03 February 2022

Medieval calendar events in Scotland & England (mostly), Part 2: Easter Cycle


For the remainder of the church year, the placement on the civil calendar of all feasts, festivals, ferias, seasons, etc. depends on the fluctuating date of Easter, except for certain saints’ days and the like.

Because this cycle and the calendar events attached to it are more religious than secular, this is a better section to get into some technical ecclesiastical terminology and practice.

Introduction

One reason proffered that the Scottish Church adopted the Use of Sarum as quickly as it did was its desire to escape the influence of the Archdiocese of York as much as possible.  Prior to Pope Celestine III’s papal bull Cum universi of 1192, the Scottish Church, with no archbishop of its own (not until the 15th century, in fact), was practically under the dominion of the See of York. 

This was disputed, of course, by the See of Canterbury, not to mention by the Scottish Church.  Although they kept a few characteristics of the Use of York (such as a wider variety of liturgical colors), the dioceses of Scotland quickly adopted the Use of Sarum after 1192, when the dioceses of Aberdeen, Brechin, Caithness, Dunblane, Dunkeld, Glasgow, Moray, Ross, and St. Andrews became the Scottish Church.

The Diocese of the Isles did not exist until 1387, having been previously part of the Diocese of Sodor in the Province of Nidaros (Norway).  The Diocese of Galloway was not admitted into the Scottish Church until 1430, before which it was part of the Province of York.  The Diocese of Orkney (Orkney & Shetland) was until 1472 also part of the Province of Nidaros.

The dioceses of the Scottish Church adopted the Use of Sarum almost entirely unchanged, with the addition of numerous of their own saints, though there were differences in the calendar for observances begun after the Use of Sarum was first adopted.  No doubt the same occurred to the west on the island of Ireland.

EASTER CYCLE

I’m starting this with Shrovetide even though the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL, 1994) extends Epiphanytide all the way to the day before Ash Wednesday.  In that scheme, the Sunday before Lent is known as Transfiguration Sunday.  In the traditional ecclesiastical calendar of the West, these three weeks preceded the beginning of Lent rather than being appended to the end of Epiphanytide.

Shrovetide

Under the traditional calendar, the season known as Shrovetide in England and in Rome as “Pre-Lent”, begins Septuagesima (3rd Sunday before Lent), lasting until Ash Wednesday, and includes Sexuagesima (2nd Sunday before Lent) and Quinquagesima (Sunday Before Lent, also known as Shrove Sunday).

Many parishes observe Shrove Tuesday with a pancake supper, a much, much toned-down version of Mardis Gras or Carnival.  Of course, this means, given the fact that liturgically the day begins at sundown, the first thing they do to observe their Lent of fast and abstinence is to violate it.

The Scottish Church is the only one in the West to have had a unique color for this season separate from that of Lent, blue as at Advent.  The Use of York also prescribed blue as the liturgical color, but they continued that through Lent until Passiontide.  In the Use of Sarum, churches began employing the dun-colored linen which they used until Passiontide, with black in the Use of Lichfield during the same calendar period.  In the Use of Rome, black was used from Septuagesima through Holy Saturday.

Collop Monday

Also known as Shrove Monday, it came to acquire this name in England after the custom of eating collops (slices) of bacon and eggs this day, saving the fat from the bacon for the pancakes the next day.

Another common name for the day is Blue Monday.

Pancake Tuesday

Also known Shrove Tuesday and Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras), the above name derives from the custom of eating pancakes, either for breakfast, for supper, or for both, on this day.

Shrove Tuesday was also the traditional day for burning the palms from the previous Palm Sunday to make ashes for the next day.

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday has been the start of Lent since the days of Pope St. Gregory (I) the Great (590-604).  He was unhappy that in its original form Lent only had thirty-six days of fasting (not counting Sundays) instead of the full forty days, so he added four to the front end.

Since the Anglo-Saxons were pagan upon the arrival of St. Augustine of Canterbury, the observance was already included in their introduction to the season of Lent.  In the already-Christianized Scotland and Ireland, however, Ash Wednesday was not adopted until much later.  For Scotland, that only happened after St. Margaret brought it upon her husband Malcolm III Canmore mac Duncan becoming King of Alba.

The most signal part of the liturgy of the day is the imposition of ashes on the foreheads of worshippers in the shape of a cross.

The earliest possible date for Ash Wednesday is 4 February, and the latest date possible for Ash Wednesday is 10 March.

