OTTAVA. — Extension of a liturgical feast for eight days.
I. IDEA AND ORIGINS
The prolongation of any solemn celebration, civil or religious, is a natural thing; suffice it to think, for example, of celebrations for the dead which, among many peoples, and independently of the form of religion, continue—especially when they concern distinguished deceased persons—for several days (three, seven, nine; novemdial observances), as well as of wedding celebrations prolonged for an entire week. The dedications of temples to worship, too, especially when of great religious or patriotic importance, were prolonged for several days.The Old Testament, too, presents several examples of ritual celebrations prolonged for a week: such as the feast of Passover, which in reality consisted of two solemnities: Passover in the strict sense (14 nīsān), and the feast of Unleavened Bread (15–21 nīsān); the feast of Booths, which consisted of the feast itself, lasting from the 15th to the 21st tūrf, and of a day of popular festivities, the 22nd tūrf. Likewise, the dedications of the Temple of Jerusalem were always prolonged for eight days: at the time of the first dedication of the Temple of Jerusalem under Solomon (II Reg. 8, 62 ff.); as under Zorobabel, after the exile (Estd. 3, 8 f.; 6, 13 ff.), and in the age of the Maccabees (Mach. 4, 36 f.; 10, 1 ff.). This practice found support in the symbolic-mystical interpretations so much in vogue among the Orientals of Hellenistic culture, from whom they passed to the Fathers and then to ancient and medieval writers. The number eight was considered, to limit ourselves to a single point, the perfect number (v. the innumerable explanations of the Fathers concerning the 8 Beatitudes); hence, the number symbolizing supreme perfection, that is, the end of human existence, paradise, or glory in God. The celebration of an octave was therefore regarded as a kind of anticipation of eternal Beatitude, mystically prefigured also in the fact that the Apostle Thomas, absent at the Lord’s first appearance after his Resurrection, was present eight days later, was converted, and became a participant in Christ’s joy.
II. DEVELOPMENTS
The first precise information concerning the celebration of a liturgical octave dates to the year 335, on the occasion of the solemn dedication of the Constantinian basilicas of Tyre and Jerusalem (Eusebius, Vita Const., III, 30). From the Iinerarium Artheriae (attributed to the years 393–94), it is known moreover that at that time the octaves of Easter and Epiphany were celebrated in Jerusalem (ed. H. Pétrée, Paris 1948, pp. 241, 205–207). St. Augustine, to omit other testimonies, often speaks of octaves, especially of that of Easter (“octava infantium,” Sermo de temp., 228, 1: PL 38, 1101; “Celebratio feriarum octavarum,” in De serm. D̄ii in monte, 4, 12: PL 34, 1235; “in diebus sanctis octavarum,” in De divinatione daem., I, 1: CSEL, XLI, 3, p. 599). The octave of Easter is intimately connected with the practice of Baptism, conferred during the Easter Vigil, and with the neophytes’ daily participation in the liturgy, until the removal of the white baptismal garments. Consequently, Pentecost too, likewise a baptismal solemnity, had an octave, which became general only in the late Middle Ages, although the Roman Church accepted it very early. The octave of Easter, in the Theodosian Code, also became a feast day for civil purposes (Cod. Theod., II, 8, 2). The feast of Christmas, Roman in origin, soon acquired an octave, though one sui generis, since from the beginning the celebration of the “comites Christi” was interwoven with it, while the eighth day had its own character, as a Marian celebration. The octave of Epiphany entered Western usage from the East, where Baptism was administered, as at Easter. Felice IV (III; 526–30) was believed to be the author of a decretal ordering the celebration of the octave of the dedication of every church, on the basis of synagogue usage; but the decretal, incorporated into the Decretum Gratiani (De consec., dist. I, c. 17), which also serves as the lessonof the Second Nocturn of the eighth day of the dedication, is apocryphal. The Council of Mainz of 813 (Mansi, XIV, 73 ff.) mentions altogether three octaves, two with eight feast days: Easter and Pentecost, and that of Christmas with four feast days plus the eighth. Amalario (v.), in addition to the octaves of Easter, Pentecost, Christmas, and Epiphany, recalls those of certain feasts of saints, “eorum scilicet quorum festivitas apud nos clarior habetur,” and mentions the feast of ss. Pietro and Paolo. He also proposes the idea, later repeated by medieval liturgists, that the feast itself of a saint refers to the “requies sanctorum,” while the octave refers to the “resurrectio corporum” (Amalario, Liber officialis, IV, chaps. 