf. I Cor. 16:2). From the
beginning the Sunday seems to have been frankly recognized among
Christians for what it was, viz. the weekly commemoration of
Christ's Resurrection. (Cf. The Epistle of Barnabas, 15.) It was
presumably marked by the celebration of the liturgy, for St. Luke
writes in the Acts: "And on the first day of the week, when we
were assembled to break bread" (Acts 20:7); and we may infer from
somewhat later ordinances that it was always regarded as joyful in
character, a day when fasting was out of place, and when the
faithful were instructed to pray standing, not kneeling. "Die
dominico", says Tertullian, "jejunium nefas dicimus vel de
geniculis adorare" (De orat. 14). In fact this upright position in
prayer was, according to Pseudo (?) Iren�us, typical of the
Resurrection (Iren�us, Frag., 7). But for a fuller account of this
first element of the Christian calendar the reader must be
referred to the article SUNDAY.
That the early Christians kept with especial honour the
anniversary of the Resurrection itself is more a matter of
inference than of positive knowledge. No writer before Justin
Martyr seems to mention such a celebration, but the fact that in
the latter half of the second century the controversy about the
time of keeping Easter almost rent the Church in twain may be
taken as an indication of the importance attached to the feast.
Moreover the paschal fast of preparation, though its primitive
duration was probably not forty days (Cf. Funk,
Kirchengeschichtliche Abhandlungen, I, 242 sq.), was constantly
referred to by the Early Church as a matter of ancient and even
Apostolic institution. In any case, all our earliest liturgical
monuments both of East and West, for example the "Apostolical
Constitutions" and the "Apostolic Canons", which are a still
earlier document according to Funk and Harnack, are agreed in
giving to Easter the place of honour among the feasts of the year.
It is as the Roman Martyrologium describes it, festum festorum and
solemnitas solemnitatum. With it have naturally always been
associated the commemoration of the events of Christ's Passion,
the Last Supper on the Thursday, the Crucifixion on the Friday,
and on the eve itself that great vigil or night watch when the
paschal candle and the fonts were blessed and the catechumens,
after long weeks of preparation, were at last admitted to the
Sacrament of Baptism. Data are lacking concerning these separate
elements in the great paschal celebration as it was observed in
the earliest times. It may, however, be noted that in Tertullian
the word pascha clearly designates not the Sunday alone but rather
a period, and in particular. the day of the Parasceve, or as we
now call it, Good Friday; while in Origen a definite distinction
is drawn between two kindred terms: pascha anastasimon (the
Resurrection Pasch on Easter Sunday), and pascha staurosimon (the
Crucifixion Pasch, i.e. Good Friday); but both were equally
memorable as celebrations.
Closely dependent upon Easter and gradually developing in number
as time went on were other observances also belonging to the cycle
of what we now call the movable feasts. Whitsunday (see
PENTECOST), the anniversary of the descent of the Holy Ghost upon
the Apostles, was probably regarded as next in importance to
Easter itself, and as Easter was determined by the Jewish Pasch,
there can be little doubt, seeing that Whitsunday stood in the
same close relation to the Jewish feast of Pentecost, that the
Jewish converts observed both a Christian Pasch and a Christian
Pentecost from the very beginning. Ascension day, though
determined in position by the fact that it was forty days after
Easter (Acts 1:3) and ten before Whitsuntide, was not superimposed
on any Jewish feast. We do not, consequently, find it attested by
any writer earlier than Eusebius (De sol. pasch., Migne, P. G.
xxiv, 679). Lent, which all admit to have been known as a forty
days' fast in the early years of the fourth century (cf. the
various Festal Letters of St. Athanasius), had of course a fixed
terminus ad quem in Easter itself, but its terminus a quo seems to
have varied considerably in different parts of the world. In some
places the understanding seemed to be that Lent was a season of
forty days in which there was much fasting but not necessarily a
daily fast--the Sundays in any case, and in the East Saturdays
also, were always exempt. Elsewhere it was held that Lent must
necessarily include forty actual fasting-days. Again there were
places where the fasting in Holy Week was regarded as something
independent, which had to be superadded to the forty days of Lent.
The times therefore, of commencing the Lenten fast varied
considerably, just as there was considerable diversity in the
severity with which the fast was kept. (For these details see
LENT.) All that we need notice here is that this penitential
season, which at a considerably later period was thrown back to
the Sunday known as Septuagesima (strictly the Sunday within the
period of seventy days before Easter), began earlier or later
according to the day on which Easter Sunday fell, while the later
additions at the other end--such as Trinity Sunday, Corpus
Christi, and in still more recent times, the Feast of the Sacred
Heart--all equally formed part of the same festal cycle.
There can be little doubt that the early Christians felt as we do
the inconvenience of this movable element in the otherwise stable
framework of the Julian calendar. But we have to remember that the
movable element was established there by right of prior
occupation. Since the Jewish Christians, as explained above, had
never known any other computation of time than that based on the
lunar month, the only way which could have occurred to them of
fixing the anniversary of Our Saviour's Resurrection was by
referring it to the Jewish Pasch. But while accepting this
situation, they also showed a certain independence. It seems to
have been decided that the occurrence of the Resurrection feast on
the first day of the week, the day which followed the Sabbath was
an essential feature. Hence, instead of determining that the
second day after the Jewish Pasch (17 Nisan) should always he
counted as the anniversary of the Resurrection, independently of
the day of the week upon which it might fall, the Apostles appear
to have settled, though in this we have very little positive
evidence, that that Sunday was to be kept as the Christian Pasch
which fell within the Azymes, or days of the unleavened bread,
whether it occurred at the beginning, middle, or end of the term.
This arrangement had the drawback that it made the Christian feast
dependent upon the computation of the Jewish calendar. When the
destruction of Jerusalem practically deprived the Jews of the
dispersion of any norm or standard of uniformity, they probably
fell into erroneous or divergent reckonings, and this in turn
entailed a difference of opinion among the Christians. If it had
been possible to ascertain in terms of the Julian chronology the
day of the month on which Christ actually suffered, it would
probably have been simplest for Christians all over the Roman
world to celebrate their Easter, as later on they celebrated
Christmas or St. Peter's day, upon a fixed anniversary. Yet this,
be it noticed, would have interfered with the established position
of "the Lord's day" as the weekly memorial of the great Sunday par
excellence, for Easter, as a fixed feast, would of course have
fallen upon all the days of the week in turn. However, though
Tertullian declares without misgiving that Christ suffered upon 25
March, a tradition perpetuated in numberless calendars throughout
the Middle Ages, this date was certainly wrong. Moreover it was
probably quite impossible at that period, owing to the arbitrary
manner in which the Jewish embolismic years had been intercalated,
to calculate back to the true date. For the various phases of the
disputes which first broke out in the second century and were
renewed long afterwards in the British Isles we must refer the
reader to the article EASTER CONTROVERSY. It will suffice here to
say that a decision seems to have been arrived at in the Council
of Nic�a, which, though it is strangely absent from the canons of
the council as now preserved to us (Turner, Monumenta Nic�na,
152), is believed to have determined that Easter was to be
celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon which
follows the spring equinox. According to this rule, which has ever
since been accepted, the earliest day upon which Easter can now
fall is 22 March, and the latest 25 April.