Embering Thursday

The day after Ash Wednesday was once called this in parts of England.

Lent

Sources conflict about when, from where, and for what purpose the season of fasting commonly known in English as Lent first arose, but it is beyond question that the Church formalized the observance at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 CE.

Known in Latin as Quadragesima, Lent originally began on a Sunday, now called the First Sunday of Lent as well as Quadragesima Sunday.  It still does in the East.

In the early medieval Irish Church, the season was known as Spring Lent or the Lent of Jesus.

Fasting and abstinence were mandatory, as was increased prayer.  Daily Mass with special propers for the day resumed.  Sundays were titled as First Sunday of Lent, etc., and also by the Latin word that was the first of the Introit of that Sunday.

For the liturgical colors, the Scottish Church switched to dun-colored (unbleached) linen.  The same had been the case in the Use of Sarum since the beginning of Shrovetide, with blue continuing in the Use of York and black in the Use of Lichfield and in the Use of Rome.

Quadragesima Sunday

Also known as First Sunday in Lent, this Sunday marks the week in which the spring Ember Days fall (Wednesday, Friday, Saturday).

Until the arrival of St. Margaret, the Scottish Church still began Lent on this day, but afterwards adopted Ash Wednesday.  The Irish Church likewise kept this day as the beginning of Lent until after the Anglo-Norman Conquest.

The Monday after Quadragesima Sunday was designated in the Use of Sarum as the beginning of the Lenten Array, the veiling of crosses, crucifixes, images, and statues in the colors of the season according to the various Uses.  The liturgical colors in all cases were the same as during Lent.

Spring Embertide

The Ember Days (Wednesday, Friday, Saturday) of spring, also known as Ember Days of Lent, fell in the week after Quadragesima Sunday.

Refreshment Sunday

The Fourth Sunday of Lent is known as Laetere Sunday because of the first word in its Latin Introit, as Refreshment Sunday because of its Gospel, and as Rose Sunday of Lent because Innocent III decreed that rose may be the liturgical color for the day along with the Third Sunday of Advent.

In England, this Sunday became known during the Middle Ages as Mothering Sunday because it was the day boy apprentices and girl servants were allowed to go home to their families.  Since the 19th century, it has been the traditional day for people to visit their mother church, the parish in which they were baptized.

In the Holy Roman Empire (Germany), this Sunday was also known as Dead Man's Sunday because of funeral processions held to mark the death of winter and the birth of spring.

Passion Sunday

Otherwise known as the Fifth Sunday of Lent, this Sunday marked the beginning of Passiontide.  Also known as Black Sunday because of the custom of placing black veils over all the crosses, crucifixes, and icons inside the church.

Passiontide

Passiontide is a season within a season, encompassing the entire last two weeks of Lent.  In the Use of Sarum, the Use of Lichfield, and that of the Scottish Church, the color of vestments, altar frontals, and the Lenten Array switches to red, while in the Use of York, it remained black.  In the Use of Rome, the Lenten Array began at this point, using black.

In the Use of Rome (the Roman Rite as practiced local to the See of Rome), this is when initial employment of the Lenten Array took place.

Passion Week

Passion Week in the old traditional calendar included Passion Sunday and the six days following.  The weekdays within it were referred to as Monday in Passion Week, etc.

Lazarus Saturday

Not an observance by Western churches, this occasion marked by all the Eastern churches commemorates the story of Christ’s raising Lazarus from the dead.  Though not, going by the designated Gospel readings, with only a couple of exceptions, the story of Christ’s visit to Bethany “six days before the Passover”, which is the reason this commemoration was placed here.

Holy Week

This section of Passiontide and Lent commemorates the events of the last week of Christ’s life as portrayed in the Gospels.

Palm Sunday

This Sunday commemorates the Triumphal Entry of Christ into Jerusalem as told in the Gospels using imagery that belongs not to Pesach (Passover) in 1st century CE Jerusalem but to Sukkot.  The palms, the hosannas, the psalm verses all belong to the festivities of that week (Sukkot is a seven-day festival onto the end of which is appended the holy day Shemini Atzeret).

In the Use of Sarum, the night before Palm Sunday, the reserved sacrament was taken some distance away to be paraded in the morning through the community and into the church in a procession led by a priest bearing the sacrament in a monstrance.

Holy Monday

In popular tradition, Monday in Holy Week commemorates the Cleansing of the Temple.

