Heortology : $b A history of the Christian festivals from their origin to the present dayKellner, K. A. Heinrich (Karl Adam Heinrich)
Religion
Heortology : $b A history of the Christian festivals from their origin to the present day
Kellner, K. A. Heinrich (Karl Adam Heinrich)
Church year; Fasts and feasts
In using documents of this kind for purposes of historical investigation,
as for instance in order to determine the day on which a historical
personage died, the appeal must always be to the local sources. In
the case of saints belonging to the Western Church no importance must
be attached to the fact that the Easterns may have transferred them
to a different day, and _vice versâ_, as, for example, in the case of
St Ignatius of Antioch. Where the day is given in some local source,
otherwise deserving of credit, we can be then certain that it is correct.
This must be done with regard to SS. Peter and Paul, for whom the local
sources give invariably the 29th June, while foreign calendars give other
dates, as we find is the case with Polemius, Silvius, and the Arian
martyrology. The compilers of these calendars wished to celebrate the
Princes of the Apostles, but, being ignorant of the actual day of their
death, placed them on any day that seemed suitable. Finally, at a later
date the correct date came to the knowledge of foreign churches, and
found its way into their calendars.
9. _The Kalendarium Marmoreum of Naples_
In the ninth century, a time of great activity in matters relating to
hagiography, the Church of Naples undertook a revision of its calendar,
which exhibits noteworthy peculiarities.
First of all, nearly every day of the year is provided with the name
of a saint, which indicates considerable care and study. This result
was achieved by following the Eastern custom of admitting Old Testament
personages, although not to the same extent. The grounds on which the
selection was made cannot be discovered, for we have Abraham on the 9th
October, Isaac on the 17th March, Eliseus on the 28th November, Daniel
on the 17th December, Zacharias on the 13th May, while other important
personages, such as Isaias, etc., are omitted. We are also reminded of
eastern usage by the commemoration of the council of Ephesus on the 4th
August, and other traces of eastern influence are noticeable in the
admission of a few bishops of Constantinople, such as Metrophanes, and
also of the names of Constantine (without Helena) on the 21st May, and
Theodosius on the 10th November. With regard to Metrophanes, the compiler
is guilty of a remarkable oversight; he has placed him once on the right
day (the 4th June), without his title, and again on the 4th January with
his title, “_Patr. Const._” The confusion between the 4th of June and the
4th of January might easily escape a transcriber, and must have already
existed in the source which the compiler used. In order not to omit any
name the compiler preferred to enter the same name twice, once with, and
once without, its proper title.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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