Advent Versus Christmas - Mattingly Reports

Terry Mattingly often has interesting reports and reflections. This week he posted one on a subject that has been a theme for Orthodox and Greek Catholic clergy for years: The Christmas season begins on 25 December.

It is wearying for an Eastern priest the number of sincere requests by parishioners for dispensations to attend a "Christmas party at the office" or some other such secular celebration. Every couple of years I still get many wrong answers when I ask on what day does the Twelve Days of Christmas commence. Any movement in the Roman Church to increase awareness of the basic rule of liturgical seasons (fast before, celebrate the feast, celebrate the 'leave-taking' of the feast) in the Christian Church is to be commended.

Terry's offering is entitled "Celebrate Christmas — gasp! — in Christmas?" and I encourage everyone to read it.

Here's a quote:

Rather than leap straight to Christmas trees early in December, the bishop urged Catholic families to embrace Advent prayer wreathes — with candles marking the Sundays leading up to Christmas. Families could have “Jesse Trees” that are decorated in Advent purple and symbols of the ancestors of Jesus, before adding Christmas decorations at the proper time.

While the article is very Romano-centric regarding the Advent (read Nativity Fast) season, the point is yet well taken. Read it here.

Feast of the Beheading of St John the Baptist

What shall we call you, O Prophet? Angel, Apostle or Martyr? An angel, for you lived like the bodiless powers. An apsotle, for you taught the nations. A martyr, for you were beheaded for Christ. Pray to Him that our souls be granted great mercy.

We celebrate the memorial of the beheading of the Forerunner: his head once gushed forth streams of blood upon the platter; now it gushes forth rivers of healings upon the world.

From the Menaion, Great Vespers, 29 August

The Martyrs of Otranto

Please forgive, but Sandro's latest article has personal meaning for me.

Summer Reading: How the Eight Hundred Men of Otranto Saved Rome

They were martyred five centuries ago in the easternmost region of Italy, the spot most exposed to attack from the Muslims. The objective of the caliph Mohammed II was to conquer Rome, after having already taken Constantinople. But he was stopped by Christians who were ready to defend the faith with their blood

by Sandro Magister

ROMA, August 14, 2007 – The Roman Martyrology, the liturgical calendar of saints and blesseds updated according to the decrees of Vatican Council II and promulgated by John Paul II, shows that today the Church remembers and venerates...

“... the approximately eight hundred martyrs of Otranto, in Puglia, pressured to renounce the faith after the crushing assault of the Ottoman soldiers. They were exhorted by blessed Antonio Primaldo, an elderly tailor, to persevere in Christ, and thus through decapitation they obtained the crown of martyrdom.”

The martyrdom of these eight hundred men took place in 1480, on August 14, the day of their liturgical commemoration.

It was because of them that five centuries later, in 1980, John Paul II visited Otranto, the Italian city in which they were martyred.

And this year, on July 6, Benedict XVI definitively authenticated their martyrdom, with a decree promulgated by the congregation for the causes of the saints.

But who were the eight hundred men of Otranto? And why were they killed? Their story is of extraordinary relevance – just like the conflict between Islam and Christianity, in the midst of which they sacrificed their lives.

This is presented in the account that follows – it appeared last July 14 in “il Foglio” – written by Alfredo Mantovano, a Catholic jurist, senator, and a son of the same land that produced those martyrs, born in southern Puglia, the region of Otranto.


“Ready to die a thousand times for Him...”

by Alfredo Mantovano


On July 6, 2007, Benedict XVI received a visit from the prefect of the congregation for the causes of saints, cardinal José Saraiva Martins, and authorized the publication of the decree of authentication for the martyrdom of blessed Antonio Primaldo and his lay companions, “killed out of hatred for the faith” in Otranto on August 14, 1480.

Antonio Primaldo’s is the only name that has come down to us. His companions in martyrdom were eight hundred unknown fishermen, craftsmen, shepherds, and farmers from a small town, whose blood, five centuries ago, was shed solely because they were Christian.

Eight hundred men, who five centuries ago suffered the treatment reserved in 2004 for the American antenna repairman Nick Berg, captured by Islamic terrorists in Iraq and killed to the cry of “Allah is great!” His executioner, after cutting his jugular, drew the blade around his neck until his head was detached, and then held this up as a trophy. Exactly as the Ottoman executioner did in 1480 to each of the eight hundred men from Otranto.


* * *

There is a prologue to this mass execution. In the early morning hours of July 29, 1480, from the walls of Otranto there could be seen on the horizon an approaching fleet composed of 90 galleys, 15 galleasses, and 48 galliots, with 18,000 soldiers on board. The armada was led by the pasha Ahmed, under the orders of Mohammed II, called Fatih, the Conqueror, the sultan who in 1451, at just 21 years of age, had become head of the Ottoman tribe, which had replaced the mosaic of Islamic emirates a century and a half earlier.

