Christmas

CHRISTMAS. - Feast of the birth of the Lord, celebrated on December 25.

I. THE NAME

The typically Roman name is Natale or Natalis Domini, from which the names in the Romance languages derive. The current Latin Nativitas Domini is of Gallican origin.

II. THE DATE

Regarding the historical date of Jesus' birth, an apostolic tradition is entirely lacking; the first liturgical celebrations are those of Easter and Pentecost; the notice in the Liber Pontificalis (I, p. 129), namely that Pope Telesphorus introduced the midnight Mass of Christmas, is entirely fictitious.

Noteworthy is the fact that Christmas is a feast on a fixed date, unlike that of Easter and Pentecost. Christian antiquity was uncertain about the day of Christ's birth: cf. Clement of Alexandria, Stromata (ed. Sylburg, p. 340), who indicates as the day either 25 Pachon (May 20) or 15 Tybri (Jan. 10) or 11 Tybri (Jan. 6; Epiphany); the latter date, according to him, was accepted by the majority. The writing De Pascha computus (among the works of St. Cyprian, ed. Hartel, II, p. 266) places Christ's birth on March 28; St. Hippolytus (ed. Bonwetsch, I, Leipzig 1897, p. 524) in his commentary on Daniel indicates April 2 of the year 5500 of the world, or 752 of Rome, for the birth of Jesus; another reading that gives the date of March 25 is considered a later interpolation (cf. Lib. Pont., II, p. 563, and L. Duchesne, Origines du culte chrétien, Paris 1909, p. 262). These dates were influenced by the great importance of the spring equinox (March 25, later March 21), believed to be the beginning of creation, and therefore the date of the Conception (or even the birth) of the Creator. The equinoctial date of March 21, the more common one, led, thanks to prophetic words (Matt., IV, 2) that present the Messiah as the sun of justice, and to evangelical words in which Christ is called light and sun, to March 25, the fourth day of the week, Wednesday, the day of the creation of the sun, as the day of the Savior's Conception, whereby the date of his birth came out as December 25. Other more complicated computations link back to the time when Zechariah, erroneously believed to be high priest, would have entered the Holy of Holies. Be that as it may, the conviction prevailed that Christ was in fact born on December 25. For St. Augustine (Sermones, 190, 192, 196) this is historically certain.

It must be borne in mind, however, that the date of December 25 may also derive from the Roman civil calendar. Aurelian, in 274, introduced for this day the celebration of the Sol invictus, as the end of the winter solstice (December 21); it was an influence of the Mithraic cult. Julian the Apostate, still in 362, wrote a discourse De Sole rege to be read in Rome on December 25, to celebrate the sun (real and intellectual); and St. Leo the Great, because of the coincidence of Christmas with the feast of the Sun, admonished Christians not to confuse Christ with the natural sun (Sermo 22 De natio. Domini: PL 54, 198). At Petra, in Nabataean Arabia, the birth from a virgin of the God Doussares was celebrated on December 25, and a Calendar of Canopus (of about 239) has at the date December 25: Birth of the Sun; the light grows. Considerations of an astronomical-prophetic-scriptural character of a certain symbolic nature, and the existence of a civil, pagan feast of the sun on the date December 25, would therefore have contributed to assigning the birth of Christ, sun and light, precisely to this date.

III. ROMAN ORIGIN

The purely Roman origin of the liturgical celebration of Christmas is beyond doubt; but the precise moment at which it began remains rather undetermined.

John of Nicaea (ca. 900), in order to induce the dissident Armenian Church to accept the feast of December 25, among other reasons adduces that Pope Julius (337-52) had introduced it in Rome, following a correspondence with Cyril, patriarch of Jerusalem (Combefis, Hist. haer. monoph., 304); but the correspondence is apocryphal and the report unfounded. Under Liberius, his successor (352-66), however, the feast appears established for Rome; St. Ambrose (De virginitate: PL 16, 219) mentions the sermon he delivered in 352 or 353 natalibus Salvatoris, when, in St. Peter's, he gave the veil to his sister Marcellina, and it appears that this indeed concerns Christmas. In the Chronographer of 354 the feast of Christmas is noted twice; that is, at the head of the Depositio martyrum and in a consular list "VIII kal. Ian. [that is, December 25] natus Christus in Betleem Iudeae" (v. R. Valentini-G. Zucchetti, Codice topografico della città di Roma, II, Rome 1942, p. 17), and it is repeated in an inscription found at Setif: "natale domini Christi VIII Kalendas Januarias" (E. Diehl, Inscr. Latin. christ. veteres, Berlin 1925, n. 2114). Now, the list of the Depositio episcoporum originally ended with Silvester (336), to which Mark and Julius were added; the Depositio martyrum certainly indicated the days and places of the liturgical celebrations, so one may reasonably suppose that the first lemma as well, concerning Christmas (as also that of the chair of St. Peter), refers to a liturgical celebration, and that the liturgical celebration of Christmas can and must be traced back to 336, and as certainly existing by 354. St. Zeno of Verona (380) in the third of his sermons De nativitate Dei (PL 11, 407-17), also draws a clear contrast between Christ and the material sun; but some critics do not consider it proven that his sermons were delivered at a true liturgical feast, but only to commemorate the Nativity of the Lord. St. Filastrius of Brescia, on the other hand, speaks expressly of the feast of Christmas (Liber de haeresibus, ch. 140, composed ca. 383: PL 12, 1273). At the same time Pope Siricius (letter to Bishop Himerius of Tarragona, ch. 2: PL 13, 1134) recalls the feast as already having entered Christian usage.