The Nativity of Christ
A second element which fundamentally influences the Christian
calendar and which, though less primitive than the Easter
celebrations, is also of early date, may be described as the
Nativity Cycle. Of the origin and history of the feast of
Christmas, dealt with in a separate article, little need now be
said. We may take it as certain that the feast of Christ's
Nativity was kept in Rome on 25 December before the year 354. It
was introduced by St. John Chrysostom into Constantinople and
definitively adopted in 395. On the other hand, the Epiphany feast
on 6 January, which also in the beginning seems to have
commemorated the birth of Jesus Christ, is referred to as of
partial observance in that character by Clement of Alexandria
(Strom., I, 21), though a recently discovered discourse of
Hippolytus for this day (eis ta hagia theophaneia) is entirely
devoted to the theme of Christ's baptism. This last, in fact, is
and has long been the primary aspect of the feast in the Oriental
churches. But the feast of the Nativity is of importance in the
calendar not only for itself, as one of the greatest celebrations
of the year, but also for the other days which depend upon it.
These are mostly of later date in point of origin, but are
ecclesiastically of high rank. Thus on this supposition, however
questionable as a fact of history, that the exact date of Christ's
nativity was 25 December, we have first the Circumcision on 1
January, the eighth day, a festival greatly utilized in the
attempt to divert the newly converted peoples from the
superstitious and often idolatrous pagan practices which
immemorial custom associated with the beginning of the year. The
Mass for this day in the Missals is often headed Ad prohibendum ab
idolis, and its contents correspond with that designation. At the
same time other service books preserve conspicuous traces of a
time when this day was treated as a festival of the Blessed
Virgin. On the other hand, the eighth day before Christmas (18
Dec.) is kept as the feast of the Expectation of Our Lady, which
was only added to the Roman calendar as lately as the seventeenth
century, but represents an old Spanish feast of the Blessed
Virgin. It was not, however, known in ancient times by its present
designation of Expectatio partus.
Again, forty days after Christmas, following, as in the case of
the Circumcision, the data of the Jewish law, we have the
Presentation in the Temple. This, under its Greek name of
Hypapante (hupapante, "the meeting"), was originally treated as a
feast of Our Saviour rather than of His Blessed Mother. It is
older than any other Marian feast--being mentioned c. 380 in the
Pilgrimage of "Sylvia", i.e. the Spanish lady Etheria--though in
Jerusalem at that date it was kept forty days after the feast
which is known to us as the Epiphany (6 Jan.), but which, as we
have seen, then commemorated the Birth as well as the Baptism of
Christ. For some reason, of which no adequate explanation seems to
be forthcoming, the solemn benediction of candles and the
procession were attached at an early period to this feast. It was
long known in England as Candlemas Day and in France as la
Chandeleur. The Annunciation, or, as it was some times anciently
called, the Conception of Our Lord, seems to be heard of in the
East in the sixth century and to have been transported thence to
Western Europe not long afterwards. Its connexion with the
Nativity is obvious, and it is even possible, as Duchesne and
others have suggested, that the Incarnation of Our Saviour was
assigned to the 25th of March because this day, as early as
Tertullian, was believed to be the date of His Passion. If this
were true, the 25th of December would have been determined by the
25th of March and not vice versa. But certainly the Annunciation
as a feast is heard of considerably later than the Nativity. Still
later in the year another early feast, already familiar in the
time of St. Augustine (Serm., 307-308), meets us in the Nativity
of St. John the Baptist. On 25 March, the Fathers calculated, St.
Elizabeth had already been six months with child; its birth
accordingly would have taken place exactly three months later.
Neither does the 24th of June (instead of 25th) assigned to the
Nativity of the Baptist present any difficulty, for in the Roman
way of counting both 25 March and 24 June are equally octavo
kalendas, the eighth day before the kalends of the next month. Yet
another feast, the Conception of the Baptist, found in the Greek
Church and in certain Carlovingian calendars on 24 September,
hardly needs mention. It is chiefly interesting to us as paving
the way for the feast of the Conception of Our Lady and hence for
that also of her Immaculate Conception.
Saints' Days
Another, and that the most substantial, element in the formation
of the calendar is the record of the birthdays of the saints. It
must be remembered that this word birthday (genethlios, natalis)
had come to mean little more than commemoration. Already, before
the Christian Era, various royal personages who were deified after
death commonly had their "birthdays" kept as festivals; but it is
very doubtful whether these really represented the day upon which
they were born into this world (see Rohde, Psyche, 3d ed., I,
235). Hence we are not so surprised at a later period to meet in
Christian liturgical books such phrases as natalis calicis as a
designation for the feast of Maunday Thursday, or natalis
episcopi, which seems to mean the day of a bishop's consecration.
Anyhow, there can be no doubt that the same word was used, and
that from a very early period, to describe the day upon which a
martyr suffered death. It is commonly explained as meaning the
birthday which introduced him into a new and glorious life in
heaven, but we cannot, perhaps, be quite certain that those who
first used the term of a Christian martyr had this interpretation
consciously present to their minds. We are fortunate, however, in
possessing in the contemporary account written from Smyrna of the
martyrdom of St. Polycarp (about A. D. 145) a clear statement that
the Jews and pagans fully anticipated that the Christians would
try to recover the martyr's body as a precious treasure to which
they might pay cultus, and would institute a birth-feast
(genethlios), his honour. Here, then, we have the most conclusive
evidence that the Christians already in the first half of the
second century were accustomed to celebrate the feasts of the
martyrs. Probably for a long time these celebrations remained
almost entirely local. They were confined to the place where the
martyr suffered or where a considerable portion of his remains
were preserved over which the Holy Sacrifice would be offered. But
in the course of time the practice of moving such relics freely
from place to place enlarged the circle of the martyr's clients.
