The Station Churches of Septuagesima

The institution of the three Sundays before Lent, Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima, is attributed to Pope Saint Gregory the Great, who reigned from 590 to 604. The plague which killed his predecessor, St Pelagius II, and lead to his election, was only one in a long series of disasters that befell the city of Rome and the Italian peninsula in the course of the sixth century. Constant warfare between the Goths, the Lombards and the Byzantines had brought to ruins much of the former Capital of the World, which in Gregory’s time was also largely abandoned. In the year 546, the Gothic king Totila had expelled most of the inhabitants from the city; small numbers of people returned, but the city would not be properly re-populated for centuries. The introit of the first of these Sundays, Septuagesima, reflects the turbulent and mournful age in which it was composed: “The groans of death have surrounded me, the pains of death have surrounded me, and in my tribulation I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice from His holy temple.” The theme of calling upon the Lord in a time of tribulation is repeated frequently though the Masses of these Sundays.

The station churches of this pre-Lenten period comprise a series of visits to the tombs of the major patrons of Rome, invoking their aid and protection for the beleaguered city. On Septuagesima, the station is kept at the church of Saint-Lawrence-outside-the-Walls, built over the tomb of the famous deacon and martyr. On Sexagesima, the station is at Saint-Paul’s-outside-the-Walls, and on Quinquagesima at Saint Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, both of which have the tombs of the Apostles for whom they are named under the main altar. On the following Sunday, the first of Lent, the station is at the cathedral of Rome, the Archbasilica of the Most Holy Savior, commonly called Saint John in the Lateran. The stations of the pre-Lenten period therefore repeat those of the Easter octave in reverse order: Saint John on the Easter vigil, Saint Peter on Easter Monday, Saint Paul on Tuesday and Saint Lawrence on Wednesday. The station at Mary Major for the feast of the Purification, which often falls within the season of Septuagesima, corresponds to the same stational observance on Easter Sunday.

The epistles of the three Masses are chosen in reference to the station churches. On Septuagesima, St Paul compares the Christian life to the athletic contests of the ancient Romans: “but they contend for a corruptible crown, we for an incorruptible one.” (1 Cor. 9, 24 – 10, 5) From the earliest times, the martyrs have been called the ‘athletae – champions or combatants’ of Christ par excellence, and the word ‘athleta’ is used in countless liturgical Offices. The symbol of victory in the Roman athletic stadium, the palm branch, is still used as a symbol of martyrdom; this epistle is therefore fittingly read at the tomb of St Lawrence. Over the course of Lent, stations will be kept at four different churches dedicated to this most renowned among Rome’s many martyrs; a great many other churches and chapels, including the private chapel of the Papal household, were dedicated to him in the Middle Ages.

The entrance to the tomb of Saint Lawrence at San Lorenzo fuori le Mura

The epistle of Sexagesima is the longest Sunday epistle of the year. (2 Cor. 11, 19 – 12, 9) The collect of this Mass is one of two in the temporal cycle that refer to the Saint in whose honor the stational church is dedicated; it may have been borrowed from a group of collects originally used on the Commemoration of Saint Paul on June 30th, also celebrated with a station at his church. At the tomb of Saint Paul, the Church reads his lengthy apologia for his works as an Apostle, in which he recalls the sufferings he has undergone in his mission to proclaim the Gospel. In the Ambrosian rite, this same epistle is read on the feast of Saints Peter and Paul on June 29th; the church of Milan seems to have borrowed this reading from the Mass of Sexagesima. (Pictured right - Ss Peter and Paul, by El Greco; 1590-1600)

On Quinquagesima, although the station is at St Peter’s, the epistle is not taken from either of his Biblical letters; rather, the so-called Hymn of Charity from the first Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians is read. (chapter 13) The Vatican is not only the site of Saint Peter’s tomb, but also of his death in the circus of Caligula, in the area on the south side of the Basilica. An ancient tradition tells us that Peter was crucified upside-down at his own request, saying to the Roman executioners that he was unworthy to die in precisely the same manner as the Lord, and wished his cross to be turned so that he might look towards Heaven. This happened in fulfillment of the words of Christ to Peter, “thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another will gird thee, and lead thee where thou wouldst not.” This prophecy was given just after Peter had three times answered the question “Simon, do you love me?” with the answer, “Lord, you know that I love you”, rendering a threefold confession for his threefold denial, as Saint Augustine says. At the place where the sacred relics of the Prince of the Apostles are kept and venerated, it is his fellow Apostle and co-founder of the Roman Church who speaks of the love of God, for the sake of which St. Peter embraced his martyrdom, a stone’s throw away from his tomb.

These same three Roman patron saints, Peter, Paul and Lawrence, were also essential to the transformation of the heart of pagan Rome into a Christian sacred space. The main street of the Roman Forum was called the Via Sacra, the Sacred Way, because it passes by several of the most ancient and notable temples. Close to the Capitoline Hill, from which the great temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus looked down over the city, it comes very close to the Mamertine Prison, where important prisoners awaited judgment and execution. In 141 A.D., the Emperor Antoninus Pius built a new and imposing temple on the Via Sacra about half way through the Forum, in honor of his recently deceased and divinized wife, Faustina; when Antoninus died in 161, he was in due course divinized himself, and added to his wife’s temple.

Saint Justin Martyr and other early Church fathers knew of the tradition that Simon Magus, who sought to buy the power of the Holy Spirit from St. Peter (Acts 8), was in Rome at the same time as the Eternal City’s founding Apostles. The apocryphal Acts of St Peter tell the story that Simon sought to win the Emperor Nero to his teachings, which he would prove to be true by flying off a tower built in the Forum specifically for this purpose. As he was lifted up into the air by the agency of demons, Peter and Paul knelt on the street and prayed to God, whereon Simon was dropped, and soon after died of his injuries.

The Fall of Simon Magus, by Benozzo Gozzoli, 1461-62

The legend goes on to say that the enraged Nero arrested Peter and Paul and threw them into the Mamertine prison before their execution. There they converted the two wardens, Processus and Martinian, in whose acts it is told that St Peter caused a well to spring up from the ground so that he could baptize them. The site has been venerated as the place of the
Apostles’ imprisonment for many centuries, and pilgrims can still visit it to this day; a plaque near the door lists the famous Roman prisoners, such as King Jugurtha of Numidia, who were killed there, the saints who suffered and died within its walls, and the later saints who have come to venerate the site. On the opposite end of the Via Sacra, Pope St. Paul I built an oratory dedicated to Peter and Paul, nicknamed ‘ubi cecidit magus – where the magician fell.’ This oratory contained as its principal relic the stone upon which St. Peter knelt to pray for the defeat of Simon Magus (pictured right) and the vindication of the Christian faith. The oratory was later demolished, but the stone itself is preserved in the nearby church of Santa Maria Nuova. (Photo courtesy of J.P. Sonnen.)

Some of the numerous churches in Rome dedicated to Saint Lawrence are connected with the events of his martyrdom, such as San Lorenzo in Panisperna, which is venerated as the place where he was killed by being grilled over a fire. A tradition of uncertain origin claims that the great deacon-martyr was tried and sentenced to death on the steps of the temple of Antoninus Pius and Faustina. Sometime in the seventh or eighth century, the central part of this temple was complete rebuilt and transformed into a church, called San Lorenzo in Miranda.

The church of San Lorenzo in Miranda, within the temple of Antoninus Pius and Faustina.

