CELTIC CHURCH IN BRITAIN #6 ----SABBATH AND OTHER DAYS

 The Celtic Church in Britain #6

Sabbath and Festivals

by Leslie Hardinge (1972)

  

THE CELTIC CHRISTIAN YEAR

The book is fully of reference notes, which before I have not

retained. I do give the numbers in this chapter. It is not my

intent to produce all the reference notes at the end of this

book, which covers about 50 pages - Keith Hunt

THE SABBATH AND SUNDAY

AND FAST DAYS

     Particular days have been connected with acts of worship in

the Christian calendar. Some of these times of devotion recurred

weekly, while others fell annually.

     Like other Christian bodies in both the East and West, the

Celtic Church set aside special days to fulfil its sacred

obligations. The Sabbath was ever carefully kept by the Hebrews,

and was observed by our Lord. 1 The first converts to the

Christian faith had been Jews. They continued to observe the

Sabbath. But several factors combined to induce Christians to

give up the observance of the Sabbath in favour of Sunday in

succeeding centuries. After the fall of Jerusalem in 70, and then

the crushing of the revolt led by Bar Cochbar in 135, the Jews

were scattered and their name and religion execrated. One of the

more obvious marks of a Jew was his observance of the Sabbath.

Christians, keeping the Sabbath, not because they were Jews but

in honour of creation and in obedience to the fourth commandment,

were, however, stigmatized as Jews. They were accused, especially

in Roman metropolitan areas, of practising an illegal religion.

     Soon after the founding of the faith Gnosticism and

Mithraism raised tensions in Christian thinking. 2 Gnostics

"celebrated the Sunday of every week, not on account of its

reference to the resurrection of Christ, for that would have been

inconsistent with their Docetism, but as the day consecrated to

the sun, which was in fact their Christ". 3 The influence of

Mithraism tended in the same direction, for, as G. L. Laing

declared rightly: "Our observance of Sunday as the Lord's day is

apparently derived from Mithraism. The argument that has

sometimes been used against this claim, namely, that Sunday was

chosen because of the resurrection on that day, is not well

supported." 4 Those Christians who were looking for a way out of

their difficulty with Sabbath observance moved towards a greater

regard for the first day of the week. But others on the

outskirts of the Empire, where anti-Semitism did not exist,

continued their veneration of the seventh clay Sabbath.

     For two centuries the issue was undecided, but gradually

Sunday proved to be more popular. When, on 7 March 321,

Constantine decreed the observance of the "venerable day of the

Sun", 5  the extinction of Sabbath observance among the majority

of Christians became a foregone conclusion. But there are records

that both days, Saturdays and Sundays, were kept in Mediterranean

lands for at least two centuries after Constantine's edict. 6

     The Council of Laodicea in 364 went so far as to rule that

the Sabbath should be deliberately desecrated: "Christians shall

not Judaize and be idle on Saturday, 7 but shall work on that

day: but thr Lord's day they shall especially honour, and, as

being Christians, shall, if possible, do no work on that day. If,

however, they are found Judaizing, they shall be shut out from

Christ." 8 But these ecclesiastical legislators apparently spoke

only for a faction of Christians. At the beginning of the fifth

century Socrates (+ 445) wrote of the situation as it then

existed: "Although almost all churches throughout the world

celebrate the sacred mysteries on the Sabbath of every week, yet

the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some

ancient tradition, have ceased to do this." 9 He makes it plain

that Christians at Alexandria and Rome had once observed the

Sabbath but had moved to Sunday. In north Africa Augustine noted

to what purpose Saturday was devoted on his own age: "On this

day, which is the Sabbath, mostly those are accustomed to meet

who are desirous of the Word of God ... in some places the

communion takes place daily, in some only on the Sabbath and the

Lord's day, and in some only on the Lord's day." 10 Jerome (+

420) has left this picture of how Sunday was observed in his own

community: "On the Lord's day only they proceed to the church

beside which they lived, each company following its own

mother-superior. Returning home in the same order, they then

devoted themselves to their allotted tasks and made garments

either for themselves or else for others." 11 Seemingly after

divine worship on the morning of Sunday the rest of the day was

regarded as secular time in which work might be done. The

sabbatizing of Sunday had not yet begun.

     Since Celtic practice received much of its inspiration from

the monachism of Egypt, it would be helpful to consider the

position of the Sabbath in Egypt during monasticism's formative

years. Palladius in the fifth century observed that the monks of

Nitria "occupy the church only on Saturday and Sunday", 12 at

which time they celebrate the Lord's Supper. 13 When Palladius

called on John of Lycopolis, he 

     found the vestibule of his cell closed; for the brethren

     built on later a very large vestibule holding about 100 men,

     and shutting it with a key they opened it on Saturday 14 and

     Sunday. So, having learned the reason why it was closed, I

     waited quietly till the Saturday. And having come at the

     second hour for an interview I found him sitting by the

     window, through which he seemed to be exhorting his

     visitors. 15

     John evidently conducted his spiritual counselling and

preaching on the Sabbath as well as on Sunday. Paesius and Isaias

decided to become monks on the death of their father. One

bestowed his fortune on the Church, and having learned a trade,

supported himself by his own labours. "But the other parted with

nothing, but making himself a monastery and getting together a

few brethren welcomed every stranger, every invalid, every old

man, every poor man, preparing three or four tables every Sunday

and Saturday." 16 In this way he spent his money." 17 Various

modes of monasticism were practised in Egypt: "For having divided

the property, they applied themselves each to his purpose of

pleasing God, but by different tactics." 18

     Elpidius established his hermitage in a cave near Jericho.

"During his twenty-five years' life there he used to take food

only on Sunday and Saturday 19 and would spend the nights

standing up and singing the psalms." 20 Marcarius ate only on

Sunday. 21 The virgin Taor and her companions went to church for

communion on Sunday. 22 One of Nathaniel's visitors identified

himself thus: "I am so-and-so's little servant and I am carrying

loaves, for it is this brother's agape, and to-morrow when

Saturday 23 dawns offerings will be wanted." 24 Dom C. Butler

summed up the evidence 25 in these words:

     The celebration of the Sabbath as well as the Lord's Day,

     the Saturday as well as the Sunday, common throughout Egypt

     and the East, is well illustrated in the 'Lausiac History.'

     These were the only days on which the monks assembled at

     church, took communion, received visitors, fed the needy,

     and relaxed their fasts. 26

     Accounts from the sources showing that both the Sabbath and

Sunday were kept throughout the early centuries of the Christian

era might be multiplied. Out of this background the Celts drew

their understanding of the days which should be observed.