All the churches that possessed these relics felt entitled to keep
his "birthday" with some degree of solemnity, and thus we soon
find martyrs from Africa, for example, obtaining recognition in
Rome and eventually being honoured by all the Church. This seems
to be, in brief, the history of the inclusion of saints' days in
the calendar. At first the number of such days was very small,
depending generally upon some special local tie, and rigorously
limited to those who had shed their blood for Christ. But before
very long the names of confessors also began to find a place in
the lists, for confessors and bishops were already written in the
diptychs and in those days the line between praying to a departed
servant of God and praying for him was by no means so clearly
defined as it is with us now. This was the process which was
already being inaugurated in the fourth century and which has
continued ever since.
OUR EARLIEST CALENDARS
As feasts and Saints' days multiplied, it became desirable that
some sort of record should be kept of them. We may divide the
documents of this kind, roughly speaking, into two categories:
Calendars and Martyrologia, both officially recognized by the
Church. A calendar in its ecclesiastical sense is simply a list of
the feasts kept in any particular church, diocese, or country,
arranged in order under their proper dates. A martyrologium was
originally, as its name implies, a record of mar- tyrs, but it
soon assumed a more general character, extending to all classes of
saints and embracing all parts of the world. The entries which are
included in a martyrologium are independent of the fact of actual
liturgical cultus in any particular place. They follow the same
orderly arrangement by months and days which we observe in a
calendar, but under each day not one but many names of saints are
given, while certain topographical and biographical details are
often added. It will, however, be readily understood that it is
not always easy to draw a hard and fast line between calendars and
martyrologia. They naturally shade into one another. Thus the
ancient Irish poem commonly known as the "Calendar of Aengus" is
more properly a martyrologium, for a number of names of saints are
assigned to each day quite independently of any idea of liturgical
cultus. On the other hand, we sometimes find true calendars in the
blank spaces of which the names of saints or deceased persons have
been inserted whom there was no intention of commemorating in the
liturgy. They have thus been partly converted into martyrologies
or necrologies. Of early lists of feasts, the most famous and the
most important is the information which it preserves, the so
called "Philocalian Calendar", hardly deserves to be called by
this name. It is, in fact, no more than the commonplace book of a
certain Furius Dionysius Philocalus, who seems to have been a
Christian interested in all kinds of chronological information and
to have compiled this book in A. D. 354. There is indeed a
calendar in his volume, but this is a table of purely secular and
pagan celebrations containing no Christian references of any kind.
The value of Philocalus' manuscript to modern scholars lies in two
lists headed Depositio Martyrum and Depositio Episcoporum,
together with other casual notices. We thus learn that a
considerable number of martyrs, including among them Sts. Peter
and Paul and several Popes, were honoured in Rome on their own
proper days in the middle of the fourth century, while three
African martyrs, Sts. Cyprian, Perpetua, and Felicitas, also found
a place on the list. The only other fixed feasts which are
mentioned are the Nativity of Christ and the feast of St. Peter's
Chair (22 Feb.).
Not far removed from the Philocalian document in the witness which
it bears to the still present influence of paganism is the
"Calendar of Polemius Sylvius" of 448. This presents a medley not
unlike a modern almanac. The days are indicated when the Senate
sat and when the games were celebrated in the Circus, as also the
times of those pagan festivals like the Lupercalia, the
Terminalia, etc., which had become in a sense national holidays
throughout the empire. But side by side with these we have the
mention of certain Christian feasts--Christmas Day, the Epiphany,
22 February (strangely characterized as depositio Petri et Pauli),
and four or five other saints' days. Very curious, also, is it to
notice in such company the natales of Virgil and of Cicero. Next
to this comes a document of the North African Church which is
commonly described as the "Calendar of Carthage", and which
belongs to the closing years of the sixth century. It presents a
considerable array of martyrs, mostly African, but including also
some of the more famous of those of Rome, e.g. St. Sixtus, St.
Lawrence, St. Clement, St. Agnes, etc., with Sts. Gervasius and
Protasius from Milan, St. Agatha from Sicily, St. Vincent from
Spain, and St. Felix from Nola in Campania. We also find days
assigned to some of the Apostles and to St. John the Baptist, but
as yet no feast of Our Lady. Earlier in point of time (c. 410), is
a compilation preserved to us in Syriac, of Oriental and Arian
origin. It was first published by the English Orientalist, William
Wright, and has since been edited by Duchesne and De Rossi in
their edition of the "Martyrologium Hieronymianum" (Acta
Sanctorum, Nov., vol. II). The Syriac document is chiefly
important as witnessing to one of the main sources, direct or
indirect, of that famous martyrologium, but it also shows how even
in the East a calendar was being formed in the fourth century
which took notice of the martyrs of Nicomedia, Antioch, and
Alexandria, with even a few Western entries like Sts. Perpetua and
Felicitas (7 March), and probably Xystus. Sts. Peter and Paul are
commemorated on 28 December, which may be a mere error, Sts. John
and James on 27 December, St. Stephen on 26 December, which is
still his proper day. The month of December is partly lacking, or
we should probably have found the Nativity on 25 December. The
Epiphany is mentioned on 6 January.
Closely connected in certain of its aspects with this memorial of
the Eastern Church is the so-called "Martyrologium Hieronymianum
"already mentioned. This work, which in spite of its name owes
nothing directly to St. Jerome, was probably first compiled in
Southern Gaul (Duchesne says Auxerre, Bruno Krusch, Autun) between
the years 592 and 600, i.e. at the same period that St. Augustine
was preaching the Gospel to our Anglo-Saxon forefathers. As a
martyrologium it is the type of a class. It contains long lists of
obscure names for each day mingled with topographical data, but as
contrasted with the later martyrologia of Bede, Ado, Usuard, etc.,
out of which our modern "Martyrologium Romanum" has developed, the
"Hieronymian" includes few biographical details regarding the
subject of its notices. The fuller discussion of this document,
however, belongs to the article MARTYROLOGY (q.v.). It is
sufficient here to notice that in its primitive form the
"Hieronymian" includes no proper feast of Our Lady; even the
Purification, on 2 February, is only indirectly alluded to.