The Mamertine, the Oratory of Ss. Peter and Paul, and San Lorenzo in Miranda are not the first Christian sites in the Roman Forum. Indeed, the church of Saints Cosmas and Damian fronts on the Via Sacra, and was dedicated in 527 A.D., less than twenty years before the depopulation of the city. However, Cosmas and Damian, although highly venerated throughout the Christian world, were Arabians, not Romans, and are depicted as such in their church. The later churches discussed here are particularly important, partly because they are on the Via Sacra, but much more so because they are dedicated to three Roman saints, honoring Peter and Paul on either end of the Forum, and Saint Lawrence right in the middle. Regardless of the truth or falsehood of the legends with which they are associated, by the end of the eighth century, the Sacred Way itself had become sacred to Christ, and to the memory of some of His most illustrious and most Roman ‘athletae’.

A Motet for Septuagesima Sunday

Back in November, we shared a report from Dr Emily Meixner on the Schola Cantorum Program for young people which she directs at the Shrine of St Martin of Tours in Louisville, Kentucky. With a view to the upcoming season of Fore-lent, which starts in two weeks, Dr Meixner recently sent us notice of the schola’s recording of a polyphonic version of the Communio for Septuagesima Sunday by Heinrich Isaac (ca. 1450 - 1527.) Isaac’s monumental work known as the Choralis Constantinus contains over 375 polyphonic settings of Mass propers from every part of the liturgical year.

The chant melody is heard in long notes sung by the sopranos. The text is taken from Psalm 30, 17-18: “Illumina faciem tuam super servum tuum, et salvum me fac in misericordia tua: Domine, non confundar, quoniam invocavi te. – Show Thy servant the light of thy countenance: and save me for Thy mercy's sake. Lord, let me not be confounded, for I have called upon Thee.”

The Choir of St Martin of Tours consists of both volunteers and paid section leaders and sings weekly for Masses on Sundays and holy days throughout the year, as well as occasionally for monthly Vespers and Compline.

Quinquagesima Sunday 2025

Truly it is fitting and just, right and profitable to salvation, that we should always and everywhere give Thee thanks, o Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God; and beseech Thy majesty with humble devotion, that looking upon the small measure of our earthly fragility, Thou may not reprove us in Thy wrath according to our wickedness, but in Thy boundless clemency, purify, instruct and console us. And since without Thee we can do nothing that may be pleasing to Thee, Thy grace alone will grant us to live in a salutary manner: through Christ Our Lord, through whom the Angels praise Thy majesty... (An ancient preface for Quinquagesima Sunday.)

The Mass of Quinquagesima Sunday in the 11th-century Verdun Sacramentary, folio 51r. (Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des manuscrits, Latin 18005)

Vere dignum et justum est, aequum et salutare, nos tibi semper et ubique gratias agere, Domine, sancte Pater, omnipotens aeterne Deus: et majestatem tuam cernua devotione exorare, ut modulum terrenae fragilitatis aspiciens, non in ira tua pro nostra pravitate nos arguas, sed immensa clementia purifices, erudias, consoleris. Qui cum sine te nihil possimus facere, quod tibi sit placitum, tua nobis gratia sola praestabit ut salubri conversatione vivamus: Per Christum, Dominum nostrum. Per quem majestatem tuam laudant Angeli...

The Antiquity and Universality of Fore-Lent (Part 4)

This is the fourth and final part of Henri de Villiers’ examination of the various forms and traditions of the pre-Lenten period. Click the following links to read part 1, part 2 and part 3. The original French version was published in 2014 on the website of the Schola Sainte-Cécile.

Fore-Lent and Meditation on Human Frailty

Having demonstrated the antiquity and universality of Fore-Lent in the various rites, we conclude by highlighting some of the themes commonly used in this period in the liturgies of both East and West.

The reading of Genesis: meditation on the fall of Man and the need for Redemption

Adam was deprived of the delights of Paradise by the bitterness of the fruit; his gluttony made him reject the commandment of the Lord; he was condemned to work the earth from which he was formed; by the sweat of his brow was he obliged to earn the bread he ate. Let us look to temperance, lest we, like him, be made to weep before the gate of Paradise; but rather, let us struggle to enter therein. (Kathisma at Matins of Cheesefare Sunday, also known as the Sunday of the Expulsion from Paradise.)

A 16th century icon showing the Holy Trinity, the expulsion from Paradise, and monks contemplating the mortality of man as they preside over a burial.

The Byzantine hymns of the Sunday that immediately precedes the first day of Lent, which coincides with the Latin Quinquagesima, are dedicated to the Creation and the sin of Adam and Eve, and contrast the gluttony of our first father with Our Lord’s forty day fast in the desert. In fact, we frequently find readings from the book of Genesis at the beginning of Lent itself, or within the three-week period of Fore-Lent. In the Roman Rite, Genesis is begun at Matins of Septuagesima Sunday; both the Ambrosian and Byzantine Rites have a series of readings from Genesis and Proverbs at Vespers through most of the Lenten season.

The remembrance of death and the last things.

Meditation on the fall of Adam is naturally accompanied by further consideration of the frailty of man, his death, and the necessity of penance before Final Judgment. This is stated very eloquently in the Introit of the Roman Mass of Septuagesima.

Circumdederunt me * gémitus mortis, dolóres inférni circumdedérunt me: et in tribulatióne mea invocávi Dóminum, et exáudivit de templo sancto suo vocem meam.
The groans of death surrounded me: and pains of hell surrounded me; in my tribulation I called upon the Lord, and He heard my voice from his holy temple.

The Media vita is another text often sung during Septuagesima in the Roman Rite. This antiphon, which seems to date back to the 8th century, was later transformed into a responsory, and in many Uses integrated into the liturgy of Lent. In the Middle Ages, this dramatic text was often sung on the battle field to encourage the enthusiasm of the troops.

R. In the midst of life, we are in death; whom shall we seek to help us, but Thee, o Lord, who for our sins art justly wroth? * Holy God, holy mighty one, holy and merciful Savior, hand us not over to bitter death. V. Cast us not away in the time of our old age, when our strength shall fail, forsake us not, o Lord. Holy God, holy mighty one etc.

In a similar vein, the Byzantine Rite reads the Gospel of the Last Judgment (Matthew 25, 31-46) on the preceding Sunday, to call the faithful to think of the Last Things.

Prayer for the Dead

Just as the liturgy of Fore-Lent reminds us of our mortal condition fallen though sin, this period has also become in many liturgical traditions a privileged time to pray for the dead.

In the Armenian Rite, the Thursday of Quinquagesima (the last before the beginning of Lent) is dedicated to the commemoration of all the faithful departed. The same holds true for the Saturday before the Sunday of the Last Judgment in the Byzantine Rite; this is attested in the Typikon of the Great Church in the 9th or 10th century, the most important document describing the arrangement of services at Hagia Sophia. The Assyro-Chaldean rite has a similar observance on the Friday of the second week before Lent.

Among the Maronites, the three Sundays of Fore-Lent are dedicated to the commemoration of the dead, the first to deceased priests, the second to the “just and righteous”, the last to all the faithful departed. The arrangement of the season among the Syrian Jacobites is undoubtedly the more primitive: the fast of the Ninevites from Monday to Friday of Septuagesima week, the Sunday of prayer for deceased priests on Sexagesima, and for all the faithful departed on Quinquagesima.