     Since the Celtic Church began when Sabbath observance had

not been relinquished by Christians at large, it would be

surprising, were the Sabbath not revered among them 27 The early

life of Patrick by Muirchu has two stories indicating Patrick's

attitude towards the seventh day. These traditions had persisted

for more than two centuries after the saint's death. His

biographer observed:

     The angel was wont to come to him on every seventh day of

     the week; and, as one man talks with another, so Patrick

     enjoyed the angel's conversation. Moreover in the sixteenth

     year of his age he was taken captive, and for six years he

     was a slave, and throughout thirty changes of service the

     angel used to come to him; he enjoyed angelic counsel and

     conversation. 28

     Muirchu identified Patrick's visitor: "Victor was the angel

who was wont often to visit Patrick." 29 The saint himself

referred to an acquaintance of his with this name. In his account

of his call to missionary service in Ireland he wrote:

     I saw in the night visions a man whose name was Victoricus,

     30 come as it were from Ireland with countless letters. And

     he gave me one of them, and I read the beginning of the

     letter, which was entitled, "The voice of the Irish"; and

     while I was reading aloud the beginning of the letter, I

     thought that at that very moment I heard the voice of them

     who lived beside the Wood of Foclut which is nigh unto the

     western sea. And thus they cried, as with one mouth, "We

     beseech thee, holy youth, to come and walk among us once

     more."31

     Years ago Alfred Anscombe made an illuminating suggestion

identifying Victoricus. 32 Victricius (+ 407), bishop of Rouen,

paid a visit to Britain, possibly to help the Christians to

combat Arianism, but also to minister to believers from among the

Morini and Nervii who were serving in the Roman legions, encamped

near the Wall in Cumberland. Anscombe suggested that Victricius

probably penetrated as far as Cumbria, and that Patrick might

well have heard him preach, and that Victricius was changed to

Victoricus in later accounts. Traditions of Patrick's contacts

with Victoricus transformed him into an angel. Victricius might

well have been the inspiration for Patrick's missionary ambition.

Muirchu simply recorded that Patrick and Victricius met "every

seventh day of the week" for prayer and spiritual converse. 33

Worship on the seventh day is quite in keeping with the milieu

and the age in which Patrick lived.

     Muirchu noted the method used by Patrick in working for the

conversion of pagans. This narrative also makes reference to the

seventh day. A young lady of royal birth (in eulogies converts of

the saints were frequently of royal birth!) named Moneisen,

contrary to her parents' wishes, desired to remain unmarried. In

their quandary her mother and father "having taken advice given

to them by God, heard of Patrick as a man who was visited by the

everlasting God every seventh day; and they sought the Scottic

country with their daughter, looking for Patrick". 34 And so the

legend grew. Patrick's sabbatic devotions, associated with

Victricius, became in course of time converse with an angel

Victor, and finally developed into Patrick's weekly visit by the

everlasting God on every seventh day! Patrick himself says

nothing of Sunday.

     Almost five centuries later, when the movement to sabbatize

Sunday was under way, in accounts of Patrick's activities several

comminatory anecdotes for Sunday observance are fathered on the

saint. Patrick's journeys were occasionally terminated in the

records by the phrase "and he rested there on Sunday". 35 Then

stories were introduced into his activities as propaganda for

stricter Sunday observance. For instance, at Mag Reta, "Patrick

abode there through a Sunday. And on that Sunday they were

digging the foundation of Rath Baccain, the royal stronghold of

the district. Patrick went to forbid this. Nothing was done for

him." 36 So Patrick was recorded as cursing the building and its

builders. A storm vindicated the saint by destroying what had

been erected. Another anecdote was told to show how carefully the

saint kept Sunday and how heaven blessed him for this:

     From vespers on Sunday night until the third [Roman] hour on

     Monday, Patrick used not to go out of the place wherein he

     was biding. [And] on a certain Sunday Patrick was afield at

     the hour of evening, and a great rain poured on that earth,

     but it poured not on the place wherein Patrick was staying,

     as happened in the case of Gideon's shell and fleece. 37

     Since the day was held by the Celtic Christians to begin at

sundown, Patrick is said to have commenced his devotions on

Saturday evening and to have continued them until dawn on Monday.

"These are among the earliest Irish attempts to persuade

Christians to observe Sunday as Sabbath" 38 is the correct

observation of A.O. Anderson.

     In the Senchus Mor, ancient Irish laws believed to have been

framed with the help of Patrick, the relationship between the

"tribe of the church" and the "tribe of the people" is carefully

spelled out. These Christianized Brehon laws required that.

"every seventh day of the year" should be devoted to the service

of God. 39 The first section of the paragraph in which this

directive occurs dealt with the Christian's goods, defining the

tithes and offerings which he should dedicate to God. Next, the

time which the Christian should spend on sacred duties was

regulated. That the later legal glossator understood the

expression "every seventh day" as applying to the weekly rest day

is proved by his comment, "he puts Sunday in the reckoning" 40

This, of course, would be a natural conclusion for him to draw

after Sunday had superseded the Sabbath in the Celtic Church.

Skene rightly observed on this point: "It is very characteristic

of the spirit of these laws that the day of rest - the seventh

day - should form one of the demands of the Church upon the lay

tribe, which its members were bound to render for the service of

God with their other dues." 41 When all regard for the seventh

day had finally disappeared from the calendar of Celtic

Christians, the tradition still persisted that Patrick had

believed that there was some special significance attached to the

Sabbath. In a propaganda story to establish the virtue of

Secundus' "Hymn in Praise of St Patrick" is a conversation

between the saint and an angel:

"Is there aught else that he granted to me beside that?" saith

Patrick. "There is", saith the angel. "Seven persons on every

Saturday till Doom [are] to be taken out of Hell's pains." ...

"Is there aught else, then, that will be given me?" said Patrick.

"There is", saith the angel. "Thou shalt have out of [Hell's]

pains seven every Thursday and twelve every Saturday." 42

     Thursday and Saturday were evidently days of devotion, in

which special blessings might be claimed from God.

     A record of David's regard for the Sabbath was preserved in

the Second Life of St David:

     From the eve of the Sabbath, until the light shines in the

     first hour, after the break of day on the Sabbath, they

     employ themselves in watchings, prayers, and genuflections,

     except one hour after morning service on the Sabbath; they

     make known their thoughts to the father, and obtain his

     leave with respect to what was asked. 43

The "eve of the Sabbath" was Friday at sunset. David evidently

began his sabbatic devotions then 44 and continued them until

dawn of Sunday.

     In later Roman and Western Church usage Saturday was made a

fast while Sunday always was a festival. In the Book of David (c.