Since the Temple grounds were at the time under the administration of the Roman prelate of Judaea (in this case, Pontius Pilatus), such an attack would be considered one of rebellion against Rome.  This is why Isho Nasraya bar Miryam, the actual historical person behind the myth and legend of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, was sentenced to crucifixion, the punishment for non-citizen rebels.

Holy Tuesday

In popular tradition, Tuesday in Holy Week commemorates the Teaching of Parables and Christ’s triumph in debates against the Pharisees, Sadducees, and scribes.  It is also known as Fig Tuesday because of the pericope of the fig tree in the Gospel this day.

Holy Wednesday

In popular tradition, Wednesday in Holy Week commemorates both the Anointing of Christ by the Sinful Woman and the Betrayal of Christ by Judas Iscariot for thirty pieces of silver (the latter being why this day is nicknamed Spy Wednesday).

Tenebrae

On the last three days of Holy Week, the combined Matins and Lauds were moved up earlier, often beginning in the late afternoon or early evening to allow the laity to attend, but ending after dusk.  The nave, sanctuary, chancel, and quire all brightly lit by numerous candles, featuring especially a triangular candelabrum special to these three services called a hearse, in the Use of Rome holding seven candles each but in the Use of Sarum twelve each, plus one more in between in both cases.  In addition, there were also two sets of three office candles on the altar.

As the service progressed, candles on the hearse were gradually extinguished until only the one at the apex still burned.  Then, as each of the last six verses of the canticle Benedictus (Luke 1:68-79) at the end of Lauds was completed, a candle on the office lights was extinguished.  The hearse with its single burning candle was then hidden behind the altar, after which one of the ministers created a loud noise, usually by slamming a book.  Then the final candle was shown to the congregation before being extinguished and placed on the credence shelf.

By the High Middle Ages, Vespers and Compline were said back-to-back, and in this case, the Tenebrae for Maundy Thursday would follow immediately afterward in anticipation thereof.

Still Days

The old Anglo-Saxon name for the last three days of Holy Week, most likely because church bells were silent then.

Maundy Thursday

Thursday in Holy Week commemorates Christ’s Last Supper with his disciples, his washing of their feet, his Passion in the Garden of Gethsemane, his betrayal with a kiss, and his arrest.

In the Use of Sarum, the liturgy of Maundy Thursday began right after the canonical hour service of Nones (3 pm), with the reconciliation of penitents, followed by the Mass of the Day.  At the Mass, two hosts were consecrated, as well as enough bread for the Mass of the Presanctified on Good Friday.

At the end of Mass, the celebrant put the second consecrated host into a lunette and there was a procession to a side chapel, usually the Lady Chapel, where the lunette was placed on chapel altar, which then became the altar of repose, with the Paschal candle beside it.  Then the party returned to the quire for Vespers.

After Vespers, everyone adjourned to eat, then returned for the ablution of the altar(s) and the Maundy (foot-washing), ending with Compline, followed shortly after by the Tenebrae for Good Friday.

In the beginning of the 15th century, the altar of repose grew more and more elaborate, with memorials and lots of flowers.  At the turn of the century (16th), people began to keep watch before the altar of repose, in some places until midnight, in other until dawn.

In the Scottish Church, the liturgical color for this day was red, and in the Use of Rome (followed by Exeter), white.  The rest of the churches continued using the same color as the rest of Lent or of Passiontide.

 It is also called Shire Thursday, from the Old English word for “bright”.

Good Friday

Friday in Holy Week commemorates the Crucifixion and Death of Christ.

Unlike modern practice, the Good Friday service did not begin at noon, but after the canonical hourly office of Nones at 3 pm, although in many cases the other offices were all moved up.

The service for Good Friday began immediately after None, with the reading of two Old Testament lessons (Hosea 5:15-6:6 & Exodus 12:1-11), the Passion (John 18:1-19:37), then the Gospel (John 19:38-42).  The Solemn Collects followed this, then the ceremony of the Adoration of the Cross, and afterwards communion from the presanctified Sacrament, finishing with Vespers and ending with silent departure.

After returning for Compline, they continued with the Tenebrae for Holy Saturday.

The liturgical colors for Good Friday were the same as for Maundy Thursday across the board.

Holy Saturday

In the Use of Sarum, the service now called Easter Vigil was the Solemn Mass of Holy Saturday, and it started immediately after None.

The service began with no candles or lamps lit, with the Blessing of the New Fire, the Blessing of the Incense, and the Blessing of the Paschal Candle and the lighting of it.

