QUATTRO TEMPORA (iciunium quattuor temporum). — The three days of fasting and penance (Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday) at the beginning of each of the four seasons of the year, called by Leone I (d. 461), and in the ancient liturgical books, iciunium mensis primi (of March, that is, of spring), mensis quarti (of June, that is, of summer), mensis septimi (of September, that is, of autumn), and mensis decimi (of December, that is, of winter); from the eighth century onward they are called Q. T. Liturgically they are called «feriae maiores privilegiatae».
There was not always exact uniformity in the celebration of the spring and summer Ember Days; the spring ones, sometimes celebrated in the first week of March, were established, perhaps by Gelasio I, in the first week of Lent; those of summer, at first in the week of Pentecost and subsequently transferred by Leone I to the second or third week after Pentecost, were restored to their original place by Gregorio VII at the Paschal Synod of 1078. Thus their order and place remain fixed: in the first week of Lent, in the octave of Pentecost, after the feast of the Holy Cross on 14 September, and in the third week of Advent (between the second and third Sundays): days of fasting and penance to draw God’s blessings upon the fruits of the earth and to give thanks for the good harvest. Gelasio I added the characteristic of ecclesiastical ordinations.
The Ember Days are of Roman origin; according to the Liber Pontificalis, they were introduced into the liturgy by Pope Callisto (d. 223), but this information is not certain; Leone I is the first to speak of them (Ser., XIX, 8, 2: PL 54, 459) as something that had long been customary. Outside Rome their spread was slow. In the sixth century they were not yet known at Capua, and in the seventh century not at Naples. In England they were introduced by St. Agostino in the seventh century; in Germany by St. Bonifacio in the eighth; at Verona by Ratasio in the tenth; and at Milan after the twelfth century.
There is no agreement about their origin: according to L. Duchesne, the Ember Days are the remnant of the primitive liturgical week, with two days of seasonal fasting on Wednesday and Friday, Saturday being included in preparation for Sunday; when the strict discipline gradually relaxed, Rome maintained it at least once in every season of the year. But seasonal fasting was observed at Rome already in the time of Innocenzo I (416) and St. Agostino (d. 430), shortly before Leone I. G. Morin, on the other hand, sees them as a Christian replacement for the pagan «feriae messis» of June, the «feriae vindemiales» of September, and the «feriae sementinae» of December, which correspond respectively to the gathering of grain, the grape harvest, and sowing. Indeed, this hypothesis is confirmed by the prayers of the sacramentaries and by the lessons. In imitation of these pagan agricultural festivals, the Ember Days in the Roman liturgy too are announced with formulas found in the Sacramentary known as the Leonine and in the Gelasian. The spring Ember Days were added in the fourth century to complete the annual cycle; but because they regularly fall during Lent, they are not mentioned in the documents, although they receive from Gelasio I, like the other three Ember Days, a special significance as a time for ordinations. Others (for example, L. Fischer) do not accept this Christian adaptation of pagan solemnities and declare the Ember Days to be a purely Christian institution for sanctifying the seasons through fasting: after Pentecost, the weekly fast is resumed following the period of Easter joy; in the autumn Ember Days, an influence is seen from the Jewish fast of atonement (Lev. 23, 27-32; cf. the lesson for the Saturday of the Ember Days); and those of December were intended as preparation for the traditional Roman ordinations. The idea of the harvest solemnity influenced the Pentecost and September Ember Days, whether later or, at most, in the time of Leone. The other two are incorporated into the ideas of Lent and Advent. The Pentecost, autumn, and December Ember Days are older, having been introduced by Callisto; the spring Ember Days, already existing in the time of Leone, received their liturgy perhaps from Gelasio, the readings (I Thess. 4, 1-7; 5, 14-23) having been transferred from their original place in Advent to that of Lent. Characteristic of the Ember Days, in addition to fasting and the seasonal observance, is the number of readings (2 on Wednesday and 6 [probably originally 12] on Saturday) in addition to the Gospel, as well as the vigil from Saturday to Sunday.
(per cortesia di M. Gérard Morisset, Québec)
QUÉBEC, ARCIDIOCESI di — The «Beau Dieu» of Vaudreuil. Detail of the tabernacle by Filippo Liebert (1792) — Vaudreuil, church.