The Nativity of Saint John the Baptist- the full history of a Feast that is forgotten: the Christmas of Summer
Mirare Joannem, quantum potes: Christo proficit quod miraris
Admire John as much as you can:
your admiration glorifies Christ
Saint Augustine, Sermon 391, In
Natali Joannis Baptistae – On the Birth of John the Baptist V, Paragraph 1 Latin
and English
In June 1929, this article written by Dom Emmanuel Flicoteaux OSB appeared in La Vie Spirituelle. A translation in the hope of restoration of the Feast, its Vigil and its Octave.
I
The
Christmas of Winter and the Christmas of Summer
During the first three centuries
of its existence, the Church concentrated her attention on the very person of
the Word made Flesh as it needed, above all else, to become gently and slowly
aware of the infinite riches of light and grace contained in the holy humanity
of Christ Jesus, in whom resides that fullness of Divine life whose
superabundance flows into all the members of his Mystical Body. To
adore Christ as the only Son of God, to recognise and invoke him as the source
of all holiness, to follow and imitate him as the model of perfect life—this,
one might say, was the sole concern of the first Christian generations who,
amidst bloody persecutions, rigorously conformed to the precept of the Saint
Paul the Apostle by wanting to know nothing except Jesus and Jesus crucified.
Under these conditions, it is
easy to understand that the nascent Church, initially attentive to the worship
and service of her divine Spouse, contented herself with celebrating annually
the mysteries accomplished by Christ for the salvation of the world: his
blessed Passion, his most holy Resurrection, his glorious Ascension and the
coming of his Holy Spirit, that is to say, the great solemnities of Easter and
Pentecost. [i] However,
it was not possible to develop the worship rendered to the Saviour himself
without taking into account his privileged members, who are linked to him as to
their head in the living unity of the same Mystical Body. Is it
not evident that the worship of Christ Jesus remained incomplete as long as it
had not attained its fullness, its plenitude, in the worship of the saints? The worship of the saints sprang spontaneously
and logically from that of our Saviour, just as a flower springs from its stem
It was fitting, of course, that
the piety of the Church should be directed first and foremost to those figures
whose circumstances and holiness brought them closest to the Sacred Person of
the Saviour and, first and foremost, in primis, according to the liturgical
expression, to his Blessed Mother, the Virgin Mary. Now,
it was precisely when she instituted the Feast of the Nativity of the Lord that
the Catholic Church began to render to Our Lady the honours due to the mystery
of her Divine Maternity. [ii]
To celebrate the birth of Christ,
according to the flesh, was it not, at the same time, to celebrate that Virginal
Birth which places a simple creature at the very edge of divinity and grants
her the most singular privileges of grace and glory? No doubt many other feasts arose later, in
which there was a greater focus on the Virgin Mary herself but it can be said
of these various solemnities that they all refer, in one way or another, to the
mystery of Christmas, for which they ensure preparation or whose most glorious
consequences they emphasize, with regard to the Mother of God
At the same time as she honoured
the Virgin Mary in the mystery of her Divine Maternity, the Feast of Christmas
provided the Latin Church with the opportunity to introduce into the liturgical
cycle the person of Saint John the Baptist, whose veneration was soon to
receive, under the impetus of the Spirit of God, a very considerable
development, well justified by the quite extraordinary importance of the Holy
Forerunner. Spontaneously, the Christmas
of Winter drew the Christmas of Summer into the cycle and projected onto it the
reflection of its own splendour, while, on the other hand, the Nativity of Saint
John the Baptist enhanced the ineffable mystery of the Nativity of Christ by
preparing and completing it.
