The Feast of the
Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (25 March), also called in old
calendars: FESTUM INCARNATIONIS, INITIUM REDEMPTIONIS CONCEPTIO CHRISTI, ANNUNTIATIO CHRISTI, ANNUNTIATIO DOMINICA. In the Orient, where the part which Mary took in the Redemption is celebrated by a special feast, 26 December, the Annunciation is a feast of Christ; in the
Latin Church, it is a feast of Mary. It probably originated shortly before or after the council of Ephesus (c. 431). At the time of the Synod of
Laodicea (372) it was not known;
St. Proclus,
Bishop of Constantinople (d. 446), however, seems to mention it in one of his
homilies. He says, that the feast of the coming of
Our Lord and Saviour, when He vested Himself with the nature of man (
quo hominum genus indutus), was celebrated during the entire fifth century. This
homily, however, may not be genuine, or the words may be understood of the
feast of Christmas. In the
Latin Church this feast is first mentioned in the Sacramentarium of Pope Gelasius (d. 496), which we possess in a
manuscript of the seventh century; it is also contained in the Sacramentarium of
St. Gregory (d. 604), one
manuscript of which dates back to the eighth century. Since these
sacramentaries contain additions posterior to the time of Gelasius and
Gregory, Duchesne (Origines du culte chrétien, 118, 261) ascribes the origin of this feast in
Rome to the seventh century; Probst, however, (Sacramentarien, 264) thinks that it really belongs to the time of Pope Gelasius. The tenthSynod of Toledo (656), and Trullan Synod (692) speak of this feast as one universally celebrated in the
Catholic Church.
All
Christian antiquity (against all
astronomical possibility) recognized the 25th of March as the actual day of
Our Lord's death. The opinion that the Incarnation also took place on that
date is found in the pseudo-Cyprianic work "De Pascha Computus", c. 240. It argues that the coming of
Our Lord and His death must have coincided with the creation and fall of Adam. And since the world was created in spring, the Saviour was also conceived and died shortly after the equinox of spring. Similar fanciful calculations are found in the early and later
Middle Ages, and to them, no doubt, the dates of thefeast of the Annunciation and of
Christmas owe their origin. Consequently the ancient
martyrologiesassign to the 25th of March the creation of Adam and the crucifixion of
Our Lord; also, the fall ofLucifer, the passing of
Israel through the
Red Sea and the immolation of Isaac. (Thruston,
Christmas and the Christian Calendar, Amer. Eccl. Rev., XIX, 568.) The original date of this
feast was the 25th of March. Although in olden times most of the churches kept no feast in
Lent, the
Greek Church in theTrullan Synod (in 692; can. 52) made an exception in favour of the Annunciation. In
Rome, it was always celebrated on the 25th of March. The Spanish
Church transferred it to the 18th of December, and when some tried to introduce the Roman observance of it on the 25th of March, the 18th of December was officially confirmed in the whole Spanish Church by the tenth Synod of Toledo (656). This law was abolished when the Roman liturgy was accepted in
Spain.
The church of
Milan, up to our times, assigns the office of this feast to the last Sunday in
Advent. On the 25th of March a Mass is sung in
honour of the Annunciation. (
Ordo Ambrosianus, 1906; Magistretti, Beroldus, 136.) The
schismatic Armenians now celebrate this feast on the 7th of April. Since Epiphany for them is the feast of the birth of
Christ, the
Armenian Church formerly assigned theAnnunciation to 5 January, the vigil of Epiphany. This feast was always a holy day of
obligation in theUniversal Church. As such it was abrogated first for
France and the French dependencies, 9 April, 1802; and for the
United States, by the Third Council of
Baltimore, in 1884. By a
decree of the S.R.C., 23 April, 1895, the rank of the feast was raised from a double of the second class to a double of the first class. If this feast falls within
Holy Week or
Easter Week, its office is transferred to the Monday after the octave of
Easter. In some German churches it was the custom to keep its office theSaturday before
Palm Sunday if the 25th of March fell in
Holy Week. The
Greek Church, when the 25th of March occurs on one of the three last days in
Holy Week, transfers the Annunciation to
EasterMonday; on all other days, even on
Easter Sunday, its office is kept together with the office of the day. Although no octaves are permitted in
Lent, the Dioceses of Loreto and of the Province of
Venice, the
Carmelites,
Dominicans,
Servites, and
Redemptorists, celebrate this feast with an octave.
