Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 5.djvu/571

 EPIPHANY

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EPIPHANY

Basilidians celebrate Christ's Nativity and also His Baptism on 6 and 10 January, or did they merely keep His Baptism on these days, as well as His Nativity on another date? The evidence, if not Clement's actual words, suggests the former. It is certain that the Epiphany festival in the East very early admitted a more or less marked commemoration of the Nativity, or at least of the Angeli ad PaMores, the most striking "manifestation" of Christ's glory on that occasion. Moreover, the first actual reference to the ecclesiastical feast of the Epiphany (Ammianus Marcellinus, XXI, ii), in 361, appears to be doubled in Zonaras (XIII, xi) by a reference to the same festival as that of Christ's Nativity. Moreover, Epiphanius (Ha>r., li, 27, in P. G.. XLI, 936J says that the sixth of January is iiii^pa yevedXluv ToiiTicmv iwitpa.i'ioip, Christ's Birthday, i. e. His Epiphany. Indeed, he assigns the Baptism to 12 Athyr, i. e. 6 November. Again, in chapters xxviii and xxix (P. G., XLI, 940 sq.), he asserts that Christ's Birth, i. e. Theophany, occurred on 6 January, as did the miracle at Cana, in consequence of which water, in various places (Cibyra, for instance), was then yearly by a miracle turned into wine, of which he had himself drunk. It will be noticed, first, if Clem- ent does not expressly deny that the Church cele- brated the Epiphany in his time at Alexandria, he at least implies that she did not. Still less can we think that 6 January was then observed by the Church as holy. Moreover, Origen, in his list of festivals (Con- tra Celsum, VIII, xxii, P. G., XI, 1549), makes no mention of it.

Owing no doubt to the vagueness of the name Epiphant/, very different manifestations of Christ's glory and Divinity were celebrated in this feast quite early in its history, especially the Baptism, the miracle at Cana, the Nativity, and the visit of the Magi. But we cannot for a moment suppose that in the first in- stance a festival of manifestations in general was es- tablished, into which popular local devotion read spe- cified meaning as circumstances dictated. It seems fairly clear that the Baptism was the event predomi- nantly commemorated. The Apostolic Constitutions (VIII, x.xxiii; cf. V, xii) mention it. Kellner quotes (cf. Selden, de Synedriis, III, xy, 204, 220) the oldest Coptic Calendar for the name Dies baptismi sanclip.cati, and the later for that of Immersio Domini as applied to this feast. Gregory of Nazianzus identifies, indeed, rA 0€odi'ia with ii ayta toS XpiffroO ydvvTia-is, but this sermon (Orat. xxxviii in P. G., XXXVI, 312) was probably preached 25 Dec, 3S0; and after refer- ring to Christ's Birth, he assures his hearers (P. G., 329) that they shall shortly see Christ baptized. On 6 and 7 Jan., he preached orations xxxi.x and xl (P. G., loo. cit.) and there declared (col. 349) that the Birth of Christ and the leading of the Magi by a star having been already celebrated, the commemoration of His Baptism would now take place. The first of these two sermons is headetl (h to. ILyia 0uto, referring to the lights carried on that day to symbolize the spir- itual illumination of baptism, and the day must care- fully be distinguished from the Feast of the Purifica- tion, also called Festum luminum for a wholly different reason. Chrysostom, however, in 386 (see Christ- M.^s) preached "Hom. vi in B. Philogonium" where (P. G., XLVIII, 752) he calls the Nativity the parent of festivals, for, had not Christ been born, neither would He have been baptized, Sirep iarl t4 9eo0i>'io. This shows how loosely this title was used. (Cf. Chrys., " Hom. in Bapt. Chr.", c. ii, in P. G., XLIX, 363; A. D. 387). Cassian (Coll., X, 2, in P. L., XLIX, 820) says that even in his time (418-427) the Egyp- tian monasteries still celebrated the Nativity and Baptism on 6 January.

