This article is an expanded version of one originally published in 2018. The first part, up to the *, is mostly a translation of notes written by Nicola de’ Grandi.
The oldest lectionary of the Roman Rite, a manuscript now in Wurzburg, Germany, dates to ca. 700, and represents the reading system used at Rome about 50 years earlier. It has a very disorganized and incomplete set of readings for the period after Pentecost, which is divided into four parts; the Sundays are counted as two after Pentecost, seven after Ss Peter and Paul, five after St Lawrence, and six after St Cyprian, a total of only 20.
The second oldest lectionary, from Murbach in eastern France, dates to about 100 years later, and represents the Roman Rite as used in France after Charlemagne had introduced it to replace the older Gallican Rite. It is much better organized and more complete than the Wurzburg manuscript, with 25 Sundays “after Pentecost.” This system has remained in use in the Roman Rite ever since, adjusted for the variable date of Easter, which can leave as few as 23 and as many as 28 such Sundays. The later medieval custom of counting Sundays after Trinity is no more than a variation on this theme. |
| A page of Ambrosian Missal printed in 1522; the Ingressa (Introit) of the First Sunday after the Beheading of St John the Baptist is at the bottom of the lower right hand column. |
This arrangement is attested in one of the oldest sources of the Ambrosian Rite, a codex kept in the Capitular Library of the basilica of St John the Baptist in Busto Arsizio, which contains a very ancient order of readings, one that certainly predates the Carolingian period, when the Ambrosian lectionary underwent a significant reform.
The question therefore arises as to why Ambrosian liturgy raises the Beheading of St John the Baptist, (a very ancient feast, to be sure), to the level of feasts such as Easter, Epiphany, Pentecost, and the dedication of the rite’s mother church. The answer to this was given by Prof. Cesare Alzati in a paper which he delivered at the Sacra Liturgia conference in Milan in 2017.
On the Egyptian calendar, the New Year begins on the first day of the month of Tout, which corresponds to the Roman date of August 29th. (Since the Copts have not reformed their calendar according to the principles of the Gregorian calendar, Tout 1/August 29 currently falls on the Gregorian date September 11th.)
The Roman emperor Diocletian began his reign on November 20th, 284, but the Egyptians backdated his first regnal year to the start of their New Year, and the “Era of Diocletian” was thus counted from August 29th, 284. Since it was he who initiated the last, greatest and most systematic ancient persecution of the Church, the “Era of Diocletian” soon came to be known as the “Era of the Martyrs”; this term is still used to this very day by the Coptic Church, whose calendar begins in 284, making their current ecclesiastical year 1740.
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| A famous icon showing Christ with St Menas, one of the most revered of the early Egyptian Martyrs; his feast was even adopted at Rome, and he is still kept as a commemoration on the feast of St Martin in the Roman Rite. (Public domain image from Wikipedia.) This icon, which is now in the Louvre, is one of the oldest in existence, dated to the 6th or 7th century. |
After the Council of Nicea adopted the method of dating Easter followed by the churches of Rome and Alexandria, it became the latter’s responsibility to calculate the date of Easter, and communicate it to the other churches. As Prof. Alzati noted, St Ambrose speaks about this in one of his epistles. “In the eighty-ninth year from the reign of Diocletian, when the 14th day of the moon was on March 24th, we celebrated Easter on March 31st. The Alexandrians and Egyptians likewise, as they themselves wrote, when the 14th day of the moon fell on the 28th day of the month of Phamenoth, celebrated Easter on the fifth day of the month of Pharmuth, which is March 31st, and so they agreed with us.” (Ep. 13, alias 23, 14, PL XVI 1031A)
The church of Constantinople, or New Rome, as it was officially called, has perhaps preserved a memory of the same tradition, since the ecclesiastical New Year of the Byzantine Rite begins with the first day of the first Roman month after August 29th. The years, however, are counted from the creation of the world, dated to 5509 BC, and the year which begins today is therefore reckoned as Annus Mundi 7533. (Ἔτος τοῦ Κόσμου in Greek, Лѣто Мира in Church Slavonic.) *
This, then, explains why the feast of the Beheading of St John the Baptist, forerunner and prototype of the martyrs, is raised to such prominence in the Ambrosian Rite as one of the reference points for the arrangement of the liturgical year. After the three major cycles of the life of Christ marked by the seasons after Epiphany, Easter and Pentecost, we see His life as it continues in His Mystical Body, the Church, first in the Era of the Martyrs, and then in the era of peace, marked by the building of the great churches.