We are certain that even before
the year 336 [iii],
that is, at the beginning of the 4th century, the Church of Rome celebrated the
birth of the Saviour on December 25 (VIII Kalendas Januarii) as the starting
point of the liturgical cycle. Once the feast of the Nativity of Christ was
accepted, nothing was more natural than to honour the birth of his Forerunner
and to fix its commemoration on June 24 (VIII Kalendas Julii), six months to
the day before the feast of Christmas [iv]
, in accordance with the indication in the Gospel which states explicitly that
John was conceived six months before the Saviour. [v]
II
The Summer of Christmas according to the
Sermons of Saint Augustine and Saint Maximus
We have no earlier evidence of
the existence of a Christmas of Summer than the eight sermons of Saint
Augustine devoted to the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist. [vi]
This relatively considerable number is in itself quite significant. One
cannot read these very fine discourses without being struck by the remarkable
importance that Saint Augustine attached to the feast of June 24th. It is
clear that, in his time, that is to say at the end of the 4th century, the
Nativity of the Forerunner was celebrated amidst a large gathering of people. Augustine
himself says so in his Third Sermon: “The reason that brings us together in
such great numbers today is the Nativity of John the Baptist” (Sermon 289, Paragraph
1). Elsewhere, he declares himself obliged to
respond to the solemnity of the day with a solemn discourse worthy of great
expectation: “Diei hodiernae solemnitas solemnem desiderat tanta exspectatione
sermonem” (Sermon 292). For Saint Augustine, the Nativity of John is a
great day, “magnus dies,” a day that the Church regards as consecrated:
“Nativitatem Joannis quodammodo consecratam observat Ecclesia” (Sermon 293, Paragraph1). Among
all the saints, only John's birth is celebrated in a solemn manner: “Nec
invenitur ullus in Patribus cujus nativitatem solemniter celebremus” (ibid.). Saint
Augustine speaks of the Nativity of the Forerunner as if, in his time, the
feast was already widespread throughout the Church: John, he says, is the only
righteous man whose birth the Church celebrates (Sermon 290, Paragraph 2). He specifies that the Church celebrates only
two births, that of Christ and that of John: "The Church celebrates only
two births: that of John and that of Christ" (Sermon 287, Paragraph 1). It seems that in Augustine's mind, the
Nativity of John the Baptist, as a liturgical feast, was as firmly established
as the Nativity of the Saviour. Since this is neither a local cult nor a
particular tradition, everything leads us to believe that the Church in Africa,
in adopting the Christmas of Summer, was simply following, according to its
custom, the example set by the use of the Church at Rome.
When he delivers his beautiful
sermons on the Nativity of John the Baptist, Saint Augustine clearly implies
that this feast is not of recent institution but that it has long existed on African soil, for
he claims for his own benefit the rights conferred upon him by a venerable
tradition: "The custom of celebrating the birth of John," he says in
one of his discourses, "we hold from our ancestors (majorum traditione
suscepimus), and we transmit it to our descendants so that they may observe it
with equal piety" (Sermon 292, Paragraph 1). One might even think that Saint Augustine
attributes an apostolic origin to the Christmas of Summer, when he observes
that the day of the Forerunner's birth was carefully recorded and entrusted as
a deposit for the veneration of the Church: "Propterea notatus est dies
nativitatis ejus et celebrationi Ecclesiae commendatus" (Sermon 290, Paragraph
4). Saint Augustine spoke thus in the early years
of the 5th century. What can we conclude from his testimony, if
not that the Nativity of Saint John is among the oldest feasts of the Church
and that it already existed in the middle of the 4th century? The Christmas of Summer thus came to
complement the Christmas of Winter in the liturgical cycle at a very early
stage.