In 1453, at the head of an army of 260,000 Turks, Mohammed II had conquered Byzantium, the “second Rome,” and from that moment he developed the plan of wiping out the “first Rome,” Rome true and proper, and of turning Saint Peter’s basilica into a stall for his horses.

In June of 1480, he judged the time was right to go into action: he lifted the siege from Rhodes, which was defended courageously by its knights, and directed his fleet toward the Adriatic Sea. His intention was to land at Brindisi, which had an excellent, spacious harbor: from Brindisi, he planned to move northward up Italy until he reached the see of the papacy. But a strong contrary wind forced the ships to touch ground fifty miles to the south, and to disembark in a place called Roca, a few kilometers from Otranto.


* * *

Otranto was – and is – the easternmost city in Italy. It has a rich history: the immediate vicinity was probably inhabited in the Paleolithic period, and certainly from the Neolithic age. It was then populated by the Messapi, a race prior to the Greeks that was conquered by them, migrated to Magna Graecia, and fell into the hands of the Romans, becoming a Roman town.

The importance of its harbor had given it the role of a bridge between East and West, a role consolidated on the cultural and political level by the presence of an important monastery of Basilian monks, the monastery of San Nicola in Casole, of which a couple of columns remain on the road that leads to Leuca.

In 1095, in its splendid cathedral church built between 1080 and 1088, the blessing was imparted to the twelve thousand crusaders who, under the command of prince Boemondo I d’Altavilla, were leaving to liberate and protect the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. And on his return from the Holy Land, it was in Otranto that saint Francis of Assisi landed in 1219, and was received with great honor.

For the rest of this beautiful article, click here.

A Common Date for Pascha?

This is one for which we could, and should, all pray. New Europe News has a report touting a member of the European Parliament's efforts to get the Orthodox and Catholic Churches to agree on a common dating method for Easter (Pascha).

Sorry to say it, but this one goes in my "I'll believe it when I see it" folder.

Pope and Patriarch may agree on common Easter

30 June 2007 - Issue : 736

Patriarch Bartholomew and Pope Benedict XVI responded positively on the issue raised in the European Parliament of finding common dates for celebrating Easter, a question raised by Greek MEP Manolis Mavrommatis.

...

In a letter addressed to Patriarch Bartholomew, and with the opportunity of the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the Patriarch, this issue was discussed among the two leaders of Christianity. Patriarch Bartholomew sent a letter to Mavrommatis, which noted: “Pope Benedict XVI responded positively on the subject and when he returned to Vatican City, he personally looked into the issue. I received a letter for my information as proof (which I attach), signed by Cardinal Walter Kasper, who is the head of the Papist Council for Promoting Unity of Christians.”

...

Mavrommatis stated: “I believe that the convergence on such an important issue as the common celebration of Catholic and Orthodox Easter in the European Parliament and possible in the Christian world is a very important step for the two Churches. The effort of Patriarch Bartholomew and Pope Benedict XVI is essential, especially since the dialogue brought promising perspectives for Christianity. I hope that the President of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Poettering, will also make an effort for fulfilling the fair request of our people and this would be the beginning of a more extensive dialogue between the representatives of the 27 Member States of the European Union.”

The real point of contention is not Easter/Pascha itself; the real problem is the difference in calendars. The Catholic Church, and most of the world, uses the Gregorian Calendar. Officially, the Orthodox still use the Julian Calendar - the one that was in use at the time of the Council of Nicaea in 325.

The problem, of course, is that the Julian Calendar does not compute the year accurately, leading to a drift over the centuries. It is this drift that accounts for the differing dates for the celebration of Easter/Pascha. The imprecision of the Julian Calendar was demonstrated to Pope Gregory XIII, who commissioned its revision, which became known as the Gregorian Calendar that we (mostly) all use today.

The Orthodox have typically refused to switch to the Gregorian Calendar: a) because the Julian Calendar was chosen for use by an Ecumenical Council and thus has quasi-theological status; and b) because the Gregorian Calendar was initiated and endorsed by the Pope.

Some Orthodox Churches do officially utilize a "Revised Julian Calendar". However, it is not universally adopted among the Orthodox. In fact, some of the most virulent in-fighting within the Orthodox Church is not this or that doctrine but "new calendar" (RJC) versus "old calendar" (JC). (In other words, if you want a peaceful conversation in the Orthodox Church, don't go there!)

To read the entire article, click here.