Chapter V: Festivals of St Mary the Virgin

I. _Western Kalendars._

The history of the origin of some of the following festivals is obscure; and it is impossible to be precise as to the dates of their first appearance. We speak with some reservation of the Festival of Feb. 2, known first in the West, as well as in the East, by the name Hypapante (_i.e._ ‘the Meeting’ of Simeon with the Lord and His Mother), and afterwards as the Purification of the Virgin. It seems at first in the West to have been a festival of our Lord rather than of the Virgin. In the _propria_ for ‘Yppapanti’ (_sic_) in the Gregorian Sacramentary the allusion to St Mary is of the slightest. Hence at the time when it first appeared in the West it may be reckoned as having no special reference to St Mary. The Church of Rome does not appear (according to Duchesne) to have observed any festival of the Virgin before the seventh century, when it adopted the four following festivals from the Church of Byzantium.

1. =The Purification= (or, in early times, Hypapante). Its date (Feb. 2) is determined by counting forty days from Christmas (Luke ii. 22: compare Levit. xii. 2, 4).

A feast of much dignity and importance (_cum summa laetitia, ac si per Pascha_) commemorating the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple is noticed as celebrated (towards the close of the fourth century) at Jerusalem at the time of the pilgrimage of ‘Silvia.’ It was observed on Feb. 14 (the 40th day after the Epiphany, reckoned as the day of the Lord’s Nativity): but ‘Silvia’ does not appear to have regarded it as in any sense having special reference to St Mary. The words of the pilgrim simply record the incident in the Temple; and it looks as if the feast were only commemorative of a remarkable event in the history of the Lord.

It may be pointed out that the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple is still observed by the Armenians on Feb. 14, as they still celebrate the Nativity on Jan. 6.

The origin of the consecrating of candles and carrying them in procession which has given us the low Latin names _candelaria_ and _candelcisa_, the French _chandeleur_, the Italian _candelora_, the German _Lichtmesse_, and our English name _Candlemas_, and which from early times formed a striking feature in the ritual of the Feast, has been conjecturally connected by some with a symbolical setting forth of the words of Simeon (Luke ii. 32); and by others with the ceremonial of the heathen _Lupercalia_. But the matter is still involved in doubt.

In the East the establishment of the festival throughout the Empire is generally assigned to Justinian in the year 542. The appearance of Hypapante in the so-called Gregorian Sacramentary is, it need scarcely be said, no proof that the festival was observed in the time of Gregory the Great.

The word ‘Hypapante’ lingered long in the West. We find it as the only name of the festival in the Martyrology of Bede; and one hundred and fifty years later the day is marked in Usuard as simply ‘Hypapante Domini.’

2. =The Annunciation= (March 25) like ‘Hypapante’ was probably originally a feast of our Lord, as marking the time of the Incarnation. Inferentially it may be considered as well established both in the East and West considerably before the close of the seventh century. Duchesne considers that we have very clear testimony to this feast before the Council in Trullo (A.D. 692), where it was spoken of as already established. Perhaps earlier, or, at latest, almost contemporary, in the West is the testimony of what is known as the tenth Council of Toledo (?A.D. 694)[76] where the complaint is made that in various parts of Spain the festival of St Mary was observed on various days, and it is further added that as the festival cannot be fitly celebrated either in Lent, or when overshadowed by the Paschal festival, the Council ordains that for the future the day should be xv Kal. Jan. (Dec. 18) and the Nativity of the Lord on viii Kal. Jan. (Dec. 25). It is plain that something of the nature of an octave was to follow the festival of Dec. 18; and there is added in a somewhat apologetic tone, ‘nam quid festum matris nisi incarnatio verbi?’ (canon 1). The Trullan Council took a different course. While continuing to prohibit all other festivals during Lent, it sanctioned the celebration of this. In the Milanese rite the feast was celebrated on the fourth Sunday in Advent. In the Mozarabic Missal we find in the Kalendar the Annunciation of St Mary marked both on March 25 and Dec. 18; the latter being distinguished as the ‘Annunciation of the O,’ referring to the great Antiphons sung at that season.

The older titles of the festival were the ‘Annunciation of the Lord,’ ‘the Annunciation of the Angel to the Blessed Virgin Mary,’ or ‘the Conception of Christ.’

The rules in the Roman rite for transferring the Annunciation to another day under certain circumstances will be found in technical works of the commentators.