The earliest evidence for the ceremony for the New Fire comes from Ireland, where it was already being carried out in the 7th century, at a time it was not present in the Gallican, Roman, or Eastern Rites, other than Jerusalem.

Four lessons from the Old Testament were then read, followed by those present saying the Sevenfold Litany (Litania Septiformis or Litany of the Saints).  The translation of the Sarum Missal most readily available directs it should be followed by the Five-part Litany, but this was not composed until the time of Henry VIII.

After these, the party commenced with the ceremony of the Blessing of the (Baptismal) Font, and from there, directly into Mass.

The Gospel of the Mass was that of Matthew 28:1-7.

The liturgical color for Easter across the board was white.

Easter Sunday

Also known as Pascha, in translated Irish as Spring Pasch, and Resurrection Sunday.

The complex series of calculations mean this day, which is the fulcrum around which all of the Easter Cycle depends, can fall anywhere from as early as 22 March to as late as 25 April.

The service began with the Adoration of the Holy Cross, though joyful rather than solemn as on Good Friday.  Other than that, the Mass progressed as usual.  The Gospel was Mark 16:1-7.

Annotine Easter

In the Middle Ages, it was custom to commemorate the observance of Easter the previous year.  If this fell during Lent, the commemoration would transfer to Low Sunday, the Fourth Sunday after Easter, or, more rarely, to Easter Saturday.

Eastertide

Also known as Paschaltide.

What was considered Eastertide in the Use of Sarum can be seen in the instructions to light the candle at Matins, Solemn Mass, and Vespers every day of the octave, then every Sunday from the Octave (Low Sunday) until the Ascension Day.

In the old form, the Sundays of this period were called Sundays After Easter.

Low Sunday

There are various theories about how the Octave of Easter acquired this nickname, but they are all only speculative.  The Mass began with an Alleluia followed by a lengthy Sequence hymn, but otherwise the structure of Mass did not differ from other Masses of the Day except for Propers.

Besides being also called the First Sunday After Easter, it was also known as Quasimodo Sunday after the first word of its Latin Introit, and yes, that is the source of the name for the eponymous character in Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.

Hocktide

Hocktide refers to the Monday and Tuesday after Low Sunday.  In England, it was a major festival, largely because it was the final two days of the spring work break, ones which had no religious obligation.

Two linked traditions developed.  On Hock Monday, men of the parish would tie women up, demanding a kiss for their release.  On Hock Tuesday, the women would tie the men up, demanding payment of money for their release, with the proceeds going into the parish coffers.

In modern Hungerford, Berkshire, England, Hocktide has stretched into a two-week festival whose biggest day is Tutti Day (aka Hock Tuesday), the day on which the Hock Court is held.  The officers and jury for the next Hocktide are chosen that Friday.  Until 1982, the festival ended with the Hocktide Ball; before that with the Hocktide Banquet on Saturday.

Rogation Sunday

Officially called the Fifth Sunday After Easter, the popular name comes from the fact that it is the Sunday preceding the three minor Rogation Days, so-called because the major Rogation Day was 25 April.

Rogation Week

Also known as Cross Week because of the cross carried at the head of the processions.

Known in Scotland and northern England as the Gang Days, the Rogation Days (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday of this week) were first instituted by Mamertus, Bishop of Vienne in southern France.  In England on these days, the Litany of the Saints and the Mass were said in procession of all the congregation with banners representing various Biblical characters.  After the rogation finished, there was a feast.

Often the procession would travel just inside the bounds of the parish, with boys beating the boundary markers with green boughs.

For the procession on these days in the Use of Sarum, the liturgical color was red, while in the Use of Rome it was purple.  At other Masses and offices on these days, it was the color of the season.

Ascension Day

Always on the fifth day of the week and sometimes called Holy Thursday, this feast commemorating the Ascension of Christ into heaven can land anywhere from 3 May to 6 June.

This is the last day of the church year on which the Paschal candle is lit; it was extinguished after the Gospel reading and removed on Friday.

Many parishes, at least in England, continued Rogation processions and beating of the bounds on this day also.

Ascensiontide

The more important time within this period was the octave, with the major days being Ascension Day, Sunday After the Ascension (Sixth Sunday After Easter), and the Octave, but the whole ten-day period was popularly considered Ascensiontide.

White continued as the liturgical color in the Scottish Church along with all the various Uses in England.

