medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On 04/09/2011 22:26, John Dillon wrote:
> On 09/04/11, John Briggs wrote:
>> On 04/09/2011 09:09, John Dillon wrote:
>>>
>>> Cuthbert's principal feast both in the Church of England and in that of Rome falls on 20. March, his _dies natalis_. His feast on 4. September was (is it still observed?) an originally medieval translation feast commemorating C.'s translation in Durham Cathedral in 1104, when his body was proclaimed to be still incorrupt. Not mentioned in the Roman Martyrology, it is absent from the Roman Catholic _National Calendar for England_. It is likewise absent from the Church of England's Common Worship calendar, where under 4. September one finds a commemoration of St. Birinus of Dorchester (this too is a translation feast).
>>
>> I'm not sure that the practices of either the Church of England or the modern Church of Rome are of much relevance.
>
> They are if one is assessing the accuracy of an assertion that 4. September "is the feast of" Cuthbert (as opposed, say, to "was once a feast of"). Note the query "is it still observed?" in the preceding sentence.
When I use the present tense, I am referring to the medieval period :-)
>> The point is that Cuthbert's principal feast fell in Lent, and so his Translation feast tended to get greater emphasis. For example, in the Sarum Use, if 20 March fell in Passiontide, the feast was deferred to 4 September. But if the Lenten feast was celebrated as normal with nine lessons, then the Translation feast only had three lessons.
>
> An excellent point. One wonders additionally whether in later medieval Durham this feast reinforcing that church's inheritance of the saint's remains (and with it both the possessions traditionally attributed to Cuthbert and the locus of the sanctuary traditionally granted to those fleeing to his body) may have had equal or near-equal importance even when Cuthbert's principal feast did _not_ fall in Passiontide.
I cited the Sarum Use to demonstrate that both feasts were celebrated
nationally. Obviously, details would vary according to diocese, and the
Durham Calendar itself would need to be consulted to answer your question.
John Briggs
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