Heortology; a history of the Christian festivals from their origin to the present day

Front matter

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“a, Oe Ss an tel ie a - se > oy

Part II Chapter I.—the Church’s Year

A. EASTER, AND THE SACRED SEASONS CONNECTED WITH

EASTER 1. Easter, 1rs NAME AND History ; ; 37 2. THE CONNECTION OF THE CHRISTIAN Basarvau WITH THE JEWISH ; : 41 3. THE CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH LED TO Gages BEING A MovasLe Feast . 46

4. Tue Finat SETTLEMENT OF THE pee OF Haerae AND THE ATTEMPTS MADE TO COMMEMORATE THE DAY oF THE MONTH ON WHICH CHRIST DIED . 52 5. Tae LirureicaL CELEBRATION oF Hoty WEEK AND EASTER. é . ; ; 59 Palm Batley ; : : : 66 Maundy Thursday . ; : ; 69 Good Friday . ; : d ‘ 73 Holy Saturday ; : : 79 Easter and the Easter Oatave.. ; A 84.

xV

SECT.

6. Tot PREPARATION FOR EHASTER—QUADRAGESIMA AND THE Fast : i 3 A ; 7. Tae SEASON OF PREPARATION AS AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE CHURCH’S YEAR . : : 8. Tor TRANSFIGURATION . : E : 5 9. THz ASCENSION ‘ . ; : i 10. WHITSUNDAY . é F . ; : 11. Trintry SunpDAay ; 2 : " 12. Corpus Curistr. THe Forty iHoawe PRAYER. THE FESTIVAL OF THE SACRED HEART : :

B. CHRistMAS AND THE CHRISTMAS SEASON

. CHRISTMAS : : : a “ ADVENT AND THE SUNDAYS UNTIL SEPTUAGESIMA , . THe Octave oF CHristmas. THE CiRcUMCISION. THE

New YEAR : : : ; : . Toe EPIPHANY . 5 : 4 rt

5. Tae PURIFICATION OF THE Bele Virein Mary :

(CANDLEMAS) : : : : . Tue SuNDAYS OF THE CHURCH’S YEAR AS FORMING Con- NECTING LINKS BETWEEN THE PrRINcIPAL FEasts .

C. Orner INcIDENTS IN THE CHURCH’S YEAR

1. THz EmMBERTIDES : : ; ; :

Litanizs oR RoGations 5 P :

. THE DEDICATION OF A CHURCH AND THE Runyan OF THE Patron SAINT : : :

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Chapter Ii.—the Saints’ Days

1. Tur ORIGINS OF THE CULTUS OF THE SAINTS AND THE GROUNDS ON WHICH IT RESTS 5

.

2. Tur FESTIVALS OF St JOHN THE BAPTIST AND Sr STEPHEN

THE Proto-MartTyr ] : 3. Frestivats or Our Biessep Lapy IN Gatanil ; 4. Tot Tourer ANCIENT FESTIVALS OF OUR BLESSED Lapy—tuHe Nativiry, THE ANNUNCIATION, THE ASSUMPTION

. . .

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88 100 105 106 109 116

127 158

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217 225

Contents

SECT. PAGE 5. INSTITUTION AND SPREAD OF THE FESTIVAL OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION . j é so 0 239 6. Tar Lesser Feasts or Our Lapy— i. The Name of Mary i 264 u. The Presentation of Our Lady in the Temple 265 ii. The Visitation : ; seeoG iv. The Feast of the Holy Rory ‘ 268 7. Tae Feast or St Josepn. Tue Curtus or SS. Joacnim AND ANNE ‘ é eee 8. THE FESTIVALS OF THE east ae IN Cie east 9. THe FESTIVALS OF THE APOSTLES AND EVANGELISTS IN PARTICULAR : : oe 1. St Peter ay St Paul : : . 282 u. The Feast of St Peter’s Chains . cen iii. The Conversion of St Paul ; 21288 iv. St Andrew and St Luke the Evangelist . 289 v. St James the Great : 5 ay 29 vi. St Philip and St James the Less . . 293 vii. St John . . 296 vii. St Simon and St J ude (Thaddeus) . 298 ix. St Mark the Evangelist . ; . 300 x. The Feast of St Peter’s Chair F 301

10. Toe Festivats or St Mary Magpaten, St Ceannd AND St CATHERINE— i. ‘St Mary Magdalen ‘ 3 . . 13809

ul. St Cecilia . ; ; ; ESL

Part III

THE MATERIAL UPON* WHICH THE HISTORY OF gTHE ECCLESIASTICAL YEAR IS BASED 1. THz DocumMENTARY SOURCES IN GENERAL " eo 2. Tae EARLIEST CHRISTIAN CALENDARS . ; eos, XVii