IV. SPREAD OF THE FEAST

In Africa the Donatists, who rejected the Epiphany as an Eastern novelty, admitted instead the feast of Christmas, as the aforementioned Philaster hints. Optatus of Milevis has a homily for Christmas, from around 360, the oldest known for this feast (G. Morin, S. Aurelii Augustini tractatus sive sermones inediti, Munich 1917, app. tr. 1, pp. 170-77; cf. also A. Wilmart, in Revue des sciences relig., 11 [1922], pp. 271-302). St. Augustine delivered several sermons on this solemn occasion, also comparing Christ and the sun (Sermo 190: PL 38, 1007; Sermo 203: ibid. 1035; De Trinitate: ibid. 42, 894).

For Gaul it suffices to cite canon 18 of the Council of Agde (506), presided over by St. Caesarius (Opera omnia, ed. G. Morin, II, Maredsous 1942, p. 45). As for Egypt, John Cassian (Collationes, X, 2: PL 49, 821 [written after 420]) attests that in his time the birth and the appearance of the Lord were celebrated there with the single feast of January 6, whereas in the West there are two distinct feasts. But in 432 Paul of Emesa preached in Alexandria, in the presence of St. Cyril, on the feast of Christmas, December 25. Jerusalem and Palestine proved rather reluctant to accept the feast of Christmas. From Egeria (ca. 381) it is known that the two principal feasts were Easter and the Epiphany (Peregrinatio, ch. 26, ed. Gamurrini, Rome 1888, p. 84). The appearance of the feast of Christmas under the patriarch Juvenal (424-58) seems to have remained ephemeral (S. Vailhé, Introduction de la fête de Noël à Jérusalem, in Echos d'Orient, 8 [1905], pp. 212-18), since Cosmas Indicopleustes in his Topographia christ. (ca. 550) asserts that in Jerusalem they had remained with only the feast of the Epiphany, in memory of the birth of Christ, while elsewhere two distinct feasts were celebrated, that of December 25 and that of January 6 (book V: PG 88, 198). But finally, under the patriarch Sophronius (634-38), it is known from one of his sermons that in Jerusalem too the feast of Christmas had taken hold (Phokylides, in Ekklesiastikos Pharos, Alexandria 1918, 319-36).

For Mesopotamia, from St. Ephrem the Syrian (373) it is known that in his time only the feast of January 6 (13 days after the solstice) was regarded as the feast of the birth of the Lord. In northern Syria, on the other hand, St. Aphrahat delivered a homily for Christmas (December 25; cf. C. Erbes, Nachträgliches zum syr. Martyrologium u. dem Weihnachtsfestkrois, in Zeitschr. f.

(phot. Enit)

Kirchengesch., 5 [1905], pp. 463, 464). As for Cappadocia, St. Gregory of Nyssa, in the exordium of two sermons in honor of St. Stephen the protomartyr (December 26), has the idea, later so dear to St. Augustine, to St. Maximus and others, that the feast of the first martyr, which follows that of the birth of the Savior, demonstrates its fruit (PG 46, 701-21). Also in his funeral oration for his brother St. Basil (379), he alludes to the double feast of Christmas and the Epiphany (PG 46, 790).

In Constantinople St. Gregory of Nazianzus, probably in 380, delivered a homily for the first celebration, in that capital, of the feast of Christmas (Hom., 38: PG 36, 311-24). In Antioch, under the patriarch Flavian (386), St. John Chrysostom, still a deacon, warned the people, in the discourse on the feast of St. Philogonius (December 20: PG 49, 752 ff.), that on the coming 25th the birth of Christ would be celebrated for the first time as a feast of its own, and on that day he then delivered the great Christmas sermon (PG 38, 353 ff.); interesting is his statement that the feast was already known for about ten years, but not celebrated. Finally, in 425 Arcadius and Honorius included Christmas among the days on which the ludi circenses were forbidden (Cod. Theod., II, 8, 27), and Justinian declared it a civil feast (Cod. Just., III, 12, 6).