Conclusions

The creators of the reformed Missal of Paul VI inexplicably suppressed the season of Septuagesima, an ancient element of the Roman Rite, without regard for its antiquity and its universality, and even though it is preserved in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer and in many Lutheran churches. These articles have sought to highlight and explain the following points:

1. In all liturgical traditions, Lent is preceded by a penitential period, originally the fast of the Ninevites in the third week before Lent, and the week immediately preceding it (Cheesefare / Quinquagesima / the fast of Heraclius). The most ancient witnesses to this period are from the fourth century: St Gregory the Illuminator, St Ephraem, Egeria’s pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The Copts of Egypt and Ethiopia have two fasts, the Mozarabic Rite has only Quinquagesima, the Assyro-Chaldeans have only the Rogations of the Ninivites. Starting at the beginning of the 6th century, Fore-Lent is developed and extended to a full three-week period before Lent in the Roman, Ambrosian, Byzantine, Armenian, Syro-Jacobite and Maronite rites.

2. This time is observed as a progressive entry into Lent, allowing for a gradual approach to, and spiritual preparation for, the ascetic exercises of that season. This aspect is explained by Protopresyter Alexander Schmemann in his description of the Sundays of Fore-Lent.

“Three weeks before Great Lent officially begins, we enter a period of preparation. It is a constant characteristic of our liturgical tradition that each major liturgical event – Christmas, Easter, Lent, etc., is announced and prepared for far in advance. Aware of our lack of concentration, the ‘materialist’ condition of our life, the Church draws our attention to the important aspects of the event that approaches, She invites us to meditate upon its various ‘dimensions’; therefore, before we can begin to keep the Great Lent, we are given the theological basis for it.” (The Liturgical Structure of Lent)

3. Meditation on the Fall of Man and the Last Things, and consequently, the common institution of prayers for the faithful departed, are an important recurring element in the various rites.

The Antiquity and Universality of Fore-Lent (Part 3)

We continue with part 3 of Henri de Villiers’ examination of the various forms and traditions of the pre-Lenten period. Click the following links to read part 1 and part 2.

Synthesis of the fast of the Ninevites and Meatfare Week – the extension of Fore-Lent to three weeks.

We have seen that in the sixth century, the custom of preceding Lent by a week of abstinence from meat is well established in both East and West. The 24th canon of a council held at Orléans in 511 prescribes its observance, indicating that it was already spreading before that date in Merovingian France. Certain churches in the East added the fast of the Ninevites in the 3rd week before Lent. It was therefore natural to join these two periods together and extend Fore-Lent to three full weeks.

It is possible that in the East this liturgical “bridge” between Lent and the fast of Nineveh was first built in Armenia. The Armenian Fore-Lent is called Aratchavor, and comprises three weeks, the first of which, is called Barekendam, “the last day of fat.” The first week is quite strict, consecrated to the fasts of the Ninevites, instituted by St Gregory the Illuminator in the 4th century. The second and third week are less penitential, and the fast is kept only on the Wednesdays and Fridays.

The Cathedral of the Holy Cross, an Armenian church of the early 10th century built on Aghtamar island in Lake Van, now in the state of Turkey.

At Rome, Quinquagesima Sunday came to be preceded by two other Sundays, Sexagesima and Septuagesima, over the course of the 6th century. The old Gelasian Sacramentary (Vat. Reg. 316) and the Epistle book of Victor of Capua, dated to 546, attest the presence of Sexagesima in this period. The stations of the three Sundays were fixed by Popes Pelagius I (556-61) and John III (561-74) at the basilicas of St Lawrence Outside-the-Walls, St Paul and St Peter. We have homilies delivered by St Gregory the Great for all three of them. The oldest known Roman lectionary, known as the lectionary of Würzburg, was copied out in the first half of the 7th century for use in France, and largely corresponds to the arrangement of the old Gelasian Sacramentary; it also attests that the three Sundays were already established by that point.

St Gregory the Great, represented in the Sacramentary of Charles the Bald, (869-70). Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des Manuscrits, Latin 1141 

Fore-Lent also exists in the Ambrosian tradition, in which the three Sundays have the same names as in the Roman Rite. The Alleluia is not suppressed in this season, but rather, since the Borromean reform, on the First Sunday of Lent; before that, on the first Monday. The liturgical texts are quite different from those of the Roman Rite, which would likely not be the case if the season were not very ancient at Milan, rather than a mere Roman import. We may cite here the transitorium (the equivalent of the Roman Communio) of the Mass of Septuagesima, which proclaims the program of the season.

Convertímini * omnes simul ad Deum mundo corde, et ánimo, in oratióne, jejúniis et vigíliis multis: fúndite preces vestras cum lácrymis, ut deleátis chirógrapha peccatórum vestrórum, priusquam vobis repentínus superveniat intéritus, ántequam vos profundum mortis absórbeat, et cum Creátor noster advénerit, parátos nos inveniat.

Be ye all together converted to God, with pure heart and mind, in prayer, fasting and many vigils; pour forth your prayers with tears, that you may cancel the decree of your sins, before there come upon ye sudden destruction, before the depths of death swallow ye up; and so, when our Creator cometh, may He find us ready.

In this period, the Byzantine Rite reads a series of Gospels which prepare the people for the penance of Lent: the Publican and the Pharisee (Luke 19, 10-14), the Prodigal Son (Luke 15, 11-32), the Last Judgment (Matthew 25, 31-46), and Christ’s words on fasting from the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6, 14-21.) The organization of the three weeks is attested in the Typikon of the Great Church, of the 9th-10th century; the lack of liturgical documents older than this does not permit us to speak more precisely about the origins of the arrangement. It must be noted that in the first week, following the Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee, the Byzantines completely suppressed all fasting, even the regular weekly fast on Wednesday and Friday, as a result of certain controversies in the Middle Ages, to distinguish their own practice from that of the Armenians in the same week.

Only a few rites, those isolated from the rest of the Christian word by the advance of Islam, did not developed the three-week period of Fore-Lent. The Mozarabic Rite has remained in the primitive stage before the beginning of the 6th century with a single week of preparation for Lent. The Sunday of this week is called “ante carnes tollendas – before the meat is taken away”, indicating that meat was removed from the diet, but not milk products or other non-vegetarian foods. Egypt and Ethiopia have both the fast of Nineveh and the fast of Heraclius, but have never joined them into a single Fore-Lent. However, among the Ethiopians, the Sunday corresponding to the Latin Sexagesima, although counted with the liturgical season after Epiphany, is fixed in relationship to the following Sunday, called “the Sunday of the Bridegroom”, in which antiphons are taken from the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins (Matthew 25, 1-13). This marks end the period in which marriages are permitted. The Assyro-Chaldeans have held to keeping the Rogations of the Ninevites, and do not have an equivalent to Quinquagesima.

The Antiquity and Universality of Fore-Lent (Part 2)

We continue with part 2 of Henri de Villiers’ examination of the various forms and traditions of the pre-Lenten period. Click here to read part 1.

Quinquagesima Week, the fast of Heraclius, Cheesefare Week

In both East and West, the week immediately before Lent took on a penitential character very early, beginning at first with abstinence from meat. We must remember that the early Church followed a strictly vegetarian diet for all of Lent. For the week immediately preceding Lent (the Latin Quinquagesima, Tyrophagia in the Byzantine Rite), although meat is removed from the diet, milk products, eggs and other animal products may still be consumed.

To better understand the origins of this week, we must also consider that Lent lasts for seven weeks in the East, and for six in the West. In the East, where there is no fast on either Saturday (except for Holy Saturday) or Sunday, this makes for a Lent of 36 fast-days. In the West, where the fast is kept also on Saturday, but never on Sunday, this gave the same number of days, following the Roman custom before the time of St Gregory the Great. To compensate for the missing days and to make the symbolic number of 40, the number of days of Christ’s fast in the desert, the Christians chose to anticipate the official beginning of Lent by a week. This was also done in consideration of the possible occurrence of feasts that displace the fast, principally the Annunciation.

