§ 86. THE CHEISTIAN CALEiTDAE ACTA SAJS^CTOEUM. 442
ultaneonsly with the worship of Miiy and the saints, and churches also were dedicated to angels, and called after their names. Thus Constantino the Great built, a chnrch to the archangel Michael on the right bank of the Black Sea, whert the angel, according to the legend, appeared to some shipwrecked persons and rescued them from death. Justinian I built as many as six churches to him. Yet the feast of Michael, which some trace back to Pope Gelasius I., A. d. 493, seems not to have become general till after the ninth century.
^ S6. The Christian Calendar. The Legends of the Saints. The Acta Sa/nctorum.
This is the place for some observations on the origin and character of the Christian calendar with reference to its ecclesiastical elements, the catalogue of saints and their festivals.
The Christian calendar, as to its contents, dates from the fourth and later centuries ; as to its form, it comes down from chissical antiquity, chiefly fi'om the Romans, whose numeious calendars contained, together with astronomical and astrological notes, tables also of civil and religious festivals and public sports. Two calendars of Christian Rome still extant, one of the year 354, the other of the year 448,' show the transition, rhe former contains for the first time the Christian week beginning with Sunday, together with the week of heathen Rome; the other contains Christian feast days and holida}\j, though as yet very few, viz., four festivals of Christ and six martyr days. The oldest purely Christian calendar is a Gothic one, which originated probably in Thrace in the fourth century. The fragment still extant '^ contains thirty-eight days for J^Tovember and the close of October, among which seven days are called by the names of saints (two from the Bible, three from the church universal, and two from the Gothic cliurch).
' The latter is found in the Acta Sanct, Jun. torn. vii. p. 176 sqq.
' Printed in Angelo Mai, Script, vet. nova collect, torn. v. P. 1, pp. 66-68. Comp. Krafft, Kirchengeschichte der germanischen Volker. Vol. i. Div. 1, pp 185-387.
446 THIRD PEKIOD. A.D. 311-^90-
There are, however, still earlier lists of saints' days, aecording to the date of the holiday ; the oldest is a Kornan one of the middle of the fourth century, which contains the memorial days of twelve bishops of Eonie and twenty-four martyrs, together with the festival of the birth of Christ and the festival of Peter on the twentj'-second of February.
Such tables are the groundwork of the calendar and the martyrologies. At first each community or province had its own catalogue of feasts, hence also its own calendar. Such local registers were sometimes called diptycha^ {^Oktv^o)^ because they were recorded on tables with two leaves ; yet they commonly contained, besides the names of the martyrs, the names also of the earlier bishoj)s and still living benefactors or persons, of whom the priests were to make mention by name in the prayer before the consecration of the elements in the eucharist. The spread of the worship of a martyr, which usually started from the place of his martyrdom, promoted the interchange of names. Tlie great influence of Rome gave to the Roman festival-list and calendar the chief currency in the West.
Gradually the whole calendar was filled up with the names of saints. As the number of the martyrs exceeded the number of days in the year, the commemoration of several must fall upon the same day, or the canonical hours of cloister devotion must be given up. The oriental calendar is richer in saints from the Old Testament than the occidental."
With the calendars are connected the Martyrologia^ or Acta Marfyrum^ Acta Sanctorum^ called by the Greeks Menologia and Menma^ There were at first only "Diptycha" and
' From Si'ttti/xos, folded double.
* The Roman Catholic saint-calendars have passed, without material change, tc the Protestant church in Germany and other countries. Recently Prof. Piper in Berlin has attempted a thorough evangelical reform of the calendar by rejecting the doubtful or specifically Roman saints, and adding the names of the forerunners of the Reformation and the Reformers and distinguished men of the Protestant churches to the list ander their birthdays. To this reform also his EvamjcUschti Kcdender is devolfd, which has appeared annually since 1860, and contains brief, popular sketches of the Catholic and Protestant saints received into the improved calendar. Most English and American calendars entirely omit this list of saints.
" from /i^i', month ; hence, month-register. The Greek Menologies, /x tj *- o A o