Ash Wednesday
From as early as the 7th century, Ash Wednesday has been known as *feria IV in capite ieiunii*, because, according to Roman usage, this day marks the beginning of the Lenten fast, whereas the First Sunday of Lent retains the ancient name of *caput quadragesimale*, since formerly—as still today in the Ambrosian rite—the Lenten season began with this Sunday, traces of which are still preserved in the Roman liturgy’s liturgical texts.
According to St. Maximus of Turin (PL 57, 301), some began to prepare more devoutly for Lent with the *Icinnio*, while others, in order to have truly forty days of fasting, added the last four days of the preceding week, first privately and then officially. The Gelasian Sacramentary already shows this practice. St. Gregory the Great (Hom. δ in Ezech.) does not yet count them among the Lenten days. The Mozarabic and Gallican liturgies did not know them at first; hence there is no mention of Ash Wednesday or *feria IV in capite ieiunii* in the Gothic Orational, in St. Isidore, in the councils, in the Lectionary of Luxeuil, in the Bobbio Sacramentary, or in the Missale Gothicum; it appears only in the Missale Mixtum as a later and merely external addition. It was only in a supplement of the 7th century to the Gelasian that *feria IV Cinerum* was designated as *c. i.*, and in the 9th century Amalarius (PL 105, 108) clearly states: *«Quarta feria quinquagesimam et quadragesimum ieiunium, quod protenditur in Pascha Domini, inchoamus»*.
In the Roman rite, however, these four days soon became part of Lent, namely when the other Lenten days had their fixed stations and when the Communion antiphons were composed: indeed, the Communion of Ash Wednesday is taken from Psalm 1. It is well known that the Lenten ferias take their Communion antiphons from the Psalms in the order of their numerical sequence. In competition with *caput quadragesimale*, Wednesday, which became *c. i.*, assumed an increasingly solemn character: on that day public penance began with the exclusion of sinners, of whom the liturgy still preserves the blessing and the imposition of ashes (v.), and their fast, which gradually extended to all the faithful. Thus, on account 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 faded more and more from the popular mind.
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