Jesus Christ Crucified

SACRED MEMORIAL OF JESUS CHRIST CRUCIFIED.

Sacred memorial of Jesus Christ crucified. Michael the Archangel triumphing over the dragon, commemorated on account of his prefiguring Jesus Christ crucified (S.)

Adam created, fallen, and dead, commemorated on account of his prefiguring Jesus Christ crucified (S.)

Abel the just, the first Martyr, commemorated on account of his prefiguring Jesus Christ crucified (S.)

Melchisedech, King and Priest, commemorated on account of his prefiguring Jesus Christ crucified (S.)

Isaac immolated by his father Abraham, commemorated on account of his prefiguring Jesus Christ crucified (S.)

The Israelites crossing the Red Sea, commemorated on account of their prefiguring Jesus Christ crucified (S.)

§ I. The day of March 25 assigned by many to the Passion of Christ.

[1] For a long time we hesitated whether it would be expedient in this work on the Acts of the Saints to celebrate the memorial of the Passion of Christ the Lord, our Redeemer, and in which month and day of the month. Cardinal Baronius, about to treat in his Annals at the year 34, number 153, concerning the day of the month on which Christ on the cross accomplished the work of our salvation, The difficulty in assigning the day of Christ's Passion, asserts that men most expert in these fields, completely overcome by despair, deeming it impossible to affirm anything certain, left the matter unfinished for others, and were moved by this reason, that the astronomical tables do not agree with the day of the month assigned by most, indeed that the same tables are handed down differing greatly among themselves. Tables similar to these were offered to us not long ago, deduced and compiled with great labor: in which twenty-four whole years were added to the common Era of Christ, of which only four were prefixed, and the remaining twenty were inserted here and there with Consuls attracted from every quarter. Other tables sent from Germany required the addition of seventeen years, of which some were prefixed to the Christian Era and most were interpolated, and this solely so that the agreement of March 25 with the astronomical tables might be found: but both sets of tables produce the greatest diversity among themselves. Others recently in France, with nearly all impediments removed, have attempted to prove that in the thirty-third year of the common Era, which they begin from the year next after Christ's birth, he was affixed to the cross for the salvation of the human race. We frankly confess that we do not wish to dwell on trifles of this kind, nor can we devote such precious time any longer, our intention is indicated: but prefer only to bring forward, as seems to be required of us, among certain ancient monuments the Martyrologies which treat of Christ's crucifixion for the redemption of the world.

[2] The Venerable Bede in his book On the Reckoning of Times, chapter 25, touches on this question, March 25 is assigned by Ecclesiastical Doctors, and more inclines to assign the day of March 25 to the mystery of the Passion, and March 27 to the glorious Resurrection, adding this reason: "That he was crucified on the eighth before the Kalends of April and rose on the sixth before the Kalends of the same, is established by the widely known opinion of many Ecclesiastical Doctors." Thus Bede, in whom some read "of the Latins" instead of "widely." In the tenth century of Christ, Bridferthus flourished, an Englishman and monk of Ramsey, who added his Glosses to the said book of Bede as well as to various others, and to confirm the cited passage alleges among other testimonies the authority of Blessed Jerome, testifying thus in his Martyrology: "On the eighth before the Kalends of April, at Jerusalem, the Lord was crucified, in the Martyrology of Saint Jerome, and on the sixth before the Kalends of April at Jerusalem, the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ was celebrated." This is the Martyrology of Saint Jerome which we cite most frequently on each day, of which we have now obtained four copies: of which we have obtained: the most ancient of these we have, written in the ancient Anglo-British script nearly a thousand years ago, in which concerning Christ's passion these words are read: "On the eighth before the Kalends of April, at Jerusalem, the Lord was crucified." These very same words are found for this day in the manuscript Martyrology of Ado, which is preserved at Liege in the monastery of Saint Laurence. In another copy of the Martyrology of Saint Jerome, which exists in the possession of Henry Julius Blumius, Baron of the Kingdom of Bohemia, these words are written: "At Jerusalem our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified." These in the third copy of Saint Jerome's, which exists in manuscript in the Picard monastery of Corbie, and was printed at Paris in volume 4 of the Spicilegium of Ancient Writers published by Luca d'Achery, with a single word added, are expressed thus: "At Jerusalem our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified." The same words are read in the Martyrology of Rabanus Maurus, and in various very ancient manuscripts: that of Reichenau or Augia Dives in Swabia near Constance, of Rheinau in Switzerland, of another from Corbie written over eight hundred years ago, and another which we transcribed from a very ancient parchment codex at Rome in the library of Cardinal Barberini. We found a fourth copy of the Martyrology of Saint Jerome at Lucca in Etruria, which the distinguished man Francis Maria Florentinus published with learned annotations; in this it reads thus: "At Jerusalem our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified."

