SEPTUAGESIMA (in the Roman Missal, “Dominica in Septuagesima”) — The ninth Sunday before Easter, in preparation for the feast of the Resurrection of Christ.
As a preparation for Easter, Septuagesima is purely Roman in origin. Baumstark explains Septuagesima as the combination of the eight weeks of Eastern preparation (v. QUINQUAGESIMA; SESSAGESIMA) with the addition of Holy Week (until then independent). It was believed that St Gregory the Great organized these three Sundays before Lent (Callewaert, Morin, Capelle). Recently, however, A. Chavasse has affirmed that St Gregory, in 590–93, when organizing the liturgy of his sacramentary and of the ecclesiastical year, knew only Sexagesima and that (594–96) he took account only of that (in 594 there were indeed five Sundays after Epiphany and Sexagesima fell on 14 February). Even the “Comes” attributed to Alcuino, written after 643, knows nothing of Septuagesima, which is first mentioned in manuscripts of the Roman Epistolary and Evangelary not earlier than 700, and in Sacramentaries of the Gelasian type from the 8th century. The 70 days are counted from Septuagesima Sunday to the Saturday in Albis inclusively, the paschal week being reorganized so as to end on the Saturday in Albis. With books of the Gregorian type, the Roman Septuagesima was adopted everywhere, and after 750 also in Gaul; only in Spain was Quinquagesima retained.
With Septuagesima the singing of the Alleluia and the Gloria in the Masses of the season ceases (v. ALLELUIA), and in its place the Tract is sung after the Gradual. The liturgical vestments are violet; the deacon and subdeacon wear the dalmatic and tunicle, but of violet colour.