The sermons of Saint Augustine
are very valuable from the point of view that concerns us, not only because
they inform us about the origin of the feast and the importance it had acquired
in the time of the holy doctor, but also because they enlighten us about its
liturgical significance and the true reason for the place of honour that the
Church has always accorded it. No one
has highlighted better than Saint Augustine the relative nature of this
solemnity, whose principal interest lies in its connection to the feast of
Christmas, just as the Forerunner himself relates to Christ, whom he announces
through the holiness of his own life and his doctrine. [vii] Augustine delights in repeating in his
sermons that John is the only saint whose birth according to the flesh the
Church honours because of the mystery proper to this event: “Quia in magno
sacramento est Joannes, ipsius solius justi natalem diem celebrat Ecclesia” (Sermon
290, Paragraph 2). In a discourse aimed more specifically at the
Donatists, he explains very precisely why the Church celebrates the birth of
John and not that of the other righteous men of the Old and New Testaments:
“Here,” says Augustine, “a question arises that we must not pass over in
silence: Why do we celebrate the birth of John the Baptist, rather than that of
any other apostle, martyr, prophet, or patriarch?” After posing the problem,
Saint Augustine resolves it by showing that among the saints of the Old and New
Testaments, there is none who could bear witness to the Lord in his own birth,
apart from John the Baptist. [viii]
The Nativity of John is a prophecy of
the coming of Christ Our Lord, to whom he had paid homage by greeting him from
his mother's womb: "Johannis autem ipsa nativitas Dominum Christum
prophetavit quem conceptum ex utero salutavit (Sermon 292, Paragraph 1). It is therefore very clear that in
Augustine's thought, the primary interest of the Nativity of the Forerunner
lies in the fact that it announces the birth of Christ and participates in the
grandeur of a mystery of which it constitutes, so to speak, the first acle. The specific character of the Feast of Saint
John the Baptist cannot be understood if it is not considered first and
foremost as the true starting point of the mysteries of our salvation.
Every time he celebrates the
Nativity of John, Saint Augustine traces back to Christ all the praise he
bestows upon his Forerunner. In his
various discourses, he never fails to bring the two births together in the same
mystery, to show how much that of Christ surpasses that of John, which is
already so wondrous Then, when he draws a parallel between the preparatory
mission of the Forerunner and the work accomplished by the Word; when he
compares the holiness of John to that of the Redeemer, it is less to fully
illuminate the superhuman greatness of Elizabeth's son than to highlight, by
way of contrast, the ineffable transcendence of the son of the Virgin Mary. Augustine knows better than anyone that it is
impossible to glorify John without exalting Christ. As he himself says in one of his panegyrics:
“Admire John, as much as you can, your admiration glorifies Christ: Mirare
Joannem, quantum potes, Christo proficit quod miraris” (Sermon 291, Paragraph 1).
Saint Augustine does not fail to
observe that the two feasts of December and June, insofar as they are situated
at the two extreme points of the Christian year, the winter solstice and the
summer solstice, unite in a great mystery: “Tempora ipsa quibus nati sunt ambo,
magnum mysterium praefigurant” (Sermon 287, Paragraph 1). The
Nativity of the Saviour is celebrated when the days begin to lengthen and
John's when the light begins to diminish.
Augustine sees in this providential circumstance the symbolic expression
of the relationship that God himself established between Christ and his
Precursor. It was fitting for the latter
to humble himself and disappear in the presence of the Saviour, whose influence
was to continue to grow, according to John's words to his own disciples: Illum
oportet crescere, me autem minui - He must increase but I must decrease. [ix] In this respective position of the two
solemnities within the liturgical cycle, Augustine saw yet another mystery. For John, as for Christ, death corresponds to
birth. Now, the Nativity of John occurs at the time
when the days are shortening, because he himself was diminished by the torment
of beheading: “John is shortened, he is beheaded,” while the Nativity of Christ
occurs at the time when the days are lengthening, because he was exalted on the
wood of the Cross: “Christ is exalted, he is extended on the cross” (Sermon
288, Paragraph 5). This last consideration seems to us today to
be of a rather subtle symbolism, but it must have pleased Saint Augustine, for
he reproduces it in each of his sermons.
In any case, it proves to us how much he cared about highlighting the
slightest circumstances capable of linking, by the bond of close dependence,
the Nativity of Christ and that of his Precursor.