FEASTS OF OUR LADY
And here it may be convenient to observe that the principal
festivals of the Blessed Virgin, the Assumption, Annunciation, and
Nativity, were undoubtedly first celebrated in the East. There
seems very good reason to believe, from certain apocryphal Syriac
narratives of the "Falling asleep of Mary the Mother of the Lord",
that some celebration of her Assumption into Heaven was already
observed in Syria in the fifth century on a day corresponding to
our 15 August (cf. Wright, in Journal of Sacred Literature, N.S.,
VII, 157). The Annunciation again is said to be commemorated in an
authentic sermon of Proclus of Constantinople, who died in 446,
while the agreement of the Armenian and �thiopic Christians in
keeping similar festivals seems to throw back the period of their
first introduction to a time earlier than that at which these
schismatical churches broke away from unity. In the West, however,
we have no definite details as to the earliest occurrence of these
Marian feasts. We only know that they were kept at Rome with
solemnity in the time of Pope Sergius I (687-701). In Spain, if we
may safely follow Dom G. Morin in assigning the "Lectionary of
Silos" to about 650, there is definite mention of a feast of Our
Lady in Advent, which may be earlier than those just referred to;
and in Gaul the statutes of Bishop Sonnatius of Reims (614-631)
apparently prescribe the observance of the Annunciation,
Assumption, and Nativity, though the Purification strange to say,
is not mentioned.
Although the mention is a departure from the natural chronological
order, a word may also be said here about the feast of the
Immaculate Conception. In the East we find it known to John of
Euboea towards the close of the eighth century. It was then kept,
as it still is in the Greek Church, on 9 December, but it is
described by him as being only of partial observance.
Nevertheless, about the year 1000, we find it included in the
calendar of the Emperor Basil Porphyrogenitus, and it seems by
that time to have become universally recognized in the East. The
West, however, did not long lag behind. A curious trace may be
found in the Irish "Calendar of Aengus" (c. 804), where the
Conception of Our Lady is assigned to 3 May (see The Month, May,
1904, pp. 449-465). This probably had no liturgical significance,
but Mr. Edmund Bishop has shown that in some Anglo-Saxon
monasteries a real feast of the Conception was already kept upon 8
December before the year 1050 (Downside Review, 1886, pp. 107-
119). At Naples, under Byzantine influence, the feast had long
been known, and it appears in the famous Neapolitan marble
calendar of the ninth century under the form Conceptio S. Ann�,
being assigned, as among the Greeks, to 9 December. The general
recognition of the feast in the West seems, however, to have been
largely due to the influence of a certain tractate, "De
Conceptione B. Mari�", long attributed to St. Anselm, but really
written by Eadmer, his disciple. At first only the Conception of
Our Lady was spoken of, the question of the Immaculate Conception
was raised somewhat later. For the feast of the Presentation of
Our Lady (21 November), an early Eastern origin has also been
claimed dating back to the Year 700 (see Vailhe, in ("Echos
d'Orient", V, 193-201, etc.), but this cannot be accepted without
fuller verification. For the other Marian festivals, e.g. the
Visitation, the Rosary, etc., the reader must be referred to these
separate articles. All are comparatively modern additions to the
calendar.
THE APOSTLES AND OTHER NEW TESTAMENT SAINTS
From the mention of Sts. Peter and Paul conjointly on 29 June in
the "Depositio Martyrum" of the "Philocalian Calendar", it is
probable that the two Apostles both suffered on that day. In the
time of St. Leo (Sermo, lxxxiv) the feast seems to have been
celebrated in Rome with an octave, while the Syriac martyrologium
in the East and Polemius Silvius in Gaul equally manifest a
tendency to do honour to the Principes Apostolorum, though in the
former the commemoration is attached to 28 December, and in the
latter to 22 February. This latter day was, generally, given to
the celebration of the Cathedra Petri, also belonging to very
early times, while a feast in honour of St. Paul's conversion was
kept 25 January. Of the other Apostles, Sts. John and James appear
together in the Syriac martyrologium on 27 December, and St. John
still retains that day in the West. With regard to St. Andrew we
probably have a reliable tradition as to the day on which he
suffered, for apart from an explicit reference in the relatively
early "Acta" (cf. Analecta Bollandiana, XIII, 373-378), his feast
has been kept on 30 November, both in the East and in the West,
from an early period. The other Apostles nearly all appear in some
form in the "Hieronymian Martyrologium", and their festivals
gradually came to be celebrated liturgically before the eighth or
ninth century.
The fixing of the precise days was probably much influenced by a
certain "Breviarius" which was widely circulated in somewhat
varying forms, and which professed to give a brief account of the
circumstances of the death of each of the Twelve. As an indication
that some of these feasts must have been adopted at a more remote
date than is attested in existing calendars, it may be noted that
Bede has a homily upon the feast of St. Matthew, which the
arrangement of the collection shows to have been kept by him in
the latter part of September, as we keep it at present. St. John
the Baptist, as already noted, had also more than one festival in
early times. Besides the Nativity on 24 June, two of St.
Augustine's sermons (nos. cccvii, cccviii) are consecrated to the
celebration of his martyrdom (Passio or Decollatio). Similar
honours were paid to St. Stephen, the first martyr, more
particularly in the East. St. Gregory of Nyssa, in his funeral
oration over St. Basil, delivered at C�sarea in Cappadocia in 379,
attests this, and lets us know that the feast was kept then as it
is now, the day after Christmas. On the other hand, St. Joseph's
name does not occur in the calendar until comparatively late.
Curiously enough the earliest definite assignment which the writer
has been able to find of a special day consecrated to his memory
occurs in the "Calendar of Aengus" (c. 804) under its existing
date, 19 March. There we read of "Joseph, name that is noble,
Jesus' pleasant fosterer". But despite an invocation of St. Joseph
in the old Irish hymn "Sen De", ascribed to St. Colman Ua
Cluasaigh (c. 622), we cannot regard this entry as indicative of
any proper cultus. It seems probable, from the nature of some of
the apocryphal literature of the early centuries, that honour was
of old paid to St. Joseph in Syria, Egypt, and the East generally,
but reliable data as to his feast are at present wanting.
GROWTH OF THE CALENDAR
During the Merovingian and Carlovingian period the number of
festivals which won practical recognition gradually increased.
Perhaps the safest indications of this development are to be
gathered from the early service-books--sacramentaries,
antiphonaries, and lectionaries--but these are often difficult to
date. Somewhat more compendious and definite are one or two other
lists of feasts which have accidentally been preserved to us, and
which it will be interesting to quote. A certain Perpetuus, Bishop
of Tours (461-491), sets down the Principal feasts celebrated in
his day with a vigil as the following:
"Natalis Domini; Epiphania; Natalis S. Ioannis (June 24th);
Natalis S. Petri episcopatus (February 22d); Sext. Cal. Apr.
