Pentecost

PENTECOST. - I. SACRED SCRIPTURE. - A Jewish feast, 7 weeks or 50 days (whence the Greek name "fiftieth" [day]) after Passover, which became a Christian solemnity because on that day the community led by the Apostles was miraculously inaugurated (Acts 2:1-14).

According to Lev. 23:15-16: "From the day after the sabbath, that is, from the day when you bring the sheaf to be waved, you shall count seven full weeks. Counted thus, up to the day after the seventh sabbath, 50 days, you shall offer a new oblation to the Lord." For the Pharisees the "day after the sabbath" on which the sheaf (of barley) was offered was the 16th of Nisan; for the Sadducees it was the day following a true sabbath. Therefore Pentecost, fixed on the 50th day from the offering of the first sheaf, was always celebrated by the Sadducees on the first day of the week. Hence, if for the Pharisees it fell on the 5th or the 6th or even the 7th of the month of Nisan (the 2nd month after Nisan, corresponding to May-June), for the Sadducees it could fall even on later days.

In the year of Jesus' death, which was Friday the 14th of Nisan, the 15th of Nisan, the feast of Passover, coincided with the sabbath of the week; the 16th of Nisan was therefore Sunday, the first day of the week, and Pentecost consequently fell likewise on a Sunday.

Pentecost, the second great feast in the course of the year, was called the "feast of the harvest" or "feast of the sevenweeks" (hagh ṣābhu'ōth: Ex. 34, 22; Deut. 16, 10; II Par. 8, 13) or "feast of firstfruits" (Ex. 23, 16) because loaves made from the flour of the newly harvested wheat were offered (Lev. 23, 17). The "free" offering of which Deuteronomy speaks (16, 10-11) does not exclude the prescribed offerings, and it was to be an occasional one of a joyful banquet, in which the pious Israelite, recalling God's benevolence in delivering the people from Egypt, had the destitute participate, those who could not make those offerings. The originally agricultural character of P. was not altered by the prescriptions concerning the date, the rites and the sacrifices which, according to the legislation of Lev. 23, 15-22 and Num. 28, 26-31, constitute the proper character of the feast and increase its solemnity. Besides the characteristic offering of the two "leavened" loaves (Lev. 23, 17), the common bread was offered, that which served for ordinary sustenance, because it was what was owed to God's liberality, and for this they wished to thank Him. There was added the holocaust of "seven lambs of one year, without blemish, and one young bullock and two rams" (ibid. 23, 18; according to Num. 28, 27, two young bulls, one ram and seven lambs); of "one he-goat for a sin offering and two lambs of one year as a peace sacrifice": Lev. 23, 19. There were therefore three kinds of sacrifices: the holocaust, the sacrifice for sin and the peace sacrifice of the two lambs. To the sense of the offering of firstfruits to God, in gratitude for the abundant harvest in the fertile and spacious land promised by God to the people, there was later added the commemorative remembrance of the promulgation of the law on Sinai. This does not appear in the Old Testament nor even in Philo and Josephus; mention of it is found only from the 2nd century A.D. (cf. H. L. Strack-P. Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch, II, Munich 1924, p. 601).

Both because of its meaning and because of the good season in which it fell, the feast of P. was much frequented also by the Jews of the diaspora (cf. Act. 2, 9-11). Even St. Paul on his third journey, returning from Greece, did not wish to stop at Ephesus because he was in a hurry to reach Jerusalem for P. It is also named in I Cor. 16, 8; but above all important is the account in Act. 2, of the descent of the Holy Spirit which occurred on that day.

The meaning of the Christian P. results from the events that took place on that day. The mission of the Holy Spirit, repeatedly promised by Jesus (Io. 15, 26; Act. 1, 4-5, 8) with the visible manifestation in tongues of fire, was the beginning of the Church. The Apostles begin preaching. The marvelous phenomenon of tongues seems to have to be explained as a phenomenon of glossolalia, as often occurred later in the early Church (I Cor. 14; cf. S. Lyonnet, De glossolalia Pentecostes eiusque significatione, in Verbum Domini, 24 [1944], pp. 65-75; J. René, Actes [La Ste Bible, ed. L. Pirot, 11,1], Paris 1949, pp. 55-56).

