Lent (Quadragesima)

LENT (Quadragesima). - A sacred period of 40 days in preparation for Easter, to be sanctified by more frequent prayer, by works of charity, penance and mortification, especially by fasting.

According to present-day practice it begins on the Wednesday of the seventh week before Easter with the imposition of ashes and ends at noon on Holy Saturday. It is divided into three periods: the first 4 weeks, Passion Week, Holy Week.

In the early Christian centuries, as St. Irenaeus and Tertullian attest, fasting was practiced for only one or two days in remembrance of the time in which Christ died and remained in the tomb, that is, Good Friday or Good Friday and Holy Saturday. Together with the day of the Resurrection these three days were considered the paschal triduum, called simply "Easter." In preparation for this "Paschale mysterium" other days of fasting were added before it, which ended on Holy Thursday inclusive; for example, in Alexandria throughout Holy Week; among the Montanists for two weeks (Tertullian); finally during the 4th century, following the example of Christ's fasting in the desert, 40 days of preparation were introduced, beginning from the sixth Sunday before Easter, because fasting was the chief, but not exclusive, characteristic of the good works of these days. According to A. Chavasse, the Roman use of paschal preparation consisted of: a) the sacred paschal triduum from Good Friday until the Sunday of the Resurrection; b) Holy Week or Passion Week, because the Passion of St. Matthew was read on the Sunday (today called Palm Sunday), of St. Luke on Wednesday, of St. John on Friday (v. SETTIMANA SANTA); c) the fast of three weeks, mentioned by Socrates (ca. 440); according to Duchesne these were three uninterrupted weeks, according to Callewaert they were three weeks of severe fasting interspersed with as many of mitigated fasting. Recently Chavasse sees these three uninterrupted weeks, as does Duchesne (the "mid-Lent Sunday," our fifth Sunday), as already in use in 354, the year of the famous "Chronographer," a private document without official character; d) St. Jerome in 384 is the first witness of the new Roman use of 6 weeks of fasting from the sixth Sunday to Holy Thursday, 40 days in all. The purpose of Lent according to St. Leo I (Serm., 45: PL 54, 288 C.) was to lead the Christian people to salvation, penitents to reconciliation, catechumens to Baptism. In the other churches, because fasting was practiced every day, the fast was extended by two or three weeks, that is, into a Quinquagesima (v.), beginning from the seventh Sunday before Easter, especially in northern Italy and in Gaul (Maximus of Turin and Faustus of Riez); or into a Sessagesima (v.), beginning from the eighth Sunday, or into a Settuagesima (v.).

In the East too the paschal preparation comprised 8 weeks (a Sessagesima); thus in Jerusalem, in Syria and in Antioch. These preparatory weeks were not, however, everywhere a time of fasting. In Rome the Quinquagesima was introduced after 520 and the Sessagesima is found again in the time of Gregory I (Chavasse), but as regards fasting, Rome held to Lent properly so called, that is, from the sixth Sunday until Holy Thursday or Saturday, considering, according to Cassian, Gregory the Great, and Isidore, these 36 days of fasting as the tenth part of the year. The two days of Wednesday and Friday of the Quinquagesima before the beginning of Lent were days of preparation; in the 8th century, together with the additional days of Thursday and Saturday, they were counted among the 40 days of severe Lenten fasting, and the Wednesday became precisely the "caput quadragesimae."

Particularities of the Roman Lent: a) every day has its own liturgy, that is, the celebration of Mass with its own formulary. While at first only the Sundays had a liturgy, the Wednesdays and Fridays were "aliturgical" with a single Mass called "catechumenorum." Already in the 4th century these two days and in addition the Mondays were "liturgical," in the 5th century the others became so too: excepted were the 5 Thursdays, the 2 Saturdays before the second Sunday and that of Palm Sunday. Under Gregory II (715-31) the Thursdays, and finally in the 9th century also the second Sunday and the two Saturdays became liturgical. b) Every day the station takes place (v.). c) Secondary particularities: the order of the antiphons of the Communio from Ash Wednesday until the Friday before Palm Sunday is, according to the progressive number of psalms 1-26, interspersed with antiphons taken from the Gospel on certain days; the tract "Domine, non secundum" on the three days (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) is of Gallican origin, and has been in the Roman liturgy since the 11th century; the prayer "Super populum" is reserved by St. Gregory the Great only to the ferias of Lent; finally there is a double order for the Gospels, which until the Wednesday or Thursday of week IV are taken from the different Gospels (Lent), but from Friday are taken only from John (the ancient order of the primitive Roman fast of three weeks). d) A Roman particularity were the scrutinies during the time of Lent, at first on the third, fourth and fifth Sundays, then on the ferias.

Pietro Silfrin