V. LITURGY OF THE FEAST OF CHRISTMAS

Christmas, like all the principal feasts, has a vigil (today a privileged first-class one) and, characteristically, three festal Masses: one for the night, the second at dawn, the third during the day. Its liturgical rank is first class with a privileged octave of the third order, arranged so as to frame the feasts of the comites Christi within the same solemn octave.

The vigil must have arisen very early; for St. Augustine it is an ordinary thing. The so-called Leonine Sacramentary has preserved an entire libellus Missarum for Christmas, with 9 different formularies, not all complete, of which at least two are for the vigil. The Gregorian Sacramentary already contains the complete formulary of the current Roman Missal. For the vigil, the hour of None, that is, three in the afternoon, is noted as the time, and St. Mary Major as the place; there follows, still as the vigil, the nocturnal celebration, again at St. Mary Major; then, without a specified hour, the station at St. Anastasia; finally the festal Mass, at St. Peter's. It should be noted that at St. Anastasia the said saint was celebrated in the first place, and only in the second place Christmas. After St. Gregory the Great, at an indeterminable time, the parts were interchanged; the commemoration was made under her title, while the formulary became the Christmas festal one.

The celebration of the great Christmas vigil at St. Mary Major is explained above all by the fact that a special chapel with a representation of the Nativity scene was erected there, perhaps already from the time of Sixtus III (cf. R. Valentini-G. Zucchetti, Codice top. cit., II, 119-120). It is worth recalling that in Palestine, as the well-known Egeria attests, the celebration of the Epiphany (in which the re-

he also commemorated the birth of Christ), one began precisely at Bethlehem, in the basilica of the Nativity (of the birth); from there one went in procession to the basilica of the Anastasis in Jerusalem; there would thus be one of the various imitations of Palestinian customs in Rome. Perhaps already from the time of Sixtus III, and certainly still in the era of Amalarius (early 9th century, Liber de Ordine antiphonarii, ed. I. M. Hanssens, in Amalarii Ep. Opera liturgica omnia, III, Vatican City [*Studi e testi, 140, 1950, p. 49 ff.), and up to the Avignon exile (as the relevant Ordines Romani* attest), the Pope would go to St. Mary Major, to celebrate there the afternoon Mass of the vigil, in the evening the solemn Vespers at the manger, then, toward midnight, a brief Matins, with the midnight Mass, still considered of the vigil (better, of the "watch"); from here, toward the first light of day, he would go to St. Anastasia, for that feast. In the basilica of St. Peter, meanwhile, during the night, the true and complete Matins was sung (the

II vigil), which closed during the day with the papal Mass. After Avignon, the vigil was transformed from a true "watch" into a "vigil," that is, Office and Mass in the morning, as on all other days, while the other Masses: of the night, of dawn, of the day, remained as festal. The station, however, was likewise transferred from St. Peter's to St. Mary Major. As for the Christmas Office, it suffices to say that it is among the most lyrical and profound Offices, with many Eastern influences, direct or indirect (A. Baumstark, Byzantinisches in den Weihnachtstexten des römischen Antiphonarius Officii, in Oriens christ., 11 [1936], pp. 163-87; H. Frank, Das Alter der römischen Laudes und Vesperantiphonen der Weihnachtsoktav in ihre griechischen Originale, ibid., 14 [1939], pp. 14-18).

The notice from the Roman Martyrology, to be chanted in choir with a particular melody, was inserted there by Baronio, who took it from earlier martyrologies, such as those of Moluoro or Belino. The Jeronymian Martyrology has only the notice of the birth of Christ, and then many other names of saints. Of these only Eugenia is a Roman martyr, but her liturgical commemoration was supplanted by that of the martyr Anastasia of Sirmium. The same very brief notice of the birth at Bethlehem is found in the so-called historical martyrologies (Bede, the Lyonese, Ado; cf. H. Quentin, Les martyrologes historiques du moyen âge, 2nd ed., Paris 1908). It was Usuard who first introduced, from the Chronicle of Eusebius, in the Latin version of St. Jerome (Cronicus lib. II, PG 19, 529-32), the years of Augustus and the Olympiad (Acta SS. Junii, VI, p. 654). The chanting of this chronology serves to give prominence to the solemn announcement of the birth of the Lord into the world, but it would deserve to be revised (cf. C. M. Perrella, De emendando Martyrologio romano votum, in Ephem. liturg., 55 [1941], pp. 150-54).

Around the feast of Christmas there clustered the dates that depended on it: March 25 for the Conception of Christ (Annunciation), June 24 (VIII Kal. Jul.) for the birth of the Baptist, and the Hypapante (Occursus Domini, Purification), on the 40th day after Christmas, that is, February 2. For the octave of Christmas, on January 1, v. CIRCUMCISION, III.

Giuseppe Löw