The removal of meat from the diet in the week before Lent is attested early in the West. Quinquagesima Sunday is called in the ancient Latin books “Dominica ad carnes tollendas” or “levandas” (whence the term Carnival), indicating that one began to take away meat right after the Sunday, passing to the strict vegetarian diet only in the following week. The first week of Lent is then called “in capite jejunii – at the beginning of the fast.” Before the time of St Gregory, the Roman Lent began on the Monday after the First Sunday, the custom still followed by the Ambrosian and Mozarabic Rites. St Gregory set the fast to begin on the Wednesday of Quinquagesima, to make a complete period of 40 days. (To this very day, the Roman Rite retains the Office of Quinquagesima week even after Ash Wednesday, and the proper rubrics of Lent begin only with First Vespers of the First Sunday.)

The institution of Quinquagesima week is attributed by the Liber Pontificalis to the eighth Pope St Telesphorus (125 to 136–138). This attribution may be purely legendary, but since the notice of Telesphorus was written under Pope St Hormisdas (514-523), we can infer that this custom was already of immemorial use at the time, if it could plausibly be attributed to such an early predecessor. The so-called Leonine Sacramentary contains a Mass for Quinquagesima, the text of which seems to have been written in the reign of Pope Vigilius, ca. 538 A.D.

In the East, we can follow the same early indications of the establishment of Cheesefare Week (Tyrophagia). The pilgrim Egeria (Itinerarium 27, 1) reports that an eighth week of penance was kept at Jerusalem in the 4th century. Between the 5th and 6th centuries, the Georgian lectionaries, which are based on the Jerusalem liturgy of this period, bear witness to the existence of special readings for the two weeks before Lent.

In the 6th century, St Dorotheus of Gaza attests that the institution of a penitential week before Lent was already considered ancient in his time: “These are the Fathers who later agreed to add another week, both to train in advance and to urge on those who will give themselves over to the work of fasting, and to honor these fasts with the number of the Holy Forty Days which Our Lord Himself passed in fasting.” (Spiritual Works, 15, 159)

The custom of a week of ascetic practice before Lent, already attested before the 6th century (St Severus of Antioch counts it in his description of Lent), was sanctioned by official decision in the 7th century, in the reign of the Emperor Heraclius (610-41). The origin of his fast is uncertain. Most authors connect it with the events of the war which took place between the Byzantine Empire and the Persian Sassanid Empire from 602 to 628, during which the Jewish population of Palestine rebelled against the Christians and the power of Constantinople, and allied with the Persian troops. This led to the fall of Jerusalem to the Persians, the loss of the relics of the True Cross, and the massacre of 90,000 Christians. By the time Jerusalem was reconquered by the Byzantine armies, and Heraclius entered the city in triumph in 629, all the Christian churches, including the Holy Sepulcher, were in ruins. The Emperor ordered a massacre of the rebel Jewish forces, despite a previous promise of amnesty. In penance for this act of perjury, the Patriarch of Jerusalem instituted a week of fasting before the beginning of Great Lent.

This arrangement was at first supposed to last for only 70 years, but endures to this day with this name among the Copts of Egypt and Ethiopia. Alongside this more common explanation, another is generally neglected, namely, that Heraclius prescribed to his troops a week of abstinence from meat, and the reduction in the use of milk products, during the sixth year of his wars against the Persian, to implore God for victory. It is also possible that both explanations are true, and more than probable that they merely ratified a custom already widespread. In the following century, St John Damascene attests that Lent is preceded by a preparatory week. (cf. On the Holy Fast, 5).
The institution of a week of mitigated fasting before Great Lent, which was done very early in both East and West, has two virtues, one symbolic and the other practical. On the one hand, this week of semi-fasting was perceived as a way of fulfilling the sum of forty days; on the other, the transition to the strictly vegetarian diet was made easier by a gradual progression.

The Antiquity and Universality of Fore-Lent (Part 1)

This article by Henri de Villiers was originally published in French on the website of the Schola Sainte-Cécile in 2014. It will be reproduced here in my English translation in four parts, since it is fairly long, and definitely worth a careful read. In it, Henri examines the universal Christian tradition of the preparatory period before Lent in the various forms in which it is practiced by the Eastern and Western churches.

In all ancient Christian liturgies, one finds a period of preparation for the great fast of Lent, during which the faithful are informed of the arrival of this major season of the liturgical year, so that they can slowly begin the ascetical exercises that will accompany them until Easter. This preparatory period before Lent generally lasts for three weeks. In the Roman Rite, these three Sundays are called Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima, names which derive from a system used in antiquity, counting the periods of ten days within which each of these Sundays falls. They precede the first Sunday of Lent, which is called Quadragesima in Latin.

The churches of the Syriac and Coptic tradition have preserved an older state of things, comprising two shorter periods of fasting, the fast of the Ninevites, and the fast of Heraclius, which are probably the starting point for the presence of Fore-Lent in the other rites.

The reminder of human fragility, meditation on the last things, and consequently, prayer for the dead, are recurrent elements of this liturgical season.

Inexplicably, the modern rite of Paul VI suppressed Fore-Lent from its liturgical year, notwithstanding its antiquity and universality.

The Origins of Fore-Lent: The Fast of the Ninevites

“And the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying: ‘Arise, and go to Nineveh the great city: and preach in it the preaching that I bid thee. And Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord: now Nineveh was a great city of three days’ journey. And Jonah began to enter into the city one day’s journey: and he cried, and said, ‘Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed. And the men of Nineveh believed in God: and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least. And the word came to the king of Nineveh; and he rose up out of his throne, and cast away his robe from him, and was clothed with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published in Nineveh from the mouth of the king and of his princes, saying, ‘Let neither men nor beasts, oxen nor sheep, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water. And let men and beasts be covered with sackcloth, and cry to the Lord with all their strength, and let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the iniquity that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn, and forgive: and will turn away from his fierce anger, and we shall not perish?’ And God saw their works, that they were turned from their evil way: and God had mercy with regard to the evil which he had said that he would do to them, and he did it not.” (Jonah 3)

To commemorate the fast of the Ninevites, the churches of Syria instituted a fast which runs from Monday of the third week before the beginning of Lent (the Monday after the Roman Septuagesima). These days are called “Baʻūṯá d-Ninwáyé” in Syriac, which can be translated as the Rogation (or Supplication) of the Ninevites. It seems that this fast initially lasted the whole week, more precisely, from Monday to Friday, since fasting on Saturday and Sunday are unknown to the Orient. (However, abstinence without fast may continue through these days.) The fast of Nineveh was eventually reduced to three days: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, while Thursday became a “day of thanksgiving of the Ninevites” in the Assyro-Chaldean rite. Traditionally, the number of these three days of fasting is explained by the three days passed by Jonah in the whale. This fast of Nineveh, which is very strict, is still kept by the various Syriac churches of both the Eastern tradition (the Chaldean, Assyrian and Syro-Malabar churches) and of the Western (Syriac churches). Among the Assyro-Chaldeans, the book of Jonah is read at the Divine Liturgy of the third day. This fast remains very popular; some of the faithful drink and eat nothing at all for the three days. Alone among the churches of the Syriac tradition, the Maronite Church no longer has the fast of the Ninevites properly so-called, but has adopted the arrangement which we will discuss later on of the three weeks of preparation for Great Lent.