HEORTOLOGY "3. ‘Tan ARIAN CALENDAR OF THE FourTH CENTURY 3 4. Tur So-caLLED MartyroLocium HizRoNYMIANUM . 5. Tar Lectionary AND MarryroLogy or SILos : 6. Eayprian (Coptic) CALENDARS AND SYNAXARIA : 7. Tot MENoLoGYy oF CONSTANTINOPLE . 3 3 8. THe MrEnoLogy or THE Emperor Basiu II., AND THE Syrian LecTIONARY OF THE ELEVENTH CENTURY 9. Tue KaLENDARIUM Marmoreum or NAPLES . £ 10. WrEsTERN AUTHORITIES FROM THE SIXTH TO THE HIGHTH CENTURIES , c : : 5 11. THe Marryro.toeies or Bepr, FLrorus, WANDELBERT, AND (Gincus t ¥ 2 : ¢ 12. THz Marryrotocies or Apo, Usuarpus, RaBaANus Mavrus, AnD NotKER BALBULUS - ; 13. Important CALENDARS FROM THE EIGHTH TO THE ELEVENTH CENTURIES : : E : CoNncLUSION : : : , :

I. Cuassirication or Frasts In THE Roman CALENDAR

II. On some Lists or Frsttvats : . :

Ill. Taz Ferstivats oF OBLIGATION AS OBSERVED IN

DiFFERENT CoUNTRIES , : - :

IV. Litureica, VestMEents A : F S

V. Tue Worp Mass as a Name For THE SACRIFICE OF

THE ALTAR : : : i m

VI. On tHE Date ror Curistmas In Hiepotyrus :

VII. Curistmas in ENGLAND DURING THE COMMONWEALTH VIII. Excursus on tae Tarer Hoty Krvas

IX. Toe Greek EccuestasticaL YEAR : :

X. Eneiish WRITERS AND THE Fast oF THE IMMACULATE

CoNCcEPTION : : : : :

» XI. Excursus oN THE SO-CALLED TYPICA : :

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390 394

410 419

421 42]

423 428

430 437 439 441 442

445 447 449 457

Part I

1. Introduction

Tue external worship of God, if it is not to remain vague and indefinite, finds expression on the one hand through certain elements belonging to the senses, such as signs and words, and on the other it is connected with places and times. By the changes of day and night, of seasons and years, Creation calls upon man to raise his mind to God at stated times and to enter into communion with Him. The day with its brightness is suited for work, night with its stillness invites man to turn his thoughts in upon himself. The change of day and night calls upon us to begin the day’s work with God, and to commend ourselves to His keeping in the darkness of the night. The course of the seasons, too, matures the fruits of the earth necessary for our support, and the succession of years reminds us of the fleeting nature of everything earthly, for our whole life is composed of successive years. Consequently the civilised peoples already in remote antiquity have found a call to the worship of God in the changing seasons and times, and so have introduced sacred seasons. Sacred times and places are common to all religions in general. The change of times, bringing with them corresponding

A 1 changes in nature, made a religious impression upon mankind. In turn, man sanctified certain times and dedicated them to God, and these days thus consecrated to God became festivals.

The worship of God takes precedence over the daily affairs of common life, and accordingly displaces such of them as are not necessary for the support of natural life or the wellbeing of society. Thus it came to pass that the ordinary affairs of life gave place to the worship of God, and rest from labour became an essential part of the worship paid to Him. Man abstained from his wonted tasks on certain days, which received in consequence a higher consecration. And so among the ancient Romans, the idea of a day of rest and a holy day were intimately connected and received the name of feria. But it was among the Hebrews that the days set apart for the worship of God received the most distinctive character as days of rest.1

The Christian Church on her part, in wishing that the day set apart for the worship of God should be observed as far as possible as a day of rest from labour, acts in accordance with ideas and customs which nature itself has planted in the human race, and which need no other justification. The term sabbatismus (Sabbath rest) soon entered into the theological language of Christendom, and in public life the Christian holy days, at first only Sundays, gradually, even in secular legislation, became recognised as days of rest, sometimes in a larger and sometimes in a smaller number.

