Holy Week

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Holy Week is the week which precedes the great festival of theResurrection onEaster Sunday, and which consequently is used to commemorate the Passion of Christ, and the event which immediately led up to it. In Latin is it calledhebdomada major, or, less commonly,hebdomada sancta, styling ithe hagia kai megale ebdomas. Similarly, in most modern languages (except for the German wordCharwoche, which seems to mean "the week of lamentation") the interval betweenPalm Sunday andEaster Day is known par excellence as Holy Week.

Antiquity of the celebration of Holy Week

From an attentive study of the Gospels, and particularly that of St. John, it might easily be inferred that already in Apostolic times a certain emphasis was laid upon the memory of the last week ofJesus Christ's mortal life. The supper at Bethania must have taken place on the Saturday, "six days before thepasch" (John 12:1-2), and the triumphant entry intoJerusalem was made from there next morning. OfChrist's words and deeds between this and His Crucifixion we have a relatively full record. But whether this feeling of thesanctity belonging to these days was primitive or not, it in any case existed inJerusalem at the close of the fourth century, for the Pilgrimage of Ætheria contains a detailed account of the whole week, beginning with the service in the "Lazarium" at Bethania on the Saturday, in the course of which was read the narrative of the anointing ofChrist's feet. Moreover, on the next day, which, as Ætheria says, "began the week of thePasch, which they call here the "Great Week", a special reminder was addressed to the people by thearchdeacon in these terms: "Throughout the whole week, beginning from to-morrow, let us all assemble in the Martyrium, that is the great church, at the ninth hour." Thecommemoration of Christ's triumphal entry into the city took place the same afternoon. Great crowds, including even children too young to walk, assembled on the Mount of Olives and after suitablehymns, andantiphons, and readings, they returned in procession to Jerusalem, escorting thebishop, and bearing palms and branches of olives before him. Special services in addition to the usual daily Office are also mentioned on each of the following days. On the Thursday the Liturgy was celebrated in the late afternoon, and all Communicated, after which the people went to the Mount of Olives to commemorate with appropriate readings andhymns theagony of Christ in the garden and His arrest, only returning to the city as day began to dawn on the Friday. On the Friday again there were many services, and in particular before midday there took place the veneration of the greatrelic of theTrue Cross, as also of the title which had been fastened to it; while for three hours after midday another crowded service was held in commemoration of the Passion of Christ, at which, Ætheria tells us, the sobs and lamentations of the people exceeded all description. Exhausted as they must have been, a vigil was again maintained by the younger and stronger of theclergy and by some of thelaity. On the Saturday, besides the usual offices during the day, there took place the great paschal vigil in the evening, with thebaptism of children andcatechumens. But this, as Ætheria implies, was already familiar to her in the West. The account just summarized belongs probably to the year 388, and it is of the highest value as coming from a pilgrim and an eyewitness who had evidently followed the services with close attention. Still the observance of Holy Week as a specially sacred commemoration must be considerably older. In the first of his festal letters, written in 329,St. Athanasius of Alexandria speaks of the severe fast maintained during "those six holy and great days [precedingEaster Sunday] which are the symbol of the creation of the world". He refers, seemingly, to some ancient symbolism which strangely reappears in the Anglo-Saxon martyrologium ofKing Alfred's time. Further he writes, in 331: "We begin the holy week of the greatpasch on the tenth of Pharmuthi in which we should observe more prolongedprayers and fastings and watchings, that we may be enabled to anoint our lintels with the precious blood and so escape the destroyer." From these and other references, e.g., inSt. Chrysostom, the Apostolic Constitutions, and other sources, including a somewhat doubtfully authentic edict of Constantine proclaiming that the public business should be suspended in Holy Week, it seems probable that throughout theChristian world some sort of observance of these six days byfasting andprayer had been adopted almost everywhere byChristians before the end of the fourth century. Indeed it is quite possible that the fast of special severity is considerably older, forDionysius of Alexandria (c. A.D. 260) speaks of some who went without food for the whole six days (see further underLENT). The week was also known as the week of the dry fast (xerophagia), while some of its observances were very possibly influenced by anerroneous etymology of the wordPasch, which was current among the Greeks.Pasch really comes from aHebrew meaning "passage" (of the destroyingangel), but the Greeks took it to be identical withpaschein, to suffer.