The Egyptian Coptic Church, and likewise the Ethiopian, received from the Syrian churches this custom of the Supplication of the Ninevites. In the Coptic liturgy, these three days of rogation in memory of the Fast of Nineveh, also called “the fast of Jonah”, strictly follow the liturgical uses of Lent: the Eucharistic liturgy is celebrated after Vespers, the hymns are sung in the Lenten tone, without cymbals, and the readings are taken from the lectionary of Lent. The fast of Nineveh was adopted by the Coptic Church under the 62nd Patriarch of Alexandria, Abraham (or Ephrem, 975-78), who was of Syrian origin. It is possible that it was adopted more anciently in Ethiopia; the first bishop of Axum, St Frumentius, was of Syrian origin, and the Church of Ethiopia was reorganized in the 6th century by a group of nine Syrian Saints, who contributed enormously to the evangelization of the Ethiopian countryside. The fast of Nineveh (Soma Nanawe) is very strict for them, and no one is dispensed from it.

To what period does the fast of the Ninevites belong among the Syrians? Certain things indicate that it was probably practiced very anciently. Saint Ephrem, deacon of Edessa, composed hymns for the fast of the Ninevites; it seems that it lasted a week in that period, and not three days as it does today. The Armenian church has a fast of Nineveh that lasts for five days, beginning on the same Monday as the Syrians, and ends on the following Friday, on which the appeal of Jonah to the Ninevites is mentioned. This is also a full week of fasting, since the Armenians also do not fast on Saturday or Sunday, a constant in the East. These days have a fast and strict abstinence like that of Lent, and Armenian writers claim that it was established by St Gregory the Illuminator at the time of the general conversion of the Armenians in 301. It is likely that St Gregory simply continued a custom already in use among the neighboring Syrian Christians. The institution of this fast, which seems to be ancient among the Assyro-Chaldeans, may then have passed (or been re-established) in the 6th century among their Syrian Jacobite cousins at the behest of St Maruthua, the Jacobite Catholicos of Tagrit, during a plague in the region of Nineveh. It is possible that its reduction to a fast of three days instead of a week also dates to this period.

The Reading of Genesis in Septuagesima

The children of Israel served the king of Babylon for seventy years, and afterwards, were set free and returned to Jerusalem. Likewise, we ourselves must serve all of this life, either for our faults and their punishment, or at least in hardship. For this reason, the Church, being set, as it were, in the captivity of Babylon, that is, in this world, and wishing penance to be done, so that She may someday be set free and come to the heavenly Jerusalem, keeps Septagesima (i.e. the “70th”). Therefore, She begins to read the five books of Moses, since the usefulness of penance is set out in them step by step as follows.

The first book, namely Genesis, instructs us in the first stages of penance, namely, in faith and fear, which are the essence of penance, since penance is conceived through them. It instructs us in the Faith in the same way as the Creed does, for what is said there, “of things visible and invisible”, is also said here: “In the beginning God created heaven and earth,” which is to say, the empyreal heaven, and the things which are in it, which are invisible, and the earth, that is, all these visible things. Just as in the Creed the persons of the Father and the Son are mentioned, so also in Genesis “In the beginning” (that is, in the Son,) God (that is, the Father,) created heaven and earth. Afterwards, the person of the Holy Spirit is named, when it says “And the spirit of the Lord was borne over the waters”, that is, the Holy Spirit, who created and rules over all things.

The Genesis Dome of the Basilica of St Mark in Venice; mosaic by unknown artist, 1215-35.

It also instructs us in the faith of the Incarnation and Passion, so that we might believe that Christ suffered in so far as he is a man, and not in so far as he is God; this is expressed through Isaac, who was not sacrificed, but rather a ram (took his place). Again it instructs us to believe that Christ was given by grace, and not for the sake of our merits, as Isaac (was given to Abraham by grace.) It also instructs us in the faith of the Resurrection and the Ascension and the sending of the Holy Spirit through the figure of Joseph, who after being sold was exalted in Egypt, distributing wheat through all of that land, just as Christ, after being sold, was exalted unto the world, and distributes the wheat of the word of God throughout the world through his preachers. …

Also, in the figure of Adam, it instills fear, lest through the vice of gluttony or through inobedience we be cast out of the spiritual Paradise, as he was cast out of the earthly Paradise. In the figure of Cain, it instructs us to guard against murder; in the cities which were completely destroyed, to stay away from the vice of Sodom; and in the flood, to abstain from every vice; and again, in the figure of Esau, to abstain from the vice of gluttony, since he was rejected he ate the red beans (i.e., the food which Jacob sold him for his birthrights). Furthermore, because in Septagesima we remember the misery which we incur because of the sins of our parents, we read the book of Genesis, which treats of the expulsion of the first parents from Paradise, … To signify how great our wretchedness is, first we read and sing (in the responsories) about the dignity of man, namely, that he was made in the image and likeness of God, that he was set in Paradise, that a companion was made for him, and that he could not die, nor suffer any other penalty, except that it came from his own fault.

The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden, by Thomas Cole, 1828

Now the introit of the Mass is “The groans of death have surrounded me” in which the Church confesses that it is in suffering and afflictions because of Sin … But, lest this mourning beget sloth or sadness within us, which lead to (spiritual) death, in the verse it speaks of consolation: “I will love Thee, o Lord, my strength.” … And notice that these words (of the Introit) are also the voice of the Church of the early days, weeping enable the first martyr, whose blood cries out to the Lord from the earth, which opened up its mouth and received it from the hand of Cain, his brother. For this reason, the station is at (the tomb of) St Lawrence, whose precious death by a new and unheard-of kind of suffering cried out to heaven, and was heard in all the world; wherefore also the authority of the Roman church was declared above all others in the martyrs. (William Durandus, Rationale Divinorum Officiorum, 6, 25, 1-4)

The Beginning of Ambrosian Forelent

The Ambrosian season after Epiphany presents some interesting and unique characteristics compared with the same period in the Roman Rite. In the latter, from its first attestation in the Lectionary of Würzburg, the season has a full compliment of Gospel readings; in the Ambrosian Rite, on the other hand, the liturgical texts of the season were slow to evolve, but their evolution can be traced out from the surviving ancient manuscripts.

The traditional Roman rubrics are organized in such a way that none of the Sundays between Epiphany and Septuagesima are omitted; in the Tridentine reform, a system was created, and is still in use, by which those which cannot be celebrated in their regular place are moved to the end of the season after Pentecost. The Ambrosian Rite has no such tradition, with the exception of the Sixth Sunday after Epiphany, which is never omitted, and always celebrated as the last Sunday before Septuagesima. (Prior to the Borromean reform of the Ambrosian liturgical books, this Sunday was called “the Fifth after Epiphany”, and there was no Sixth, since Easter very rarely occurs late enough for one to be necessary.) This custom is first attested in a liturgical ordo called the “Beroldus Novus” in the 13th century; its origin is to be found by tracing out the history of the period in Ambrosian liturgical books.

A page of an Ambrosian Missal printed in Milan in 1522, wth the Mass of the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany, preceded by the rubric that it is always celebrated “next to” (juxta) Septuagesima.

