Ember Days (Ieiunium Quattuor Temporum)

EMBER DAYS (Ieiunium 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 Leo I (d. 461) and in the ancient liturgical books ieiunium 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 8th century they are called Q. T. In liturgical terms they are called "feriae maiores privilegiatae."

For the T. of spring and summer there was not always an exact uniformity of celebration; those of spring, sometimes celebrated in the first week of March, were fixed, perhaps by Gelasius I, to the first week of Lent; those of summer, at first in the week of Pentecost, then, transferred by Leo I to the second or third week after Pentecost, received from Gregory VII, in the Easter Synod of 1078, their original place. 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 of 14 September, and in the third week of Advent (between the second and third Sunday): days of fasting and penance to draw down upon the fruits of the earth the blessings of God and to give thanks for a good harvest. By Gelasius I the characteristic of ecclesiastical ordinations was added.

The T. are of Roman origin; they were introduced into the liturgy, according to the Liber Pontificalis, by Pope Callistus (d. 223), but this notice is not certain; Leo I speaks of them for the first time (Ser., XIX, 8, 2: PL 54, 459) as of something long in use. Outside Rome the diffusion was slow. In the 6th century they were not yet known at Capua, in the 7th century at Naples. In England they were introduced by St. Augustine in the 7th century; in Germany by St. Boniface in the 8th century; at Verona by Ratherius in the 10th century; at Milan, after the 12th century.

On their origin there is no agreement: for L. Duchesne, the T. are the remnant of the primitive liturgical week with two days of seasonal fasting on Wednesday and Friday, including Saturday in preparation for Sunday; once the rigid discipline had been relaxed in the course of time, Rome maintained it at least once in each season of the year. But at Rome the seasonal fast was already observed in the time of Innocent I (416) and of St. Augustine (d. 430), shortly before Leo I. G. Morin, on the other hand, sees them as a substi-

(courtesy of M. Gérard Morisset, Québec)

QUÉBEC, ARCHDIOCESE of - The "Beau Dieu" of Vaudreuil. Detail of the tabernacle by Filippo Liebert (1792) - Vaudreuil, church.

-tution, Christian in character, for the pagan "feriae messis" of June, "feriae vindemiales" of September, and "feriae sementinae" of December, which correspond to the harvesting of grain, that of wine, and the sowings. Indeed this hypothesis is confirmed by the prayers of the sacramentaries and by the readings. In imitation of these pagan agricultural festivals, in the Roman liturgy too the T. are announced with formulas that are found in the so-called Leonine Sacramentary and in the Gelasian one. The spring T. were added in the 4th century to complete the annual cycle; but because they fall regularly in Lent, they are not mentioned in the documents; they receive, however, from Gelasius I, like the other three T., a special meaning as a time for ordinations. Others (for example, L. Fischer) do not accept this Christian adaptation of the pagan solemnities and declare the T. a purely Christian institution for sanctifying the seasons by fasting: after Pentecost the weekly fast is resumed after the period of paschal joy; in that of autumn an influence of the Jewish fast of atonement is seen (Lev. 23, 27-32; cf. the reading of the Saturday of the T.); that of December to prepare for the traditional Roman ordinations. The idea of the harvest solemnity had an influence in the Q. T. of Pentecost and of September afterwards, or at most in the time of Leo. The other two are framed within the ideas of the Lenten season and of Advent. The T. of Pentecost, of autumn and of December are older, introduced by Callistus; those of spring, already existing in the time of Leo, receive their liturgy perhaps from Gelasius, their readings (I Thess. 4, 1-7; 5, 14-23) having been transferred from the original place of Advent to that of Lent. Characteristic of the Q. T., besides the fast and the seasonal service, is the number of readings (2 on Wednesday and 6 [probably originally 12] on Saturday) besides the Gospel and the vigil from Saturday to Sunday.

Pietro Siffrin