Resurrectio Domini nostri I. Chr.; Pascha; Dies Ascensionis;
Passio S. Ioannis; Natalis SS. apostolorum Petri et Pauli; Natalis
S. Martini; Natalis S. Symphoriani (July 22d); Natalis S. Litorii
(September 13th); Natalis S. Martini (November 11th); Natalis S.
Bricii (November 13th); Natalis S. Hilarii (January 13th)." (Mon.
Germ. SS. Meroving., I, 445.)
Similarly Bishop Sonnatius of Reims (614-631) makes the following
list of festivals which were to be kept as holidays absque omni
opere forensi:
Nativitas Domini, Circumcisio, Epiphania, Annuntiatio beat� Marie,
Resurrectio Domini cum die sequenti, Ascensio Domini, dies
Pentecostes, Nativitas beati Ioannis Baptist�, Nativitas
apostolorum Petri et Pauli, Assumptio beat� Mari�, eiusdem
Nativitas, Nativitas Andre� apostoli, et omnes dies dominicales.
In the course of the eighth and ninth centuries various German
synods drew up lists of the ecclesiastical holidays which were to
be celebrated with rest from work. In an early constitution,
ascribed to St. Boniface, we find nineteen such days in each year
besides the ordinary Sundays, three free days after the feast
itself being appointed both at Christmas and Easter. A council at
Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) in 809 fixed twenty-one holidays. This
included a week at Easter and such feasts as St. Martin and St.
Andrew. At Basle in 827 the list was further extended, and it now
comprised all the feasts of the Apostles. In England the days
honoured in this way seem not to have been quite so numerous, at
any rate not at first; but before the end of the tenth century
many additions were made, while the ordinances of the synods were
enforced by the royal authority. The list comprised the four chief
festivals of Our Lady and the commemoration of St. Gregory the
Great. The observance of St. Dunstan's feast was imposed a little
later during the reign of Cnut.
As regards existing documents, perhaps the oldest ecclesiastical
calendar, in the proper sense of the word, which still survives,
is the one which was in the possession of the Englishman St.
Willibrord, Apostle of the Frisians, who has left in it an
autograph note of the date of his consecration as bishop (A. D.
695). The calendar was probably written in England between 702 and
706. As it has never been printed it may be interesting to give
here the entries made in the original hand, omitting the
interpolations made by others at a slightly later date. The
manuscript which contains it is the well-known "Codex
Epternacensis", now Latin manuscript 10837, in the Biblioth�que
Nationale, Paris.
JANUARY
1 Circumcision
3 St. Genevieve of Paris
6 Epiphany
13 St. Hilary
14 St. Felix of Nola
17 St. Anthony, Hermit
18 St. Peter's Chair at Rome and the Assumption of Holy Mary
20 St. Sebastian
21 St. Agnes V.
24 St. Babilas, Bishop and Martyr
25 Conversion of St. Paul at Damascus
29 St. Valerius, Bishop, and St. Lucy V. at Treves
FEBRUARY
1 St. Denis, St. Polycarp and St. Brigid V.
2 St. Symeon, Patriarch
5 St. Agatha
6 St. Amandus
16 St. Juliana
22 The Chair of Peter at Antioch
MARCH
1 Donatus
7 Perpetua and Felicitas
12 St. Gregory at Rome
17 St. Patrick, Bishop in Ireland
20 St. Cuthbert, Bishop
21 St. Benedict, Abbot
25 The Lord was crucified and St. James the brother of Our Lord
27 The Resurrection of Our Lord
APRIL
4 St. Ambrose
22 Philip, Apostle
MAY
1 St. Philip, Apostle
5 The Ascension of the Lord
7 The Invention of the Holy Cross
11 Pancratius, Martyr
14 Earliest date for Pentecost
31 St. Maximinius at Treves
JUNE
2 Erasmus, Martyr
8 Barnabas, Apostle
9 St. Columkill
22 James the son of Alpheus
24 Nativity of John the Baptist
29 Sts. Peter and Paul at Rome
JULY
15 St. James of Nisibis
26 St. James, Apostle, Brother of John
26 St. Symeon, Monk in Syria
29 St. Lupus
AUGUST
1 The Machabees, seven brothers with their mother
5 St. Oswald, King
6 St. Syxtus, Bishop
10 St. Laurence, Deacon
13 Hippolitus, Martyr
16 (Sic) [erasure] St. Mary
25 St. Bartholomew, Apostle
28 Augustine and Faustinus, Bishops
29 Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist
31 St. Paulinus, Bishop at Trier
SEPTEMBER
7 Sergius, Pope at Rome
9 (Sic) Nativity of St. Mary at Jerusalem
13 Cornelius and Cyprian
15 St. Euphemia, Martyr
19 Januarius. Martyr
21 Matthew, Apostle
22 Passion of St. Maurice
24 Conception of St. John the Baptist
27 Cosmas and Damian at Jerusalem
29 St. Michael, Archangel
OCTOBER
1 Remedius and Germanus
4 Sts. Heuwald and Hewald, Martyrs
14 Paulinus, Bishop in Canterbury
18 Luke, Evangelist
28 Simon and Jude, Apostles
31 St. Quintinus, Martyr
NOVEMBER
10 St. Leo, Pope
11 St. Martin, Bishop at Tours
22 St. Cecilia
23 Clement at Rome
24 Crisogonus
30 St. Andrew, Apostle
DECEMBER
10 St. Eulalia and seventy-five others
20 St. Ignatius, Bishop and Martyr
21 St. Thomas, Apostle in India
25 Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ
26 St. Stephen, Martyr
27 John, Apostle, and James, his brother
28 The Innocents
31 St. Silvester, Bishop
This list very well illustrates the arbitrary choice of saints to
be commemorated, which is observable in most early calendars. The
mention of the Nativity of our Lady on 9 September instead of 8
September is interesting in view of the Eastern practice, attested
by the Naples marble calendar, of celebrating the Conception of
Our Lady on 9 December. The appearance of St. Januarius (19
September) is also noteworthy. The link between England and
Southern Italy in the matter of the commemoration of saints has
often been noticed without ever being quite adequately explained.