A codex kept in the Capitular Library of the basilica of St John the Baptist in Busto Arsizio contains a very ancient order of readings, one which certainly predates the Carolingian period, when the Ambrosian lectionary underwent a major reform. This codex has two different lists of Gospels, a “capitulary”, which is older, and gives only the incipits, and a later “evangeliary”, which gives the full texts. The differences between these two bear witness to two different phases in the evolution of the lectionary tradition. The capitulary has readings for only the first two Sundays after Epiphany, with no signs of any later corrections, while the evangeliary gives Gospel pericopes for the first four Sundays, with corrections added later in a Romanizing direction.

Neither list mentions a Fifth Sunday, which in most medieval missals was given as the last of the season, since the Sixth Sunday only very rarely occurs. The Ambrosian Rite borrowed the three Sundays of the Roman Forelent in at least two stages, and while both lists include the Sundays of Sexagesima and Quinquagesima, the capitulary does not include Septuagesima.

In the Ambrosian Missals of Bergamo (mid-9th century) and Biasca (end of the 9th century), which are fully in line with the Carolingian reform, the order of readings agrees with that of the “corrections” in the evangeliary of Busto. Furthermore, both of these have as the Gospel of the Fifth Sunday that which is now read on the Sixth, Matthew 17, 14-20. (As noted above, this will remain in place until the minor adjustment of the Borromean reform.)

“At that time: there came to the Lord Jesus a man falling down on his knees before him, saying: Lord, have pity on my son, for he is a lunatic, and suffereth much: for he falleth often into the fire, and often into the water. And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him. Then Jesus answered and said: O unbelieving and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me. And Jesus rebuked him, and the devil went out of him, and the child was cured from that hour. Then came the disciples to Jesus secretly, and said: Why could not we cast him out? Jesus said to them: Because of your unbelief. For, amen I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, Remove from hence hither, and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible to you. But this kind is not cast out but by prayer and fasting.”

The healing of the possessed boy; folio 166r of Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry. Here it is used to illustrate the Gospel of the Third Sunday of Lent, Luke 11, 14-28, which begins with the expulsion of a devil from a mute, and in which Christ goes on to say “if I cast out devils by Beelzebub; by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. But if I by the finger of God cast out devils; doubtless the kingdom of God is come upon you.” (Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons)

The fact that this pericope is always found just before Forelent provides a useful clue as to its origin. Unlike the other Gospels of this season, it has no parallel at all in the Roman Rite, and therefore clearly does not derive from the Romanizing tendency attested by the corrections in the Busto manuscript. The admonition at the end to prayer and fasting gives it a clearly penitential character, which explains why it is always read as the introduction to Forelent, as the Church prepares itself for an intensified period of prayer and fasting.

The introduction of this final Sunday is further explained by a shrewd observation of the scholar Patrizia Carmassi regarding another lectionary, a codex in the Ambrosian Library (A 23 bis inf.) of the 13th century, but certainly copied from a much older archetype. This manuscript contains a list of the prophetic readings for the whole liturgical year, with a very significant correction for the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany; the rubricated title “Dominica Quinta post Epiphaniam” is cancelled out and replaced with “Dominica in Septuagesima.” We may therefore suppose that the archetype did not include Septuagesima, but did have the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany, a problem which the later copyist fixed simply by changing the title, treating it as an alternative for the older title.

In the Codex Mediolanensis, a Gospel book from the area of Milan with liturgical notes that date it to the 7th or 8th century, Septuagesima is still missing. Nevertheless, in the early Carolingian period, when the liturgical books of Milan were being revised and Romanized, the fourth and fifth Sundays after Epiphany were added. From this, we may deduce that these Sundays were seen as part of Forelent, along with Sexagesima and Quinquagesima, and the adoption of Septuagesima was therefore felt to be unnecessary. The custom of always reading Matthew 17, 14-20, on the Sunday before Septuagesima therefore reflects an ancient understanding of it as part of Forelent, regardless of what that Sunday is actually called.

There are some interesting parallels to the Ambrosian Gospel in other non-Roman western rites. In the oldest form of the Mozarabic lectionary, there is only one Sunday of Forelent, called “ante carnes tollendas – before taking away meat.” The Gospel of this Sunday, Matthew 17, 1-20, includes both the episode of Christ’s Transfiguration, and that of the possessed child read in the Ambrosian Rite. In two lectionaries of the ancient Gallican Rite, that of Luxeuil (6th century) and a fragmentary manuscript at Würzburg (7th century) the Gospel of the same Sunday, which is called “the Sunday after St Peter’s Chair”, is only the first part, Matthew 17, 1-9, which the Roman Rite reads on the Second Sunday of Lent, and the preceding Ember Saturday.

The Transfiguration, by Raphael, 1517-19; in the lower part, the possessed child and his father are seen before the remaining nine Apostles.

In this episode, Moses and Elijah, who appear to either side of the Lord, represent the catechumens, since they both undertook a fast of 40 days in preparation for a vision of the Lord, as the catechumens do in Lent, to prepare themselves for the illumination of baptism at Easter. The antiquity of the association between this episode and the discipline of Lent is shown by a passage of St Ambrose’s commentary on the Song of Songs.

“Moses, set on the mountain for forty days, and receiving the Law, required no food for his body: Elijah, hastening to his rest, asked that his soul be taken from him: Peter, also on a mountain, looking upon the glory of the Lord’s resurrection, did not wish to come down, saying ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here.’ ”

This passage is ideally placed between the Baptism of Christ, celebrated on Epiphany, and His passion, as Ambrose explains in his book “On the Holy Spirit” (16, 755b).

“So that you may know that (God) made mention of the Lord Jesus’ descent (from heaven in the Incarnation), he further adds that he proclaimed his Anointed one unto men (Amos 4, 13); for at the Baptism, he proclaimed this, saying, ‘Thou are my most beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’ (Matthew 3, 17). He proclaimed this on the mountain, saying, ‘This is my beloved Son, hear ye Him. (Matthew 17, 17). He proclaimed this in His Passion, when the sun departed, and the seas and land trembled.”

The Mozarabic Rite, however, extends the Gospel of the Sunday “ante carnes tollendas” to include the episode of the possessed boy. This can be explained from a sermon of St Isidore of Seville, who compares the exorcism which Christ performed on the boy to the one performed as part of the rite of baptism.

“Exorcism is a word (or ‘speech’) of rebuke against an unclean spirit in regard to the possessed, but is also done for the catechumens, and by it, the most wicked power of the devil and his ancient malice, or his violent incursion, is expelled and put to flight. This is signified by that lunatic whom Jesus rebuked, and the demon went out from him. But the power of the devil is exorcized, and they are breathed upon, so that they may renounce him, and being delivered from the power of darkness, may be taken over to the kingdom of their Lord though the sacrament of Baptism.”

However, it still remains to be explained why the Gallican tradition includes only the episode of the Transfiguration, the Mozarabic that of the Transfiguration and the possessed boy, while the Ambrosian includes only the latter.

This article is mostly a translation of notes written by Nicola de’ Grandi.

Quinquagesima Sunday 2024

Since we are about to undertake the holy fast of Quinquagesima, as is the custom, we should know that what soap gives to the body, fasting confers on the mind of a Christian. It purifies the filth of the senses, washes away the offenses of the spirit, dissolves the crimes of the heart, takes away its blemishes, and with marvelous splendor brings the whole man back to the brightness of purity. And just as spring checks and represses all the tumults of stormy weather, calms the face of heaven, gives peace to the earth, and calls all the body of the world that was buried in the death of winter and raises it to the strength of life; so does fasting assuage all conflicts, return peace to the members (of the body), enkindle minds that were unconscious and dead with the chill of negligence, and inspiring them to virtue with all zeal. Fasting, my brethren, is the rudder of human life, it rules the whole ship of our body, it raises high the heart... (St Peter Chrysologus, bishop of Ravenna from 433-ca 450, First Sermon on Quinquagesima. This is one of the earliest attestations of the development of Fore-lent in the Western church.)