The entire number of ecclesiastical holy days and seasons is actually codified for us in the different Church

1The Greek word éopr} had become associated with the ideas of paganism and mere enjoyment. Christians called the week-days following on a Sunday feria secunda, etc. This use was already established in Tertullian’s time. 2

Calendars. Their contents fall into two essentially different divisions, each possessing an entirely different origin and history. The first division consists of festivals of our Lord, distributed over the year, regulated and co-ordinated in accordance with certain laws. The second division consists of commemorations of the saints in no wise connected with the festivals of our Lord or with one another. Occupying to some extent an intermediate position between these two chief divisions come the festivals of our Blessed Lady, which have this in common with the festivals of the saints, that they fall on fixed days, but, on the other hand, they are to a certain extent connected with each other, and with some feasts of our Lord. This is carried out in such a way that they are distributed throughout the entire Church’s year, and are included in each of the festal seasons.

The former of these two divisions is themost important, and its chief feasts are also the oldest. The festivals

of our Lord, Easter and Pentecost especially, compose what is called the Church’s year in the stricter sense, and, if they coincide with a saint’s day, they take precedence. The Church’s year is built upon a single basis and according to one plan, which did not originate in the mind of any one person, but developed out of the historical conditions resulting from the connection of Christianity with Judaism.

In the course of the ecclesiastical year, the Church brings before us the chief events in our Lord’s life and the most striking instances of His work of redemption. The central point of the whole is the commemoration of His death and resurrection—i.e. Easter—to which all other events are related, whether those which reach backward to Christmas, or those which reach onwards to the completion of His redemptive work at Whitsuntide.

In addition, there is, on the one hand, Advent, as a time of preparation for our Lord’s coming, reminding us of the four or five thousand years which intervened between the Creation and that event, and, on the other, the Sundays after Pentecost, representing the period after the foundation of the Church, and devoted to the consideration of the redemption won for us, along with its doctrines and blessings. The weeks of the year form the links of the chain, each Sunday marking the character of the week which follows it.

The sacred seasons, as they pass in orderly succession, give outward expression to the spirit which animates the Church, and are of the utmost importance from the point of view of her worship, since they form one of the chief elements in the instruction of mankind in the truths of Christianity. By them one easily becomes familiar with Christianity itself.

Every religion has its festivals, but none has so rich and so carefully thought out a system of feasts as the Catholic Church. If we may compare it to some artistically constructed edifice, we can regard the festivals of our Lord as forming the piers which support all the rest, the lesser feasts as contributing the decorations, and the Sundays, with their attendant weeks, as the stones of which the walls are built. Naturally all this did not exist at first, but, ike many other things in the Church, has grown up into its present proportions from small beginnings.

We are not told that the Divine Founder of the Church appointed a single festival or left behind Him any instructions on the matter; still the germ, destined by Providence to develop afterwards into the system of festivals with which we are familiar, existed from the beginning. The subsequent rich and varied develop-

A ment of this system was not the work of individuals, but was due to the working of the spirit which ever rules the Universal Church, and ever renews itself within her. Love towards the Redeemer and gratitude for what He has done for us called the round of Christian festivals into being. The authorities in the Church have played the part of the gardener, pruning away superfluous shoots and branches. In view of the numerous institutions of this kind, some of which date back to remote antiquity, it was not a mere figure of speech which Tertullian made use of when, referring to the numerous heathen festivals, he addresssed the Christians of his time with the words, ‘‘ You have your own ‘ fastt’ ” (“‘ Habes tuos fastos.””—De Corona, c. 13).

The outline of the ecclesiastical year was prefigured in the Old Law, while the synagogue furnished the fundamental elements in its festivals, the Sabbath in particular, and in the division of the year into weeks. This renders a glance at the religious year of the Jews necessary, for, apart from it, it is impossible to understand the essential character of the Christian year.

The Jewish festivals in the time of Christ were instituted either in commemoration of events connected with the divine covenant, such as the Passover, or they were of an agrarian character or commemorated some national event, as the dedication of the Temple, Purim, Jom Kippar, etc.

According to the dates of their origin they fall into two classes :—

(a) The ancient festivals instituted by Moses: the Passover, the Feast of Weeks, in the earlier part of the year; the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles, in autumn, 7.¢. on the first, seventh, and fifteenth days of the month Tizri.

(6) The more recent festivals instituted by the Synagogue, such as the Dedication of the Temple on the 25th Chisleu; Purim, or the Feast of Haman, on the 14th Adar. To these were added four fast days as days of national humiliation.