(See Morin, Liber Comicus, Appendix, etc.) The occurrence of the
Invention of the Cross on 7 May, as in the Greek Church, is also
remarkable. It is further curious to note the partial erasure of
the Assumption feast on 16 August (sic), and its appearance upon
18 January. The later Anglo-Saxon calendars, of which a fair
number have been printed by Hampson and Piper, offer fewer points
of interest than the above; but a word should be said of one or
two which are especially noteworthy. The metrical Latin calendar
printed among the works of Bede is shown not to be his by the
reference to the second Wilfrid of York, who died after his time,
but it offers some useful points of comparison with Bede's genuine
martyrologium, which, thanks to the patient labour of Dom Quentin,
has at last been recovered for us (see Les Martyrologes
Historiques, Paris, 1908, pp. 17-119). Not less interesting is the
ancient English martyrology edited for the Early English Text
Society by G. Herzfeld. This document, though not a calendar, and
though including later interpolations, probably reflects the
arrangement of a calendar which may be even older than the time of
Bede. It is especially noteworthy for brief references to certain
Capuan and South Italian saints, which it professes to derive from
the "old Mass Books", probably missals of that Gelasian type for
which the Gregorian Sacramentary was afterwards substituted.
Another early calendar which must possess an interest for all
English-speaking students is the "Anglo-Saxon Menologium", a short
but rather ornate poem of the tenth century, describing the
principal feasts of each month and probably intended for popular
use (see Imelmann, Das altenglische Menologium, p. 40). The
writer's main purpose is indicated by his concluding words:
N� ge findan magon
H�ligra tiid, the man healdan sceal,
Swa beb�geth gebod geond Brytenricu
Sexna kyninges on th�s sylfan tiid.
(Now ye may find the holy tides which men should observe as the
command goeth through Britain of the king of the Saxons at this
same time.) The use of metrical calendars, however, was by no
means peculiar to England. The Irish "Calendar of Aengus", already
referred to, was written in verse, and some of the versified Latin
calendars printed by Hampson have been shown by Dr. Whitley Stokes
to present clear signs of Irish influences. So on the Continent,
to take but one example, we have an elaborate calendar or rather
martyrologium composed about 848 in Latin hexameters by Wandelbert
of Pr�m.
LATER DEVELOPMENTS
The history of the more detailed martyrologia, which has been
worked out with such thoroughness by Dom Quentin, may serve to
show how far-reaching is the principle that nature abhors a
vacuum. Almost all the writers, such as Florus, Ado, and Usuard,
who undertook the task of supplementing the martyrologium of Bede,
worked with the avowed object of filling up the days which he had
left blank. We may fairly infer that the same spirit will have
affected the calendar as well. The mere sight of a vacant space,
no doubt, in many cases tempted scribes and correctors to fill it
up, if their erudition sufficed for the purpose; and though for a
long time these entries remained mere paper-commemorations, they
will certainly in the long run have reacted upon the liturgy. We
may say that much the same influence was at work when Alcuin took
in hand the task of supplying the lacun� in the "Gregorian
Sacramentary", more particularly when he provided a complete set
of different masses for the Sundays after Pentecost. But besides
this we have, of course, to consider the potent factor of new
devotional interests, creating such feasts as those of All Saints,
All Souls, the Blessed Trinity, the various festivals of the
Angels, and notably St. Michael, and, in more modern times, Corpus
Christi, the Sacred Heart, the Five Wounds, the commemoration of
the various instruments of the Passion, the many different
invocations under which Our Lady is honoured, and the duplications
of feasts provided by translations, dedications, and miraculous
events, such as the Stigmata of St. Francis of Assisi or the
"Transverberation" of the heart of St. Teresa. Necessarily also,
among the countless holy men who lived in the practice of heroic
virtue, some in a more pronounced way caught the imagination of
their contemporaries. The piety of the faithful who had been the
witness of their virtues during life, or who, after their death,
benefited by the power of their intercession with God, clamoured
for some adequate means of manifesting devotion and gratitude.
At first this recognition of sanctity was in a measure local,
informal, and popular, with the result that it was not always very
discerning. Later the authority of the Holy See was invoked to
pronounce after full inquiry a formal decree of canonization. But
if this system, on the one hand, tended to limit the number of
recognized saints, it also helped to extend more widely the fame
of those whose history or whose miracles were more remarkable.
Thus, in the end, we find that the cultus of such a saint as St.
Thomas of Canterbury, to take an English example, was not limited
to his own diocese or to his own province, but within a period of
ten years after his death his name found a place in the calendars
of almost every country of Europe. To these causes we must add the
growth of literary culture among the people, especially after the
invention of printing, and last, but by no means least, the
cosmopolitan character of so many of the religious orders.
Wherever the Cistercians had settled the name of St. Bernard was
necessarily held in honour. If, again, there was no part of
Christendom in which the friars had not laboured, so were there
hardly any of the faithful who had not heard of St. Francis, St.
Dominic, St. Clare, St. Catharine of Siena, and many more. It is
no wonder, then, if at an early date the calendar grew crowded,
and if in our own times hardly any vacant days are left in which
some festival does not take precedence and exclude the ferial
office. To enter into detail regarding this great variety of
feasts would be impossible in an article like the present. All the
more important celebrations will be found treated separately in
their proper place, e.g. ALL SAINTS, ALL SOULS, CANDLEMAS, CORPUS
CHRISTI, etc.
VARIOUS PECULIARITIES OF CALENDARS
From the ninth century onwards a calendar was a common adjunct to
most of the different classes of service-books, e.g.
sacramentaries, psalters, antiphonaries, and even pontificals. At
a later date, and especially after such books came to be printed,
it was hardly ever omitted before missals, breviaries, and hor�.
In the printed liturgical calendars with which we are now more
familiar, we find little but the bare catalogue of ecclesiastical
feasts. In the calendars of early date there is a much greater
variety of information. We have, for example, a number of
astronomical data referring to the times of equinox and solstice,
the sun's entry into the various signs of the Zodiac, the dog
days, the beginning of the four seasons, etc., and these are often
emphasized by verses written above or below the entries for each
month, e.g. Procedunt duplices in martis tempore pisces, referring
to the fact that at the beginning of March the sun is in the
constellation Pisces. Sometimes, also, the verses thus prefixed
bear an astrological import, e.g. Jani prima dies et septima fine
timetur, which is meant to convey that the first day of the month
of January and the seventh from the end are unlucky. It must be
confessed that the traces of pagan, or at least secular,
influences in many of our surviving early calendars are numerous.
A very curious feature in many Anglo-Saxon documents of this class
is the acquaintance which they manifest with Oriental and
especially Coptic usages. For instance in the Jumi�ges Missal, at
the head of each month we have a line giving the Oriental names
for the corresponding period; e.g. in the case of April: "Hebr.