Ss Peter Chrysologus, Romuald and Peter Damian, by Giuseppe Milani, from the Duomo of Ravenna 1767. (Image from Wikimedia Commons by José Ruiz)

Septuagesima in the Ambrosian Rite

The pre-Lenten season known as Septuagesima originated not just as a feature of the Roman Rite, but in Rome itself. It is traditionally said to have been instituted by Pope St Gregory the Great in response to the various crises with which the City and central Italy were wracked in the mid-to-late 6th century. I have described elsewhere how these crises help to form both the liturgical texts of the three Masses, and the station churches assigned to them.

The season was later borrowed by the Ambrosian Rite from the Roman, but with a number of interesting differences. The Masses of the season are said in violet vestments, as in the Roman Rite, but nevertheless, Gloria in excelsis is said on all three Sundays. Most notably, Alleluia continues to be said throughout the season in both the Mass and the Divine Office. Before the reform of St. Charles Borromeo, it was even sung on the first Sunday of Lent, and only “dismissed” for the following Monday.

A leaf of an Ambrosian Missal printed in 1499. The left column has the Epistle (2 Corinthians 6, 1-10, as in the Roman Rite), followed by the “versicle in the Alleluia.” In the Borromean reform, the word ‘Alleluia’ was removed, and the versicle retained as a Cantus, the Ambrosian equivalent of a Tract.

The penitential character of the season may seem thereby to be lessened in comparison with the Roman Rite, but in fact, it is just as evident, or even more so, in some of the variable texts of the Mass; many of these are also among the most beautiful parts of the Ambrosian repertoire.

On Septuagesima, the Ingressa (Introit) is the same text as the Roman Introit sung at the end of the liturgical year: “The Lord sayeth: I think thoughts of peace, and not of affliction. You shall call upon me, and I will hear you, and bring back your captivity from all places.” (Jeremiah 29) These words can almost be taken as a reply to those of the Roman Introit, “The groans of death have surrounded me, the pains of death have surrounded me, and in my tribulation I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice from His holy temple.”

The most interesting piece of this Mass is the Transitorium, the Ambrosian equivalent of the Communion antiphon; this is also the only chant of Septuagesima which is proper to it.

Convertímini omnes simul ad Deum mundo corde et ánimo, in oratióne, jejuniis et vigiliis multis: fúndite preces vestras cum lácrymis, ut deleátis chirógrapha peccatórum vestrórum, priusquam vobis repentínus superveniat intéritus, ántequam vos profundum mortis absórbeat; et cum Creátor noster advénerit, parátos nos inveniat.
Be ye all together converted to God, with pure heart and mind, in prayer, fasting and many vigils; our forth your prayers with tears, that you may cancel the decree of your sins, before there come upon ye sudden destruction, before the depths of death swallow ye up; and so, when our Creator cometh, may He find us ready.

In the following video, it is used as an Offertory at a Mass in the Ordinary Form; the word “jejuniis – fasts” is changed to “precibus – prayers.” Note that it followed by the Creed, which in the Ambrosian Rite is said at the end of the Offertory rite, a position analogous to that which it has in the Byzantine Rite.

The Mass of Sexagesima contains more proper chants, and begins to intensify the period’s penitential theme. The Prophetic reading, Joel, 2, 12-21, is a slightly longer version of the Roman Epistle of Ash Wednesday, and begins by repeating the thought of the Transitorium cited above: “Be converted to me with all your heart, in fasting, in weeping and in mourning.” The Psalmellus, the Ambrosian version of the Gradual, follows this exhortation with a confession from Psalm 105, “We have sinned along with our fathers, we have acted unjustly, we have done iniquity; have mercy upon us, o Lord.” The Preface of Sexagesima also speaks clearly of the upcoming Lenten fast:

Truly it is fitting and just… eternal God; who not only remit the sins of those that fast, but also by fasting sanctify the sinners; and not only forgive punishment to the guilty, but even grant eternal rewards to them that abstain. (VD: Qui non solum peccáta ieiunantium dimittis, sed ipsos etiam peccatóres ieiunando iustíficas: et reis non tantum poenam relaxas, sed donas abstinéntibus etiam praemia sempiterna.)

The oldest surviving Ambrosian Lectionary, the 7th-century Codex Reginensis 9 (now in the Vatican Library), lists only one pre-Lenten Sunday, which it calls “Sexagesima.” However, the epistle which it assigns to that Sunday, 2 Corinthians 6, 14 – 7, 3, is found in later manuscripts and missals on Quinquagesima; it seems clear that the scribe of Reginensis 9 made a mistake in the title of the Sunday. This indicates the Ambrosian Rite at first added only Quinquagesima, and the other two Sundays at a later stage, it is probably for this reason that the Mass of Quinquagesima has all its own proper chants, prayers and readings, excepting only the Alleluia.

In the Roman Rite, the first four days of Lent are traditionally distinct from the rest of it, and bear a different name. Although the fast began on Ash Wednesday, the next three days are not called “Quadragesima”, but “post Cineres – after the Ashes.” Likewise, in the Divine Office, the Lenten hymns and responsories are not said on those days, but only start on Sunday. The Mass prayers of the first four days make several references to fasting, but the word “quadragesimale – Lenten” first occurs in the Collect of the first Sunday.

The Ambrosian Rite still to this day has no Ash Wednesday; it is therefore Quinquagesima that forms the prelude to Lent, properly so-called, which the Roman Rite has in Ash Wednesday and the ferias “post Cineres”. It is also, of the three pre-Lenten Sunday, the one which lays the clearest emphasis on penance. The Ingressa looks forward to the Gospel of the Mass, and expresses the whole purpose of Lent, and of penance generally.

Jucunda est praesens vita, et transit; terríbile est, Christe, judicium tuum, et pérmanet. Quapropter incertum amórem relinquámus, et de infiníto timóre cogitémus, clamantes, Christe, miserére nobis.

Delightful is the present life, and it passeth away; terrible is Thy judgment, o Christ, and it endureth. Wherefore, let us foresake uncertain love, and think upon fear without end, crying out, “O Christ, have mercy on us.”

The prophetic reading, Zachariah 7, 5 – 8, 3, speaks of the true sense of fasting in terms similar to those of Isaiah 58, which the Roman Rite reads on the Friday and Saturday of this week, and the Ambrosian Rite on the first Sunday of Lent.

“When you fasted, and mourned … did you keep a fast unto me? … And when you did eat and drink, did you not eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves? ... And the word of the Lord came to Zacharias, saying: Thus saith the Lord of hosts, saying: Judge ye true judgment, and shew ye mercy and compassion every man to his brother. And oppress not the widow, and the fatherless, and the stranger, and the poor: and let not a man devise evil in his heart against his brother.”

The Prophet Zachariah, by Michelangelo, from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (1508-12).

The Gospel, Matthew 13, 24-43, contains the parables of the Tares and the Wheat, of the Mustard Seed, and of the Leaven. At the end of these, St. Matthew tells us that the Lord spoke in parables, “That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world.” (Psalm 77, 2) The Gospel continues with Christ’s explanation to the disciples of the Tares and the Wheat, bringing us “from the foundation of the world” to its end, spoken of at the Ingressa.