Consequently, since the death of Christ took place on the first day of the feast of the Passover (15th Nisan), and since the Descent of the Holy Ghost followed on the day of Pentecost, the chief Jewish feasts served as the foundation of the Christian ecclesiastical year, and the Apostles could join with the Jews in their Passover celebration. Certainly the object of their feast was very different from that of the Jews, yet, outwardly there was no separation from the synagogue.

2. Sunday and its Observance as a Day of Rest

The Sabbath and the week of seven days, by their appointment in the ancient Law, formed already a necessary element of the ecclesiastical year and maintained their position in the Church. The division of the year into weeks is not specifically Jewish, but rather Semitic, since we find it in existence in ancient Babylon, though there a new week began with the first day of every month, and the first, seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first, and twenty-eighth days of the monthwere always days of rest... ‘This system of dividing time into weeks received a religious consecration among the Jews, inasmuch as the Sabbath rest was enjoined by the Law under the severest sanctions. All servile work of whatsoever kind must be laid aside on the Sabbath, according to the Jewish law. It was not even permitted to light a fire

1 J. Barra, Babel und das israel. Religionswesen, Berlin, 1902. See

Scumip, Die Kirche und die Sonntagsruhe: Innsbr. Zeitschr. f. Kath, Theol., 1901, 436 et seg. Lryzer, Theol. Quartalschrift, 1900, 12.

or prepare food. Important as was the place given to rest, it was, however, only one part, and that a subordinate part of the Sabbath festival. The most important part was the performance of the acts of divine worship God enjoined upon the people, that is to say the sacrifice of a holocaust, consisting of two yearling lambs, along with “flour tempered with oil and the libations.” 4

There is no evidence of the Sabbath having been abrogated by Christ or the Apostles, but St Paul declared its observance was not binding on Gentile converts, who soon formed the majority of those converted to the faith; and in Col. ii. 16, he classes it along with the feasts of the new moon. Accordingly, the observance of the Sabbath fell more and more into the background, yet not without leaving some traces behind.2 It appears at first to have rather existed side by side with Sunday. Among the Christians, the first day of the Jewish week, the prima sabbati, the present Sunday, was held in honour as the day of our Lord’s resurrection and was called the Lord’s Day. This name took the place of the name dies solis, formerly in use among the Greeks and Romans. The different days of the week were named after the heavenly bodies, which in turn took their names from the chief divinities of heathen mythology. Thus the names dies solis, lune, Martis, etc., were very general and widespread in antiquity. The Christians did not employ these titles for liturgical purposes, but called the week-days simply ferie, and distinguished them merely by numbers.’ In

1 Num. xxviii. 9,10; Ezec. xlvi. 3, 4.

2See the article ‘‘Sonnabendfeier,’ by Kriix, in Kraus’ Realenzyklopidie.

3 Heb. iv. 9; Acts xiii. 27; xviii. 4. 4 Apoc. i. 10; 1 Cor. xvi. 2.

5 Euses., De Mart. Pal. 1; see Barer, IX. x.-xiv.

fi the romance languages the ecclesiastical name forSunday, dies dominica, has quite taken the place of all others.

These names were already in use in the Apostolic period, and Sunday was the day on which the eucharistic worship of God was performed.!_ Christian worship im the earliest time consisted of two parts. Already, in the letters of Pliny, we find mention of a nocturnal service of preparation at which psalms were sung, prayers recited, and passages read from Holy Scripture. The eucharistic part of the service followed at dawn. These two parts appear sharply distinguished, especially in the diary of Silvia (or Etheria). The vigil service developed out of the first part. The second part in Silvia’s diary usually bears the name of Oblatio, while the term missa denotes merely the dismissal of the faithful and the respective divisions of the psalmody.2 There also seems to have been a general confession of sins at the commencement of the service, which explains the exhortation of the “‘ Teaching of the Apostles,” that the faithful should confess their sins on Sunday. At any rate, Eusebius plainly refers to the practice, and adds, ** We, the adherents of the New Covenant, are constantly nourished by the Body of Christ ; we continually partake of the Blood of the Lamb, and celebrate every week on Sunday the mysteries of the true Lamb, by Whom we have been redeemed.” Upon the cessation of persecution, the present arrangement of divine service soon became established—that is to say, Mass and Sermon at nine a.M., with Vespers and Compline as popular devotions in the afternoon.

1 Acts xx. 7 seg. ; 1 Cor. xvi. 2.

* E.g., “ Et facta oblatione fit missa” (c. 38, p. 68).

