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 CALENDAR

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CALENDAR

lectionaries — but those 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- 49] ), 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 (Feb- ruary 22d); Sext. Cal. Arr. Resurreetio Domini nostri I. Chr.; Pascha: Dies Ascensionis; Passio S. Ioannis; Natalis SS. apostolorutn Petri et Pauli; Natalis S. Martini; Natalis S. Symphori- ani (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, An- huntiatio beats Maria?, Resurreetio Domini cum die sequenti, Ascensio Domini, dies Pentecostes, Nativitas beati Ioannis Baptists, Nativitas apostolorum Petri et Pauli, Assumptio beats Maris, eiusdem Nativitas. Nativitas Andres apostoli, et omnes dies dominicales. In the course of the eighth and ninth centuries various German synods drew up lists of the ecclesiastical holi- days 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 or- dinary Sundays, three free days after the feast itself being appointed both at Christmas and Easter. A council at Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) in 800 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 tin 1 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 en- forced by the royal authority. The list comprised I lie four chief festivals of Our Lady and the commemora- tion of .St. Gregory the Great. The observance of St. Dunstan's feast was imposed a little later durirn; 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 tin session 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 7(12 and 700. As it has never been printed it may be interesting to give here the entries made in (he orig- inal hand, omitting the interpolations made by others at a slightly later date. The MS. which contains it is the well known "Codex Eptemacensis", now Latin MS. 10837, in the Bibliotheque Rationale, Paris.

January 1 t'irnii

3 St. Genevieve of Paris 6 Epiphany

13 St. Hilary

14 St. Felix "f N"1m

17 Si Vnthony, Hermit

18 St. Petei

and the Assumption et' Hols Mary

20 St Sebastian

21 St. Ai"

24 St. Babilas, Bishop and Martyr

25 Conversion of St. Paul at Damascus

29 St. Valerius, Bishop, and St. Lucy V. at I

February 1 St. Denis. St. Polycarp and St. Brigid V.

eon, Patriarch .". St. Agatha 6 St. Amandus i.; St Juliana 22 The Chair of Peter at Anti-

01 li

March

, Perpetua and Felicitas

Rome

17 St. Patrick. Bishop in Ire- land

20 St I ''.'lil erl B

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

11 Pancratius, Martyr

1 1 Earliest date for Pentecost

31 St. Mariminius at Treves

June

2 Erasmus, Martyr S Barnabas. Apostle 9 St. Columkill

22 James the son of Alpheus

24 Nativity of John the Bap- tist

29 Sts. Peter and Paul at Rome

July 15 St. James of Nisibis

25 St. James, Apostle, Brother

of John 2ti St. SvniBin, M....k in Syria 29 St. Lupus

The Machabees. seven broth- ers with their mother St. Oswald. King St. Syxtus, Bishop St. Laurence, Deacon Hippolitus, Martyr (Sic) [erasure] St. Mary St. Bartholomew. Apostle Augustine and Faustinus, Bishops

Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist St. Paulinus, Bishop at

September 7 Sergius, Pope at Rome 9 (Stc) Nativity of St. Mary at Jerusalem

13 Cornelius and Cyprian 15 St. Euphernia. 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 I Sts. Heuwald and Hewald, Martyrs

14 Paulinus, Bishop in Canter-

15 Luke, Evangelist

25 Simcui and .hide. Apostles 31 St. Quintinus, Martyr

November

10 St. Leo. Pope

11 St. Martin, Bishop at Tours

22 St. Cecilia

23 Clement at Rome 21 Crisogonus 30 St. Andrew, Apostle

December 10 St. Eulalia and seventy- five others

30 St. Ignatius, Bishop and Martyr

21 St. Thomas, Apostle in

India 2.5 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 ap- pearance of St. Januarius (19 Sept.) is also note- worthy. The link between England and Southern Italy in the matter of the commemoration of saints lias often been noticed without ever being quite ade- quately explained. (See Morin, Liber Comicus, Ap- pendix, etc.) The occurrence of the Invention of the Cross on 7 May, as in the Greek Church, is also re- markable. It. is further curious to note the partial erasure of the Assumption feast on 10 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 rnartyrologrum, which, thanks to the patient

labour of II (Juetitin. ha.- at last been recovered for

us (see I.es Martyrologes Historiques, Paris, 1908, pp. 17-119). Not le.-s interesting is the ancient English martyrology recently edited for the Early English Text SocietybyG. Herzfeld. This document, though not a calendar, and though including later interpola- tions, probably reflects t he 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 Sacra- mentary was afterward- substituted.