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| A reconstruction of the ancient cathedral complex of Milan, with the “summer church”, dedicated to St Thecla, on the left, and the “winter church”, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, at the right. The octagonal structure in front of St Thecla is the baptistery of St John; the smaller structural beneath it is the baptistery of St Stephen. At the lower right is a partial reconstruction of the interior of the baptistery of St John. |
In the Ambrosian Missal, each Sunday between Pentecost and Advent has its own Scriptural readings, but the feast of the Dedication is the only one that has its own Mass chants, prayers and preface. For the chants, there is a limited repertoire of material (e.g. nine psalmelli, the equivalent of the Roman gradual, but only three allelujas), which are repeated in a mostly regular cyclical order. For the prayers and prefaces, there are only six of each, which are also repeated in a regular cycle. This arrangement places the following as the first prayer as the first Sunday after the Beheading, surely not by coincidence, as it refers to the end of the persecutions and the establishment of the peace of the Church. (It is also said on the Fourth and Tenth Sundays after Pentecost, and the second of October.)
“Deus, qui Ecclesiam tuam nova semper prole foecundas; auge eam quotidie credentium puritate, et divinæ gratiæ infusione multiplica: ut, repulsa impugnatione malorum omnium, in tranquillitate pacis et fidei, tuo semper ditata munere glorietur.
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| The church of St George ‘al palazzo - at the palazzo’, built on the site of the imperial palace at Milan, from which Constantine issued the Edict of Toleration in 313 AD. (Image from Wikimedia Commons by Parsifall, CC BY-SA 4.0) |
O God, who dost ever enrich Thy Church with new offspring, increase it daily in the purity of those who believe, and multiply it by the infusion of divine grace, so that, the assaults of all evils being repelled, in tranquility of peace and faith, it may always glory that it has been enriched by Thy gift.”
The words “omnium malorum – all evils” may also be translated “all evil men”, speaking of the Church’s victory over the persecutors, and this is perhaps more consonant with the prophetic reading which comes immediately after it, Isaiah 65, 13-19.
“Thus saith the Lord God: Behold my servants shall eat, and you shall be hungry: behold my servants shall drink, and you shall be thirsty. Behold my servants shall rejoice, and you shall be confounded: behold my servants shall praise for joyfulness of heart, and you shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for grief of spirit. And you shall leave your name for an execration to my elect: and the Lord God shall slay thee, and call his servants by another name, in which he that is blessed upon the earth, shall be blessed in God, amen: and he that sweareth in the earth, shall swear by God, amen: because the former distresses are forgotten, and because they are hid from my eyes. For behold, I create new heavens, and a new earth: and the former things shall not be in remembrance, and they shall not come upon the heart. But you shall be glad and rejoice for ever in these things, which I create: for behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and the people thereof joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and have joy in my people: saith the Lord almighty.”
The Gospel, Luke 9, 7-11, also speaks of the martyrdom of John the Baptist as a sign of the beginning of a new era in the life of the Church, which continues in the ministry of the Apostles and their successors, those through whom it is spread throughout the earth.
“At that time, Herod the tetrarch heard of all things that were done by the Lord Jesus, and he was in a doubt, because it was said by some, that John was risen from the dead, but by others that Elijah had appeared, and by others, that one of the old prophets was risen again. And Herod said, ‘John I have beheaded, but who is this of whom I hear such things?’ … And the apostles, when they had returned, told (Jesus) all they had done; and taking them, He went aside into a desert place apart, … And when the people learned of this, they followed Him; and He received them, and spoke to them of the kingdom of God, and healed them who had need of healing.”
The antiphon “after the Gospel” which is sung on this Sunday also refers to the end of the persecutions. (There are eight of these for the period; this is one is also sung on the eighth Sunday after Pentecost and the first of October.)
“Manus tua, Domine, pugnavit pro patribus nostris; tu enim ipse es Dominus Deus noster. Dextera tua confringat inimicos; ut cantemus nomini tuo, Domine, laudem tuam.
Thy hand, o Lord, did fight for our father; for Thou Thyself are the Lord, our God. Let Thy right hand shatter the enemies, that we may sing Thy praise, o Lord, to Thy name.”