With Saint Maximus of Turin
(+465) we are still in the first half of the 5th century, but the testimony we
hear is that of a Bishop of Northern Italy.
We possess from him, in whole or in part, twelve discourses devoted to
the Nativity of the Forerunner. [x]
Saint Maximus is more categorical than Saint Augustine about the spread of the
feast. He presents it to us as being
widespread throughout the world: "The faithful throughout the world,"
he says in a sermon, "celebrate today the august solemnity of the blessed
John the Baptist (Sermon 59). He does
not hesitate to include it among the feasts observed by the universal Church:
“Quam hodie celebrat sancta universalis Ecclesia” (Sermon 60). For Maximus, the annual return of the Christmas
of Summer gives rise to very beautiful expressions of faith and piety,
“devotissimis festivitatibus” (Sermon 64); it is a feast filled with joy,
“laetissima festivitas” (Sermon 67), which should be celebrated with great
enthusiasm, “cum omni exsultatione” (Sermon 57). Without placing as much emphasis on it as the
Bishop of Hippo, Saint Maximus does not fail to remind us that the greatest
significance of the Nativity of John the Baptist is that it announces the birth
of the Saviour and preludes the mystery of Christmas. The Feast of the Forerunner brings before our
eyes the dawn of our redemption, the rising of the true Light, for it is
impossible to meditate on the birth of John without immediately thinking of the
birth of Christ: “For whom can the birth of Christ not occur?” (Sermon 61).
The relative nature of a Christmas of Summer could not be expressed more
clearly.
III
The celebration of the Christmas of Summer
in the Middle Ages
The spread of the Feast and its
importance.
Saint Augustine and Saint Maximus told us, one after the other, that the Nativity of Saint John is filled with the mystery of Christmas. It is precisely for this reason that the universal spread of the feast of June 24th was so rapid. Bishop Duchesne believes, not without reason, that even before the end of the 5th century, the custom of celebrating the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist six months before Christmas had spread throughout the West. [xi] The liturgical documents from the various Churches of Italy, Gaul, and Spain all bear witness to the existence of the solemnity and its importance The Church in Gaul apparently hesitated slightly in adopting June 24th as the anniversary of the Nativity of the Forerunner, because it already commemorated it in the period following Epiphany. [xii] But in any case, resistance to the general trend, if there was any, was very short-lived, for all the Gallican books we possess—Sacramentaries, Missals and Lectionaries—recognize the feast in June. The East itself, after receiving the Feast of December 25th from the West, then embraced, very early on, the Christmas of Summer as the indispensable complement to the Christmas of Winter.
Not only did the Nativity of
Saint John spread in the Christian world with admirable promptness, but at the
first stroke, it conquered in all the Churches where it established itself the
place of honour that was rightfully its own.
Canonical and disciplinary decisions coincided with liturgical practices
to grant it all the privileges belonging to the most important feasts of the
Christian year. Nothing was neglected to
align Saint John's Day with Christmas Day, for the Church has always visibly
intended "to emphasize by a thousand parallels the dependence and
resemblance of the two solemnities".