500-25) Sunday and Saturday were put on equal footing as far as

the prohibition of fasting was concerned: "A bishop who wilfully

commits murder, or any kind of fornication or fraud, shall do

penance for thirteen years; but a presbyter seven years on bread

and water, and a repast on Sunday or Saturday." 45 That fasting

and abstinence from baths were not part of the ritual of Celtic

Christians for Sabbath observance is illustrated by this

anecdote: "A certain rich neighbour having prepared himself to

bathe on the Sabbath day, as was his custom, saw them coming,

weary from their journey and voyage; and seeing them, he would

not bathe until the strangers, who were more worthy of bathing,

had first bathed." 46 David observed Sunday as well as the

Sabbath. His biographer recorded that "on Sunday, David sang

mass, and preached to the people"; 47 and that on one occasion

"on the intervening Sunday, a great multitude heard him preach a

most excellent sermon". 48

     This Welsh church leader, David, once called a synod in the

absence of Cadoc, who was away on pilgrimage. The story records

that on his return Cadoc was very incensed, but was admonished by

a celestial messenger to be patient because "the irregularity of

this business was allowed to blessed David by angelic

intervention". 49 Cadoc was mollified and rewarded by the angel

in these words:

     Because thou hast obeyed my voice, and at my entreaty hast

     forgiven what was committed against thee, the Lord my God

     will deliver thy castle full of the souls of men from

     eternal punishment, in the day of judgement; and as many

     shaggy hairs as are in thy cloak (a kind of garment which

     the Irish wear out of doors, full of prominent shaggy hairs,

     woven into a kind of plush), so many will be delivered by

     thee from eternal punishment. And also on every Sabbath,

     from this night for ever, one soul will be delivered from

     eternal torments for thy love. 50

(We should be able to see that by this time in church history and

Celtic church history in Britain, truth of the Sabbath and other

truths of the Bible were being perverted and falling into the

hands of the church of Rome, or even before Rome entered Britain,

Satan was working to corrupt the original truth of the word of

God that had arrived in Britain in the first century AD. - Keith

Hunt)

     The Sabbath was held to be a day of blessing in Wales as

well as in Ireland and other Celtic lands.

     Columba was also vitally concerned with the Sabbath. In the

story of the monastery of Tallaght the old point of view was

preserved that there was little difference between the sacredness

of the Sabbath and Sunday: "In the Rule of Columcille, Saturday's

allowance of food and Sunday's allowance are equal amounts,

because of the reverence that was paid to the Sabbath in the Old

Testament. It differs from Sunday in work only. And in other

rules there is similarity of allowances on Sabbath and on

Sunday." 51 The Sabbath was revered by those who lived by the

Rule of Columcille, and other monastic rules as well, and

evidently, as in the case of Jerome's nunnery noted above, work

might be performed by Columba's followers on Sunday after

attendance at morning worship. But with the shift away from

Sabbath observance after the Romanizing of the Celtic Church the

regulation regarding the Sabbath was dropped, for, as A. O.

Anderson points out, "The surviving 'Rule of Columcille' does not

contain this item, but no authentic Rule of Columcille has

survived." 52 Against the Celtic Sabbath observance the

penitential of Theodore inveighs in no uncertain tone. 53 There

does not appear to be any direct evidence from his own works that

Columbanus observed the Sabbath. But there does exist an epistle

which has been attributed to him in which the topic is mentioned.

This letter, which Walker included in his appendix to the works

of Columbanus, has been variously attributed. Its title page has

been lost, and so both the name of the author and that of the

recipient are missing. On linguistic ground it is believed to

have been composed by Columbanus, but "the authorship of the

letter can only be left an open question" for the present. 54 The

epistle, however, is held to be contemporaneous with Columbanus,

and might well have been written by someone close to that saint.

It dealt with the Hebrew festivals as well as with the Sabbath,

and shows an affinity with early Celtic practice in quoting

solely from the Scriptures, except for a possible allusion to an

epigram by Jerome. The third section of the letter runs like

this:

     We are bidden to work on six days, but on the seventh, which

     is the Sabbath, we are restrained from every servile labour.

     Now by the number six the completeness of our work is meant,

     since it was in six days that the Lord made heaven and

     earth. Yet on the Sabbath we are forbidden to labour at any

     servile work, that is sin, since he who commits sin is a

     slave to sin, so that, when in this present age we have

     completely fulfilled our works, not hardening our hearts, we

     may deserve to reach that true rest, which is denied to the

     unruly, as the Lord says through David, If they shall enter

     into my rest. 55

     This passage reveals that the writer believed that Saturday

has been the Sabbath, but that in his segment of the Church it

was esteemed only in a spiritual sense as a type of resting from

sin. This is borne out by a previous statement in the epistle:

"And also in the Gospel the Lord Jesus declared the ending of the

Sabbath, when he bade the cripple, Take up thy bed, which is

clearly forbidden in the law, I mean the bearing of burdens on

the Sabbath." 56 The significance of this letter lies in the

light it throws on the controversy which was apparently going on

regarding the Sabbath and other festivals of the Hebrews. This

tension is understandable in a Celtic Christian setting with its

overtones of stress on the validity of the Old Testament.

     Adamnan made several references to the Sabbath in his life

of Columba. He told of a Sabbath service in which Columba blessed

a barn. 57 Adamnan invariably employed the original biblical

name, Sabbath, for the seventh day of the week, and spoke of it

in a manner betokening a respect which is not detected in writers

two centuries later. In discussing this matter with Diormit

Columba is reported as declaring:

     This day is called in the sacred books "Sabbath", which is

     interpreted "rest". And truly this day is for me a sabbath,

     because it is my last day of this present laborious life. In

     it after my toilsome labour I keep Sabbath; 58 and at

     midnight of this following venerated Lord's day, in the

     language of the Scriptures I shall go the way of the

     fathers. For now my Lord Jesus Christ deigns to invite me."

     59

     From this and other passages it is true that Columba had

some regard also for the first day of the week. 60 But a

sabbatical Sunday had not yet been accepted in Iona at the time

when Adamnan wrote. 61

     This respect for both days is illustrated also from the

canons of various penitential books. Finnian ruled that "married

people, then, must mutually abstain ... on Sunday night or

Saturday night ..." 62 So from sunset on Friday until after the

hours of Sunday has passed reverence for both days had to be

shown. There are traces that the earliest settlers on the Faroes

and Iceland probably observed the Sabbath, and so were accused of

Judaizing:

     these islands were first inhabited by the Picts and papae

     ... the papae had been named from their white robes, which

     they wore like priests; whence priests are all called papae

     in the Teutonic tongue. An island is still called, after

     them, Papey. But, as is observed from their habit and the

     writings of their books abandoned there, they were Africans,

     adhering to Judaism. 63

     This is perhaps the earliest record of Celtic Christian

settlers who were stigmatized as Judaizing. The statement that

they were Africans is most baffling. It might indicate that their

Scriptures had affinity with the African version, as had already

been pointed out. But this is only a guess.

