PASSION WEEK
13'.
PASSIONEI
the week following as well as to the week preceding Easter. The emperors, also, granted a general release to prisoners at tliis season, and commanded all suits and processes at law to cease. The Thursday of the Pas- sion Week, being the day on which Christ was be- trayed, was observed with some peculiar customs. In some of the Latin churches the communion was admin- istered on this day in the evening, in imitation of Christ's last supper, a provision being made for this in one of the canons of the third Council of Carthage. On this day the cuinpeteiites, or candidates for baptism, publicly recited the creed in the presence of the bishop or presbyters in the churcli. Such public pen- itents, also, as had completed tlie penance enjoined by the Church, were then absolved. On this day, too, it was customary for servants to receive the communion. (The modern ritualists call it Maiiiuhi?/ Thursday/, q. V.) Tlie Friday was called Coud Friday (q. v.), or Pasch of the Cross, in opposition to Easter, or the Pusch 'of the Resurrection. From the canons of the fourth Council of Toledo it would appear that a general abso- lution was proclaimed to all those who observed the day with fasting, prayers, or true contrition. The Sat- urday, or Sabbath, in Passion Week, was commonly known by the name of the Great Sabbath. It was the only Sabbath throughout tlie year that the Greek churches, and some of the Western, kept as a fast. The fast was continued not only until evening, but protract- ed till cock-crowing in the morning, which was sup- posed to be the time of Christ's resurrection. The pre- vious part of the night was spent in religious exercises of various kinds. Eusebius tells us that in the time of Constantine this vigil was kept with great pomp ; for he set up lofty pillars of wax to burn as torches all over the city, and lamps burning in all places, so tliat the night seemed to outshine the sun at noonday. Greg- ory Nazianzen also speaks of the custom of hanging up lamps and torches both in the churches and in the pri- vate houses, which, he says, they did as a forerunner of that great Light the Sun of Pighteousness arising on the world on Easter-day. This night was famous above all others for the baptism of catechumens. The tifth Sunday in Lent is sometimes called Passion Sunday, that name being applied to it in reference to Christ's prediction on that day of his approaching passion. Some persons call the week, of which Passion Sunda\' is the tirst. Passion Week, to distinguish it from the real Pas- sion Week, which they call Holy Week.
Passion Week (or Holy Week, as it is often called, though incorrectly; for Passion Week, by the proper rubrical usage, is that which precedes Holy Week) is observed with great pomp in the Pomish Church. The ceremonies of the season commence on Palm-Sunday (q. v.), when the commemoration takes place of the Saviour's triumphal entrv into .lerusalem. On Wed- nesday of this week, in the afternoon, there is the service of the Tenebr(e, a kind of funeral service, which is repeated at the same hour on the Thursday and Fri- da}'. The ceremonies of the Thursdaj'^ consist princi- palh' of a representation of the burial of our Saviour. This is followed, in Rome, by the ceremony of the pope washing the feet of thirteen pilgrims, in imitation of our Saviour's washing tlie feet of his disciples; this cer- emonj' being followed by the same pilgrims being 'Served by his holiness at dinner. A singular ceremony takes place on the Thursday at St. Peter's at Home — the washing of the high-altar with wine. On Good Friday the ceremony of uncovering and adoring the cross is observed, at the close of wiiich a procession is mar- shalled to bring back the host from the sepulchre in which it was deposited on tlie previous day. The pope and cardinals also adore the three great relics, which are glittering caskets of crystals, set in gold and silver, and sparkling with precious stones, and which are said to contain a part of the true cross, one half of the spear which pierced the Saviour's side, and the Vol- to Santo, or holy countenance. On the Satunlay of
Passion Week, at Pome, converted Jews and heathen are baptized after holy water has been consecrated for the puriiosc. Young men are also ordained to various sacred othces. The chief employment of the day, how- ever, consists of services in honor of the resurrection. For the ceremonies of Easter Sunday, see Eastek. The Great Week closes usually with an illumination and fireworks. See Wheatley, Commentary on Book of Common Prayer; Schaff, Church History, vol. i; Proc- ter, Commentary on Book of Common Prayer. For mon- ographs, see Volbeding, p. 120; Hase, p. 177 sq. For the events, see Jesus Chkist.
FaEsicnale is the title of a work, by an unknown author (iirobably of the 14th ccnturj-), which, in three books, sings of the lives of Jesus and of the Virgin, of the apostles and evangelists, and of seventy-five saints, "to incite men to adoration, and to strengthen their virtuous habits." Luther edited and published it.