Expectation Week

This is week beginning the Sunday After the Ascension, so-called from the anticipation by the Apostles of the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Whitsunday

Also known as Pentecost.

Landing on the Seventh Sunday After Easter, which could be anywhere from 10 May to 13 June, this Sunday commemorates the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles in Jerusalem fifty days after Easter.

In the Use of Sarum, the liturgical color was red, but in the Scottish Church and every other Use in England, it remained white.

Whitsuntide

The octave of Whitsunday was known by this name in England, with Whitsun Monday, Whitesun Tuesday, Ember Wednesday, Whitsun Thursday, Ember Friday, and Ember Saturday, the Ember Days of summer falling in the week after Whitsunday.

Trinity Sunday

Falling anywhere from 17 May to 20 June, the feast was instituted in the West by Pope John XII (1316–1334) to be observed on the Octave of Whitesunday.  In the East, this Sunday is All Saints’ Sunday.

White was the liturgical color for Trinity Sunday in all traditions.

Trinitytide

The period after Trinity Sunday until Advent was called by this name in the British Isles.  Sundays were termed XXXth Sunday After Trinity, and there could be from twenty-two to twenty-seven of these, with the last known as Sunday Next Before Advent.

 

In the Scottish Church, the Use of Rome, and the Use of York, the liturgical color was green.  In the Use of Sarum, the liturgical color for Sundays of this season was red, while normal weekdays it was green. 

Corpus Christi

This feast commemorating the institution of the Blessed Sacrament on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday can fall anywhere from 21 May to 24 June.

Its adoption came about due to the efforts of 13th century Norbertine canoness Juliana of Liege, but it was not proclaimed to the whole Church (in the West) until Pope John XII did so in 1317.

Summer Lent

The ascetic Irish, who kept Advent as the full St. Martin’s Lent complete with fasting and abstinence longer than any other church in the West, were not content with just two whole seasons of fasting and abstinence (Winter Lent or the Lent of Elijah and Spring Lent or the Lent of Jesus to them), they had to make it three with the Summer Lent (Samchorgais), or the Lent of Moses.

Other sources report the “Lent of Pentecost” was once observed in the Latin (after the language used in the liturgy, meaning Western) Church, in the Gallican Rite, and possibly the Milanese and Visigothic Rites also as well as the Celtic Rite of Roman and Sub-Roman Britanniae, but not the Roman Rite.  Specifically, the fast was for forty days, when allowed, before the Nativity of St. John the Baptist on 24 June.

Note that since the earliest it could start was the evening of Trinity Sunday, if Whitsunday fell on 13 June, it could only be for three days.  This may be why the Irish, as reported by several 19th century theologians commenting on the 15th century work An Leabhar Breac (a compilation of, mostly, Christian works since the Early Middle Ages), moved the observance of Summer Lent to begin at sundown on the Sunday after 25 June, to last until sundown on Saturday before the Sunday after 17 July.

According to the Martyrology of Oengus and the Martyrology of Tallaght, the original Irish ecclesiastical seemed to have had fixed calendar dates for all the moveable feasts above, with the Conception and the Crucifixion commemorated together on 25 March, Easter on 27 March, Ascension on 5 May, and Pentecost (Whitsunday) on 15 May.  However, the Sarum Kalendar also placed Easter on 27 March, and the Use of Sarum followed the Dionysian system.  This could be also be the case with the two martyrologies above, or perhaps the Easter and Pentecost (Whitsunday) were celebrated on the Sundays following those two dates.

Eastern churches observe the Fast of the Holy Apostles from the Monday after All Saints’ Sunday (their name for the Octave of Whitsunday, which they call Pentecost) through the Vigil of the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul on 29 June.  These churches have another summer fast that begins 1 August and runs through 14 August called the Dormition Fast, in anticipation of the Dormition of Our Lady, which in the West is called the Assumption, on 15 August.  Since that feast was observed on that date in Ireland, there is little doubt that the Summer Pasch in An Leabhar Breac is not the same.

Summer Pasch

In the early medieval Irish Church, Summer Pasch (Samchasc; Samhraidh Cháisc in modern Irish) was the Sunday after 17 July.  As near as I can tell, its sole function was to serve as a celebration of the end of Summer Lent (Lent of Moses).

The  Eastern Orthodox popularly refer to the Dormition Fast and Feast of the Dormition of Our Lady as Summer Lent and Summer Pascha.

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When I did an image search for Easter Cycle, this is what I got:



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