[xiii]
One cannot outline the history of
the cult of Saint John the Baptist without first mentioning the Council of
Agde, which, at the beginning of the 6th century (506), under the inspiration
of its president, the holy Bishop Caesarius of Arles, issued a series of canons
important from the point of view of ecclesiastical discipline and liturgy. Now, this council, when it gives a short list
of the principal feasts of the Gallican Church, does not hesitate to place
Saint John the Baptist alongside the greatest solemnities of the Saviour:
Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, the Ascension, Pentecost (Canon 21). And in order to better ensure the
sanctification by the faithful of these privileged days, the council subjects
their celebration to a disciplinary measure intended to safeguard the rights of
parish service. [xiv]
Such, moreover, was the importance acquired by the Christmas of Summer in the
Merovingian period, that it figures among the very few feasts where the Church
of Gaul was accustomed to conferring solemn baptism. [xv] Naturally,
from the 6th century to the present day, the Nativity of Saint John has been
regularly included among the obligatory feasts that continued to multiply
during the Middle Ages. [xvi]
Let us simply recall here that mention is made of Christmas of Summer either in
the Statutes of Saint Boniface, the Apostle of Germany [xvii]
or in the Capitularies of Charlemagne,
where it is placed according to the liturgical order between Pentecost and the
Solemnity of the Holy Apostles. [xviii]
The fact that the historian Nithard reports concerning the Battle of Fontenay,
which was deliberately postponed by the opposing parties until the day after
Saint John's Day (June 25, 841), clearly shows us the place that Christmas of
Summer occupied in the early Middle Ages in the life of the Christian people. [xix]
As for the Catholic Church,
nothing proves better the importance it has always attached to the Nativity of
the Forerunner than the liturgical documents that will be mentioned later, the
oldest of which dates back to the beginning of the 6th century. We are inclined to believe that the successor
of the great Saint Leo, Pope Saint Hilary (461-68), who testified to his
personal devotion to the Forerunner, in erecting an oratory for him in the
Lateran Baptistery, was not lacking a decisive influence on the liturgical
development of the Feast of Saint John the Baptist. If we go back to the 9th century, we see Pope
Saint Nicholas I, in a famous consultation, encouraging the joyous celebration
of Saint John, not only by placing it among those feasts that bring about the
closure of the courts and the postponement of judicial executions, but also by
granting it the privilege of waiving the precept of abstinence whenever it is
celebrated on a Friday. [xx]
This was to add a new feature to the resemblance that already existed in so
many respects between the Christmas of Summer and the Christmas of Winter.
The preparation for the Feast
of Saint John the Baptist
Since the Nativity of the Saviour
was preceded by several weeks of penance, it seemed quite natural to provide
the Nativity of Saint John with a period of preparation comparable to Advent. For a
solemnity of the importance of Christmas in summer, it was thought, deserved
preparation through a number of days devoted to fasting and abstinence. We cannot say exactly when this new Advent
originated, as it has left no trace in the Roman liturgy or in any other
Western liturgy. But it
is undeniable that in various regions, for several centuries and until a fairly
late period in the Middle Ages, the solemnity of June 24th was preceded by a
more or less lengthy period of penance. On
this point, we have the very explicit testimony of the liturgist Amalarius, who
notes that, in his time, three Lenten periods were observed: the first, The
first, the fast before Easter, the second around the Feast of St. John (circa festivitatem Joannis), and the
third before Christmas. [xxi]
Did this additional Lent ever, anywhere, reach forty days? That is highly
doubtful. It can be assumed, not without
plausibility, that the way this period of preparation was conceived and
practiced varied from one Church to another.
In any case, we still see in the 11th century the Council of Seligut
(1022) prescribing that the Nativity of St.
John, like that of the Saviour, be preceded by a preparatory fast of
fourteen days (Canon 1). [xxii] And
the same council strictly prohibits the celebration of weddings during these
two weeks of penance (can. 3). The way in which Durand of Mende expresses
himself on the reduction of the Lent of Saint John to the space of three weeks
"propter fragilitatem hominum" gives us to believe that in his time,
that is to say at the end of the 13th century, the custom of preparing for the
feast of June 24 by fasting and abstinence had not yet completely disappeared
from Christian customs. [xxiii]
If the liturgical documents
provide us with no indication of this Lent of Saint John, which was not to
survive the centuries of great faith, they at least show us that the vigil of the
Christmas of Summer was always considered, from the very origin of the feast,
as one of the most solemn of the Christian year. It was sanctified by rigorous abstinence and
by a fast that undoubtedly lasted until sunset.