     But with the acceptance of the Roman Easter and other rules

the movement to sabbatize Sunday gained momentum. Pope Gregory (+

604), as champion of Roman usages, had upheld the careful

observance of Sunday, and had stigmatized any respect for the

Sabbath as Judaizing. In a letter to the Roman people he wrote:

     It has come to my ears that certain men of perverse spirit

     have sown among you some things that are wrong and opposed

     to the holy faith, so as to forbid any work being done on

     the Sabbath day. What else can I call these but preachers of

     Antichrist, who, when he comes, will cause the Sabbath day

     as well as the Lord's day to be kept free from all work. 64

     It is not at all surprising, then, with the coming of

Theodore of Tarsus (+ 690), the most successful protagonist of

the Roman Church Britain had yet seen, to note a mounting

emphasis on the observance of Sunday to the exclusion of all

regard for Saturday. In his first book of Penitentials, Theodore

drew up seven canons to deal with the keeping of Sunday, and in

his second book he added a further four. 65 In fact a whole

section was entitled "Those who despise the Lord's day, and

neglect the appointed feasts of the church of God". Theodore

prohibited all labour on the Lord's day, and forbade all fasting

on it. One canon ruled: "If he fast out of contempt for the day,

he shall be abhorred as a Jew by all the Catholic churches." 66

     In marked contrast with what has been noted regarding the

attitude of Patrick and Columba to the observance of the Sabbath

and the Lord's day is the directive in the later Old-Irish

Penitential (c. 800): "Anyone who fasts on a Sunday through

carelessness or austerity does a week's penance on bread and

water." 67

     But the long debate continued among the Christians of

Britain, and especially in Ireland, between those who advocated

the observance of the Sabbath, and those who wished to keep both

the Sabbath and Sunday, and those who pressed for a sabbatizing

of Sunday only. A protagonist of Sunday observance went so far as

to substitute "Lord's day" for "Sabbath" in the Ten Commandments

as recorded in Exod. 20:8-11  in a sermon preserved in the

Leabhar Breac. 68

     Columbanus allowed his monks to wash their hair or feet on

Sunday 69 This was, of course, contrary to a strict sabbatarian

view of Sunday, and also went counter to Hebrew Sabbath

regulations.

     Columba made journeys on Sunday, 70 and Adamnan mentioned

quite casually that pilgrims reached Iona who had travelled on

Sunday. 71 In his description of the last night of Columba, a

Sunday night, Adamnan tells of men who were fishing. Among them

was a future holy monk and pilgrim for God. 72 So even at the end

of the seventh century the washing of hair, travelling, or the

gathering of food by fishing were not regarded as infractions of

the laws of Sunday observance as they were understood by Celtic

Christians.

     But during the next two centuries the Romanizing of Celtic

Christianity continued apace and the attitude towards Sunday

altered greatly. Travelling was condemned in a comminatory story

describing the arrival of Cronan's relatives with food for his

monastery for the feast of Easter. When the visitors were still

some distance away, they heard Cronan's vesper bell on Saturday

evening. Immediately they camped by the river until Monday

morning. 73

     But it would seem that, the advocates for the secularization

of the Sabbath and the rigidly sabbatic observance of Sunday

found their progress too slow. They therefore fabricated

propaganda to impress the rude masses of the people. An "Epistle

of Christ" was said to have fallen from heaven in Rome 74 on the

altar of St Peter. Its opening paragraph consisted of a catalogue

of pseudo-biblical episodes which the author averred had occurred

on Sunday, and so enhanced the sacredness of that day. But most

of the stories are not to be found in the Scriptures. This would

suggest that the rank and file of the Christians in Ireland

during the later decades of the ninth and tenth centuries, had

become ignorant of the contents of the Bible. The introduction to

the "Epistle of Christ" concluded: "Therefore, it is through

these commands that God has enjoined Sunday to be kept holy, for

God's own hand has written that command to men, lest they should

do either work or servile labour on Sunday." 75 The ancient

annalist recorded for 886: "An Epistle came with the pilgrim to

Ireland, with the Cain Domnaig, and other good instructions." 76

The following paragraphs present some of the arguments contained

in the "Epistle" and give its flavour:

     Here begins the Epistle of the Saviour our Lord Jesus Christ

     concerning the Lord's Day, which his own hand wrote in the

     presence of the men of Heaven, and which was placed upon the

     altar of Peter the Apostle in Rome of Latium, to make Sunday

     holy for all time. When this Epistle was brought from

     Heaven, the whole earth trembled from the rising unto the

     setting of the sun; and the earth cast its stones and trees

     on high, for dread of their Creator and for joy also at the

     attendance of the angels who had come with the Epistle; and

     so great was the din at that time, that the place opened

     where the body of Peter the Apostle lay buried in Rome. When

     the abbot of Rome was at Mass, he saw the Epistle on the

     altar. 77

     The "Epistle" having listed many fabulous calamities which

had visited mankind as a result of the transgression of Sunday,

then anathematizes all desecrators of this day: "'Whoever shall

not keep Sunday', said the heavenly Father, 'within its proper

boundaries, his soul shall not attain Heaven, neither shall he

see me in the Kingdom of Heaven, nor the Archangels, nor the

Apostles.'" 78 After tabulating further dreadful misfortunes

which would follow the breaking of Sunday, the writer added this

strange piece of reasoning: "Now, even if this wonderful command

for keeping Sunday holy had not come from Jesus Christ himself

out of Heaven, the day should be sacred, venerable, perfect, and

honoured, on account of all the many miracles that have happened

thereon." 79 The Irish pilgrim Conall MacCoelmaine was believed

to have been in Rome when the letter arrived and made a

transcript of it: "Conall then wrote with his own hand the

Epistle of Sunday from the Epistle which was sent from Heaven

unto the altar of Peter the Apostle in Rome. When it was time to

lift the shrine, the saint revealed it in a vision to the priest

who was at the altar." 80 Now Conall MacCoelmaine died about 590.

The fact that the bringing of the "Epistle" to Ireland had been

fathered on one who had gone to his rest three centuries before

its actual arrival (886) indicates the doubts which must have

filled the minds of many regarding its authenticity and

acceptability.

(And those who know their Bible and the truth of the Lord know we

do not go to heaven at death, or at any other time. The truth is

heaven is coming to us, as expounded in many other studies on

my website. What we are reading is clever, deceitful made up

false teachings by the church of Rome - Keith Hunt)

     The "Epistle" presented a detailed list of what might not be

done on Sunday, and then stipulated that:

     Whosoever shall do this on Sunday, unless he shall perform

     great penance for it, his soul shall not attain Heaven. "I

     swear," saith the abbot of Rome, "by the might of God the

     Father, and by Christ's Cross, that this is no invention of

     mine, and no fiction or fable; but it is from God the Father

     this Epistle was sent unto the altar of Peter in Rome of

     Latium to make Sunday holy." 81

(Oh it may have indeed been sent, maybe even a miracle, but not

from the Father or Christ, but by the working of the miracles of

Satan the Devil - Keith Hunt)

     Even baptism was prohibited on Sunday. What was permitted

was the "seeking a person in orders for the sake of Communion;

but baptism is not sought unless it is likely that the infant

shall be dead". 82 The "Epistle" ended with this recommendation

to all duly constituted legal organizations to enforce Sunday

legislation: "There is a further enactment of this law:

whatsoever meeting and whatsoever assembly in which tribes or

kings meet, that it be the law of Sunday which is first passed

therein. It is enacted: The curse of every person on all who

shall break this law of Sunday. 83

     That the Cain Domnaig, or the Law of Sunday, was actually

brought with the "Epistle of Christ" from Rome is to be doubted.