8 Kuses., De Pasch., c. 73 seec. 12a. E. Montravcon, Introduction to

Eusebius’ Commentary on the Psalms, Paris, 1707. Muraenn, Patr. Gr. . xxiii, 51. 8

Besides Sunday, at least in Tertullian’s time, the liturgy was performed on Wednesday and Friday, the so-called Station Days. In the East, on the other hand, it was performed only on Saturdays, at least in many places. To put on one’s best clothes for attendance at worship was a custom of the heathen, which the Christians retained, and which has survived to the present day.?

As to the grounds for celebrating Sunday, the Fathers are unanimous from the earliest times—it was kept as a festival because Christ rose again on the first day of the Jewish week.2 A clear indication of this is given by the practice observed in Jerusalem in the fourth century of reading at the psalmody on each of the Sundays in Quinquagesima, the Gospel of the resurrection of Jesus.4

The first Christian Emperor did his best to promote the observance of Sunday and to show it all respect as a day of prayer. He gave leave to the Christian soldiers of his army to be absent from duty in order that they might attend divine service. The heathen soldiers, however, had to assemble in camp without their arms, and offer up a prayer for the Emperor and his family.® Eusebius, in his “ Life of Constantine,’ mentions in detail these pious endeavours of the Emperor, yet his information must have been incomplete, since Sozomen ° informs us that Constantine also forbade the law-courts

1Tprr., De Orat., 14. Socrates, Hist. Eccl., 6,8. Ducnesnn, 218-22,

2 Ovip, Fasti,i. 79. Lo M., Sermo, 41, 1. Mien, Pair. Lat., liv. 272; Binrerim, v. 134.

4 Peregr. Silvie, 102, 71 cod.; ed. Geyer, c. 44, 2.

5 Kuses., Vita Const., 4, 19, 20.

6 Hist. Eccl., i. 18, towards the end: évomordOnce, Tov dixacrnplwy Kal rwv aw mpaypdrey oxodnv dye.

to sit on Sunday. It has been attempted to throw doubt on the veracity of this information because of the silence of Eusebius; but Sozomen was an advocate, and must have been better up in the existing legislation than Eusebius, and, moreover, a clear grasp of the point at issue along with a lucid representation of all the facts concerned is not one of the excellences of Eusebius. The information given by Sozomen is further supported by the fact that a law of Constantine’s directed to the same end is in existence.1

The prohibition of the transaction of legal business on Sunday was frequently renewed by his successors, and extended so as to suspend the courts of arbitration, and to prohibit summonses for debt.?

A law of Valentinian II., in a.p. 425, forbade games in the Circus, and all theatrical representations on Sunday. To the honour of the Emperors it must be said that they suppressed these representations more than once.? The Emperor Leo also renewed the law concerning the Sunday rest, and went so far as to forbid music on Sundays,* but his law is not included in the general collection of statutes, having been repealed after a short time.

As regards working on Sunday, the Church very carefully avoided the adoption of a pharisaical observance of the day; but, from the beginning, there was a consensus of Christian opinion against the continuance of all work which rendered the attendance of the faithful at divine worship impossible—as, for instance, the

1 Cod. Theod., 2, 8, de feriis 1. Law of 321.

2 Op. cit., 2, 8,18; 8,8, 3; 11, 7, 18. In these laws Sunday is still called ‘dies solis,’ but with the addition, ‘‘quem dominicum rite dixere majores.”

3 Op. cit. 15, 5, 5, de spectaculis. 4 Chron., Pasch., ad a 467.

labours of slaves or the work of servants. In course of time this was extended so as to exclude all kinds of work out of keeping with the dignity of the day. As to details, different views prevailed to a great extent in different places and times... The first Christian Emperor had already, according to Eusebius,? made a law prescribing throughout his Empire rest on Sundays, and even on Fridays as well. Kcclesiastial legislation on its part maintained that slaves must have sufficient free time to attend divine worship and receive religious instruction in church. Attendance at this was regarded as the duty of all grown up Christians.? For the rest, the prohibition of work on Sunday was not always regarded in antiquity as of general obligation. Thus, for example, the Council of Laodicea forbade Christians on the one hand to celebrate Saturday in the Jewish manner, and, on the other, enjoined rest from labour only “ in so far as it was possible.” 4

That the establishment of rest from labour had special reference to slaves is shown by the so-called Apostolic Constitutions. In them we have (8, 33) the days on which slaves were to be free from labour once more enumerated in detail, and the limits of the earlier legislation considerably extended.

