EASTER WEEK (*Major hebdomada, Hebdomada sancta, Hebdomada authentica*). — It is the week preceding Easter, also called the “greater” or “authentic” week, because it commemorates the Passion, Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Christ. Today the last three days (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday) are termed the Sacred Triduum and have their own proper Offices.
Originally, on the ferial days of Holy Week no Holy Mass was celebrated. Even St LEO I the Great (440–61) clearly distinguished between the first days, including Thursday, which were called Lent, and the last three, regarded as a single unit. Good Friday and Holy Saturday were days of strict fasting (HIPPOLYTUS, INNOCENT I); together with the following Sunday of Easter they were termed the “Paschal sacrament,” “Paschal festivity” (St LEO, *Serm.* 47 and 48). At first only on Good Friday was there an assembly with readings and prayers; later the preceding Wednesday was added, on which St Leo continued his sermons on the Passion begun on the Sunday of the Passion (now Palm Sunday). On this Sunday the Passion according to St Matthew was read, on Wednesday that of St Luke, and on Friday that of St John; hence the entire week came to be called the Week of the Passion (cf. in cod. Vat. lat. 316: “domenica in palmis,” “de Passione Domini”), at first without fasting. To these two days was added the liturgical Thursday. At the time of St AUGUSTINE (d. 430) in Hippo there were two liturgical assemblies on Holy Thursday in honour of the institution of the Holy Eucharist: one in the morning for those not fasting, the other in the evening for the fasters (“mane offertur propter prandentes, quia ieiunia simul et lavacrum tolerare non possunt, ad vesperam vero propter ieiunantes,” *Ep.* 54, 9). Even in Rome in the 5th century at least one Eucharistic assembly was held, since on this day the reconciliation of penitents and the blessing of the holy Chrism were fixed. Holy Monday acquired its liturgy when the Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of every Lenten week had theirs, i.e. at the time of St Leo or shortly before (A. Chavasse, *Le carême*, pp. 331–34). In the years 546 and 550 (Cod. Epist. of Fulda by Victor of Capua and *Capitulare evangeliorum Neapolit.*) Holy Tuesday too was provided with a liturgy or readings. Good Friday and Holy Saturday (the primitive Christian Pasch) never had Eucharistic celebration either in Rome or elsewhere.
On **Holy Monday**: the reading was from Jn 12:1–36 “Ante sex dies…,” now reduced to 1–9.
On **Holy Tuesday**: the Gospel reading was at first that of Jn 13:1–32 (the washing of the feet and the denunciation of the traitor); it was still read in the 8th century (Come of Würzburg), later replaced (9th century) by the Passion of St Mark. The Gospel, now reduced to Jn 13:1–13 (instead of 1–32), is read today on Holy Thursday (the Würzburg Capitular marks no Gospel for this day). At the time of Egeria the Passion of St Mark was read on Good Friday (12th century, also at Monte Cassino) together with that of St John; at Rome it was read on Easter Sunday itself (Baumstark, *Liturgie comp.*, cited in bibliography, pp. 183–84).
On **Holy Wednesday**: at Jerusalem (in Egeria’s time) the Gospel passage of Judas’s betrayal was read. At Rome, originally an aliturgical day, it later had two services: one in the morning at the Basilica of St John Lateran, where besides the usual readings the Solemn Prayers (*Orationes sollemnes*) were recited (now used exclusively on Good Friday). In aliturgical synaxes there were normally three readings: the Passion of St Luke, attested in the Capitularies at the end of the 7th century, perhaps already in use in St Leo’s time; or the reading of St Matthew was continued, as St Leo says “the course of the Sunday of the Passion will be repeated”? Even today on Holy Wednesday there are three readings (a sign of antiquity in contrast to Monday or Tuesday with two). The morning aliturgical assembly is the more ancient. Another took place in the evening at the Liberian Basilica with the Eucharistic celebration; it began with the Offertory, then followed the morning’s readings. At the morning assembly only the Solemn Prayers were left; cf. Ord. Rom. XXVI, 1–7 (Andrieu).