The Cain Domnaig appears to be a Christianized Brehon law tract

based on the "Epistle". It has a definitely Irish flavour, and

was probably devised as part of the movement to sabbatize the

observance of Sunday. It was the first ecclesiastical Sunday law

in Ireland. Not only did it regulate the keeping of the day, but

it also pronounced the most terrible curses on any who failed to

observe Sunday. 84

     Following the arrival of the "Epistle of Christ" and the

formulation of the "Cain Domnaig, the Lives of the Saints" are

filled with comminatory anecdotes showing how they enforced

Sunday observance. Aed was cross with a woman for washing her

hair on the Lord's day. If women persisted in doing this, he

fumed, they would become bald. If later they repented, their hair

would grow back 85 Colman was averse to chopping wood on Sunday.

A man who persisted found that his axe was caught in the log and

he himself could not let go of its handle. 86 Cellach passed

Guaire in silence, insulting him. On being invited to make things

right, he retorted, "I will not go, 'tis vesper-time, and no

transgression of the Lord's day do I." 87 The sons of Ua Corra,

becoming lepers, went on a pilgrimage to a distant island. They

there saw a man digging with a spade, the handle of which was on

fire. Asked the cause, he confessed that he had worked on the

Lord's day, and now this had happened to him! Another unfortunate

was discovered riding on a horse of fire. 88 An Irish sage used

to wander round a cemetery periodically meditating on death. One

Sunday he inadvertently flicked a chip of wood from the path with

the end of his staff. Because of this he was deprived of the

visit which an angel used regularly to pay to him. 89 And the

list of stories like these might be multiplied. They portray a

very obvious and rustic desire to influence what would seem to be

a primitive and quasi-pagan Christian populace towards a more

pharisaical observance of Sunday. 90

     Gradually, concurrently with the Romanizing of the Celtic

Church, the observance of Sunday became more and more sabbatical,

and the observance of the Sabbath fell into disuse. When Queen

Margaret of Scotland (+ 1093) summoned the remnants of Celtic

Christian clerics to her synods to discuss doctrine with a view

to their uniting with the Roman Church, she found that:

     They were accustomed also to neglect reverence for the

     Lord's days; and thus to continue upon them as upon other

     days all the labours of earthly work. But she showed, both

     by reason and by authority, that this was not permitted. She

     said: "Let us hold the Lord's day in veneration because of

     the Lord's resurrection, which took place upon it; and let

     us not do servile labours upon [the day] in which we know

     that we were redeemed from the devil's servitude." 91

     After due pressure the ancient Celts capitulated, for "none

dared on those days to carry any burdens, or to compel another to

do so" 92

     There is a hint that, when the Romanizing party sought to

bring the remnants of Celtic Christians into the orthodox fold in

Iceland, one of the points necessary was the regularization of

the observance of the Lord's day. "Thorgeir then dealt with the

observance of the Lord's Day and fast days, Christmas and Easter,

and all the important feast days." 93 All these records of the

secularization of Saturday, coupled with earlier traces of

sabbatizing strongly suggest that in Celtic lands, as was also

the case in other countries, there was a gradual shift from the

keeping of Saturday, the seventh day Sabbath, to the observance

of both Saturday and Sunday and then to the celebration of Sunday

exclusively.

(And indeed so it was as recorded in all church history records,

also brought out by one of the greatest Sabbath/Sunday scholars

of the 20th century - Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi and his many books

on the subjest of the 7th day Sabbath and Sunday, which can be

found on my website - Keith Hunt)

     The time at which the Celtic Christians commenced their

Sabbath and Sunday observance is of interest. The Hebrews began

their day with sunset. 94 The early Christians also started their

Sabbaths at sunset on Friday and concluded worship at sundown on

Sabbath. As has been stated, Celtic Christians likewise commenced

their day with sunset, but might end it at dawn on the following

clay. When Sunday took on a religious character, it too was so

observed. The Cain Domnaig stipulated that "the sanctity of the

Lord's day is from vespers on Saturday till after matins on

Monday". 95 But apparently, as in many points of Celtic belief

and practice, there were no set rules which were observed by

every section, and the sacred hours might end at sunset or at

dawn the next morning according to choice.

     As ascetic practices became widespread, fasting on specified

days of the week grew more common. This custom was also a

survival of Jewish custom, being endorsed by the example of John

the Baptist and the precept of our Lord. Fasting was observed by

the Apostles, and, as the Christian community became more

thoroughly organized, Wednesdays and Fridays are mentioned as

days of abstinence by the church fathers. Fasting on these two

days each week is also noted by Celtic writers. In the monastery

of Iona Wednesday was regularly a day of abstinence:

     On a third day of the week, the saint thus addressed the

     brothers: "On the fourth day of the week, tomorrow, we

     propose to fast; but nevertheless a disturbing guest will

     arrive, and the customary fast will be relaxed." ... For on

     the same fourth clay of the week, in the morning, another

     stranger shouted across the strait: a very religious man, by

     name Aidan, Fergno's son, who (it is said) for twelve years

     attended upon Brenden mocu-Alti. He, when he arrived,

     relaxed that day's fast, as the saint had said. 96

     Evidently the rules for fasting might be waived in honour of

guests. Adamnan does not mention that Friday was a fast day on

Iona. But the Old-Irish glossator, Diarmait, called this the "day

of the last fast". 97

     Aidan, the Celtic missionary to Northumbria, fasted "on

Wednesdays and Fridays", 98 and this custom was imitated by "many

devout men and women who were inspired to follow his example". 99

The penitential of Cummean (c. 650) required fasting "on the two

appointed week days", 100 without, however, specifying which.

Theodore regulated that those who had been baptized a second time

should fast on Wednesdays and Fridays for seven years. 101 This

suggests that fasting on those days was not obligatory upon other

members of the Christian community. He imposed fasting "on

Wednesdays and Fridays during the three forty-day periods", 102

for those who had been married twice or more times. While there

is this dubiety in the early Anglo-Saxon Church, the Celtic

Christian sources leave no doubt that these two days were devoted

to fasting and prayer from the earliest times. 103

(We again should be seeing how man made traditions, with no

Scriptural authority, was coming into the Celtic church, albeit,

influenced by the church of Rome at this time in Celtic church

history - Keith Hunt)

     

     The Amra Coluimb Chille recorded of Columba that "knowledge

of the Godhead ... used to be sent to him, for every Thursday he

used to go ad Dominum". 104 What this weekly act of worship was

is not clear, but, as has been noted, 105 Patrick was believed to

have regarded Thursday as possessing something of a religious

character. Thursday might have been a primitive Celtic Christian

day of minor devotion.

ANNUAL FEASTS

EASTER/PASSOVER

     Besides weekly celebrations Christians also had regular

annual feasts. The earliest one was the observance of Easter.

This festival attracted a great amount of attention through the

centuries, and during the seventh proved to be one of the major

bones of contention between the Celtic and Roman Christian

parties. There are also references in later Celtic literature to

the observance of three fortyday periods of special fasting, the

celebration of Pentecost and Christmas, and later, the observance

of various saints' days.

