by Leslie Hardinge (1972)
THE CELTIC CHRISTIAN YEAR
The book is full of reference notes, which I have not
retained. I do give the reference 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 - boom your brain - Keith Hunt
THE SABBATH AND SUNDAY
[BATTLE— FOR SUPREMACY—Keith Hunt]
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 clay 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.
SABBATIZING SUNDAY…. HOW DECEPTION WAS USED,
WHILE THE 7TH DAY SABBATH WAS OBSERVED— Keith Hunt
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
[NO SUCH LAW AS TAKING UP THY BED, A TYPE OF BLANKET, IS OUTLAWED CONCERNING THE SABBATH. THE JEWS HAD MADE ABOUT 600 LAWS FOR SABBATH OBSERVANCE. GOD ONLY HAS A BASIC FEW. THE MOVING TO ONLY A SPIRITUAL SENSE FOR THE SABBATH IS FULLY BLOWN TO BITS BY HEBREWS 4. WHERE AFTER THE TYPOLOGY OF THE SABBATH EQUALING GOD'S FUTURE REST IN THE COMING KINGDOM AGE IS GIVEN; THE AUTHOR PAUL, SAYS THERE REMAIN A SABBATISMOS, A KEEPING OF THE SABBATH TO THE PEOPLE OF GOD. SEE THE MARGIN OF THE KJV. PAUL HIMSELF WROTE, BE YOU FOLLOWERS OF ME AS I FALLOW CHRIST— 1 CORINTHIANS 11: 1. PAUL FOLLOWED CHRIST IN LITERALLY OBSERVING THE SABBATH. NOT A ONE OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS HAS EVER BEEN ABOLISHED! Keith Hunt] 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
[A BUNCH OF POO-DIDILY-HOCUS-POCUS FROM PLANET PLUTO. THERE IS NO PROPHECY IN THE ENTIRE OLD TESTAMENT TO STATE SUCH THROW OUT GIBBERISH FROM A POPE - Keith Hunt]
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
[THIS IS GOING TO HAPPEN AGAIN AT THE VERY END TIME, THE LAST 42 MONTHS OF THIS AGE. A MIGHTY 7TH AND LAST RESURRECTION OF THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE WILL RISE IN EUROPE; IT IS NOW RISING, BUT A GREAT FALSE PROPHET, THE ANTI-CHRIST, WHO WORKS MIRACLES, WILL SIT ON A GREAT BEAST, AND DEMAND HIS ROMAN CATHOLIC RELIGION WITH ONLY SUNDAY OBSERVANCE, TO BE THE LAW. GREAT PERSECUTION WILL COME ON ANYONE NOT AGREEING WITH THIS MIGHTY POWER OF THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE - Keith Hunt]
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.
[JUST A MINUTE; WHERE IS THE LAW IN THE OLD TESTAMENT THAT PROHIBITED YOU BATHING, WASHING YOUR HAIR, ON THE SABBATH? IT IS NOT THERE! IT WAS THE JEWS WHO MADE UP ABOUT 600
LAWS FOR SABBATH OBSERVANCE - Keith Hunt]
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.
The facts 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 tothe "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)
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