Special observances of Holy Week

We may now touch upon some of theliturgical features which are distinctive of Holy Week at the present time.Palm Sunday comes first in order, and although no memory now remains in our RomanMissal of the supper at Bethany and the visit to the "Lazarium", we find from certain early Gallican books that the preceding day was once known as "Lazarus Saturday", whilePalm Sunday itself is still sometimes called by the Greekskyriake tou Lazarou (the Sunday ofLazarus). The central feature of the service proper to this day, as it was in the time of Ætheria, is the procession of palms. Perhaps the earliest clear evidence of this procession in the West is to be found in the Spanish "Liber Ordinum" (see Férotin, "Monumenta Liturgica", V, 179), but traces of such a celebration are to be met with in Aldhelm andBede as well as in the BobbioMissal and the Gregorian Sacramentary. All the older rituals seem to suppose that the palms are blessed in a place apart (e.g. some eminence or some other church of the town) and are then borne in procession to the principal church, where an entry is made with a certain amount ofceremony, after which a solemn Mass is celebrated. It seems highly probable, as Canon Callewaert has pointed out (Collationes Brugenses, 1907, 200-212), that this ceremonial embodies a still living memory of the practice described by Ætheria atJerusalem. By degrees, however, in theMiddle Ages a custom came in of making a station, not at any great distance, but at the churchyard cross, which was often decorated with box or evergreens (crux buxata), and from here the procession advanced to the church. Many details varying with the locality marked the ceremonial of this procession. An almost constant feature was, however, the singing of the "Gloria laus", ahymn probably composed for some such occasion by Theodulphus ofOrléans (c. A.D. 810). Less uniformly prevalent was the practice of carrying theBlessed Sacrament in a portable shrine. The earliest mention of this usage seems to be in the customs compiled byArchbishop Lanfranc for themonks of Christ Church, Canterbury. InGermany, and elsewhere on the Continent, the manner of the entry of Christ was sometimes depicted by dragging along a wooden figure of an ass on wheels (thePalmesel), and in other places the celebrant himself rode upon an ass. InEngland and in many parts ofFrance the veneration paid to the churchyard cross or to the rood cross in the sanctuary by genuflections and prostrations became almost a central feature in the service. Another custom, that of scattering flowers or sprays of willow and yew before the procession, as it advanced through the churchyard, seems to have been misinterpreted in course oftime as a simple act of respect to the dead. Under the impression the practice of "flowering the graves" onPalm Sunday is maintained even to this day in many country districts ofEngland andWales. With regard to the form of the blessing of the palms, we have in the modern RomanMissal, as well as in most of the older books, what looks like the complete Proper of a Mass —Introit, Collects, Gradual, Preface, and otherprayers. It is perhaps not unnatural to conjecture that this may represent the skeleton of aconsecration Mass formerly said at the station from which the procession started. This view, however, has not much positive evidence to support it and has been contested (see Callewaert, loc. cit.). It is probable that originally the palms were only blessed with a view to the procession, but the later form of benediction seems distinctly to suppose that the palms will be preserved assacramentals and carried about. The only other noteworthy feature of the presentPalm Sunday service is the reading of the Gospel of the Passion. As onGood Friday, and on the Tuesday and the Wednesday of Holy Week, the Passion, when solemn Mass is offered, is sung by threedeacons who impersonate respectively theEvangelist (Chronista),Jesus Christ, and the other speakers (Synagoga). This division of the Passion among three characters is very ancient, and it is often indicated byrubrical letters in earlymanuscripts of the Gospel. One suchmanuscript atDurham, which supposes only two readers, can hardly be of later date than the eighth century. In earlier timesPalm Sunday was also marked by other observances, notably by one of the most important of the scrutinies forcatechumens (seeCATECHUMEN, III, 431) and by a certain relaxation of penance, on which ground it was sometimes calledDominica Indulgentiae.

