in the collects, the uanie of Mary for the name of Jesus, and to ofiPer petitions in the name of the Theotokos. * These words, according to the tcxtus reoeptus, had been already spoken also by the angel, Luke i. 28 : Ev\oyrifj.evr] av iv ywai^iv, though they are wanting here in important manuscripts, and are omitted by Tischendorf and Meyer as a later addi- tion, from V. 42. * Mast, for example, in Wetzer und "Welte's Kathol. Kirchenlexikon, vol. i. p. § 83. THE FESTIVALS OF MABT. 425 nunc et in hora mortis^ were added even after that time by the Franciscans. But even the first two parts did not come into general use as a standing formula of prayer until the thirteenth centui-y.' From that date the Ave Maria stands in the Ro- man church upon a level with the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles' Creed, and with them forms the basis of the rosary. § 83: The Festivals of Mary. This mythical and fantastic, and, we must add, almost pagan and idolatrous Mariology impressed itself on the public ckIIus in a series of festivals, celebratiug 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 Anxiikciation of Mary^ commemorates the an- nouncement of the birth of Christ by the archangel Gabriel,^ and at the same time the conception of Christ ; for in the view of the ancient church Mary conceived the Logos (Verbura) through the ear by the word of the angel. Hence the festival had its place on the 25th of March, exactly nine months before Christmas ; though in some parts of the church, as Spain and Milan, it was celebrated in December, till the Roman practice conquered. The first trace of it occurs in Proclus, the oppo- nent and successor of Nestorius in Constantinople after 430 ; then it appears more plainly in several councils and homilies of the seventh century. 2. The Purification of Mart,* or Candlemas, in memory ' Peter Damiani (who died a. d. 10T2) first mentions, as a solitary case, that a clergyman 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 sem- per presbyteri ad dicendam orationem donunicam et credo in Deum et salutatlonem beatm Virginis.'''' ^ 'HfJ-tpa a(rTra(7fiov,or Xapiria-iJ.ov,evayy€\i(TiJi.ov,iv(TapKd)ffeuis; festiim annunciaiionis, s. incarnationis, conceptionis Domini. 3 Luke i. 26-39. * Festum purificationis Jfarice, or prcesentationis Domini, Sim^onis et Hanna 426 THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590. of tlie ceremonial purification of tlie Yirgin/ forty days after the birth of Jesus, therefore on the 2cl of February (reckoning 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 origi-