SESSAGESIMA (in the Roman Missal, “Domnica in Sexagesima”) — The eighth Sunday before Easter, in preparation for the feast of the Resurrection of Christ.
In the East (where fasting was not observed on Saturday, except Holy Saturday, nor on Sunday), in imitation of Christ, forty days of fasting were begun precisely on the eighth Sunday before Easter, resulting in 8 × 5 days of fasting. Thus, including Monday up to Wednesday of Easter week, there were sixty days of solemnity (Jerusalem [Egeria in 393–94], Cyprus [Epiphanius, d. 403], Antioch [John Chrysostom, c. 386–97 and Severus, 512–18]). From the East, the practice of anticipating the Lenten preparation spread to the West around the mid-sixth century, with the addition of the introduction of Quinquagesima (v. at Rome, Turin, and in the Gallic Province). The Sessagesima is found around 542 in Gaul among the monks of the Rule of St. Caesarius of Arles and in the Rule of the Master; but the bishops did not accept it (the Councils of Orléans in 511 and 541 first mention Quinquagesima and Sessagesima). In the sixth century it is found at Capua (Epistolary of Victor of Capua, c. 546). Rome at the time of Pope Vigilius (c. 538) did not yet observe it, but by the time of St. Gregory the Great it was already observed, excluding Septuagesima (A. Chavasse). St. Benedict knew neither Quinquagesima nor Sessagesima. In the sixth–seventh centuries it is found at Milan (Vatican Reg. Lat. 9), Aquileia and Lombardy (Cod. Forojul. [Cividale] and Rehdigeranus [Breslau]), Schelttstadt (= Apostolus), England (Gospel Book of St. Cuthbert [Lindisfarne], whose contents reflect the liturgy of Naples), and finally in the Berlin fragment (fol. 877).