[3] Among other Martyrologies, Luke Holstenius greatly esteemed a manuscript Martyrology found among the ancient books of the Most Serene Christina, Queen of Sweden, and in other very ancient ones. from which he chiefly published his Observations on the Roman Martyrology; in it, transcribed by us at Rome, we read thus: "At Jerusalem the Lord was crucified." The same words are in the manuscript of Liege, Saint Lambert's. There is a certain very illustrious Martyrology in the Barberini library, in which the first pages are missing, written around the nine hundredth year of Christ, in which these words are found: "At Jerusalem our Lord was crucified." In the Martyrology of Ado published by James Mosander in volume 7 of the Lives of the Saints of Lawrence Surius, second edition, these are read in a fuller phrase: "At Jerusalem our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified." The same words are found in various manuscripts of the same Ado, and were relegated to the Appendix by our Rosweyde. In the printed Bede, the little word "where" is interjected, which being omitted, and the name Jerusalem being prefixed, the same words appear in the ancient manuscripts of Augsburg Saint Ulrich's, Trier Saint Maximin's, and our Paris Labbe's, and without location indicated in the very ancient manuscripts of the monastery of Saint Cyriacus, highly praised by Baronius, of the church of Saint Mary ad Gradus at Cologne, and another of Queen Christina of Sweden formerly written in Franconia: likewise in Herman Greuen's edition of the Martyrology of Usuard printed in 1515 and 1521. But with the word "at Jerusalem" interjected in the middle, in the manuscripts of Albergen of the Canons Regular, of Utrecht Saint Jerome's, of Leiden Saint Cecilia's, of Louvain of the Society of Jesus, and others under the name of Usuard: likewise in the Martyrologies printed at Cologne and Lubeck in 1490. In the old Roman Martyrology of Rosweyde, these are thus joined: "The Lord's Annunciation and Crucifixion." In the old manuscript of the church of Arras it is called "the Crucifixion of Christ," in the manuscript of the Cologne Carmelites "the Crucifixion of the Lord," namely "of our Jesus Christ according to the flesh," as is added in the parchment codex of Tournai, Saint Martin's. But in the manuscript of Centula, Saint Riquier's, after the encomium of the Annunciation it reads thus: "On the same day, at Jerusalem, the same God, Son of God, was crucified by the Jews." In the Brussels manuscript of the church of Saint Gudula, this memorial is thus recalled: "At Jerusalem our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified for the redemption of the world."

[4] The same day is handed down by Saint Augustine, The same memorial is more celebrated in Notker. "Outside the gate," he says, "of Jerusalem our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified, and revealed the secrets of the Prophets for the most part." Molanus, as if the words of Usuard, has these first: "Jesus Christ our Lord suffered." Saint Augustine is cited in the margin, book 4 of On the Trinity, chapter 5, where he has these words: "As the authority of the Church preserves, having received it as handed down from the elders, he is traditionally said to have been conceived on the eighth before the Kalends of April, on which day he also suffered. And he is traditionally said to have been born on the eighth before the Kalends of January." That this tradition has been preserved in the Church to this day is proven by so many Martyrologies of various Churches carefully brought forward by us for this purpose. The same view is frequently indicated by Saint Augustine, as in book 18 of The City of God, the last chapter, in these words: "Christ therefore died under the two Gemini as Consuls on the eighth before the Kalends of April, and rose on the third day, that is, the sixth before the Kalends of April." He repeats the same in the book of Eighty-Three Questions, question 59. That this was the understanding in the ancient Latin Church is indicated by Tertullian, book Against the Jews, chapter 8. And by Tertullian. "This Passion," he says, "was completed under Tiberius Caesar, with Rubellius Geminus as Consul, in the month of March and on the day of Passover, the eighth before the Kalends of April, the first day of Unleavened Bread, on which the lamb was prescribed by Moses to be killed in the evening." Perhaps from this Wandelbert thus played at this eighth before the Kalends of April:

"The Lamb himself is raised upon the cross for the world's death."