He that soweth the good seed, is the Son of man. And the field, is the world. And the good seed are the children of the kingdom. And the cockle, are the children of the wicked one. And the enemy that sowed them, is the devil. But the harvest is the end of the world. And the reapers are the angels. Even as cockle therefore is gathered up, and burnt with fire: so shall it be at the end of the world. The Son of man shall send his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all scandals, and them that work iniquity. And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the just shine as the sun, in the kingdom of their Father. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

The preface also looks back to “the foundation of the world”, which the readings from the book of Genesis at Matins in this season also recount.

Truly it is fitting and just…eternal God, illuminator and redeemer of our souls. Who, when we were cast out of Paradise through the first Adam, by the breaking of the law of abstinence, by the remedy of a stronger fast, through grace hast called us back to the blessedness of our ancient fatherland; and by Thy holy instruction, hast taught by what observances we may be delivered. (VD: Aeterne Deus, illuminátor et redemptor animárum nostrárum. Qui nos, per primum Adam abstinentiae lege violáta, Paradíso ejectos, fortióris ieiunii remedio ad antíquae patriae beatitúdinem per gratiam revocasti: nosque pia institutióne docuisti, quibus observatiónibus liberémur.)

Finally, the Transitorium of this Mass concludes the pre-Lenten season with another call to conversion. Here, the Ambrosian liturgy reflects the theme of the Roman Sexagesima, referring the sins of the people to the natural disasters of the time.

Veníte, convertímini ad me, dicit Dóminus. Veníte flentes, fundámus lácrymas ad Deum: quia nos negléximus, et propter nos terra pátitur: nos iniquitátem fécimus, et propter nos fundamenta commóta sunt. Festinémus anteíre ante iram Dei, flentes et dicentes: Qui tollis peccáta mundi, miserére nobis.
Come, be converted to me, sayeth the Lord. Come, ye that weep, let us pour forth tears to God, for we have been negligent, and for our sake, the earth suffers. We have wrought iniquity, and for our sake, its foundations are shaken. Let us hasten to come before the wrath of God, weeping and saying: Thou that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

A striking parallel is found on this day between the Ambrosian and the Byzantine Rites, one of many cases where the historical rites of Christendom have independently instituted similar practices. On the last Sunday before the beginning of Great Lent, popularly known as Cheesefare Sunday or Forgiveness Sunday, the Byzantine Rite also commemorates the casting out of Adam from Paradise. Among the Prosomia sung at Vespers of the Saturday preceding, we may particularly note the following, which shares the same ideas as the Ambrosian preface of the Quinquagesima.

The Lord my Creator took me as dust from the earth, and with the breath of life he gave me a soul and made me a living creature. He honoured me as ruler on earth over all things visible and as a companion of the Angels. But Satan the deceiver, using the serpent as his instrument, enticed me by food, separated me from the glory of God and gave me over to the earth and to the lowest depths of death. But as Master and compassionate call me back again.

The Creation of the World, and the Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise, by Giovanni di Paolo, ca. 1445

Also worth noticing is this piece, which recalls the words said in the Roman Rite as the priest places ashes on the heads of the people, “Remember, man, that thou art dust, and unto dust thou shall return.”

Adam sat opposite Paradise and, lamenting his nakedness, he wept, ‘Woe is me ! By evil deceit was I persuaded and robbed, and exiled far from glory. Woe is me ! Once naked in my simplicity, now I am in want. But, Paradise, no longer shall I enjoy your delight; no more shall I look upon the Lord my God and Maker, for I shall return to the earth whence I was taken. Merciful and compassionate Lord, I cry to you, ‘Have mercy on me who am fallen’. (In the video below in Church Slavonic.)

Crux Stationalis Videos of the Station Churches of Septuagesima

Enjoy your Shrove Tuesday with these videos from our friend Jacob Stein’s YouTube channel Crux Stationalis, in which he visits the station churches of Forelent.

Septuagesima – St Lawrence Outside the Walls

Sexagesima – St Paul Outside the Walls

Quinquagesima – St Peter’s Basilica

Jacob will be posting videos regularly throughout Lent, and pictures on his blog, so maybe do the man a favor by subscribing!

Quinquagesima Sunday 2023

Truly it is fitting and just, right and profitable to salvation, that we give Thee thanks always, here and in every place, Lord, Holy Father, almighty and eternal God, illuminator and redeemer of our souls. Who, when the law of abstinence was transgressed by the first Adam, and we had been cast out of Paradise, did call us back through grace to the blessedness of our ancient fatherland by the remedy of a stronger fast; and by Thy holy instruction, did teach by what observances we might be set free. Through Christ our Lord. Through whom the Angels praise, the Archangels venerate Thy majesty, Thrones, Dominations, Virtues, Principalities and Powers adore. Whom the Cherubim and Seraphim celebrated with one rejoicing. To whom we pray that Thou command our voices also be joined, as we say with humble confession: Holy... (The Ambrosian Preface of Quinquagesima Sunday.)

A folio of the Bedford Hours, an illuminated book of Hours produced in France ca. 1420, now in the British Library. At the upper left, God brings the animals to Adam to be named; to the right, on the other side of the tower, God creates Eve. To the lower left of the tower, God brings Eve to Adam; to the lower right, the Temptation of Adam and Eve. Below the tower, God finds Adam and Eve after the Fall (note the serpent represented as a very oddly shaped creature.) At the lower right; the expulsion from the Garden; at the upper right of the image as a whole, the sacrifices of Abel and Cain, and below that, the murder of Abel. At the bottom of the image, God carries the body of dead Adam and lays it to rest outside the gates of Paradise. In each case, God is shown with three faces, to represent the three persons of the Trinity. 

Vere quia dignum et iustum est, aequum et salutáre, nos tibi semper, hic et ubíque gratias ágere, Dómine, Sancte Pater, omnípotens aeterne Deus, illuminátor et redemptor animárum nostrárum. Qui nos, per primum Adam abstinentiae lege violáta, Paradíso ejectos, fortióris ieiunii remedio ad antíquae patriae beatitúdinem per gratiam revocasti: nosque pia institutióne docuisti, quibus observatiónibus liberémur. Per Christum, Dóminum nostrum. Per quem maiestátem tuam laudant Angeli, venerantur Archángeli, Throni, Dominatiónes, Virtútes, Principátus, et Potestátes adorant. Quem Chérubim et Séraphim socia exsultatióne concélebrant. Cum quibus et nostras voces, ut admitti iúbeas, deprecámur, súpplici confessióne dicentes: Sanctus...

The Book of Genesis in Stone

Since the Church begins to read the book of Genesis in the Divine Office on Septuagesima Sunday, I saved these pictures of the exterior of one of my favorite churches in Italy, the Romanesque cathedral of Modena, for today. (We saw the interior on Tuesday, the feast of the St Geminianus, Patron of the church and of the city, and more on Friday.) The façade, constructed at the very beginning of the 12th century, is decorated with four panels by a sculptor named Wiligelmo, representing stories of the Creation, the Fall of Man, and the Flood. These stories are placed on the outside of the church to remind us of our fallen condition and consequent removal from the presence of God, a presence which for Christians is regained inside the Church. The plant and animal motifs inside the church and on its doors show us where the garden of Paradise may now truly be found.

God the creator; the creation of Adam; the creation of Eve; the Serpent speaks to Adam and Eve.

God rebukes Adam and Eve; He expels them from the garden; Adam and Eve begin to work the earth.

Cain an Abel make their offerings to God; Cain kills Abel; God rebukes and curses Cain.

Lamech kills Cain; Noah’s Ark; Noah and his sons leave the ark.

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