Advent History

But, if the exterior practices of penance which formerly sanctified the

season of Advent, have been, in the western Church, so gradually relaxed

as to have become now quite obsolete except in monasteries, the general

character of the liturgy of this holy time has not changed; and it is by

their zeal in following its spirit, that the faithful will prove their

earnestness in preparing for Christmas.

The liturgical form of Advent as it now exists in the Roman Church, has

gone through certain modifications. St. Gregory seems to have been the

first to draw up the Office for this season, which originally included

five Sundays, as is evident from the most ancient sacramentaries of this

great Pope. It even appears probable, and the opinion has been adopted by

Amalarius of Metz, Berno of Reichnau, Dom Martene, and Benedict XIV, that

St. Gregory originated the ecclesiastical precept of Advent, although the

custom of devoting a longer or shorter period to a preparation for

Christmas has been observed from time immemorial, and the abstinence and

fast of this holy season first began in France. St. Gregory therefore

fixed, for the Churches of the Latin rite, the form of the Office for this

Lent-like season, and sanctioned the fast which had been established,

granting a certain latitude to the several Churches as to the manner of

its observance.

The sacramentary of St. Gelasius has neither Mass nor Office of

preparation for Christmas; the first we meet with are in the Gregorian

sacramentary, and, as we just observed, these Masses are five in number.

It is remarkable that these Sundays were then counted inversely, that is,

the nearest to Christmas was called the first Sunday, and so on with the

rest. So far back as the ninth and tenth centuries, these Sundays were

reduced to four, as we learn from Amalarius St. Nicholas I, Berno of

Reichnau, Ratherius of Verona, &c., and such also is their number in the

Gregorian sacramentary of Pamelius, which appears to have been transcribed

about this same period. From that time, the Roman Church has always

observed this arrangement of Advent, which gives it four weeks, the fourth

being that in which Christmas day falls, unless December 25 be a Sunday.

We may therefore consider the present discipline of the observance of

Advent as having lasted a thousand years, at least as far as the Church of

Rome is concerned; for some of the Churches in France kept up the number

of five Sundays as late as the thirteenth century.

The Ambrosian liturgy, even to this day, has six weeks of Advent; so has

the Gothic or Mozarabic missal. As regards the Gallican liturgy, the

fragments collected by Dom Mabillon give us no information; but it is

natural to suppose with this learned man, whose opinion has been confirmed

by Dom Martene, that the Church of Gaul adopted, in this as in so many

other points, the usages of the Gothic Church, that is to say, that its

Advent consisted of six Sundays and six weeks.

With regard to the Greeks, their rubrics for Advent are given in the

Menaea, immediately after the Office for November 14. They have no proper

Office for Advent, neither do they celebrate during this time the Mass of

the Presanctified, as they do in Lent. There are only in the Offices for

the saints, whose feasts occur between November 14 and the Sunday nearest

Christmas, frequent allusions to the birth of the Saviour, to the

maternity of Mary, to the cave of Bethlehem, &c. On the Sunday preceding

Christmas, in order to celebrate the expected coming of the Messias, they

keep what they call the feast of the holy fathers, that is the

commemoration of the saints of the old Law. They give the name of

Ante-Feast of the Nativity to December 20, 21, 22, and 23; and although

they say the Office of several saints on these four days, yet the mystery

of the birth of Jesus pervades the whole liturgy.