Silverio Zedda

II. LITURGY

The object of the feast of Pentecost is clearly stated in the antiphon of the Magnificat of Second Vespers of the day: « hodie completi sunt dies pentecostes... Spiritus Sanctus in igne discipulis apparuit, et tribuit eis charismatum dona: misit eos in universum mundum praedicare et testificari... With Pentecost, the Church, born on the Cross from the side of Christ (cf. St. Augustine, Tract. in Johan., XV, n. 8: PL 35, 1513), makes her first public appearance: « dies nobis », says St. Augustine, « gratus illuxit quo sancta Ecclesia fidelium fulget aspectibus, fervet in cordibus » (Sermo 271, 1: PL 38, 1245). In antiquity Pentecost was essentially the conclusion of the paschal solemnities, whose joy was prolonged through the 50 days called « dies pentecostes », « quinquagesima » or simply « pentecostes » (« quinquaginta diebus emensis, quos in laetitia praecipue festivitatis exegimus », said St. Leo the Great, Sermo 81: PL 54, 421). On that day was commemorated not only the visible descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, as though it were its dies natalis, as St. Augustine said (« et venit Spiritus sanctus in quinquagenario numero tamquam natalem sibi apud nos faciens »: ed. G. Morin, Rome 1930, p. 185), but the crowning of « the whole economy of salvation » (Baumstark [cited in bibl.], p. 170). However, from the moment when in the Roman liturgy Pentecost was provided with an octave, it took on the appearance of a feast in its own right. In the Byzantine liturgy, as is evident from the idiomelon of Leo the Despot, which is sung on the feast of Pentecost, it seems that the object of the solemnity is almost exclusively the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. For the Russians too, Pentecost is first of all the Sunday of the Most Holy Trinity. The historical commemoration of the descent of the Holy Spirit is commemorated among the Easterners on the Monday of Pentecost. With the Jewish Pentecost (v. above), the Christian Pentecost has in common only the date.

1. Origin

Pentecost (« quinquagesimarum dies » according to Egeria) is as ancient as Easter, but the references to Pentecost found in the Acts (20, 16) and in the first letter to the Corinthians (16, 8) refer to the Jewish solemnity. Among the earliest testimonies for the Christian Pentecost must be counted that of Tertullian, who makes « Pentecostes », that is the « quinquaginta dies », a baptismal season like Easter (cf. De baptismo, 19; De idololatria, 14), during which one prays standing as a sign of joy (De ieiuniis, 14; De corona, 3; De oratione, 23). Origen too (Contra Celsum, VIII, 22: PG 11, 1549-52) speaks of the « τῆς πεντηκοστῆς ἡμέρας », with a reference to the descent of the Holy Spirit. The joyful character of these 50 days later became so traditional in the Church that, save for exceptions, fasts and penances were interrupted during them, as attested, for example, by St. Ambrose (« Maiores tradidere nobis pentecostes omnes quinquaginta dies ut paschae celebrandos »: Expositio in Lucam, VIII, 25: PL 15, 1863); Egeria (Itinerarium, 41: ed. H. Pétré,

Paris 1948, p. 244); St. Augustine (« ieiunia relaxantur, et stantes oramus, quod est signum resurrectionis »: Epist. ad Ianuarium, 15: PL 33, 218); Cassian (Collatio XXI, 11, 19-20: PL 49, 1185, 1193 f.); and the Canones Hippolyti (nn. 195-98: ed. L. Duchesne, Origines du culte chrétien, 5th ed. Paris 1909, pp. 544-45).

With the exception of Spain, where the Council of Elvira, at the beginning of the 4th century, had to prescribe the celebration of Pentecost (can. 43: Hefele-Leclercq, I, 1, p. 245 f.), from the 4th century onward Pentecost had a character of particular solemnity.

