Med-religion List Members: A General Inquiry:
I apologize for the impropriety of cross-posting , but answers to the
following inquiry were few and thin,and in retrospect the topic seems
more appropriately aimed at the Med-religion List.
Both an original call for assistance on the medieval ( OG ,
MHG ) German term indicating a "thirty-day memorial" celebration for
the departed and Jim O'Donnell's recollective affirmation of the
"month's mind"( cited below) , leads me to inquire if there was any
specific significance attached to the period of thirty days in the
cycle of commemorations of the newly departed in the Western
Church.The Eastern Church had rather early absorbed a rather detailed
and colorful metempsychotic itinerary ( almost a day by day, blow by
purgating blow description) based on an 'angelic revelation' to St
Macarius of Alexndria, and ,what I suspect, was a reflection ,in
reverse, of the currently accepted medical theorizing about the
formation of the fetal body and it's reception of the soul [ see Vita
Macarii Alexandr; Acta Sanct.] Apparently the angels were Macarius's
constant conversational companions, and from the vita, apparently
quite chatty. In this revealed itinerarium the fortieth day is the
crtical waystation on which the soul is brought ( a second time)
before God, and allocated a fitting location for residence. I quote
from the Vita Macarii:
"On the fortieth day the soul is once again taken to do
reverence and offer obeisance before God; and it is there ( and then)
that the Great judge determinines the fitting place for its holding,
according to its deeds. Thusly, the Church will do right in
remembering the baptized dead on the fortieth day."
Does the thirty day Western parallel commemoration have any such
hitstory/story,
and what are its sources.?
Thanks rendered in advance,
Josef Gulka
<"Jim O'Donnell wrote:
>"The thirties": when I was a child in Catholic churches, there remained
>traces in bulletins of something called "month's mind" -- the same
>practice of a memorial mass thirty days after decease.>
Josef Gulka
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Tel: 215- 732-8420
Fax (215) 732-8420
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