Nisan; �gypti Farmuthi; Gr�c. Xanthicos; Lat. Apr; Sax.
Eastermonath;" and further against 26 April we find the entry "IX
�gyptior. mensis pasch�." [i.e. Pashons]. As a rule, the
information given about the Coptic arrangement of months is at
least approximately correct. In other specimens again the so-
called dies �gyptiaci which were reputed to be unlucky (see
Chabas, "Le Calendrier des jours fastes et n&ecutefastes de
l'annee egyptienne", pp. 22, 119 sq.) are carefully noted.
As regards ornament, early calendars are sometimes inserted in a
sort of arcading, two pillars forming the sides of each column of
writing, and an arch crowning the whole; while in the later Middle
Ages we often find beautifully drawn vignettes, sometimes broadly
or delicately humorous, illustrating with much play of the
imagination the different seasons of the year. One feature which
comes down from the earliest times, but which survives even in the
printed calendars of our existing Breviary and Missal, is the
insertion against each day of the "Epact" and the "Dominical
Letter". These have reference to a highly artificial method of
computation and are meant to supply, ready to hand, the means for
ascertaining the day of the week in any assigned year, and more
particularly the age of the moon. The age of the moon, ascertained
by these methods, is read out before the martyrologium every day
during the public recitation of the Office of Prime. When the
calendar was reformed under Gregory XIII, it was considered
advisable to retain in a corrected form the old apparatus and
names to which people were accustomed. As this system of
computation is intricate and has little but an antiquarian
interest to recommend it, we may refer the reader to the article
EPACT, or to the explanations given along with the calendar in
every copy of the Roman Breviary and Missal.
Besides the calendars for ecclesiastical use which were written in
the service-books, a practice grew up towards the close of the
Middle Ages of compiling calendars for the use of the laity. These
correspond rather to what we should now call almanacs, and in them
the astrological element plays a much more prominent part than in
the missals or hor�. One of the most famous of these compilations
was that known as the "Calendrier des Bergers", or the "Shepherds'
Calendar". It was several times most sumptuously printed at Paris
before the end of the fifteenth century, and it afterwards spread
to England and Germany. The religious tone is very pronounced, but
we find at the same time the most elaborate astrological
directions as to lucky and unlucky days for certain medical
operations, particularly bleeding, as well as for agricultural
pursuits, such as sowing, reaping, ploughing, sheep-shearing, and
the like. It is a remarkable illustration of the conservatism of
the rustic mind that editions of the "Shepherds' Calendar" were
published in London until past the middle of the seventeenth
century, the essentially Catholic tone of the book being easily
recognizable under the very thinnest of disguises (see
Ecclesiastical Review, July, 1902, pp. 1-21).
THE MODERN CALENDAR IMPOSED BY AUTHORITY
It will have been inferred from what has been said above that
considerable divergence prevailed among the calendars in use at
the close of the Middle Ages. This lack of uniformity degenerated
into an abuse, and was a fertile source of confusion. Hence the
new Roman Breviary and Missal, which in accordance with a decree
of the Council of Trent eventually saw the light in 1568 and 1570
respectively, contained a new calendar. Like other portions of the
new liturgical code, the observance of the new calendar was made
obligatory upon all churches which could not prove a prescription
of two hundred years in the enjoyment of their own distinctive
customs. This law, which is still in force, has not, of course,
prevented successive sovereign pontiffs from adding very many new
festivals; neither does it preclude different dioceses, or even
churches, from adopting various local celebrations, where the
permission of the pope or of the Congregation of Rites has been
sought and obtained. But though local saints may be added, the
feasts prescribed in the Roman calendar must also be kept. In
point of fact a considerable license is conceded in such matters.
There is hardly any diocese in which the calendar, owing to these
additions, does not differ considerably from those of neighbouring
dioceses or provinces. Even the introduction of a single new
feast, owing to the transferences thus necessitated, may effect a
considerable disturbance. In the British Isles, England, Ireland,
and Scotland all celebrate a number of national saints
independently of each other, but these are merely additions to the
general Roman calendar which all observe in common. Moreover, this
universal calendar during three centuries, and especially during
the last thirty years, has undergone very notable modifications,
partly in consequence of new saints' days that have been
introduced, partly in consequence of changes made in the grade of
feasts already admitted. A tabular arrangement will help to make
this clear. What the original meaning of the term double may have
been is not entirely certain. Some think that the greater
festivals were thus styled because the antiphons before and after
the psalms were "duplicated", i.e. twice repeated entire on these
days. Others, with more probability, point to the fact that before
the ninth century in certain places, for example at Rome, it was
customary on the greater feasts to recite two sets of Matins, the
one of the feria or week-day, the other of the festival. Hence
such days were known as "doubles". However this may be, the
primitive division into doubles and simples has given place to a
much more elaborate classification. At present we have six grades,
to wit: doubles of the first class; doubles of the second class;
greater doubles; doubles; semi-doubles; simples. Now from the
various official revisions of the Breviary, made in 1568, 1662,
l631, 1882, the following data may be gleaned. For purposes of
comparison we may add the figures for 1907:
----------------------------------------------------------------
| | 1602 | 1631 | |
Feasts Entered in | 1508 |Clement| Urban | 1882 | 1907
The Breviary | Pius V | VIII | VIII | Leo XIII | Pius X
| | | | |
-------------------+--------+-------+-------+----------+--------
Doubles of the | | | | |
First Class | 19 | 19 | 19 | 21 | 23
Doubles of the | | | | |
Second Class | 17 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 27
Greater Doubles | __ | 16 | 16 | 24 | 25
Doubles | 53 | 43 | 45 | 128 | 133
Semidoubles | 60 | 68 | 78 | 74 | 72
-------------------+--------+-------+-------+----------+--------
Total | 149 | 164 | 176 | 275 | 280
----------------------------------------------------------------
These figures (which include not merely the fixed but also the
movable feasts, as well as octave days, etc.) will suffice to
illustrate the crowding of the calendar which has taken place of
recent years. Moreover, it must be remembered that, practically
speaking, it never happens that feasts of the higher grade are
"simplified", i.e. reduced to the level of bare commemorations. If
a greater double chances to fall on a day already occupied, it is
"transferred", and a free day has to be found for it later on in
the year. On the other hand, while there has been a great increase
of doubles of the first and second class, etc. (festa chori), the
holidays of obligation (festa chori et fori), owing largely to the
