Caput Ieiunii

CAPUT IEIUNII. - Since the 7th century Ash Wednesday has been known as feria IV in capite ieiunii, because, according to Roman usage, the Lenten fast begins with this day, while the First Sunday of Lent retains the ancient name of caput quadragesimae, because in ancient times, as still today in the Ambrosian rite, Lent began with this Sunday, of which even the Roman Liturgy preserves precious traces in its liturgical texts.

According to St. Maximus of Turin (PL 57, 301) some began to prepare themselves with a devotior ieiunium for Lent, others, in order to have truly 40 days of fasting, added the last 4 days of the preceding week, at first privately, then officially. Already the Gelasian Sacramentary shows the practice. St. Gregory the Great (Hom. 6 in Evang.) does not yet count them among the Lenten days. The Mozarabic and Gallican liturgies did not know them at first: therefore no mention is made of Ash Wednesday or of feria IV in capite ieiunii in the Orationale Gothicum, in St. Isidore, in the councils, in the Lectionary of Luxeuil, in the Sacramentary of Bobbio, in the Missale Gothicum; only in the Missale Mixtum does it appear as a purely external and later addition. Only in a 7th-century addition to the Gelasian was the feria IV Cinerum designated as c. i. and in the 9th century Amalarius (PL 105, 108) says clearly: «Quarta feria quinquagesimam et quadragesimum ieiunium, quod protenditur in Pascha Domini, inchoamus». In the Roman rite, however, the four days soon became part of Lent, that is, when the other Lenten days had their fixed stations and when the antiphons for Communion were composed: in fact the Communio of Ash Wednesday is borrowed from the first Psalm. It is well known that the Lenten ferias take the Communion antiphons from the Psalms according to the order of their numerical succession. In competition with the caput quadragesimae, the Wednesday, which became the c. i., assumed an ever more solemn character: on that day public penance began with the exclusion of sinners, of which the liturgy still preserves the blessing and the imposition of Ashes (v.), and their fast, which little by little was extended to all the faithful. Thus by reason of its solemnity Ash Wednesday became the beginning of the Lenten fast and at the same time of the Lenten season, while the meaning of the First Sunday of Lent in the mind of the people fell more and more into oblivion.

Filippo Oppenheim