The original Roman tradition, best known from the sermons of Pope Leo the Great (r.
440–61), was more austere. The Sunday before Easter was Passion Sunday; on this day,
the Passion readings of the Gospel were begun, and they were continued on Wednesday.
Thursday was the day for the reconciliation of penitents who had been expelled from the
church at the beginning of Lent. Friday featured the Solemn Intercessions, ten prayers for
all members of the church as well as for those outside it. Saturday was the day the
catechumens recited the Creed, proving they had memorized it (redditio symboli).
With the romanization of the Gallican rite, these two traditions were merged. The
Sunday before Easter incorporated both the palm procession and the reading of the first
Gospel Passion (Matthew), but the name Passion Sunday was moved back to the Sunday
before, creating a season of Passiontide that was more solemn than the earlier part of
Lent, marked particularly by the veiling of all religious images until Holy Thursday. The
Passions of Mark, Luke, and John were read on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday,
respectively, while Holy Thursday came to include a Mass for the blessing of chrism to
be used at the baptisms on Holy Saturday, the Reconciliation of Penitents, a Mass
commemorating the Last Supper, and a foot-washing Maundy. Good Friday combined
the Solemn Intercessions with the adoration of the Cross. The Easter vigil, which
gradually moved from the evening to the morning of Holy Saturday, absorbed both
Roman and non-Roman practices, the latter including the starting of a new fire and an
elaborate blessing of a candle. After twelve readings from the Old Testament, the new
converts would be baptized, putting on long white robes as they emerged from the water.
Before the Gospel, they sang the Alleluia in alternation with the priest, suggesting the
new song of Psalms 95 and 97 (English 96 and 98). For the first time, they were
permitted to stay past the Offertory and to receive communion.
d. Easter Week. In the ancient Roman liturgy, the week following Easter focused on
the newly baptized converts, who were called infantes, newborns in the faith. They
assembled daily for further instruction and did not remove their white robes for eight
days until the following Sunday (Low Sunday), when the papal liturgy was celebrated at
the church of St. Pancras, a child saint. For this reason, the week after Easter became
known as the Easter Octave, and the Sunday after Easter came to be known as Dominica
in albis, and also Quasimodo, from the first word of the introit chant (“Like as newborn
babes...”)....”). Though baptism of adults became rare in the Middle Ages, the readings,
chants, and prayer texts of this week, with their frequent references to the milk and honey
of the Promised Land, remained in the medieval liturgy.
e. Additions to Pentecost. A vigil similar to the one on Holy Saturday was celebrated
the day before Pentecost, providing another opportunity for baptisms and empha-sizing
that Easter and Pentecost mark the beginning and end of the fifty-day period. The parallel
with Easter was expanded when, by the 7th century, the week following Pentecost came
to be celebrated as the Octave of Pentecost, a kind of eight-day extension of the feast. In
the 9th century, by a further development, the Sunday after Pentecost began to be
celebrated as Trinity Sunday. Later, the Thursday after Trinity Sunday became Corpus
Christi, promulgated by Pope Urban IV in 1264; it was further expanded with a
procession and its own octave in 1318.
(2) The Nativity Cycle
The other half of the temporal cycle revolved around Christmas, the feast of Jesus’s
birth, December 25. The feast originated in the West, with a variety of factors
The Encyclopedia 1053