[5] In the manuscript Florarium of the Saints and another more ancient manuscript Martyrology of Usuard, which once belonged to Nicolaus Scheich of Hagenau, under the beginning these words are handed down: "On this day many wonders occurred, which are noted in these verses:

attributed to various figures representing the dying Christ: Hail, festive day, which binds our wounds: The Angel is sent, Christ is suffered on the cross. Adam was made and in the same time fell. For the merit of the tithe, Abel falls by his brother's sword. Melchisedech offers, Isaac is placed upon the altar. John, the Baptist of Christ, is beheaded. Peter is rescued, James is slain under Herod. The bodies of many Saints rise with Christ. The Thief receives a sweet 'Amen' through Christ."

It is well known in today's Roman Martyrology at this day, as we shall say separately below, the commemoration of the Holy Thief, who, confessing Christ on the cross, in this the good thief crucified with Christ is said to have died. merited to hear from him: "Today you shall be with me in Paradise." Whence the most certain argument is drawn that the Church inclines toward the day of March 25 on which Christ the Lord with the said thief is considered to have died on the cross. On this day, therefore, according to what is read in the Viola of the Saints or Martyrology reprinted at Hagenau in the year 1508, "Jesus Christ crucified prayed for his enemies, commended his Mother to John, beatified the thief, darkened the sun, illuminated Longinus, shook the earth, opened the tombs, raised the dead, put to flight the shadows of hell, gladdened the holy Fathers, terrified the demons, bound Lucifer, fulfilled the prophecies, annulled the legal shadows, and conferred power upon the Sacraments of the new law." Thus far that source. Moreover, these mysteries of Christ crucified for the salvation of the world are most well known to all Christians throughout the Christian world: they are explained in the Four Gospels and the remaining books of the New Testament, the mysteries of the Passion explained by very many. in the Oracles of the Prophets of the old law, in entire Libraries of homilies and treatises of the ancient Fathers, and in whole volumes of later Writers, who pursued the most unworthy death of Christ with all the tears and laments of words and most pious affections they could muster. We subjoin certain things that are noted as having occurred on the same day, March 25, on which Christ died on the cross.

§ II. Various figures representing the crucified Christ, related to March 25.

[6] It seemed consonant with reason to confess that the world was restored at the same time it had been created; The world is said to have been created and restored on the same day: hence Theodoret, question 72 on Exodus, asserts that God created the creatures at nearly the same time when the Archangel Gabriel brought to the holy Virgin Mary the joyful news of the wondrous birth, and at the same time when Christ the Lord endured his saving passion. Hence in the very ancient Martyrology of Trier, Saint Maximin's, these three are joined: "The eighth before the Kalends of April. At Jerusalem our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified and the Conception of Saint Mary by the Holy Spirit; and then the world was made." Molanus in the Additions to Usuard, after the two earlier mysteries, separately notes that the genesis of the world is placed on the same day in a certain approved Martyrology which is venerably read in a certain Church: and adds the victory of Michael the Archangel against the dragon, which victory is celebrated in very ancient manuscript Martyrologies: of Cologne Saint Mary ad Gradus, the victory of Michael the Archangel over the dragon, another of Trier Saint Maximin's, Tournai Saint Martin's, Liege Saint Lambert's and Saint Laurence's and Leoben, and these two under the name of Ado, as the other two under the name of Bede; likewise in the manuscript Florarium, Greuen's Additions to Usuard, the German Martyrology of Canisius, and the Cologne Fasti of Gelenius. This victory is described by Saint John in Revelation, chapter 12, in these words: "A great battle took place in heaven: Michael and his Angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought, and his angels, and they did not prevail... and they conquered him because of the blood of the Lamb," etc. Hence that victory is read as joined with the shedding of Christ's blood at his death on this March 25.