Tenebrae

The proper Offices and Masses celebrated during Holy Week do not notably differ from theOffice andMass at other penitential seasons and during Passion Week. But it has long been customary in all churches to singMatins andLauds at an hour of the afternoon or evening of the previous day at which it was possible for all thefaithful to be present. The Office in itself presents a very primitive type in whichhymns and certain supplementary formulae are not included, but the most conspicuous external feature of the service, apart from the distinctive and very beautiful chant to which the Lamentations of Jeremias are sung as lessons, is the gradual extinction of the fifteen candles in the "Tenebrae hearse", or triangular candlestick, as the service proceeds. At the end of the Benedictus atLauds only the topmost candle, considered to be typical ofJesus Christ, remains alight, and this is then taken down and hidden behind the altar while the final Miserere and collect are said. At the conclusion, after a loud noise emblematical of the convulsion of nature at the death ofChrist, the candle is restored to its place, and the congregation disperse. On account of the gradual darkening, the service, since the ninth century or earlier, has been known as "Tenebrae" (darkness). Tenebræ is sung on the evening of the Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, theantiphons and proper lessons varying each day.

Maundy Thursday, which derives its English name fromMandatum, the first word of the Office of thewashing of the feet, is known in the Westernliturgies by the heading"In Coena Domini" (upon the Lord's supper). This marks the central rite of the day and the oldest of which we have explicit record.St. Augustine informs us that on that day Mass and Communion followed the evening meal or super, and that on this occasion Communion was not receivedfasting. The primitive conception of the festival survives to the present time in this respect at least, that theclergy do not offer Mass privately but are directed to Communicate together at the public Mass, like guests at one table. The Liturgy, as commemorating the institution of theBlessed Sacrament, is celebrated in white vestments with some measure ofjoyous solemnity. The "Gloria in excelsis" is sung, and during it there is a general ringing of bells, after which the bells are silent until the Gloria is heard upon Easter Eve (Holy Saturday). It is probable that both the silence of the bells and the withdrawing of lights, which we remark in the Tenebræ service, are to be referred to the same source — a desire of expressing outwardly the sense of theChurch's bereavement during the time ofChrist's Passion and Burial. The observance of silence during these three days dates at least from the eighth century, and in Anglo-Saxon times they were known as "the still days"; but the connection between the beginning of this silence and the ringing of the bells at the Gloria only meets us in the laterMiddle Ages. In the modern celebration ofMaundy Thursday attention centres upon the reservation of a second Host, which isconsecrated at the Mass, to be consumed in the service of the Presanctified next day. This is borne in solemn procession to an "altar of repose" adorned with flowers and lighted with a profusion of candles, thehymn "Pange lingua gloriosi corporis mysterium" being sung upon the way. So far as regards the fact of theconsecration of an additional Host to be reserved for the Mass of the Presanctified, this practice is very ancient, but the elaborate observances which now surround the altar of repose are of comparatively recent date. Something of the samehonour used, in the laterMiddle Ages, to be shown to the "Easter Sepulchre"; but here theBlessed Sacrament was kept, most commonly, from the Friday to the Sunday, or at least to the Saturday evening, in imitation of the repose ofChrist's sacred Body in the Tomb. For this purpose a third Host was usuallyconsecrated on the Thursday. In the so-called "Gelasian Sacramentary", probably representing seventh-century usage, three separate Masses are provided forMaundy Thursday. One of these was associated with the Order of the reconciliation of penitents (see the articleASH WEDNESDAY), which for long ages remained a conspicuous feature of the day's ritual and is still retained in the Pontificale Romanum. The second Mass was that of the blessing of the Holy Oils, an important function still attached to this day in everycathedral church. Finally,Maundy Thursday has from an early period been distinguished by the service of the Maundy, or Washing of the Feet, in memory of the reparation of Christ for theLast Supper, as also by the stripping and washing of the altars (seeMAUNDY THURSDAY).

