Forty
days after the birth of Christ Mary complied with this precept of the law, she redeemed her first-born from the temple (Numbers 18:15), and was purified by
the prayer of Simeon the just, in the presence of Anna the prophetess (Luke 2: 22). No doubt this event, the first solemn introduction of Christ into the house of God, was in the earliest times
celebrated in the Church of Jerusalem. We find it attested for the
first half of the fourth century by the pilgrim of Bordeaux, Egeria or Silvia. The day (February 14th) was solemnly kept by a procession to the Constantinian basilica of the Resurrection, a homily on Luke 2: 22, and the Holy Sacrifice. But the feast then had no proper name; it was simply
called the fortieth day after Epiphany.
This latter circumstance proves that in Jerusalem Epiphany was then the feast of Christ's birth.
From Jerusalem the feast of the fortieth day spread over the
entire Church and later on was kept on February 2nd, since
within the last twenty-five years of the fourth century the Romanfeast of Christ's nativity (December 25th) was introduced. In Antioch it is attested in 526 (Cedrenue); in the
entire Eastern Empire it was introduced by the Emperor Justinian I (542) in thanksgiving for the cessation of
the great pestilence which had depopulated the city of Constantinople. In the Greek Church it was called Hypapante tou Kyriou, the meeting
(occursus) of the Lord and His mother with Simeon and Anna. The Armenians call it: "The Coming of the Son of God into the Temple" and still keep it on February
14th (Tondini di Quaracchi, Calendrier de la Nation Arménienne, 1906, 48); the Copts term it "presentation of the Lord in the Temple" (Nilles, Kal. man., II 571, 643). Perhaps the decree of Justinian gave occasion also to the Roman Church (to Gregory I?) to introduce this feast, but definite information is wanting
on this point. The feast appears in the Gelasianum (manuscript tradition of the seventh century) under the new title
of Purification of the Blessed Virgin
Mary. The precession is not mentioned. Pope Sergius I (687-701) introduced a procession for this day. The Gregorianum (tradition of
the eighth century) does not speak of this procession, which fact proves that the procession of Sergius was the ordinary "station," not the liturgical act of today. The feast was certainly not introduced by Pope Gelasius to suppress the excesses of the Lupercalia (Migne, Missale Gothicum, 691), and it
spread slowly in the West; it is not
found in the "Lectionary" of Silos (650) nor in the "Calendar" (731-741) of
Sainte-Geneviève of Paris. In the East it was celebrated as a feast of the Lord; in the West as a feast of Mary; although the "Invitatorium" (Gaude et
lætare, Jerusalem, occurrens Deo tuo),
theantiphons and responsories remind us of its original conception as
a feast of the Lord. The blessing of the candles did not enter into common use before the
eleventh century; it has nothing in common with the procession of the Pupercalia. In the Latin Church this feast (Purificatio B.M.V.) is a double of the second class. In
the Middle Ages it had an octave in the larger number ofdioceses; also today
the religious orders whose special object is the veneration of the Mother of God (Carmelites, Servites) and many dioceses (Loreto, the Province of Siena, etc.) celebrate theoctave.
According
to the Roman Missal the celebrant after Terce,
in stole and cope of purple colour, standing at the epistle side of the altar, blesses the candles (which must be of beeswax). Having sung or
recited the five orations prescribed, he sprinkles and incenses the candles.
Then he distributes them to the clergy and laity,
whilst the choir sings the canticle of Simeon, "Nunc dimittis."
Theantiphon "Lumen ad revelationem gentium et gloriam
plebis tuæ Israel"
is repeated after every verse, according to the medieval custom of singing the antiphons.
During the procession which now follows, and at which all the
partakers carry lighted candles in their hands, the choir sings the antiphon "Adorna thalamum tuum, Sion," composed by St John of
Damascus,
one of the few pieces which, text and music, have been borrowed by the Roman Church from the Greeks.
The other antiphons are of Roman origin. The solemn procession represents the entry of Christ,
who is the Light of the World, into the Temple of Jerusalem.
It forms an essential part of the liturgical services of the day, and must be held in
every parochial church where the required ministers can be had. The procession is always kept on February 2nd even when the
office and Mass of the feast is transferred to February 3rd. Before the
reform of the Latin liturgy by St Pius V (1568), in the churches north and west of the Alps this ceremony was more solemn.
After the fifth oration a preface was sung. The "Adorna" was
preceded by the antiphon "Ave Maria." While now the procession in held inside the church,
during the Middle Ages the clergy left the church and visited the cemetery surrounding it. Upon the return of the procession a priest,
carrying an image of the Holy Child,
met it at the door and entered the church with the clergy,
who sang the canticle of Zachary, "Benedictus Dominus Deus
Israel."
At the conclusion, entering the sanctuary,
the choir sang the responsory,
"Gaude Maria Virgo" or the prose, "Inviolata" or some other antiphon in honour of the Blessed Virgin.
