ANNUNCIATION OF THE LORD. - On the day of the Epiphany, after the Gospel, the deacon announces the movable feasts of the new year. The melody that accompanies it is very ancient and almost identical to that of the Exsultet (v.). The phrase has a festive opening, then descends slightly and develops into a recitative that is a true model of the genre.

The custom of announcing the feasts or the principal recurrences for the gathering of the faithful goes back to the earliest days of Christianity, when the forthcoming gatherings were summoned verbally by the bishop who presided over the assembly, as attested by St. Ignatius (PG 5, 271), St. Dionysius of Alexandria (Ep. ad Germanum: PG 10, 1324), St. Cyprian (Ep. 63, n. 16: PL 4, 398). In the time of St. Jerome Christians were called to the agape by praecones and cursores: «Cum ad agapem vocaverint, praec conductur» (Ep. 22: PL 22, 418). These were often deacons. The Ordo de St-Amand says: «Quando laetania maior debet fieri, amunziabit eam diaconus in stutione catholica et dicit: Peris tali veriente collecta in basilica besti illius, statio in basilica sancti illius et respondit omnis: Deo gratia» (L. Duchesne, Les origines du culte chrétien, Paris 1925, p. 493).

At Alexandria on 6 January of each year the Epistola festalis was published, a collective letter of the bishops, in which the announcement of Easter and of the movable feasts was given. Perhaps this is the origin of the pastoral letter that bishops are still accustomed to address to their faithful at the beginning of Lent. In the Gallican liturgy the formulas with which Rome and the East abounded are lacking; indeed the Councils of Auxerre (578) and the Fourth Synod of Orléans ordain: «ut omnes presbyteri ante Epiphanium missus suo dirigent qui eis de principio quadragesimae nuntient, et in ipsa Epiphania ad populum indicent» (M. Gerbert, Monumenta veteris liturgica Alemonicae, I, St. Blatten 1777, p. 458). In the Mozarabic liturgy the announcement was made at Christmas, immediately after the Gospel.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: G. Morin, Formula annunciandarum festivitatum, in Ancibius Maredoni, I: Liber Conictae, Maredoni 1893, p. 301 ff. M. Fermin, L'annonce dei solennutti religionesi dans la liturgie mozarabe, in Monumenta Ecclesiae liturgicae, V: Liber Ordinum et nones dans l'Entre visigatione et mozarabe d'Espagne du Vᵉ au XIᵉ siècle, Perici 1905, p. 316; G. Vale, La proclamatio Psychiatrum Epiphaniae e la sua natura formula Agulienne, in Rassegna gregoriana, 4 (1905), pp. 317-22; F. Cabrol s. v. in DACL, I, coll. 2230-41; M. Righetti, Storia liturgica, II, Milan 1946, p. 74 ff.

Silverio Mattei

@incollection{ec5_feste_annunzio_delle, author = {Mattei, Silverio}, title = {Feste, annunzio delle}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {V}, pages = {1212--1213}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1950}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/feste-annunzio-delle} }

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Annunciation of the Lord

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