(Again, the false influence of Rome had come into the Celtic

church in Britain - Keith Hunt)

     The Easter controversy between the Celts and the

missionaries led by Augustine and later advocates of the Roman

party was concerned with the date on which the festival should be

celebrated. Its overtones finally embraced the question of

ecclesiastical authority. The Hebrew year was lunar. Each month

commenced with the crescent moon. The lunar year is approximately

eleven days short of the solar, so Nisan, the first Hebrew month,

moved nearer to winter by eleven days each year. To keep the

Hebrew calendar synchronous with the seasons an extra month was

occasionally added, seven during each nineteen-year period. When

this month was to be intercalated was determined by the Sanhedrin

by means of a simple rule. The precipitating factor was the

offering, with the Passover lambs, of "the first fruits" of the

barley harvest on the sixteenth of the month. 106 According to

the law, the Passover had to be sacrificed on the fourteenth or

full moon, and from the fifteenth the feast of unleavened bread

continued for a week. Two ripe sheaves of barley were to be

presented on the sixteenth. During the closing days of the

preceding month, Adar, the barley, in a secluded field near

Jerusalem, was carefully observed. Should it appear impossible

for it to ripen in time for the presentation on the sixteenth, an

extra month, Ve-Adar, was added. The Passover was, therefore, a

moveable feast which occurred during the spring on any day of the

week, but it had to fall on the full moon. It came earlier when

the spring was warm, later in colder weather.

(The writer does not know the full range of the movable Hebrew

calendar, nor the many reasons for adding a 13th month. The

calendar in detail, the questions regarding it and etc. are fully

expounded on my website under "The Calendar Question" studies -

Keith Hunt)

     Nisan, the first Jewish month, generally contained the

vernal equinox. It was possible, however, for the full moon, that

is, the Passover, to occur prior to the equinox. Christ was a Jew

and lived according to Hebrew ceremonial regulations. He died

during the Hebrew Passover. The earliest Christians, converts

from Judaism, also followed Hebrew customs. They early recognized

that Christ had fulfilled the Paschal types by his death. 107 His

resurrection, they believed, was typified by the wave sheaf of

barley. 108 These Christians looked upon the fourteenth of Nisan

as the anniversary of the crucifixion and carefully kept it in

remembrance of Christ's death. With the spread of Christianity

among the Gentile peoples and the rise of anti-Semitism the

Paschal season lost much of its flavour. Emphasis moved from an

honouring of the crucifixion to a celebration of the

resurrection. Those Christians who continued to observe Easter at

the same time as the Passover were stigmatized as

"Quartodecimans". But others in some places, with Socrates, held

that:

     The aim of the apostles was not to appoint festival days,

     but to teach a religious life and piety. And it seems to me

     that just as many other customs have been established in

     individual localities according to usage. So also the feast

     of Easter came to be observed in each place according to the

     individual peculiarities of the people inasmuch as none of

     the apostles legislated on the matter. And that the

     observance originated not by legislation, but as a custom,

     the facts themselves indicate. In Asia Minor most people

     kept the fourteenth day of the moon, disregarding the

     sabbath: yet they never separated from those who did

     otherwise, until Victor, bishop of Rome, influenced by too

     ardent a zeal, fulminated a sentence of excommunication

     against the Quartodecimans in Asia ...109

(The aim of the apostles WAS to teach the correct Feasts of the

Lord to be observed, which God had given way back in Leviticus

23. The NT church observed those Festivals. They were never "done

away with." History does record that the two church leaders of

Asia Minor in the 2nd century AD - Polycarp and Polycrates - did

debate with the bishop of Rome over the Easter/Passover

observance. The churches of Asia Minor did at that time still

embrase the church of Rome as "brothers in Christ" - but brothers

who were now beginning to move away from each other in the

theology of God. The great falling away was beginning to take

place as spoken about by Paul in 2 Thes.2. And the anti-christs

were by now indeed MANY, as noted by John [in his epistles]

before he fell asleep in death - Keith Hunt)

     In the same way as the Jewish Sabbath gave place before the

pagan Sunday, the Passover was displaced by the feast of the

resurrection, Easter. Not satisfied with this partial departure

from Jewish usages, a party in the Church sought to arrange that

Easter should never fall on the same day as the Jewish Passover,

even once in seven years. This change was attributed to Pius (+

c. 154), Eleuther, and Victor. 110 But this sixth-century record

smacks of pious fraud. An angel was said to have informed Hermas,

the brother of Pius, that Easter should be observed only on the

Lord's day." 111 The story was regarded as fiction by the Eastern

Church leaders, who strenuously objected to the Bishop of Rome's

assumption of growing authority. 112 There followed a period of

considerable disagreement and dissension, as Epiphanius (+ 403)

summarized:

     For even from the earliest times various controversies and

     dissensions were in the church concerning this solemnity,

     which used yearly to bring laughter and mockery. For some,

     in a certain ardour of contention, began it before the week,

     some at the beginning, some in the middle, some at the end.

     To say in a word, there was a wonderful and laborious

     confusion. 113

     While a discussion of the details of the controversy during

the first six centuries of the Christian era is beyond the scope

of this chapter, a short summary of the final stages is necessary

to clarify the relationship of the Celtic Church to the paschal

dissensions.

     With the coming of the peace of the Church the Emperor

Constantine, determined to bring about unanimity, entered the

controversy. The Council of Arles (314) ruled that Easter should

be observed on the same day by all Christians, but there was no

mention as to which day was intended. The paschal cycle then

accepted was probably the nineteen-year one, and this would

probably have been carried back to Britain by the British

delegates. Some ten years later, by the decision of Nicaea in

325, the observance of Easter on Sunday became a legal necessity.

But the Council laid down no rule for determining on which Sunday

Easter should be kept.

     But while the Council of Nicaea might legislate, and the

Emperor, with his mastery for compromise, might decide that

Alexandria should calculate the date of Easter and Rome should

promulgate it, the results, as far as unity was concerned, were

far from satisfactory. The original fourth-century cycle was

probably closely related to the Hebrew nineteen-year period

attributed to Meton (c. 423 B.C.). The decree of Nicaea lasted

uneasily until 342. Clerical mathematicians produced several

short-lived and unpopular cycles, until the mode of reckoning

Easter was altered into the eighty-fouryear cycle traditionally

attributed to Sulpicius Severus (+ 420-5) but in use in different

areas at an earlier date. In 457 Victor of Aquitaine produced a

532-year table which continued in popular use till 525, when the

nineteen-year cycle of Dionysius Exiguus (+ 550) was adopted.

This in turn was modified in Rome before 664. 114 But there was

no unanimity about any of these cycles. Scattered sections of

Christians followed quite different modes of reckoning. The point

on which this controversy finally focused was a discussion of

authority: Whose cycle should be followed? East was against West,

and there were factions within the larger groups.