3. =The Nativity of the Virgin= (Sept. 8). This also is found in the West towards the close of the seventh century. Durandus, who is often more fanciful than wise, had in this case perhaps some historical foundation for his assertion that the festival was founded by Pope Sergius I in A.D. 695. The story of Joachim and Anna, the parents of St Mary, is found in certain apocryphal Gospels which circulated among the Gnostics[77].

4. =The Sleep, or (later) Assumption, of the Virgin= (Aug. 15) appears in the West about the same time as the _Annunciation_ and the _Nativity of the Virgin_. All three were unknown to Gregory the Great. It originated in the East, and was there known as the Sleep and (afterwards) the Translation. According to the historian, Nicephorus Callistus, the festival was founded by the Emperor Maurice (A.D. 582-602). It is beyond our province here to deal with the legend of St Mary’s body as well as soul being taken up to heaven. The festival made its way slowly in Gaul, but was eventually adopted by Charlemagne. As late as the twelfth century it was not universally observed in the East.

The advance in the titles of the festival from _depositio_, _pausatio_, _dormitio_ to _transitus_ and _assumptio_ is not without significance. In Bede the name is _Dormitio_.

It will be observed that all these four festivals came to Rome from Byzantium. In the later mediaeval period they were of universal obligation in the West[78].

For notices of the observance of the death of St Mary on Jan. 18, see Baillet, _op. cit._, VI. 11.

5. =The Presentation of St Mary= (_praesentatio_, _illatio_, _oblatio_) in the Temple at Jerusalem. In the modern Roman Kalendar at Nov. 21, it is a ‘greater double.’ It does not appear in the Kalendar of the Sarum Breviary or Missal; but the _Sarum Enchiridion_ (1530) gives Nov. 21, and the Office is printed in the Breviary. There were many exceptions to this feast being observed[79]. The festival is based on a legend[80] that at an early age Mary was dedicated to the service of God in the Temple, and that there she grew up, and served under the priests and Levites. The first appearance of the festival is at Constantinople; and there is evidence for it there in A.D. 1150. It passed to the West towards the close of the fourteenth century[81]. And with more certainty than is usually possible in such enquiries we can trace its introduction to the impression made by the accounts, brought back from Cyprus, by Philip de Mazières, of the solemnities of the feast in the East. Pius V (A.D. 1566-1572) withdrew it from the Roman Kalendar; but it was restored by Sixtus V (A.D. 1585-1590).

6. =The Conception of St Mary= (Dec. 8). Since Dec. 8, 1854, when Pius IX (in the Apostolic Letters _Ineffabilis Deus_) decreed the doctrine of the _Immaculate Conception_ to be a necessary article of the Faith, the epithet _Immaculate_ has been prefixed to the original title in the service-books of the Roman Communion. In the Greek Church the day observed is Dec. 9, and the title is the _Conception of St Anna, grandmother of God_, the Easterns connecting the word ‘conception’ with the person who conceived, while the Latins connected it with the person who was conceived. The festival was commanded to be observed throughout the Empire of the East by the Emperor Manuel Comnenus in the middle of the twelfth century.

The evidence seems to point to the fact that, like several other festivals of the Virgin, this originated in the East. In the Greek _Horologion_ we find it related that, according to the ancient tradition of the Church, Anna was barren and well stricken in years, and also that her spouse Joachim was an aged man. In sorrow for their childlessness they prayed to the Lord, who hearing their prayers intimated to them by an angel that they would have a child, and in accordance with the promise Anna conceived[82]. It appears that the festival had no dogmatic significance; and it had its parallel in the historical festival, still observed in the Greek Church on Sept. 23, of the Conception of St John the Baptist, a festival which also had a place in the old Latin Martyrologies.

In the West the local observance of the day is associated commonly with the name of St Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, who, in one form of the story, on a voyage from England to Normandy during a storm vowed to establish the festival. But the day is marked in some English Kalendars just before the Norman Conquest, though at first it had a very limited acceptance[83]. It is plain that at an early date there were some who connected the festival with the belief that St Mary differed from other mortals in being without original sin. For when the Chapter of the Cathedral of Lyons were about to institute the festival in that church, St Bernard of Clairvaux wrote (A.D. 1140) expostulating with them partly on the ground that though St Mary was, as he believed, sanctified in the womb, yet her conception was not holy. He added that this was a novel festival, ‘quam ritus Ecclesiae nescit, non probat ratio, non commendat antiqua traditio’; and declares that it was the outcome of the simplicity of a few unlearned persons, the daughter of inconsiderateness (_levitatis_), and the sister of superstition (_Epist._ 174).