Good Friday is now primarily celebrated by a service combining a number of separate features. We have first the reading of three sets of lessons followed by "biddingprayers". This probably represents a type of aliturgical service of great antiquity of which more extensive survivals remain in the Gallican and Ambrosianliturgies. The fact that the reading from the Gospel is represented by the whole Passion according to St. John is merely the accident of the day. Secondly there is the "Adoration" of the Cross, equally a service of great antiquity, the earliest traces of which have already been noticed in connection with Ætheria's account of Holy Week atJerusalem. With this veneration of the Cross are now associated the Improperia (reproaches) and thehymn "Pange lingua gloriosi lauream certaminis". The Improperia, despite their curious mixture of Latin and Greek —agios o theos;sanctus Deus, etc. — are probably not so extremely ancient as has been suggested by Probst and others. Although the earliest suggestion of them may be found in the BobbioMissal, it is only in the Pontificale of Prudentius, who wasBishop ofTroyes from 846 to 861, that they are clearly attested (see Edm. Bishop in "Downside Review", Dec., 1899). In theMiddle Ages the "creeping to the cross" onGood Friday was a practice which inspired special devotion, and saintly monarchs like St. Louis ofFrance set a conspicuous example ofhumility in their performance of it. Finally, theGood Friday service ends with the so-called "Mass of the Presanctified", which is of course no real sacrifice, but, strictly speaking, only a Communion service. The sacredministers, wearing their black vestments, go to fetch theconsecrated Host preserved at the altar of repose, and as they return to thehigh altar the choir chant the beautifulhymn "Vexilla regis prodeunt", composed byVenantius Fortunatus. Then wine is poured into thechalice, and a sort of skeleton of the Mass is proceeded with, including an elevation of the Host after thePater Noster. But the great consecratoryprayer of the Canon, with the words of Institution, are entirely omitted. In the earlyMiddle AgesGood Friday was quite commonly a day of general Communion, but now only those in danger of death may receive on that day. The Office of Tenebræ, being theMatins andLauds ofHoly Saturday, is sung onGood Friday evening, but the church otherwise remains bare and desolate, only the crucifix being unveiled. Such devotions as the "Three Hours" at midday, or the "Maria Desolata" late in the evening, have of course noliturgical character. (See alsoGOOD FRIDAY.)

The service ofHoly Saturday has lost much of the significance and importance which it enjoyed in the earlyChristian centuries owing to the irresistible tendency manifested throughout the ages to advance the hour of its celebration. Originally it was the greatEaster vigil, or watch-service, held only in the late hours of the Saturday and barely terminating before midnight. To this day the brevity of both theEaster Mass and theEasterMatins preserves a memorial of the fatigue of that night watch which terminated the austerities ofLent. Again theconsecration of the new fire with a view to the lighting of the lamps, the benediction of thepaschal candle, with its suggestions of night turned into day and its reminder of the glories of that vigil which weknow to have been already celebrated in the time of Constantine, not to dwell upon the explicit references to "this most holy night" contained in theprayers and the Preface of the Mass, all bring home the incongruity of carrying out the service in the morning, twelve hours before theEaster "vigil" can strictly speaking be said to have begun. The obtaining and blessing of the new fire is probably a rite of Celtic or evenpagan origin, incorporated in the Gallican Church service of the eighth century. The magnificent "Praeconium Paschale", known from its first word as the "Exsultet", was originally, no doubt, an improvisation of thedeacon which can be traced back to the time ofSt. Jerome or earlier. The Prophecies, the Blessing of the Font, and the Litanies of the Saints are all to be referred to what was originaly a very essential feature of theEaster vigil, viz., thebaptism of thecatechumens, whose preparation had been carried on duringLent, emphasized at frequent intervals by the formal "scrutinies", of which not a few traces are still preserved in ourLenten liturgy. Finally, the Mass, with itsjoyous Gloria, at which the bells are again rung, the uncovering of the veiledstatues and pictures, the triumphantAlleluias, which mark nearly every step of the liturgy, proclaim theResurrection as an accomplished fact, while the Vesper Office, incorporated in the very fabric of the Mass, reminds us once more that the evening was formerly so filled that no separate hour was available to complete on that day the usual tribute of psalmody. Strictly speaking,Holy Saturday, likeGood Friday, is "aliturgical", as belonging to the days when the Bridegroom was taken from us. Of this a memorial still remains in the fact that, apart from the one much anticipated Mass, theclergy on that day are not free either to celebrate or to receiveHoly Communion.

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