At Jerusalem the feast had a special reference to the Nativity owing to the neighbourhood of Bethlehem. The account left to us by Etheria (Silvia) is mutilated at the beginning. The title of the subsequent feast,

QuadragesinUB de Epiphania (Peregrin. Silvise, ed. Geyer, c. sxvi), leaves us, however, in no doubt as to what she is describing. On the vigil of the feast (5 Jan.) a procession left Jerusalem for Bethlehem and returned in the morning. At the second hour the services were held in the splendidly decorated Gol- gotha church, after which that of the Anastasis was visited. On the second and third days this ceremony was repeated; on the fourth the service was offered on Mount Olivet; on the fifth at the grave of Lazarus at Bethany; on the sixth on Sion; on the seventh in the church of the Anastasis, on the eighth in that of the Holy Cross. The procession to Bethlehem was nightly repeated. It will be seen, accordingly, that this Epiphany octave had throughout so strong a Nativity colouring as to lead to the exclusion of the commemoration of the Baptism in the year 385 at any rate. It is, however, by way of actual baptism on this day that the West seems to enter into connexion with the East. St. Chrysostom (Hom. in Bapt. Chr. in P. G., XLIX, 363) tells us how the Antiochians used to take home baptismal water consecrated on the night of the festival, and that it remained for a year without corruption. To this day, the blessing of the waters by the dipping into river, sea, or lake of a crucifix, and by other complicated ritual, is a most popular ceremony. A vivid account is quoted by Neale ("Holy Eastern Church", Introduction, p. 754; cf. the Greek, Syriac, Coptic, and Russian versions, edited or translated from the original texts by John, Marquess of Bute, and A. Wallis Budge). The people consider that all ailments, spiritual and physical, can be cured by the application of the blessed water. This custom would seem, however, to be originally connected rather with the miracle of Cana than with the Baptism. That baptism on this day was quite usual in the West is proved, however, by the complaint of Bishop Himerius of Tarragona to Pope Damasus (d. 384), that baptisms were being celebrated on the feast of the Epiphany. _ Pope Siricius, who answered him (P. L., XIII, 1134), identi- fies the feasts of Naialilia Christi and of His Appari- tio, and is very indignant at the extension of the period for baptisms beyond that of Easter and that of Pentecost. Pope Leo I (" Ep. xvi ad Sicil. episcopos", c. i, in P. L., LIV, 701; cf. 696) denounces the practice as an irrationabilis novitas; yet the Council of Gerona (can. iv) condemned it in 517, and Victor Vitensis alludes to it as the regular practice of the (Roman-) African Church (De Persec. Vandal., II, xvii, in P. L., LVIII, 216). St. Gregory of Tours, moreover (De gloria martyrum in P. L., LXXI, 783; cf. cc. xvii, xix), relates that those who Uved near the Jordan bathed in it that day, and that miracles were then wont to take place. St. Jerome (Comm. in Ez., I, i, on verse 3 in P. L., XXV, 18) definitely asserts that it is for the baptism and opening of the heavens that the dies EpiphanioTum is still venerable and not for the Nativ- ity of Christ in the flesh, for then absconditus est, et non apparuit — " He was hidden, and did not appear." That the Epiphany was of later introduction in the West than the Christmas festival of 25 December, has been made clear in the article Christmas. It is not contained in the Philocalian Calendar, while it seems most likely that 25 December was celebrated at Rome before the sermon of Pope Liberius (in St. Ambrose, De virg., iii, I, in P. L., XVI, 231) which many assign to 25 Dec, 354. St. Augustine clearl_y observes Orien- tal associations in the Epiphany feasts: "Rightly", says he (Serm. ccii, 2, in Epiph. Domini, 4, in P. L., XXXVIII, 1033), "have the heretic Donatists always refused to celebrate this day with us; for neither do they love unity, nor are they in communion with the Eastern Church, where that star appeared." St. Philastrius (Hsr., c. cxl, in P. L., XII, l->73) adds that certain heretics refu.se to celebrate tlio lOpiphany, re- garding it, apparently, as a needless duplication of the