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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 [log in to unmask] Tel: 215- 732-8420 Fax (215) 732-8420 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%