PURIFICATION (CANDLEMAS), FEAST OF. — A major Marian feast celebrated on 2 February as a double of the second class, to which is added the blessing of candles followed by a solemn procession. However, if it falls on one of the Sundays of Pre-Lent, the feast of the Purification is transferred to 3 February, while the blessing of candles and the procession remain on the second.
1. Origin of the feast
Like the other great Marian feasts, this one also has an Eastern, specifically Jerusalemite, origin. Its foundation lies in the biblical narrative (Lk 2:22 ff.), in which the Blessed Virgin Mary, forty days after the birth of Jesus, brought Him to the Temple in Jerusalem to redeem Him according to the Law (Lev 12:2 ff., and Num 18:15 ff.), meeting on this occasion with the aged Simeon, who foretold the glory of the Child and the sorrows of the Mother. This account, like other biblical episodes, gave rise to a liturgical commemoration first in the Holy City. It is described by Egeria (late 4th century), and took place on 14 February, hence called “quadragesimae de Epiphania,” since Christmas was solemnized in the feast of Epiphany on 6 January; after the usual solemn processions, there followed a sermon on the Gospel episode of Luke and a High Mass. The feast was celebrated “with the greatest joy, as if it were Easter” (ed. Gamurrini, cap. 28, p. 84). The sermon “Deocursu Domini” by St. Gregory of Nyssa (d. 394) attests that the feast was also celebrated outside Palestine (PG 46, 1151-82). Soon after, St. Cyril of Alexandria also delivered a festal sermon on the Purification (Hom., 12: PG 77, 1039-50); followed by other Eastern Church Fathers in the succeeding centuries.In Constantinople, the feast became official or obligatory for the clergy, V. Chroso.
2. The feast of the Purification in the West
Among the various mosaic scenes on the triumphal arch of the basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome is one depicting the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. But in the West, there was as yet no liturgical celebration. In the liturgical and extra-liturgical sources of the time of St. Gregory the Great, there is no trace of the Marian feasts of the Purification (v.), Annunciation (v.), Assumption (v.), and Nativity of Mary (v.). A hundred years later, however, Pope Sergius I (681-701) decreed that the celebration of these four Marian feasts should be made more solemn with a special procession. These feasts were thus imported from the East during the 7th century, and, as all evidence suggests, through the work of Eastern monks, who flocked in large numbers to Rome, bringing with them not a few other liturgical celebrations (v. PONTIFICALE, I, p. 376). Indeed, the Roman liturgical books that first contain the feast of the Purification, such as the Gregorian-type Sacramentaries and the Roman-type Epistle and Gospel Lectionaries, bear the Greek name of the feast: “Ypamante”; in the additions to the Martyrologium Hieronymianum (since the feast is missing in the archetype), it often appears as “S. Symeonis”; in later Sacramentaries of the Gelasian type and in various corrections and additions to earlier liturgical books, the Latin name appears instead, which eventually prevailed: “Purificatio S. Mariae,” of rather Gallican provenance.A complete rite for the blessing is found in the so-called 12th-century Pontifical (M. Andrieu, Le Pontifical Romain au moyen âge, I, Vatican City 1938 [Studi e testi, 86], pp. 206-209), with prayers partly identical to those currently used, or in greater number. The chanting of the antiphon “Lumen” already exists, as do the final antiphons during the procession. The blessing of candles, like that of ashes and palms, is a Franco-Germanic invention of the 9th-10th centuries. E. Martène (De antiquis Ecclesiae ritibus, III, cap. 15) records seven different Ordines, with a multitude of oremus and particularities that were only standardized with the Missal of St. Pius V in 1570. The full grandeur of the Roman “litany” of the Purification is revealed in the Ordines Romani XI, XII, XIV, and XV (ed. Mabillon), dating from 1140 to c. 1400. In Rome, the “litany” remained the essential element; the blessing of candles, already mentioned in Ord. XI, was imparted beforehand, without solemnity, by a deacon cardinal, and later (Ord. XII and following) by the two youngest deacon cardinals. The Pope, seated before the church of St. Hadrian, distributed the candles to the clergy and people; in the procession, he led the way, barefoot and in black vestments, along with the others. In Ord. XIV, it is declared for the first time that, if it coincides with Septuagesima or Sexagesima, the “litany” should remain on the second, a prescription that remained definitive in the rubrics of St. Pius V. In Ord. XV, after the Avignon period, the litanic and penitential procession disappeared; the distribution of candles took place directly in St. Mary Major. It is worth noting that outside Rome, the candle procession did not have an explicit penitential character, much less with the development of the solemn blessing. The “litany,” according to St. Bede the Venerable (De temporum ratione [PL 90, 351-52]), would have been introduced by Gelasius I (492-96) in place of the lustral processions of February, the Lupercalia, or other *amburbales*, as later medieval liturgists, Baronius (Annales, ad ann. 544), and some modern scholars (G. Wissowa in his revision of vol. III of J. Marquardt, Röm. Staatsrecht, Leipzig 1878, p. 446) would affirm. But according to the most authoritative authors, such a derivation does not hold. In Gelasius’ time, the aforementioned pagan processions were no longer performed, and their date did not correspond to 2 February; but above all, the account in the Liber Pontificalis regarding the institution of the four Marian processions under Sergius I is clear: it was something entirely new. That the feast of the Purification remained alive and took on such developments and transformations has its foundation in the biblical texts of “Lumen ad revelationem gentium” (cf. H. Grisar, Roma alla fine del mondo antico, Italian ed., II, Rome 1930, p. 911, or D. De Bruyne, L'origine des processions de la Chandeléur et les Rogations, in Revue bénédictine, 30 [1922], p. 15 ff.). In Rome, after the Avignon period, the “litany” of the Purification was no longer resumed; indeed, the blessing of candles and the procession, performed by the Supreme Pontiff, took place in one of the internal chapels of the Palace, and from 1839 to 1870 in the Vatican Basilica; subsequently, it was entirely omitted. It had become customary for the Pope, after the procession, to throw the blessed candles from the window of the Palace into the crowd, but due to the various inconveniences that arose, Gregory XIII abolished this practice in 1573. Instead, at an unspecified date, but already in the 18th century (cf. the “Chracas”), the custom arose that, after the liturgical ceremonies, upon returning to his chambers, the Pope would be presented with artistic candles by the members of the Papal Court, representatives of the Roman Chapters and clergy, the government, and the city. This ceremony later included deputations from religious Orders residing in Rome, and it continues to this day.