     The Christianity into which Patrick was born quite possibly

followed the eighty-four-year cycle of Sulpicius Severus,

although this is by no means settled." 115 Bury suggested that

Celtic Easter computations were based on the very earliest of the

Christian cycles, that is, on the nineteen-year unit, discarded

before 343. 116 Whatever may be the truth, the fact remains that

when Augustine and his mission encountered the British

ecclesiastics, the cycle and method of calculating Easter used by

the Celts differed radically from those employed by the visitors

from Italy. As had been the case in the Mediterranean lands, the

bishop of Rome regarded the settlement of the Easter question

according to his solution a matter of supreme importance.

     The sources dealing with Celtic Easter observances are

contradictory. It is possible to select some statements and form

a picture which is oversimplified. But a study of the details

presents a view which is true to type: there existed among Celtic

Christians many factions with differing observances.

     The Celtic Church reckoned Easter week from the fourteenth

to the twentieth of the month. 117 When the fourteenth, or full

moon, fell on Sunday some apparently celebrated Easter on it.

This is what seems to have happened in the home of King Oswy. 118

Rome had moved away from this to avoid holding Easter on the same

day as the Jewish Passover. The Celts reckoned their equinox on

25 March, but Rome had adopted 21 March as the more accurate

date. Wilfrid alluded to the nineteen-year cycle, which he

attributed to Anatolius, 119 but Bede recorded that the Britons

held to the eighty-four-year cycle, 120 and that they observed

Easter day on Sunday only, 121 although Eddius affirmed that they

did not 122 The Celts themselves declared that they followed

John, 123 and this would make them Quartodecimans. Apparently the

same confusion was also existent in Ireland. The ancient annalist

for 704 recorded a most significant paragraph, noting that:

     In this year the men of Erin consented to receive one

     jurisdiction and the rule from Adamnan, respecting the

     celebration of Easter, on Sunday, the fourteenth of the moon

     of April, and respecting the tonsuring of all the clerks in

     Erin after the manner of St Peter, for there had been great

     dissension in Erin up to that time; i.e. some of the clergy

     of Erin celebrated Easter on the Sunday (next after) the

     fourteenth of the moon of April, and had the tonsure of

     Peter the Apostle, after the example of Patrick, but others,

     following the example of Columhkille, celebrated Easter on

     the fourteenth of the moon of April, on whatever day of the

     week the fourteenth should happen to fall, and had the

     tonsure of Simon Magus. A third party did not agree with the

     followers of Patrick, or with the followers of Columkille;

     so that the clergy of Erin used to hold many synods, and

     these clergy used to come to the synods accompanied by the

     laity, so that battles and deaths occurred between them; and

     many evils resulted in Erin in consequence ... They were

     thus for a long time, i.e. to the time of Adamnan, who was

     the ninth abbot that took [the government of] la after

     Columbkille. 124

     This long quotation is given to demonstrate that even at the

opening of the eighth century there still existed many different

points of view on the celebration of Easter. That there were some

who were genuinely Quartodecimans it would seem unreasonable to

doubt.

(Once more we see that by this date in Celtic church history in

Britain, much truth had been lost or muddled or confused. Some no

doubt, the few, retained the truth of the matter, and knew when

the Lord's death should be observed - the Passover on the 14th of

the first Hebrew month in the Hebrew calendar, and that the

Easter of the church of Rome was plain and simple - paganism

adopted and adapted to the pleasure of Rome and to accommodate the

influx of pagans into the church of Rome who still wanted to keep

many of their pagan traditions and customs - Keith Hunt)

     The third order of Irish saints "had different rules and ...

a different Paschal festival. For some celebrated the

resurrection on the fourteenth moon, or the sixteenth ... These

continued to that great mortality in the year 666." 125 Theodore

inveighed against the heretic, who was obviously a Celtic

Christian, who "flouts the Council of Nicaea and keeps Easter

with the Jews on the fourteenth of the moon, he shall be driven

out of every church unless he does penance before his  death".

126  These Christians he also called "Quartodecimans". 127 Half a

century before, Columbanus, writing to Gregory the Great

regarding the question of the celebration of Easter; had stated:

"For you must know that Victorius has not been accepted by our

teachers, by the former scholars of Ireland, by the

mathematicians most skilled in reckoning chronology, but has

earned ridicule or indulgence rather than authority." 128 It was

not merely a blind adherence to tradition which induced the Celts

to adhere to their views; they believed that their Easter

calculations were more accurate and authoritative than those of

Rome. The details of this conflict, violent at times and long

continuing, are confused and, at this date, theoretical. What is

significant is their outcome. While Rome and the Western Church

had altered its reckoning from century to century, the Celtic

Christians had failed to follow.

     The result of the conflict has often been traced. The

settlement of the dating of Easter appears to have been the major

plank for the establishment of the authority of the bishop of

Rome in Celtic lands. Whether the Celtic Christians were right or

wrong is of little consequence now. They believed they were

right. When they eventually relinquished their adherence to this

point in favour of Rome, they surrendered their independence on

all points and soon became fused with Roman Christianity.

SAINT DAYS

     Before the period of the Danish invasions there was

apparently little veneration of saints, or observance of their

feast days, although there are traces that the cult of the saints

was commencing in the thinking of Celtic Christians at an earlier

date. In the tenth and following centuries, however, the

festivals of saints were a marked feature of the Christian year,

and were celebrated with homilies based on the traditional lives

of the saints.

     In the "Life of Samson of Dot" there is a very early

reference to this practice:

     Therefore, my brothers, to honour the festivals of the

     saints is nothing else than to adjust lovingly our mind to

     their good qualities, of which we are fully cognisant; [so

     that] by imitating them we may be able to follow the same

     men, under God's guidance, by the straightest course to that

     unspeakable and heavenly kingdom to which they have happily

     attained, not rivalling them in great deeds, but sharing

     their difficult tasks, which by abstinence, prolonged and

     incredible, so to speak, to the untried, with whom all

     things are not thought possible to him that believeth, they

     engaged in until the happy close of this life. 129

     But there is nothing suggesting the invocation of saints in

this paragraph. The example of the departed was held up as an

encouragement to the living to emulate his life and deeds.

While it is impossible from the meagre sources which have

survived to reconstruct a complete list of the saints who were

eventually celebrated each day of the Christian year, some

picture is possible. The festival of the return of the Holy

Family from Egypt was celebrated on 11 January, "Out of Egypt-

-splendid gladness! came Mary's great Son." 130 The feast of the

circumcision of Christ occurred on 2 February, "the reception of

Mary's Son in the Temple, sure inestimable". 131 On 27 March fell

the feast of the conception and crucifixion of our Lord, "Jesus'

Conception on the same day as his crucifixion without respect".