29, 32, 34, 35, ed. I. M. Hannsena [Studi e testi, 139], Vatican City 1938). The Micrologus (chap. 44) assures us that at that time, according to Roman practice, only the octaves “di autorità romana” were celebrated, and these only on the eighth day, not on the other days, with the exception of those of the Assumption and of s. Pietro (PL 151, 1010). Onorio di Autun, in the celebrated Gemma animae (bk. III, chap. 17: PL 172, 647), develops Amalario’s allegorical ideas concerning octaves, but without concrete dates. Sicardo da Cremona, in his masterly Mitrale (bk. V, chap. 7: PL 213, 225–33), subsequently inserts after the octave of Christmas a treatise on octaves, and enumerates those of Christmas, Epiphany, s. Stefano and companions, Easter, and Pentecost. Radulfo da Rivo, in De canonum observantia, prop. 19 (ed. C. Mohlberg, Rad. de R., der letzte Vertreter der altröm. Liturgie, II, Münster 1915, p. 116 ff.), reports that at that time, according to Roman practice, two kinds of octaves were observed, maiores and minores: the former with a festive celebration on the first and eighth days, and on the Sunday falling within this period; the latter celebrated only on the last day as a simple feast with three lessons. The greater ones were those of Christmas, Epiphany, Ascension, Trinity, Corpus Domini, the Assumption and Nativity of Maria, Pietro and Paolo; the lesser ones those of Andrea, Lorenzo, Martino and, among certain orders (Carthusians), Giovanni Battista. But in his time the mendicant orders and not a few particular churches had already begun to use octaves for an ever-increasing number of particular feasts, not merely in the manner of the lesser octaves, but with full celebration, at least with daily commemoration. It is therefore not surprising that s. Pio V, in the reform of the liturgical books (Missal and Breviary), severely restricted octaves; in addition to the principal major feasts, he allowed them only for the dedication of a church, and for the feast of its titular and its canonically chosen principal patron. The monastic calendar, approved under Paolo V, has no proper octave. In the edition of the Breviary of Urbano VIII, octaves were excluded from 17 and 23 December (the following feast of Christmas with its octave extended this restriction until 2 January) and from the whole of Lent. Certain octaves (Easter, Pentecost, Epiphany, Corpus Domini, Christmas, Ascension) practically enjoyed a privileged position in relation to the others; however, the technical term “privileged octave” appears only during the eighteenth century among certain liturgists, while it entered official phraseology only with Pio X (1911–13).
III. PRESENT STATE
At present three kinds of octaves are distinguished: privileged, common, and simple. The privileged are in turn of three orders; the privilege consists in the fact that they must at least be commemorated and can never be omitted. The common octaves, on the other hand, yield to feasts of higher rank; the simple octaves, introduced by Pius V in the manner of the minor octaves of the Middle Ages, entail only a celebration on the eighth day. Since the last century, the practice has arisen of requesting also, for particular churches or religious families, a privileged octave for some important feast; thus, for example, for Venice, Corpus Domini (1815); for Rome, the feast of ss. Pietro e Paolo (1883; S. Congr. dei Riti, Decr. auth., n. 3581).The universal Calendar currently has 7 privileged octaves, namely, of the 1st order: Pasqua and Pentecoste; of the 2nd order: Epifania and Corpus Domini; of the 3rd order: Natale, Ascensione, and Cuore di Gesù; 6 common octaves: Concezione and Assunzione di Maria; s. Giovanni Battista, Patrocinio di s. Giuseppe, ss. Pietro e Paolo, Ognissanti; and finally 5 simple octaves: Natività della Madonna, s. Stefano, s. Giovanni Evangelista, Innocenti, and s. Lorenzo. In addition, there are particular octaves
for dedications, titular feasts, and principal patrons, and, among religious, for the canonized founder.
In chronological order of introduction (for the more recent octaves), we have: 1243 (Innocenzo IV), octave of the Natività di Maria; 1264 and 1317, Corpus Domini; 1471–84 (Sisto IV), Ognissanti; 1691–1700 (Innocenzo XII), Concezione immacolata di Maria; 1911 (Pio X), solemnity of s. Giuseppe; 1929 (Pio XI), s. Cuore di Gesù.