For the East may be mentioned: Egeria, who describes the liturgy of Pentecost at Jerusalem, where the commemoration of the Ascension was associated with the descent of the Holy Spirit; the service began at the first cockcrow and lasted until the following midnight (Itinerarium, 43, ed. cit., pp. 246-52); the Constitutiones Apostolorum (V, 20, 14; VIII, 33, 5; ed. F. X. Funk, Paderborn 1905, pp. 299, 538); St. John Chrysostom, who calls it « ἡ πρόστινε τῶν ἑορτῶν » (Serm. de sancta Pentecoste, II, 1: PG 50, 463; cf. also In Annam, Sermo IV, 2: PG 54, 662).

For the West, see: St. Ambrose (De Apol. proph. David, 42: « suscipimus advenientem in nos gratiam Spiritus Sancti die Pentecostes: vacant ieiunia, laus dicitur Deo, alleluia cantatur »: PL 14, 907); St. Augustine (Sermo 269, 1: PL 38, 1234); St. Maximus of Turin (Sermo 63: PL 57, 377); St. Leo the Great, who recalls that Pentecost « in praecipuis festis esse venerandam » (Sermo 75: PL 54, 400; cf. also Serm. 76-79).

2. The Vigil

Tertullian, as has already been said, made the days of Pentecost a baptismal season, and Pope Siricius at the end of the 4th century reminded Himerius of Tarragona of the custom established « apud nos et apud omnes ecclesias » of conferring Baptism only at Pentecost, and not on other solemnities, upon catechumens who for various reasons had not been able to receive it during the paschal vigil (Ep. I, 2: PL 13, 1134). The choice of this « sacrata solemnitas » for the administration of Baptism was due to the fact that Pentecost « de paschalis festi pendet articulo », as St. Leo observed to the bishops of Sicily (Ep. XVI: PL 54, 699-701; cf. Ep. CLXVIII: ibid., col. 1210). The councils of the Carolingian era too insist greatly on the two baptismal days of Easter and Pentecost, save in cases of urgency. See the prescriptions issued by the bishops gathered « ad ripas Danubii » in 796; § 4 of the pastoral instruction of Archbishop Arno of 798; can. 4 of the Council of Mainz of 813 (ed. A. Werminghoff, in MGH, Concilia aevi Karolini, II, 1 [1906], pp. 173-75, 198, 261) and can. 33 of the Council of Paris of 829 (ibid., II, 11 [1908], p. 634).

At the vigil of Pentecost the same scheme as the paschal vigil was followed, approximately, but the rites were considerably reduced: 1) four readings according to the ancient Gelasian and Gregorian Sacramentaries (cf. also Amalarius, Lib. officialis, I, 38: ed. J. M. Hanssens, Amalarii ep. opera omnia liturgica, II, Vatican City 1948, p. 181), six instead according to the Ordo Romanus XI (12th century), which prescribed that they be recited in Latin and in Greek (n. 62: PL 78, 1049; ed. L. Duchesne, Le liber censuum, II, Paris 1905, p. 157), and that many have remained in the present Roman Missal); 2) the blessing of the font; 3) Baptism; 4) Confirmation; 5) Holy Mass. At Rome the vigil was celebrated at the Lateran. As for the fast, which became the rule in the Middle Ages, the first references are found in prayers of the so-called Leonine Sacramentary (ed. C. L. Feltoe, Cambridge 1896, pp. 25-26) and of the ancient Gelasian (ed. H. A. Wilson, Oxford 1894, p. 120); the prayers of the Gregorian do not speak of a fast, which is instead ordained by can. 10 of the Bavarian Council of 740-50 (ed. Werminghoff, cit., II, 1, p. 53). The rite of the night vigil later passed to the afternoon and finally to the morning of Saturday.

