From a reader…
QUAERITUR:
I don’t get it. “Septuagesima” means “seventieth” and “sexagesima” means “sixtieth”, which are ten apart. But the Sundays are seven days apart. 10 isn’t 7. Is there an explanation?
Here is something I’ve penned before.
Roman numbering can be a little fluid.
The number 70 is more symbolic than arithmetical.
The Sundays which follow Septuagesima (“seventieth”) are Sexagesima (“sixtieth”) and Quinquagesima (“fiftieth”) before Ash Wednesday brings in Lent, called in Latin Quadragesima, “fortieth”.
These “Gesima” Sundays before the “fortieth” discipline begins, are rough estimates but within certain parameters.
- Septuagesima is the 63rd day before Easter and, therefore, it in the 7th (septimus) decade or 10-day period before Easter (61st to 70th days).
- Sexagesima Sunday is the 56th before Easter, in the 6th (sextus) decade (51st to 60th).
- Quinquagesima is the 49th day, 5th (quintus) decade (41st to 50th) days before Easter.
So the Sundays are named after the 10 day block of days rather than the precise day.
And that, dear readers, accounts for the names of the Gesima Sundays.
BONUS ANSWER
QUAERITUR:
What’s with the three figures in the image at the top?
The Church’s Liturgy is more than that of the Mass. It is also the Divine Office.
In the first week of pre-Lent we have in Matins readings about the Creation, in particular the Creation of Man and Man’s Fall in the Original Sin of our First Parents, Adam and Eve. In the second week we hear of Noah. In the third, Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac.
In each case, Adam, Noah, Abraham all receive in new levels of covenant with God. The are also harbingers of good things that come from God. Adam was the progenitor of sin, but because of that sin we had the “happy fault… felix culpa” that we sing of in the Exsultet. Christ came in the way that He came because of that sin. Noah became the second father of mankind. Abraham together with Isaac foreshadow Christ’s redemptive Sacrifice. Abraham as priest offers Isaac the victim who carries the wood up the hill. Christ is both priest and victim in His own Person.
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Thank you for this! – I must somehow have missed it when first penned – though I suppose I am capable of forgetting even something this interesting and lucid…
I got wondering today if it was far-fetched to think there might be any implicit attention to the Prayer of Moses, Psalm 89, verse 10 (“dies annorum nostrorum in ipsis septuaginta annis”) in the choice together of the Offertory Psalm 91 (where verse 11 includes “et senectus mea in misericordia uberi”: ‘and my old age in plentiful mercy’ in the Challoner Douay Rheims) and the Epistle includes chapter 10, verse 2 of the First Epistle to the Corinthians (“et omnes in Moyse baptizati sunt in nube, et in mari”).
I think this would be the perfect place to mention the “thus far” (up to Paralipomenon) recordings of the Vulgate in a flawless “more ecclesiastico”:
https://archive.org/details/Vulgata_Clementina
The listening of which, for latinists and aspirant latinists, would be a great way to spend pre-lent.
Cradle Catholic…Never to old to learn something new.
Another way of putting essentially the same thing, but in a way which may work better for some people:
Septuagesima is the Sunday falling on or after the 70th day before Easter.
Sexagesima is the Sunday falling on or after the 60th day before Easter.
Quinquagesima is the Sunday falling on or after the 50th day before Easter. (In this case, it is “on” rather than “after”, bearing in mind that in the Roman calendar we count inclusively.)
Father: Bl. Jacobus de Voragine gives an interesting, and non-standard, account of these Sundays, in which they actually correspond to the number of days:
“At Septuagesima beginneth the time of deviation or going out of the way, of the whole world, which began at Adam and dured unto Moses. And in this time is read the Book of Genesis. The time of Septuagesima representeth the time of deviation, that is of transgression. The Sexagesima signifieth the time of revocation. The Quinquagesima signifieth the time of remission. The Quadragesima signifieth of penance and satisfaction. The Septuagesima beginneth when the Church singeth in the office of the mass: Circumdederunt me, and endureth unto the Saturday after Easter-day.”
“The Sexagesima beginneth when is sung in the Church, at office of the mass: Exsurge domine, and this endeth the Wednesday after Easter day; and was instituted for redemption, for signification, and for representation. For redemption it was instituted. ”
“The Quinquagesima dureth from the Sunday in which is sung in the Church in the office of the mass, Esto mihi, etc. And that endeth on Easter day, and is instituted for supplication and fulfilling, for signification, and for representation.”
Thank you for explaining the “Sunday in the decade” maths. I’ve always kind of wondered but not enough to solve the mystery.
Theoretically, if the dates of Easter could be united, how would they do it.
Dear David L.,
thank you very much! Beautiful explanation.
Of course that’s a “post hoc” explanation, that’s almost certainly not how they came up with this… but still, beautiful.
Of course, then there’s also Quadragesima, as he mentions, which is from the Quadragesima Sunday (1st of Lent) until Holy Thursday inclusive (with the fasting of Good Friday and Holy Saturday being fasts of grief, and as such part of the Easter celebration, rather than specifically penance. A different way of counting, of course, takes the 34 days of actual penance out of these 40, plus the 2 of fasts of grief, plus 4 to “fill up the number” from Ash Wednesday onwards.
Some other things things:
1. Septuagesima is somewhere in between both feasts of the Chair of St. Peter.
2. Ash Wednesday is always after Candlemas (also after St. Blase, can anyone get a meaning out of that? and at the latest at the feast of the 40 (!) crowned martyrs,
3. Easter is always after St. Benedict and at the latest at the feast of St. Mark; fitting, right?
4. Pentecost is actually between St. Anthony and St. Anthony. Speaking of St. Anthony, St. Anthony is also the feast that always precedes Septuagesimatide.