Days of rest for slaves were to be: Saturday and Sunday, Holy Week and Easter Week, the Ascension, Whitsunday, Christmas, Epiphany, all festivals of Apostles, St Stephen’s Day, and the feasts of certain martyrs. Naturally the object of this ordinance was

1 For instances, see Bainxer, ix. art. 1, c. 5 et seg.

2 Vita Const,, 4, 18.

£ Laod. can., 29; elye Sivavro cxoddgev, This Council was held between 343 and 381. For further particulars, see Binrerim, v. 134-52.

Il not to make all these days festivals in the strict sense of the word.

In his anxiety to do honour to the holy days of the Church, the first Christian Emperor went still further. He desired to make Friday, the day of Christ’s death, a day of rest and devotion as well.1_ We have no information as to how far this regulation took practical effect during his life. No trace of such a custom exists at a later date except among the Nestorians. How earnest he was in securing the execution of these decrees is shown by the fact that he commanded the prefects of the provinces not only to observe Sundays, but also to celebrate the commemorations of the martyrs, within their jurisdictions.?

It has been already observed that Saturday as well as Sunday had its liturgical observance. In certain Kastern countries it attained to a position almost equal to that of Sunday. For, in the Apostolic Constitutions, it is laid down that the faithful shall attend divine service on this day also, and abstain from servile work,? although the rank of Sunday was acknowledged to be higher. The Council of Laodicea forbade indeed, as we have observed above, the abandonment of work on Saturday, but it enjoined the reading of the Gospel as on Sunday (Can. 16). Traces of this pre-eminence of Saturday among the week-days exists at the present time in the Churches of the East.®

In conclusion, it is to be noticed that, in the Middle Ages, the rest from labour commenced, contrary to our present custom, with the Vespers of Saturday. Pope Alexander III, however, decreed that local custom

1 Kuses., Vita Oonst., 4, 19. 2 Op. cit. 4, 23.

should retain its prescriptive right, and so it came to pass that the practice of reckoning the feast day from midnight to midnight became general.1

3. The Classification of Festivals

According to the points of view taken, festivals may be divided into different classes :—

1. According to the object of the festival, into festivals of our Lord and festivals of the saints.

The former fall into three divisions: (a) movable feasts—Kaster, Pentecost, etc. ; (b) immovable feasts— Christmas, Epiphany, etc. ; (c) such as are not included in the above cycles and are immovable, ¢.g., the Transfiguration, Invention of the Cross, ete.

The saints whose feasts are celebrated are either Old Testament personages—although these do not appear in the Roman Calendar as they do in others, especially those of the Oriental Churches—or Apostles, martyrs, virgins, confessors, angels, and, finally, the Mother of our Lord.

2. With regard to their observance, festivals may be either local or general.

3. According to their character, we may theoretically divide the festivals into commemorative and devotional festivals. Commemorative festivals are those which celebrate a historical event, e.g., the birth, and death of Jesus, the death of an Apostle, of a martyr, etc. These, in many cases, are celebrated on the actual day of the event commemorated. As devotional festivals, we may rank those which celebrate some mystery of the Faith, ¢.g., the Holy Trinity, or those which, although

1 Council of Rouen (650), Can. 15. Deer. Grat., Can. 1, dist. 3, de consecr. ; Can. 10, de feriis, 3,9. For the variations in the observance of the Sabbath, see Axr., 10 seqq. 13 they commemorate a particular event, such as the Transfiguration, do not celebrate it on the day on which it actually happened.

Since the number of festivals altered much in the course of centuries, and their objects are so various, they are distinguished from one another by differences of rank and a whole series of gradations has arisen.

In the first place there are purely ecclesiastical festivals whose celebration is confined within the four walls of the Church (festa chort), and festivals which have their bearing upon the common life of the people, chiefly on account of the rest from labour which is conjoined with them (festa forz).

The so-called ferxe and the festivals strictly so called are clearly distinguished from one another. According to the practice of the Church, the ordinary days of the year have their place in the liturgy, and share to a certain extent in the festal character of the season, although distinguished from those days on which is commemorated some mystery of our redemption or the memory of a saint. These latter are holy days (festa) in a higher sense.

These holy days again are divided into greater or lesser feasts—in the language of the rubrics, into festa duplicia and simplicia, with an intermediate class, the semi-duplicia, Thisis more marked inthe arrangements of the Breviary than in the Missal. This does not exhaust the differences between festivals, for there are further distinctions in their rank, especially in the case of the festivals of our Lord and of the chief mysteries of our redemption, t.e. duplicia majora, and duplicia prime and secunde classis. The festa duplicia prime classis are usually kept up for eight days—the so-called octave ; so too some of the secunde classis.