3. The feast

At Rome, the liturgical station of the day was celebrated at St. Peter's, as the Gregorian Sacramentary already attests. Among the most characteristic texts of the feast are recall: 1) the sequence Veni Sancte Spiritus, an authentic masterpiece, definitively introduced into the Roman Missal by St. Pius V (1570); formerly attributed to King Robert the Pious or to Innocent III, it has instead been claimed for Cardinal Stephen of Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury (1207-28), on the testimony of a contemporary (cf. J. B. Pitra, Spicilegium solesmense, III, Paris 1855, p. 130; P. H. Thurston, Notes sur les prières les plus usitées, IV. Le Veni S. Spiritus du card. Langton, in Rev. du clergé français, 21 [1915], t. LXXXIV, pp. 208-24). The Ordo Romanus XIII (no. 26: PL 78, 1120) and many manuscript and printed missals, not excluding the editio princeps of the Missale Romanum (Milan 1474: ed. R. Lippe, London 1899, pp. 240-41), which also contains the Veni S. Spiritus, have instead for Pentecost the sequence Sancti Spiritus adsit nobis gratia (cf. U. Chevalier, Repertorium Hymnologicum, II, Louvain 1897, no. 18557), composed by the monk Notker the Stammerer and clothed in a splendid Gregorian melody; 2) the Preface, one of the most beautiful liturgical compositions of the Roman Missal: it comes from the Gregorian Sacramentary, but the first period already formed part of a Preface of the vigil Mass of Pentecost in the Leonine and ancient Gelasian Sacramentaries. Exceptionally, at the hour of Terce, instead of the usual Ambrosian hymn, the Veni Creator is recited, to recall more directly the hour of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles.

4. The octave

The Apostolic Constitutions, mentioned above (V, 20, 14), allude to the festive week after Pentecost, a custom that later passed also to the West, as attested, for example, by canon 36 of the Synod of Mainz of 813, which urges its observance (ed. A. Werminghoff, ed. cit., II, 1, p. 270), and by the list of feasts of precept observed at Bologna in the 9th century ("Sabbato Pentecoste venerabiliter celebretur sicut diem sanctum resurrectionis, II, III, IIII, V, VI et sabbatum post pentecostum a mane usque ad missa", ed. G. Morin, in Rev. bénéd. 19 [1902], p. 354). In the course of time this custom declined, so much so that the Synod of Constance of 1094 (Mansi, XX, 795-96) had to content itself with restoring it only in part, prescribing that the days of obligation at Easter and Pentecost be limited to the first three days of the week; but even this partial restoration of the precept was not long observed. As for the octave, which concludes with None on Saturday, it was not known at Rome in the time of St. Leo the Great, who speaks only of the fasts of the summer Ember Days. Despite the "orationes ad vespers infra octavas Pentecostes" of the ancient Gelasian, the liturgical organization of the week of Pentecost, with the inclusion of the three days of fasting of the summer Ember Days, is due to St. Gregory the Great (cf. Egbert of York, De institutione catholica, interr. XVI, 2: PL 89, 441; cf. A. Chavasse [cited in bibl.], pp. 75-81). In the course of the 7th century, in order to remove the fast from the octave of Pentecost, it was thought to transfer it, at Rome and in various other Churches, to the week of the third or fourth Sunday after Pentecost, but Gregory VII restored the "aestivale ieiunium" to the octave of Pentecost (cf. Micrologus, 25: PL 151, 997).

5. The Sundays after Pentecost

Although book III of the ancient Gelasian Sacramentary (ed. cit., pp. 224-33)