John Beleth, Dean of the Faculty of Theology at Paris, towards the close of the twelfth century argued much in the same way as St Bernard. And in the following century, and towards its close, such a leading authority as Durandus, bishop of Mende, in his _Rationale_ says that there were some who would celebrate this festival, but that he could not approve of it, because St Mary was conceived in original sin, though she was sanctified in the womb.

As regards the Church of Rome (properly so called), Innocent III in the beginning of the thirteenth century declares in one of his sermons (_Serm._ II _de Joan. Bapt._) that no other conception than that of the Lord Jesus was celebrated in the Church. Nevertheless the celebration of the day spread both in France, and, more particularly, in England. The Council of Oxford (A.D. 1222) approved of the feast, but distinguished it from the other feasts of the Virgin by leaving it to be observed or not at discretion. In the province of Canterbury the day was made of obligation by Archbishop Simon Mepeham (A.D. 1328-33).

In 1263 the Franciscans resolved to celebrate the festival publicly in their churches. But even the Franciscans were not agreed among themselves as to the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. Alvarus Pelagius, the Spanish Theologian, Great Penitentiary of Pope John XXII, in his _de Planctu Ecclesiae_ (1332) declares that ‘the new and fantastic opinion should be cancelled by the faithful.’

As is well known, the Dominicans took a strong and even violent part against the doctrine. The greatest doctor of the thirteenth century, Thomas Aquinas, had clearly pronounced that St Mary was not sanctified till the infusion of her _anima rationalis_. But with regard to the feast of the Conception he states that inasmuch as the Roman Church, though not celebrating the Conception of the Blessed Virgin, tolerates the practice of certain Churches which do celebrate it, the celebration of the feast is not to be wholly reprobated; and he adds that we must not infer from the observance of the day that St Mary was holy in her conception, but because we are ignorant as to the time when she was sanctified, the feast of her sanctification rather than of her conception is celebrated on the day of her conception[84]. Accordingly in Dominican Kalendars we find the day marked as _Sanctificatio Mariae_.

The Council of Bâle (1439) adopted a constitution applicable to the whole Church that the feast should be observed according to the ancient and laudable custom on Dec. 8, and that it should be known under the title of the _Conception_ of the Blessed Virgin Mary, forbidding the use of the name _Sanctification_, as having a less extended use. The Roman See, not recognising this Council, did not take action till A.D. 1477, when Sixtus IV, who had been a Franciscan, published an ordinance (and it is the very first decree of any Pope on the subject) granting large indulgences to all the faithful who celebrated, or assisted at, the Mass and Office of the Conception on the festival or throughout its octave. In 1483 the same Pope pronounced excommunication on any preachers who asserted that St Mary was conceived in original sin or that those who observed the festival sinned[85]. Clement VIII (1592-1605) raised the festival to the rank of a greater double. The later history of the festival can be pursued in Baillet, and in recent writers dealing with Pius IX.

For minor festivals of the Virgin, such as ‘St Mary at Snows,’ the Visitation of St Mary, the Espousals (_Desponsatio_), the Most Holy Name of Mary, the Seven Sorrows, the Rosary of St Mary, Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel, the Expectation of the Delivery (_partûs_), and others, the reader may consult Baillet, the _Catholic Dictionary_, etc.

II. _The Orthodox Church of the East._

A reference to the classification of Feasts in the Eastern Church[86] will show that among the twelve principal Feasts are found (1) The _Evangelismos of the Theotokos_, March 25, corresponding to the Western feast of the Annunciation; (2) the Repose of the Theotokos, Aug. 15; (3) the Nativity of the Theotokos, Sept. 8; and (4) the Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple, Nov. 21, corresponding to the Presentation of the Virgin in the West.

To these have to be added the following feasts of lesser dignity: (5) Hypapante (the Meeting of St Mary with Simeon and Anna in the Temple), Feb. 2, corresponding to the Western Purification. This is a day of obligation: but (as has been already remarked) it is perhaps to be regarded rather as a festival of the Lord than of St Mary. (6) The Deposition of the precious Vestment of the Theotokos in the Church of Blachernae at Constantinople, July 2: (7) the Deposition of the precious Zone of the Theotokos at Constantinople, Aug. 31: (8) the Conception of St Anna (_i.e._ her conception of St Mary), Dec. 9, a day of obligation: (9) the Synaxis of the Theotokos and Joseph, her spouse, Dec. 26, a day of obligation. This day is also called the Synaxis of the Theotokos fleeing into Egypt. The Greeks consider that the visit of the Magi was exactly one year after the birth of Christ, and that the flight into Egypt was on the day following that visit.