[7] From the Angels, the Brussels manuscript Martyrology, which used to be recited in the Church of Brussels, has prepared our transition to Adam, Adam created and fallen, in which at March 25 these words are found: "On the same day the creation of Adam and his expulsion from Paradise." And in the poem above from the Florarium and another manuscript, after Christ's suffering, Adam is indicated as having been made and fallen. Evidently, because Adam violated God's commandment by extending his arms to the tree, Christ willed, in obedience to the eternal Father, to extend his arms to the cross, so that whence death arose, thence life might rise again, and he who conquered on the tree might also be conquered on the tree. Indeed Christ willed for this reason to be called the second or last Adam, by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, where he speaks thus: "The first man Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam a life-giving spirit," etc. That Adam was finally buried at Jerusalem and indeed on Mount Calvary, most ancient writers have recorded with great consensus, dead and buried: cited by Baronius, Torniessus, Salianus, and others: of these, Tertullian, or certainly under his name an anonymous but ancient author, in his poem Against Marcion, says that on the same day and in the same place both the first and the second Adam died and were buried.

"On the day and in the place where the most illustrious Adam fell, On this same day returning, as the years revolved, On the arena of the tree the strong Athlete joined battle, And extending his hands, pursuing punishment instead of glory, He conquered death, because he willingly laid down his life.* Golgotha is the place of the skull, Calvary, The ancestral tongue first so named it: Here is the middle of the earth, here the victory, the sign; Here, our ancestors taught, a great bone was found. Here we have learned the first man was buried. Here Christ suffers. The earth is moistened with holy blood, That the dust of old Adam might be washed, Mingled with the blood of Christ, by the power of the dripping water."

*Another reading: death.

[8] The most ancient forerunner of Christ dying on the cross can be considered the just Abel, killed by his brother Cain through envy at a still immature age in a field, The just Abel killed: concerning whom the above-cited Brussels Martyrology of Saint Gudula and the Viola of the Saints indicated above have these words at March 25: "In the field of Damascus, Abel, the first Martyr, was killed for justice: whom Christ praises in the Gospel, and whom we name daily in the Canon of the Mass, offering to the divine Majesty the consecrated Host and Chalice, praying that he may deign to look upon them with a propitious and serene countenance, and to hold them acceptable, just as he deigned to hold acceptable the gifts of his servant, the just Abel." Christ in Matthew chapter 23 calls him both just, and speaks of his just blood which was shed upon the earth. The manuscript Florarium and the manuscript Martyrology in the poem related above celebrate the same at this March 25. Herman Greuen in the Additions to Usuard: "Also of Abel the just," he says, "Protomartyr of the Old Testament": it is added in the German Martyrology of Canisius, "who likewise as a virgin, priest, and martyr was the first of all to die." The Author of Marvels, cited by Salianus at the year of the world 130, number 7: "All justice," he says, virgin, priest, martyr: "is this: Virginity, Priesthood, and Martyrdom, which threefold justice was first in Abel, who offered gifts pleasing to God, left no progeny of his line in the world, and merited the crown of martyrdom by the shedding of blood... Rightly therefore it was fitting that he who was first chosen as the Just on earth, in him the form of all justice should be preserved: to whom first among men after sin it is granted to bear the figure of the Savior, who is seen to be a Virgin, Priest, and Martyr." Irenaeus, book 4 against the heresies of Valentine and others, chapter 42, alludes to the same matter thus: "The Passion of the Just, prefigured from the beginning in Abel, and described by the Prophets, was perfected in the last days in the Son of God."