In any case, there is in the Leonine Sacramentary, which we will discuss
shortly, the text of a Mass for the Vigil of Saint John the Baptist, with its
own preface in which is recalled the solemn fast that precedes the Nativity of
the Forerunner:
Exhibentes solemne jejunium quo
beati Johannis Baptistae natalitia praevenimus - observing the solemn fast by
which we anticipate the birth of blessed John the Baptist. [xxiv]
It was only in the last years of
the 19th century that the Vigil of Saint John the Baptist ceased to be
considered at the very heart of Catholicism as a day of fasting and “strict
abstinence.” Despite the rigour of the
abstinence, the liturgy of the Vigil remained nonetheless imbued with a feeling
of joy that allows us to taste in advance the very clear and very luminous joys
of a Christmas of Summer.
The celebration of the Feast
As regards the celebration of the
feast itself, we will note first and foremost the very venerable testimony of
the Leonine Sacramentary, since in this document, which dates back to the
beginning of the 6th century, appear the oldest liturgical texts relating to
Saint John the Baptist Although the collection we are discussing is not a
sacramentary in the strict sense but a private compilation, we are certain that
it contains a large number of pieces composed by Pope Saint Leo, for the
thoroughly Roman nobility and majestic beauty of most of these formulas leave
no doubt as to the origin of their inspiration.
Now, the Leonian sacramentary preserves the text of five Masses for the
Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, which follow one another in the following
order: first, a Mass for the Vigil; then, two Masses for the feast itself; and
finally, two more Masses, also for the feast, but preceded by the indication
"ad fontem" because they were to be celebrated in the spacious
baptistery of the Lateran, where the great function of Easter night was
performed with such pomp. Each of these
Masses is enriched with its own preface, eloquently proclaiming the glory of
the Forerunner and the wonders of his Nativity.
The reader will be grateful if we have placed before them the Latin text
of one of these prefaces, which would be quite worthy of inclusion in the Roman
Missal. It belonged to one of the two
Masses to be sung near the baptismal font, and that is why it so aptly recalls
the baptism of the Saviour in the Jordan:
Vere dignum. In die festivitatis hodierna, qua beatus
Joannes exortus est, qui vocem matris Domini nondum editus sensit et adhuc
clausus in utero, ad adventum salutis humanae prophetica exsultatione gestivit,
qui et genitricis sterilitatem conceptus abstersit, et patris linguam natus
absolvit : solusque omnium prophetarum, Redemptorem mundi quem praenuntiavit
ostendit ; et ut sacrae purificationis effectum aquarum natura conciperet,”
sanctificandis Jordanis fluentis ipsum baptismatis lavit, auctorem. Unde cum Angelis etc... [xxv]
What is most striking in the
other texts of this same collection is the way in which they emphasize, through
the praise they offer to the Forerunner, the preeminent prestige of him who,
from afar, is foretold by such great wonders.
Does not the outstanding glory of the messenger admirably bring out in
advance the greatness of Christ himself, "Satisque firmatum quam esset
mirabilis nuntius, cujus tam insignis nuntius apparet"? [xxvi]
We are therefore not surprised to
see the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist obtain, as early as the 6th century,
the privilege of being honoured, like the feast of Christmas, by the
celebration of three Masses. The
Gregorian Sacramentary gives us, in addition to the Vigil Mass, two other
Masses, the first of which was to be said on the night of the feast (in nocte)
or at sunrise, and the second, at daybreak.
[xxvii]
It is very likely that of these two Masses, one was celebrated in the Lateran
Cathedral and the other, undoubtedly the Midnight Mass, was said in the
Baptistery of the same basilica. [xxviii] The
practice of the three Masses of Christmas of Summer, which was initially
specific to the Church of Rome, soon spread to Italy, Gaul, and Germany, as we
learn from the testimony of numerous sacramentaries and missals. [xxix] Thus,
the night of Saint John had become very dear to the Christian people, who
eagerly seized the opportunity to relive, in the heart of summer, the sweet and
intimate joys of Christmas night.