132 Holy Thursday, 24 March, was devoted to cleansing ceremonies,

the washing of the head and cutting of the hair, and the washing

of the feet. The old record declares: "At the washing of the feet

the Beati are recited as long as the washing lasts. After that

comes the sermon on the washing." 133 On Holy Saturday a

peculiarly Irish rite was followed, the lighting of the sacred

fire. This practice might well have been survival of a

pre-Christian ceremony:

     They left their vessel in the estuary and went along the

     land till they came to Ferta Fer Feicc [the Graves of

     Fiacc's Men], and Patrick's tent was pitched in that place,

     and he struck the paschal fire. It happened, then, that that

     was the time at which was celebrated the high-tide of the

     heathen, to wit, the Feast of Tara. The kings and the lords

     and the chiefs used to come to Tara, to Loegaire sone of

     Niall, to celebrate that festival therein. The wizards,

     also, and the augurs would come so that they were

     prophesying to them. On that night, then, the fire of every

     hearth in Ireland was quenched, and it was proclaimed by the

     King that no fire should be kindled in Ireland before the

     fire of Tara, and that neither gold nor silver should be

     taken (as compensation) from him who should kindle it, but

     that he should go to death for his crime. 134

     Having lighted his fire before the king lighted his, Patrick

was believed to have struck a death blow against this heathen

practice. From this event the Irish Easter fire ceremony probably

arose. This later developed into the ritual of the blessing of

the Irish Easter candle which is found in no other liturgy. 135

But it might very well be traced to the Hebrew typical service.

The transfiguration was celebrated on 26 July. 136 As time went

by more and more festivals were added, and with the final merging

of the Celtic and the Western Churches the regular Christian year

came to be observed. At each solemnity it was customary to read a

homily or eulogy, based on the biography of the holy man. This

practice resulted in the innumerable "Lives" which later

panegyrists prepared with so much imagination.

     Besides these regular feasts Celtic Christians also observed

three special fasts of forty days each, 137 occasionally called

the three Lents. Great Lent occurred during the forty days before

Easter. Another occupied the forty days prior to Christmas, and

might be compared with Advent of the Eastern Churches. The third

was observed during the forty days following Whitsun. 138 The

Celtic clerics who worked as missionaries to Northumbria observed

these fasts. Egbert, an English nobleman, having learnt from his

Irish teachers, "ate only one meal a day during Lent ... He

practised a similar abstinence for forty days before Christmas,

and as many after the Feast of Pentecost." 139 When this third

practice began is not known, "but no traces of it can be

discovered in the sixth century", 140 in Celtic lands. That the

Celtic method of observing the fast of Lent was different from

the way in which it was celebrated by the Roman Church is

suggested by Queen Margaret's reaction to the Scottish

Christians:

     They did not legally keep the fast of Lent; because they

     were accustomed to begin it, not (with the holy church

     universally upon the fourth day of the week) on the

     beginning of the fast (Ash Wednesday, beginning on the

     evening of Shrove Tuesday), but on the second day of the

     [following] week. They said in reply: "The fast that we

     hold, we keep for six weeks, according to the authority of

     the Gospel, which describes the fast of Christ." She

     replied: "You differ in this widely from the Gospel: for we

     read there that the Lord fasted for forty days, and it is

     obvious that you do not. Since six Sundays are deducted

     during the six weeks, it is clear that only thirty-six days

     remain for the fast. Therefore it is clear that you do not

     keep the fast by authority of the Gospel, for forty days;

     but for thirty-six days. It remains for you therefore to

     begin to fast with us four days before the beginning of

     Lent, if you wish to preserve abstinence for the number of

     forty days, according to the Lord's example; otherwise you

     alone resist the authority of the Lord himself, and the

     tradition of the entire holy church." 141

     That it was the custom of the Celtic Church to fast for

forty days excluding Sundays is also vouched for by the Lenten

experience of Cedd: "During this time he fasted until evening

every day except Sunday according to custom. Even then, he took

no food but a morsel of bread, an egg, and a little watered milk.

He explained that it was the custom of those who had trained him

in the rule of regular discipline." 142 When the two lesser Lents

died out the records fail to indicate. The Old-Irish Penitential

mentioned periods of fasting "between the two Christmases and

between the two Easters and at Pentecost, and such persons have

relaxation on the high festivals of the year, and on Sundays and

on the fifty nights between Easter and Pentecost". 143

     The day of our Lord's nativity was observed with the same

regulations as was Sunday. The "Epistle of Christ" mentioned this

fact:

     On whatsoever day Great Christmas 144 falls, or Little

     Christmas, it counts as Sunday, and none shall travel

     thereon. It is on the conscience of each one to whom God has

     given sense and reason, though others violate the law of

     Sunday that his neighbours should not take as an evil

     example from him; for it is of himself he shall endure his

     pain, and it is for him who shall fulfil it that his rewards

     shall endure. 145

     There are traces of other festivals, derived from the Old

Testament, to be found in the laws and penitentials. In

discussing the length of time Patrick spent in servitude in

Ireland, his biographer remarked: "He abode in his bondage six

years after the manner of the Little Jubilee of the Hebrews." 146

     There is a defective law regarding land tenure which reads:

"It is forfeit unless it be claimed to the end of the seven

years." 147 This seems to go back to the Pentateuch and applied

to Irish land tenure regulated by the Liber ex Lege Moisi.

     Closely connected with the Sabbatical Year, or the Little

Jubilee, as the Irish writer pleasantly called it, was the Great

jubilee, also based on the Liber ex Lege Moisi, or the fifty-year

release, when "the enslaved shall be freed, and plebeians shall

be exalted by receiving church grades, and by performing

penitential service to God". 148 The penitential canons

attributed to Patrick recorded: "Truly the laws of the jubilee

are to be observed, that is, the fifty years, that a doubtful

method be not established in the change of time." 149

     Light on this obscure and probably garbled penitential is

thrown by a comment from the ancient laws to the effect that

"there are with the Feine seven prescriptions which transfer

perpetual right according to the customs of their merits; land

which is offered to a church on behalf of a soul ... land which

has been away fifty years ... it is upon fifty years it goes into

utter bondage." 150 Whether all these rules were ever practised

or not is unknown. These regulations, however, underline the

interest of the early Celtic Church in following Old Testament

laws, and is still further evidence of the pervasive influence of

the Liber ex Lege Moisi.

     As we conclude this chapter it would be well to summarize

the facts. Celtic Christians differed from their Roman brethren,

not only in their computation of Easter, but also in the

observance of lesser feasts and fasts, and of course in the

observance of the Sabbath. They held a religious service on

Sunday to honour the resurrection and then spent the rest of the

day on their chores or pleasures.

..........

NOTE:

WE  SEE  PRETTY  CLEARLY  THE  FACT  THAT  THE  ORIGINAL  TRUTH  OF  THE  WORD  AND  COMMANDMENTS  OF  THE  LORD  HAD  ONCE  BEEN  THE  NORM  IN  THE  LIFE  OF  THE  CELTIC  CHRISTIANS, BUT  IN  TIME  THAT  TRUTH  HAD  BECOME  PERVERTED  IN  MANY  WAYS.  AND  IT  WAS  FURTHER  PERVERTED  BY  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME  AS  SHE  INVADED  BRITAIN  ABOUT  600  AD  AND  AS  SHE  GAINED  FURTHER  GROUND  OF  DECEPTION  OVER  THE  CENTURIES  THAT  FOLLOWED.

Keith Hunt

To be continued with "Divine Services"