§ 83. THE FESTIVALS OF MAKY. 425
rn/nc et in hora mortis, were added even after tliat time by tli€ Fi'anciscaus. But even tlie first two parts did not come intc general nse as a standing forunila of prayer until tlie thirteenth century.' From that date the Ave Maria stands in the Roman church upon a level with the Lord's Prayer and the j^postles' Creed, and with them forms the basis of the rosary.
§ 83. I'he Festivals of Mai^.
This mythical and fantastic, and, we must add, almost pagan and idolatrous Mariology impressed itself on tlie public cultus in a series of festivals, celebrating the most important facts and fictions of the life of the Virgin, and in some degree running parallel with the festivals of the birth, resurrection, and ascension of Christ.
1. The Annunciation of Mary" commemorates the announcement of the birth of Christ by the arcliangel Gabriel/ and at the same time the conception of Christ; for in the view of the ancient church Mary conceived the Logos (Yerbum) through the ear by the word of the angel. Hence the festival had its place on the 25th of Mai'ch, exactly nine months before Christmas ; though in some parts of the church, as Spain and Milan, it was celebrated in December, till the Roman ])ractiee conquered. The first trace of it occurs in Proclus, the opponent and successor of Nestorius in Constantinople after 430 ; then it appears more plainly in several councils and homilies of the seventh century.
2. The PuRiFicA'noN of Maky,* or Candlemas, in memory
* Peter Damiani (who died a. d. 1072) first mentions, as a solitary case, that a clergjman daily prayed the words: "Ave Maria, gratia plena! Dominus tecum, benedicta tu in mulieribus." The first order on the subject was issued by Odo, bishop of Paris, after 1196 (comp. Mansi, xxii. 681): "Exhortentur populum semper presbyteri ad dicendam orationem dominicam et credo in Deum et salutationem ieatcB Virgiriis."
* 'H fj.e pa. affnarrfjioii, or Xap it icr fxov , c v ayy t \ i a ^ o v ^ i aapKuxTtvi] fettwm annunciationis, a. incarnationis, conceptionis Domini.
» Luke i. 26-39.
* Festum purificationis Maria, or prcesentccfionia Domini^ Simeonis et ffunna
120 THEED PEBIOD. A.D. 311-590.
of the ceremonial purification of the Yirgin,' forty days after the birth of Jesus, therefore on the 2(1 of P'ebruary (reclvoniii<]; from the 25th of December) ; and at the same time in memory of the presentation of Jesus in the temple and his meeting of Simeon and Anna." This, like the preceding, was thus originally as much a festival of Christ as of Mary, especially in the Greek church. It is supposed to have been introduced by Pope Gelasius in 491, though by some said not to have arisen till 542 under Justinian I., in consequence of a great earthquake and a destructive pestilence. Perhaps it was a Christian transformation of the old Roman lustrations or expiatory sacrifices (Febriia, Februalia), whicli from the time of Numa took place in February, the month of purification or expiation.* To heathen origin is due also the use of lighted tapers, with which the people on this festival marched, singing, out of the church through the city. Hence the name Candlemas."
3. The Ascension, or Assumption rather, of Maky ^ is celebrated on the 15th of August. The festival was introduced by the Greek emperor Mauritius (582-G02) ; some say, under Pope Gelasius (f 490). In Pome, after the ninth century, it is one of the principal feasts, and, like the others, is distinguished M'ith vigil and octave.
It rests, however, on a purely aj^ocryjihul foundation.
The entire silence of the apostles and the primitive church teachers respecting the departure of Mary stirred idle curiosity to all sorts of inventions, until a translation like Enoch's and Elijah's was attributed to her. In the time of Origen some
OCCursus ; inr a it d v tt) , or UTraj/rrj, or uTracTrjtris rou Kup io u (the meeting <jf the Lord with Simeon and Anna in the temple).
' Comp. Luke ii. 22; Lev. xii. 2-7. The apparent incongruity of Marj's need of purification with the prevalent Roman Catholic doctrine of her absolute purity and freedom from the ordinary accompaniments of parturition (even, according to Paschasius Radbert, from the flow of blood) gave rise to all kinds of artificial expla^ nations. Augustine derived it from the consuetude Icgis rather than the neccssita* expiandi purgandique peccati, and places it on a par with the bapti.«m of Christ (Quaest. in lleptatcuchura, 1. iii. c. 40.) ' Luke ii. 22-88.
' Februarius, from Februo, the purifying god; like Januarius, from the god Janus. Fcbruare = purgare, to purge. February was originally the last month.
* Fexium candelanim sive luminum.
^ \io't fxt) (T t s , or av aXti^ i i t r\i oyi'aj @f or u Kov, fcstum assumptioni*