Princes made it a point of honour
to participate in the famous Vigil of Saint John the Baptist and to join in the
solemn service that preceded daybreak. The
monk Helgaud, in his life of Robert the Pious († 1031), shows us the devout
King of France taking part with true fervor in the celebration of the Mass
which was sung, as at the Nativity of the Lord, after the Te Deum of the night
office.[xxx]
Naturally, medieval liturgists felt it
essential to justify, by means of rather subtle symbolism, the reason for each
of these three Masses, as they did for the feast of Christmas. According to Amalarius, who excels in this
kind of explanation, the three Masses of Saint John recall, the first, his
title of Forerunner, the second, his baptism, and the third, his wondrous
austerity. [xxxi]
Of these three masses, we have preserved only the first, the vigil mass and the
third, the daytime mass, which was also the most solemn, the missa major. As for the second, the midnight mass, it has
ceased to be celebrated, but the various chants of which it was composed are
now found scattered throughout the common of a non-pontifical confessor. [xxxii] The custom of celebrating several masses on
the Feast of Saint John the Baptist was still in force in the 13th century,
according to the testimony of Durand of Mende, and there is every reason to
believe that it persisted in certain places well beyond that time .
It goes without saying that the Christmas
of Summer was one of those very great feasts that were sanctified by the
recitation of a double office. Canon
Benedict, in the ceremonial he wrote around 1143, which belongs to the series
of Ordines Romani published by Mabillon, specifies that in Rome, on the day of
Saint John, the office of Matins and Lauds was said simultaneously in the
Basilica of Saint Saviour in the Lateran and in the baptistery attached to it. [xxxiii]
On the other hand, medieval liturgists tell us of a double nocturnal office,
the first beginning at dusk and the second at midnight. [xxxiv]
Cathedral churches, as well as
the humblest village parishes, vied with one another in zeal in the celebration
of the Christmas of Summer, which unfolded with all the pomp of the principal
solemnities of the liturgical cycle Unable to describe here the many
particularities that characterized the Feast of Saint John the Baptist, which
varied from country to country, we wish to point out, because of its special
interest, the custom that had arisen in Rome, and in many other places, of
making, after Vespers on that day, as after Vespers at Easter, a solemn stop at
the baptistery of the cathedral or parish church. This is why the ancient sacramentaries give
us, following the three Masses of Saint John, a series of collects that were
recited before the baptismal font and which, for this reason, were placed under
the heading "ad fontes" (at the fonts). Such a
custom was well suited to the feast of the Forerunner, because it aptly
emphasized, in the eyes of the faithful gathered around the pool from which
they had emerged refreshed, the role that belongs to John the Baptist in the
development of each Christian life. This
is the idea that emerges from the collections we have just mentioned. This one deserves to be quoted, as it clearly
highlights the role of Saint John:
Omnipotens et misericors Deus,
qui beatum Baptistam Joannem tua providentia destinasti, ut perfectam plebem
Christo Domino praepararet : da, quaesumus, ut familia tua hujus intercessione
Praeconis, et a peccatis omnibus exuatur, et ad eum quem prophetavit, pervenire
mereatur [xxxv]
It must be acknowledged that
nowhere was the Christmas of Summer celebrated with more fervor and solemnity
than in the monasteries. This is easily
seen by leafing through the numerous monastic customaries that have recorded
with great precision the smallest details relating to the ceremonial and
observance of the feasts. This is not
surprising, given the true devotion that the patriarch of Western monks himself
showed toward the great model of the solitary life. Was not the first act of Saint Benedict upon
taking possession of Monte Cassino to erect, in honor of Saint John the
Baptist, on the ruins of a temple of Apollo, the oratory where his own body
would one day rest? [xxxvi] The
veneration of the Forerunner is part of the legacy that Benedict passed on to
his sons. The monks of Monte Cassino
were always faithful to it, and we know that one of them, Paul the Deacon,
composed in the 8th century, for the Feast of Saint John the Baptist the
celebrated hymn Ut queant laxis, which captivates us with the delightful candor
of its melody The great monastic centers, such as Monte Cassino, Cluny, and the
Royal Abbey of Saint-Denis, are notable for the care taken to celebrate the
birth of Saint John the Baptist worthily.
