bishop Avrote on the Nativity,' and that this work was thought to have been composed at Epipl Only 6th January was observed at Jerusale
phany.
the»time of 'Silvia,' when there was a 'station' at Bethlehem at night. As the manuscript is defective, we do not know whether there was a celebration of the Eucharist there, but it is prob- able that there was one, and this nocturnal 'station' may have been the origin of the Christ- mas midnight Eucharist of later days. The name of the Eastern festival was the ' Epiphanies ' or ' Theophanies.' Traces of the older custom in the East of observing 6th January only are found in the 6th cent, at Jerusalem, where Cosmas Indico- pleustes mentions it. He says that the Nativity and the Baptism were observed on the same day (Migne, Patr. Gr. vol. Ixxxviii. 197). The Ar- menians still observe only that day.
The Easterns, however, even at the end of the 4th cent., began to adopt the Western day in addition to their own ; and probably soon after- wards the Westerns adopted the Eastern day as a separate festival. And thereafter on 25th December the Church commemorated the Nativity, and on 6th January other manifestations of our Lord's Divinity and glory. In the East the Baptism, with its manifestations, was and is alone emphasized on 6th January. In the West, as St. Augustine says early in the 5th cent, (see below), the coming of the Wise Men was the great commemoration. The Calendar of Polemius Silvius (a.D. 448) com- bines it with our Lord's baptism and the miracle at Cana (Wordsworth, Min. of Grace, viii. § 1 ; Migne, Patr. Lat. xiii. 676). In the present day all three events are commemorated.
St. Chrysostom in A.D. 386 tells us that Christ- mas, as distinct from Epiphany, had been only lately introduced at Antioch, less than ten years before (in Diem Natalem, ed. Montfaucon, Paris, 1718, ii. 355 A). In de Bcato Phitogonio (i. 497 C) he speaks of Epiphany, Easter, and the other festivals taking their origin from Christmas ; for, if Christ had not been born, He would in no wise have been baptized, for that is tlie feast of the Theophanies. In the Apostolic Constitutions botli Christmas and Epiphany are mentioned (v. 13), and this is one of the chief factors in determining the date of tliat Syrian document. At Alexandria both festivals were observed before the year 432 ; for Paul, bishop of Emesa, preached there on his mission of peace after the Council of Ephesus on the Sunday before Christmas, on Christmas Day, and on the following Sunday, New Year's Day 433 (Smith-Wace, Diet. Chr. Biog. iv. 261, s.v. ' Paulus 30'),
In the West, St. Augustine tells us tliat both da^s were observed in his time ; he says that the
Epiphany was kept 'per universum mundum,' but that the Donatists would not accept it. He implies that it had been introduced from the East, and says that the Donatists did not love unity, and did not communicate with the Eastern Church where that star [of the Magi] appeared (Sermon 202 in Epiphania Domini, iv. ; see also Sermons 199-204. The six Sermons are almost entirely taken up with the coming of the Wise Men).
(b) Advent.— "VXie first trace of this season is in the canons of Saragossa in Spain (Concilium C(esaraugustanum), c. 380 A.D. (Mansi-Labbe, iii. 633), which provide that from xvi kal. Jan. to the ' day of Epiphany, which is viij Id. Jan.,' all are sedulously to attend church (can. 4). We notice here that 25th December is apparently unknown to this council, and that the preparatory season before 6th January is a solemn season of prayer and churchgoing, but not of fasting ; much as the ' forty days of Pascha ' are in the Testament of our Lord'. The latter work speaks of the 'days of Epiphany,' which may mean the days after Epiph- any, or possibly the days before it, just as the ' days of Pascha ' mean in this work the forty days before Easter, and the ' days of Pentecost '
i. The Presentation of Christ in the Temple.—
For this commemoration ' Silvia ' is our earliest authority. On this day, she says, all the presby- ters preached, and last the bishop himself, ' on the events of the day, when Joseph and Mary bore the Lord into the temple, and Simeon saw Him, and Anna the prophetess, the daughter of Samuel ' (sic). Then the Eucharist was celebrated. ' Silvia ' calls this day ' Quadragesima de Epiphania,' i.e. 14th February. The assembly was at the Church of the Anastasis. Here we have a clear indication of the way in which festivals at Jerusalem increased out of a desire to commemorate Gospel events in the holy places. From Jerusalem this festival spread elsewhere ; but we do not hear of it, except in ■ Silvia,' till the 6th century. Its name then was inrarai'Tri or the Meeting [of our Lord and Simeon] — a name still retained oy the Greeks.
Although Hippolytus had fixed 25th March as the date of the Annunciation, no trace of any observance of the day as a festival is found in the first four centuries, nor indeed for long after. Possibly its frequent concurrence with the Paschal solemnities or the Lenten fast prevented this. The Nestorians keep neither the Presentation nor the Annunciation.