contains without particular indication a compact group of 16 Sundays, whose formularies are then found in the fifth to twentieth Sundays after Pentecost of the ancient Roman liturgical books and of the present Roman Missal, nevertheless the organization of the Sundays after Pentecost is due to St. Gregory the Great, who distributed them in this way: "post Pentecosten", a varying number, at most 5; "post Nat. Apostolorum", 6; "post Sci Laurentii", 5; "post Sci Cipriani", 7 (or also "post Sci Angeli", that is, St. Michael). The continuous numbering from 1 to 24, today in use, comes from the Gelasian Sacramentary of the 8th century. Since for reasons of space it is not possible to study the formularies, some of them truly splendid, assigned to these Sundays, see on this matter the treatments of De Puniet, Schmidt, Chavasse and the studies recalled in their bibliographies. It is worth observing, however, that in the overall redaction of these formularies there is no trace whatever of any concern to expound a concept systematically. To conclude, a particularity is noted that may serve for the identification of manuscript missals: the series of alleluia verses of the Sundays after Pentecost in missals prior to 1570 varies from Church to Church, yet from the 10th to the 16th century they are constant in the liturgical books of one and the same Church, as V. Leroquais has admirably demonstrated (Les sacramentaires et les missels mss. des Bibliothèques publ. de France, I, Paris 1924, pp. xxiv-vi). In the Byzantine liturgy the first 14 Sundays after Pentecost are called of St. Matthew, from the Gospel read there, and the others, up to our Septuagesima, of St. Luke, for the same reason.

6. Medieval names and symbolic customs

In medieval documents Pentecost is called: Pascha de medio (May); Pascha militum; Pascha Pentecostes; P. collectorum (P. media was the Wednesday of Pentecost, and P. prima and ultima were 10 May and 13 June, the extreme dates on which Pentecost can fall). In the late Middle Ages the custom of symbolically representing the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles was very widespread. Pentecost indeed also took the name Pascha rosatum, pasqua rosata, of roses or of dew, from the most common scene of this kind, which consisted in causing a rain of red roses or of tufts of burning tow to descend from the height of the church, in memory of the tongues of fire that descended upon the Apostles in the Cenacle. At Rome this symbolic rain took place on the Sunday preceding Pentecost, "la dominica de rosa", in the stational church of S. Maria ad Martyres, while the Pope from the ambo spoke to the people of the approaching solemnity of Pentecost, at that very moment from the height of the oculus of the rotunda there were thrown down "rosse in figura eiusdem Spiritus Sancti", as the Ordo Romanus XI of Benedict the Canon attests in the 12th century (no. 61: PL 78, 1049; ed. L. Duchesne, vol. 157). At Bayeux, during the singing of the sequence Sancti Spiritus adsit nobis gratia, flowers of seven different perfumes were made to fall from the height of the vault of the Cathedral, to recall the Seven Gifts. Elsewhere, during the singing of the Epistle, the noise of the impetuous wind recalled by the sacred text was imitated and trumpets were sounded. While the Veni creator was being sung, candles were lit, bells were rung, and seven priests vested in chasuble with lighted and perfumed censers stood with the bishop at the foot of the altar. In other churches, as, for example, in the basilica of St. Peter and at Orvieto (and here the custom is still alive; the ceremony of the palombella has taken place, for a century now, on the church square; the colombina travels the aerial stretch marked by the rope amid the firing of "a thousand explosions"), doves or birds were released during the celebration of the Mass. Where these were lacking, a wooden dove with a host in its beak was made to descend upon the altar.

For the representations of Pentecost in art v. SPIRITO SANTO. - See plate LXXVIII.

1939, pp. 151, 170-71; M. Righetti, Storia liturgica, II, Milano 1946, pp. 209-19; J. A. Jungmann, Pfingstokten u. Kirchbonnse in der römischen Liturgie, in Miscellanea lit. in honorem L. C. Mahlberg, I, Roma 1948, pp. 169-82; H. Schmidt, Die Sonntage nach Pfingsten in den römischen Sakramentaren, ibid., pp. 451-93 (con ampia bibl. precedente; da tener presente le osservazioni di dom B. Botte, in Les questions liturgiques et paroissiales, 31 [1950], n. 411 e del Chavasse); id., De lectionibus soriantibus in formulis identicis sacramentariorum Leoniani, Gelasiani et Gregoriani, in Sacris erudiri, 4 (1952), pp. 100-73 (le formule per la P. a pp. 160-61); P. Bruylants, Les oraisons du Misset Romain, II, Lovanio 1953 (v. indice); A. Chavasse, Les plus anciens types du lectionnaire et de l'antiphonaire romains de la Messe, in Rev. bénédictine, 62 (1952), pp. 3-94.

A. Pietro Frutza