[xxxvii]
At Cluny, for the Christmas of Summer, the sanctuary and altar are adorned with
as much magnificence as for the particularly glorious feasts of the Epiphany
and the Ascension of the Lord. [xxxviii]
The splendour of the lighting, the solemnity of the ceremonies and the chanting
were carefully proportioned to the liturgical importance of the feast. As the
monasteries do not possess baptismal fonts, a procession to the oratory of
Saint John was held on this day, either before the solemn Mass or after Vespers. At Saint-Denis in Paris, a grand procession
took place in the basilica, and five deacons carried the saint's relics in
triumph. [xxxix]
In some places, hymns proper to the Feast of Saint John the Baptist were sung
during the early hours of the office; elsewhere, a stanza invoking the
protection of the Forerunner was simply added to each of the ordinary hymns:
Bring back to the right path those who stray.
Hear those who beseech you. [xl]
So that the liturgical
assimilation of the Nativity of Saint John to the Nativity of the Saviour might
be as complete as possible, the Church should add to the Summer Solstice the
privilege of an Octave. This was, moreover, the only way to allow the
faithful to taste and experience in its fullness the joy contained in the
mystery of such a great feast. Now, it seems very likely to us that the
practice of extending the solemnity of Saint John for a whole week originated
in the monasteries. In any case, it was already in effect at
Cluny in the 10th century [xli]
and in this abbey, as in many others, the celebration of the eighth day was
given the importance of a feast of twelve lessons. [xlii]
As for the Church in Rome, however opposed it may have been to the indiscreet
multiplication of octaves, it did not hesitate to adopt that of Saint John as
early as the middle of the 12th century.
[xliii] Indeed, nothing was more justified than the
institution of an octave, which not only enhanced the prestige of the feast
itself but also corresponded to a particular mystery. Was it
not precisely on the eighth day after his birth that the Forerunner was
circumcised and, under miraculous circumstances, received the name John, chosen
by God himself? For John the Baptist,
whose birth prepares the way for the birth of the Saviour in the liturgical
cycle, also foreshadows, through his own circumcision (July 1), the
circumcision of Christ Jesus, which the Church celebrates on the eighth day
after Christmas (January 1). It is fitting that the Forerunner himself
should prepare us to honour the mystery of the Lamb shedding the first drops of
his redeeming blood.
Thus, throughout the Middle Ages, under the influence of the Spirit of God who always governs it, the Church never ceased to affirm its predilection for the feast of the Forerunner and to enrich it with those various privileges which earned it the title, in the language of our ancestors, of "Christmas of Summer." A period of preparation through fasting and abstinence, a solemn vigil, a triple offering of sacrifice on the feast day, the celebration of which is carried out with magnificence and lasts for a joyous octave—nothing was spared to ensure that Saint John's Day appeared to all as one of the greatest solemnities of the liturgical cycle. The Church most certainly achieved its goal, for of all the feasts of the year, Saint John's Day was one of the most widely observed and popular. It aroused immense joy in cities and in the countryside alike, joy that could be given free rein and expressed in public celebrations where the Christian spirit never lost its rightful place. "If at Christmas the harshness of the season confined the touching expressions of private piety to the domestic sphere, the beauty of the nights of the summer solstice offered an opportunity for the vibrant faith of the people to flourish." She also supplemented what she perceived as the inadequacy of her demonstrations toward the Christ Child with the honours paid to the Forerunner in his crib. [xliv] If it is true that the Feast of Saint John the Baptist has the principal advantage of preparing souls for the celebration of the Nativity of the Lord, we must also recognize its great privilege of allowing us to relive, in the middle of summer, but with a charm all its own, the ineffable joys of the mystery of Christmas.
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