Today, 1 August, is the feast of ...
* the holy Machabees, martyrs (168 a.C.) - only widespread feast in the
West of Old Testament saints (notable exceptions: the Carmelites
celebrate Elias and Eliseus)
Paul Chandler provided us with the following informative gloss
regarding the Carmelites:
The Carmelites celebrate Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, patriarchs, on 6
October, a feast taken over from the calendar of the church of the Holy
Sepulchre. I wonder if anyone else celebrated it? Among the Carmelites
it did not survive the liturgical reforms after the Council of Trent.
It is interesting that the feast of Elisha (Eliseus) was in the
Carmelite missal from 1399, but that of his master Elijah (Elias) was
introduced only in 1551. This is apparently because of the belief that
Elijah was still alive and waiting with Enoch to return to earth in the
time of the Antichrist, and cult could not be offered to a living
person. This inhibition was not felt in the East, where the cult of
Elijah is very ancient. Jerome and Egeria both attest Elijan
sanctuaries in Palestine in the 4th c., and by the 6th the cult was
widespread.
There was lively interest in Elijah and Elisha in the West in the Middle
Ages, even in the absence of a formal cult, especially after Joachim of
Fiore used Moses and Elijah to symbolise the two orders whose preaching
would usher in the new age. Various Dominicans and Franciscans
identified themselves with these prophecies. Francis mentions Enoch and
Elijah at the end of the Regula non bullata. Salimbene records
receiving the relics of Elisha from the archbishop of Ravenna, but
being cheated of the head by Augustinian friars.
Thanks Paul!
* Peter ad vincula - commemorates Peter's escape from prison; the church
built over the prison is on Rome's Esquiline Hill
* Faith, Hope, Charity and Wisdom, martyrs (?) - Wisdom was the mother
of the other three
* Aled, Eiluned or Almedha, virgin and martyr (sixth century) - Giraldus
Cambrensis said that on this feast, in a church near Brecon, people
would pantomime, as in a trance, work they had sinfully done on great
feasts; when these people were then led into the church and brought to
the altar with offerings, they would come to their senses again - any
other feasts out there with a tradition of trance?
* Ethelwold, bishop of Winchester (984) - malcontents found him to be
'terrible as a lion', but the good-willed considered him 'more gentle
than a dove'
***************
Dr Carolyn Muessig
Department of Theology and Religious Studies
University of Bristol
Bristol BS8 1TB
UK
phone: +44(0)117-928-8168
fax: +44(0)117-929-7850
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|