difficulties created by the civil rulers of the various European
countries, have grown steadily fewer. Pre-Reformation England,
with its forty or more holidays of precept, did not go beyond the
rest of the world. To take almost the first example which comes to
hand, in the Diocese of Li&aegravege, in 1287 (Mansi, Concilia,
XXIV, 909), there were, besides the Sundays, forty-two festivals
on which the people were bidden to rest from servile work. It is,
therefore, hardly surprising that the excessive number of these
feast-days was included in 1523 among the Centum Gravamina, the
Hundred Grievances, of the German nation, nor that Pope Urban VIII
in 1642, deprived bishops of the right to institute new
ecclesiastical holidays without the permission of the Holy See,
and limited the number of those of general obligation to thirty-
four. In the eighteenth century, under pressure from various
temporal rulers, this list in certain countries was further
curtailed. Many of those festivals which had hitherto been
holidays of precept were reduced to the status of feasts of
devotion, i.e. the obligation of hearing Mass and resting from
servile work was abolished, while at the same time their vigils
ceased to be observed as fast-days. But even after the concessions
which Clement XIV, in 1772, made to the Empress Maria Theresa,
eighteen holidays (festa chori et fori) still remained obligatory
in the Austrian dominions. In France, under the Napoleonic regime,
the pope was forced to consent to the reduction of the holidays of
obligation to four only, Christmas Day, the Ascension, the
Assumption, and All Saints. For the rest of Christendom other
concessions were made by Leo XII, and still later by his
successors. At the present day Rome numbers eighteen holidays of
obligation (always, of course, exclusive of Sundays), but only
nine of these are recognized as legal holidays by the Government
of Italy. The French rule of four festa pr�cepti prevails also in
Belgium and parts of Holland. In Spain, in Austria, and throughout
the greater portion of the German Empire, some fifteen days are
observed, though both the total number and the particular feasts
selected vary greatly in the different provinces. In England the
holidays of obligation are the Circumcision, the Epiphany, the
Ascension, Corpus Christi, Sts. Peter and Paul, the Assumption,
All Saints, and Christmas Day. To these two other days are added
in Ireland, the Annunciation and the feast of St. Patrick, and in
Scotland one day, the feast of St. Andrew. In the United States
six festivals are kept as of precept--Christmas, the New Year, the
Ascension, the Assumption, All Saints, and the Immaculate
Conception.
For English-speaking Catholics in past centuries, while living
under the penal laws, the situation must often have been a
difficult one. Down to 1781, as the rare copies of the old
"Laity's Directory" still bear witness, our forefathers were bound
to keep every Friday of the year (except during Paschal time) as a
fast-day. Besides this there was abstinence upon all Saturdays and
a fair number of fasting vigils, for which last, in 1771, the
Wednesdays and Fridays of Advent were substituted. The holidays of
obligation amounted to thirty-four, but in 1778 these were reduced
to eleven, the rest for the most part being treated as feasts of
devotion. On the other hand the calendar grew by the restoration
to full liturgical cultus of many of the old English saints. The
first permission was given by Benedict XIV in 1749 at the request
of His Royal Highness the Cardinal of York. This was limited to
half a dozen saints, including St. Augustine of England and St.
George, both to be kept as doubles of the first class; but in 1774
ampler concessions were made by Clement XIV. Again in 1884 the
list was still further extended, and in 1887 the beatification of
the English martyrs became the occasion for approving several
other new offices and masses.
THE CHURCHES OF THE EAST
With regard to the calendars of the various Eastern Churches it
would be impossible here to enter into detail. For the most part
they are subject, like that of the Western Church, to the
complications caused by a system of feasts which are partly fixed
and partly movable. Most of the more important festivals of the
Roman calendar-- for example the Circumcision, the Epiphany, the
Purification, the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, St. Peter and
Paul, the Assumption, the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, the
Exaltation of the Holy Cross, St. Andrew, and the Nativity of Our
Lord--are kept on the days corresponding to those observed in
Western Christendom. But the correspondence, though recognizable
in some few cases, is not quite exact. For example, the Greeks
keep the feast of the Immaculate Conception, under the title he
sullepsis tes theoprometoros Annes (conceptio Ann� avi� Dei), upon
9 December, not 8 December; and while the Invention of the Cross
is celebrated by us on 3 May, the Greeks and Syrians have their
corresponding feast on 7 May. Again, among Oriental Christians the
octaves of festivals are not kept in the same uniform way as by
the Latins. Their celebrations, indeed, in many cases continue
after the day of the feast, but not for exactly a week; and it is
peculiar to these rites that on the day following the feast a sort
of commemoration is made of the personages who are most closely
connected with it. Thus on 3 February, the day after the feast of
the Purification, the Greeks pay special honour to Holy Simeon and
Anna, while on 9 September, the day after Our Lady's Nativity, St.
Joachim and St. Anne are more particularly mentioned. Many other
exceptional features, some of them decidedly extravagant, are
presented by the Syriac, Armenian, and Coptic Rites. It may be
sufficient here, however, to call attention to the practice in the
last-named Church of assigning a day each month for the special
cultus of Our Blessed Lady.
As regards the movable feasts, the chief interest centres in the
beginning of Lent. With the Greek and some of the other rites, the
Lenten season may be said to begin the week before our
Septuagesima, though this is only a time of preparation.
Sexagesima Sunday is known as he kuriake tes apokreo (the Sunday
of abstinence from flesh), not that they are forbidden meat on
that day, but because it is the last day on which meat is allowed.
Similarly, the next Sunday (Quinquagesima) is known as he kuriake
tes turines (cheese Sunday), because this is the last day upon
which cheese and eggs can be eaten. The movable feasts of the
Greek Church, moreover, include other festivals besides those
strictly belonging to the Easter cycle. The most noteworthy
example is the feast of All Saints (ton hagion panton), which is
kept upon the Sunday which follows Pentecost, or in other words
upon our Trinity Sunday.
HERBERT THURSTON
Transcribed by Rick McCarty
http://www.knight.org/advent
From the Catholic Encyclopedia, copyright � 1913 by the
Encyclopedia Press, Inc. Electronic version copyright � 1996 by
New Advent, Inc.
Taken from the New Advent Web Page (www.knight.org/advent).
This article is part of the Catholic Encyclopedia Project, an
effort aimed at placing the entire Catholic Encyclopedia 1913
edition on the World Wide Web. The coordinator is Kevin Knight,
editor of the New Advent Catholic Website. If you would like to
contribute to this worthwhile project, you can contact him by e-
mail at (knight.org/advent). For more information please download
the file cathen.txt/.zip.
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