The Office of Tenebrae during the Sacred Triduum, called in the 12th century *tenebrae* or *matutina tenebrarum* because it ended in darkness, from the 13th–14th centuries was anticipated to the preceding evening (Ord. Rom. XIV, 82). The Office of these three days, so different from the usual, in fact reproduces the primitive Roman Office, just as other parts of the Sacred Triduum preserve rites from ancient times. The introductory formulas admitted by St GREGORY I are omitted, as are the hymns (in the Roman Office there were none before the 12th century) and the *Gloria Patri* at the end of the psalms (it was a very ancient Roman custom not to add the *Gloria*, unlike the monastic usage coming from Gaul); it ends, as in antiquity, with the recitation of the *Pater noster* alone. The psalm *Miserere* with the collect *Respice* (from the Gothic Missal) is of private origin after the 12th century, recited in some churches sub silentio (Durandus). The readings, according to the ancient rule, are taken from the Old Testament, the commentaries of the Fathers, and the New Testament. The Responsories, not well chosen or composed; the historical ones, the most ancient, derive from the Passion of St Matthew; the others, more recent, are taken from Wisdom or are of extra-Christian origin. Lauds, as well as the minor Hours and Vespers, close, without a Chapter, versicles, or greeting, with the final *Pater noster*. The psalms of Matins on Holy Thursday are the same (68–76) as those of the ferial Office of Friday in the ordinary Roman Office, whereas the psalms of Friday and Holy Saturday are more appropriate to the mysteries. At first (7th–8th centuries) there were no Vespers; the present ones only came in the 11th century, when Mass or the functions were already held in the morning. Worth noting is the paschal candlestick, holding 15 wax candles, each of which at the end of a psalm is extinguished, except the last, which is hidden behind or beneath the altar, but at the end of Lauds serves to illuminate the assembly. Amalarius, on his visit to Rome (81), found this progressive extinguishing of lights in use on Friday and Saturday, not on Thursday. The origin and meaning of this custom is unclear. The use of extinguishing the six altar candles during the singing of the *Benedictus*, not yet mentioned by Durandus, is recent. The noise at the end was originally nothing more than the signal of dismissal given by the superior or president of the choir.
Holy Thursday recalls the institution of the Eucharist. It is called *Feria quinta in Coena Domini* in Africa and Italy from the beginning of the 5th century; also *Natalis calicis* (with the date 24 March) in southern Gaul in the 6th and 7th centuries; *natalis sacramenti* appears in a Leonian Preface (XXVIII, 4). In the Roman Sacramentaries, but of Gallican origin, there are three Masses for Holy
Holy Week
**Tenebrae Candelabrum** – A triangular candelabrum with 12 candles that are extinguished one by one at the end of each psalm of Matins and Lauds of the Office of Tenebrae. The candelabrum reproduced here is that of St. Peter’s Basilica.
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On **Holy Thursday**, three Masses are traditionally celebrated: the first, called the *Missa pro reconciliandis paenitentibus* (of the reconciliation of penitents), the second, called the *chrismal Mass*, for the consecration of the Holy Oils, and the third, *ad vesperam*, for the institution of the Eucharist. Mention of the reconciliation of penitents on Holy Thursday is found in a letter from Innocent I (416) to Decentius. The consecration of the Holy Oils, a Roman function of the *Gregorian* rite with a distinctly festive character, followed the ceremonial of major feasts. Since the reconciliation of penitents took precedence, the *Missa Catechumenorum* was omitted (Ord. Rom. XIV, 31: Andrieu, pp. 136-37; the earliest *Capitularia* do not include a proper Gospel for the day), and the Mass began with the offerings of the faithful. The Mass now celebrated in non-cathedral churches, where the reconciliation of penitents is not performed, lacks original texts for the readings and chant, drawing instead from nearby Masses. Today, in every church, only one Mass is permitted, in which the celebrant, like Christ Himself, gives Holy Communion to all; in Rome, the station is at the Basilica of St. John Lateran.
The consecration of the Holy Oils, which in the time of Hippolytus took place in the pontifical Mass before conferring Baptism, was already being performed in Rome on Holy Thursday by the 5th century; in Gaul, however, it occurred on Holy Saturday (Arles, 6th century) or on Palm Sunday (*Ps.-Germanus*, 7th century). The Mass is celebrated by the bishop with great solemnity in the presence of 12 priests, 7 deacons, and 7 subdeacons, all wearing white vestments (the veil covering the cross on the altar is also white); the *Gloria* is sung to the accompaniment of prolonged bell-ringing. At the end of the Canon, before the *Per quem*, the Oil of the Sick is exorcised and blessed. All blessings or consecrations are performed before a special table near the altar. After Communion, the oils of the *chrisma* and of the catechumens are carried in a solemn procession. The bishop first blesses the balsam, then mixes it with a small amount of chrism; finally, following the priests, he forms a cross on the sacred chrism and consecrates it with a solemn Preface. After the mixture, all the priests greet it three times with *Ave, sanctum Chrisma* and kiss it (the greeting is of Roman origin, the kiss is a Gallican innovation). Similarly, but without