Today, the presentation of candles takes place in the Sala del Concistoro. The Pope sends some artistic candles to illustrious persons, sovereigns, nobles, etc., distributing the others to poor churches.
4. Various notices concerning the feast of the Purification
On the morning of 2 February 1703 a most violent earthquake devastated a large part of the Papal States, but in Rome the damage was relatively light. Pope Clement XI therefore ordered a Te Deum to be sung after the solemn Mass of the Purification, a practice that continued until 1870. He also vowed, on behalf of the city of Rome, to observe 10 February for a hundred years as a vigil with fasting and abstinence; this vow was renewed in 1802 by Pius VII for another hundred years and was commemorated on a tablet in the Campidoglio.From the second Vespers of 2 February, whether the feast of the Purification was celebrated or not, the final antiphon of the Office, “Ave, regina caelorum,” is recited and continues in use until Holy Week. The Office of the feast of the Purification, including its psalmody and hymns, is Marian in character; the antiphons of the first Vespers are those of the Circumcision (10 January); the rest of the Office and the entire Mass, however, clearly reveal that the feast originally was a feast of Christ.
FOLKLORE. — Closely bound up with the forms and norms of the liturgy is the popular participation in the blessing and distribution of the candles for the feast of the Purification of Mary. Reflections of popular taste are seen in the various ways adopted in different regions to adorn the blessed candles—with multicolored trappings, ribbons, or the seals of the parish, and so forth. In former times the ceremony was carried out with greater richness of festive and picturesque expressions. At Rome, down to the pontificate of Gregory XVI, a procession was held around the basilica of St Peter. After the customary ceremonial for all functions presided over by the Pope, several candles with red and silver silk bows and the papal coat of arms were placed on the altar mensa. Three of these were chosen by the master of ceremonies, the smallest being given to the Pope, the other two to the deacon and subdeacon officiating. After the candles were blessed, the Pope gave his own candle to the master of ceremonies, together with the white silk *parmiano* embroidered in gold that had served to protect his fingers from the sculpture, and then proceeded to the blessing of the candles while the prelates intoned the “Lumen ad revelationem gentium.” High-ranking courtiers, ambassadors, and others took part in the ceremony.
At Naples there was a display of torches, candles, and colored flambeaux adorned with the insignia of the church and of noble houses that sent them as gifts to honorable or friendly persons, so that a 16th-century poet, G. B. Del Tufo, could write: “...This is to be seen in every street, in every thoroughfare—wherever you may go, ladies—something fair to see, as in a sacred and glorious April.”
At Trapani, until the early 19th century, the episode of the Purification of Mary was dramatically re-enacted in a kind of popular sacred play whose characters were the Madonna with the Child, St Joseph, and St Simeon. Something similar also took place at Vicari (Palermo); while at Chiaromonte the peasant women, on the eve of the feast, process up a mountain overlooking the town and there purify themselves by washing in the dew, singing in chorus a lauda alluding to the purificatory rite they are performing.
At present the most vivid expression of popular devotion consists in the fact that the blessed candles, especially in the countryside but also among the common people in the cities, are carefully kept, often prominently displayed in bedrooms, because they are believed to possess special powers against the malevolent forces of nature and evil spirits. For this reason the people light them at the bedside of the dying, convinced that the light of the candle will ward off death; they are also lit during storms and against lightning and hail, to placate the wrath of nature and avert destruction from the fields. In many places the lit candle is placed outside the window during a storm. In the Abruzzi, on the day of the Canale, everyone refrains from work, but millers in particular, because it is said that once a miller who failed to keep this feast saw flour issue from his mill in the shape of candles.
In the traditional calendar Candlemas marks the end of winter, hence a host of meteorological proverbs, beliefs, and prognostications based on the weather of that day. In most cases it is held that Candlemas signals the close of the winter season (for Candlemas—we are out of winter), but if the weather is fair on that day, winter will continue for another month or more. Of interest in this connection is the widespread European belief that on this day the bear comes out to see what the weather is like: if it is cloudy, with three bounds he announces that winter is over; if it is clear, he retreats, indicating that there will be forty more days of cold. Perhaps related to this belief is the custom, still found in some Piedmontese valleys, whereby on the eve of the feast young men, with some pretext, try to lure an authoritative or foreign person out of doors, and as soon as he appears they surround him, making a great commotion and shouting that they have succeeded in bringing out the bear. Something similar also occurs in the Valtellina. This custom, certainly very ancient and to be connected with ancient agrarian end-of-year rites, is regarded by some ethnographers as a probable survival of a prehistoric cult of the bear (or the bear) as a deity. In many regions, for example in parts of France and Italy, the bear is replaced by the wolf, or even by the lion. In Calabria the periphrastic term “u lanutu” (the woolly one) denotes an old man dressed in a wolfskin who goes about pretending to try to seize people with his