The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-01-18
sEPTUAeEsIMA SUNDAY.

The Church begins her prepare
tions for Lent on Septuagesima Sun
dav. nine weeks before Easter. This
wear the unusually short interval be-
tween the Feast of the Epiphany,
January 6, and Septuagesima Sunday
January 10, recalls the ancient prac-
tice of announcing on the Feast OF the
Epiphany, the dates of the various
movable festivals of the coming pene-
tentiaI season beginning with the date
of Septuagesima.
The rite of the solemn proclamation
of the date of Easter and the begin
ming of Lent may be counted among
the most venerable ceremonies OF our
liturgy. We can trace it back, writes
Reverend Herbert Thurston, S. j., in
his volume, Lent and Holy Week, for
nearly sixteen hundred years, to the
festal letters of the great st. Athanas-
ius, the earliest of which documents
was written in A. D. 329. Ever
since then, and probably even before
that date, the pastors OF the Church
have made it one of their primary
duties to give timely notice to their
flocks of the approach of this season
of prayer and penance.
This rite is still observed in many
Cathedral churches. On the feast of
the Epiphany, before the Credo OF the
Mass is sung, the Archdeacon vested
in cope mounts the pulpit and there, in
chant consecrated to this purpose,
he makes the following proclamation:
BE it known to you, most dear
brethren. that with the mercy OF God,
as we have rejoiced over the Nativity
of Christ our Lord, so we make proc
lamation to you of the joyous festival
of Our Saviour's Resurrection. Sep
tuagesima Sunday will fall on such
dav of such month; Ash Wednesday
and the beginning of the most sacred
season of Lent (sacratissimae quad
ragesimae) will be on such a day; ana
on such another day we shall cele-
brate with JOY the holy Pasch OF our
Lord Jesus Christ
In the early centuries, when astron-
omical science was in its infancy, the
astronomers of Alexandria, who had
inherited the traditions of the Chal-
deans, were looked up to as especially
skillful in calculating the movements
of the heavenly bodies. 1t was to the
Rishop of Alexandria therefore that
the task was confided by the Fathers
of Nicaea to determine for all the
world the date of Easter and OF the
nenitential season which preceded it.
In the Conferences of Cassian, who
wrote at the beginning OF the NTH
century, we are informed tnat'
Throughout the country of Egypt this
custom is observed by ancient tradl
ton, that when the Feast OF the
Epiphany has been celebrated, the
letters of the Bishop of Alexandra are
directed to all the churches; whereby
are notified not only to every town
but even to every monastery, the be
ginning of Lent and the day OF
Easter" Coll. x. 2.
Although the Bishop of Alexandra
was entrusted with the duty OF de
termining the date, it was expressly
provided that the Bishop of Rome
was to notify it to the Church at large
Specimens of such letters are pre-
served among the works of Pope Le'
the Great CT Migne, P. L. "a, 1lO2
etc.
But the origin of the name Sep
tuagesima, which means seventeen,
is somewhat mystifying. In order t
understand the genesis of this curiou
nomenclature we must first remembe
that though we ourselves use Tet
tonic word, Lent" to denote the tim
of fasting, it is expressed in the laI
guage of the Church, and in genera
in all the Roman tongues, by the Lati
word "quadragesima," or one {
its various derivatives, which mean
simply 'fortieth." Moreover, thi
term, quadragesima, is itself only e
planned when we recall the Old Test