[9] Melchisedech, Priest and King of Jerusalem, is likewise commemorated on this day in the Florarium and another manuscript indicated above: Melchisedech, King and Priest. concerning whom likewise the Brussels Martyrology adds these words: "On the same day Melchisedech, the first Priest, offered bread and wine to Abraham as a figure of the Sacrament of the Eucharist." And this Melchisedech is also inscribed in the Canon of the Mass, because he, as the supreme Priest of God, offered a holy sacrifice, an immaculate host. These things are related at greater length in the Viola of the Saints, and are clearly explained by Saint Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews, chapters 6 and 7, where Jesus is said to have been made a Priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech, and Melchisedech, King of Salem, Priest of the Most High God, is said to be made like the Son of God and to remain a priest in perpetuity.

[10] The principal Patriarchs of the Old Testament are considered to be Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, by whose designation, long after their death, God gloried, frequently saying: "I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob," and Christ added: "He is not the God of the dead, but of the living." One of their illustrious deeds pertains to this: that Abraham offered his only-begotten son, whom he loved, Isaac, as a holocaust. Isaac immolated by his father Abraham. The manuscript Martyrology of Queen Christina of Sweden, praised above by us and highly esteemed by Luke Holstenius, adds to the day of March 25, on which it had reported Christ crucified, the immolation of the Patriarch Isaac. The same immolation of Isaac is inscribed in the ancient manuscript fasti of the Churches of Prague, Cologne Saint Mary ad Gradus, Trier Saint Maximin's, and Liege Saint Lambert's and Saint Laurence's: likewise in Ado published by Mosander and in his Appendix in Rosweyde: to Greuen in the supplement of Usuard it is called "the immolation of Isaac, son of the Patriarch Abraham." To Notker, "on the mountain of Vision, the immolation of Isaac." To Canisius, "the offering of Abraham in his only-begotten son Isaac." In the manuscripts of Aachen under the name of Bede, and several under the name of Usuard, it reads thus: "Our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified and Isaac was immolated." In some, "the son of Abraham" is added. The Brussels manuscript relates these things: "On that day Abraham offered his son Isaac to God upon the altar as a figure of the Lord's passion": this sacrifice of the Patriarch Abraham the Church recalls in the Canon of the Mass, and the obedience of both father and son is praised throughout by the holy Fathers and other Ecclesiastical writers.

[11] Still on the same day, March 25, the crossing of the children of Israel through the Red Sea is commemorated in the manuscript Martyrologies frequently cited above: Brussels, Trier, Prague, Liege, The Israelites cross the Red Sea. Cologne, and the Florarium, likewise in Ado, Greuen, Canisius, and others. And this liberation of the children of Israel from the servitude of Pharaoh is assigned as a figure of our redemption from the servitude of the devil and sin through the precious blood of Christ our Savior. We omit here to recount that on this day Saint Veronica the matron is also reported in the Martyrologies, to whom the Lord left the image of his face impressed upon a cloth, other Saints are commemorated. as he went bearing his cross to Mount Calvary. Others add the beheading of Saint John the Baptist, the passion of Saint James the Apostle, the liberation of Saint Peter the Apostle from the hand of Herod, because all these things are said to have occurred around that time when the Jews celebrated their Passover, and Christ the Lord, our Passover, was immolated. We shall treat below of his Resurrection on March 27, with the greatest consensus of what has been related thus far.

*Another reading: death.

§ III. The memorial of Christ's passion referred by some to other days.

[12] These things notwithstanding, learned men have contended for some time that Christ suffered on the tenth before the Kalends of April, and rose from the dead on the eighth before the Kalends of April. The day of March 23 is assigned by others, Among these, John Deckers of the Society of Jesus stood out, who prepared several volumes for the press on this controversy: of all of which we have a copy at hand, procured by the diligence of James Tirinus, once his student in Theological studies at Louvain. Philip Alegambe discusses this author and his volumes at length in the Library of the Society of Jesus, p. 235 and following. A certain compendium of all of these can be considered the first part of the Belgica Romana published in the year 1655 by Aegidius Bucherius, also once his student: who long had our copy in his possession for this purpose. He in book 4, chapter 7, tries to persuade that Christ, as we said, was affixed to the cross on March 23. The principal argument is drawn from the Synod of Caesarea under Pope Victor at the end of the second century, collected by Theophilus, Bishop of Caesarea: of which a fragment exists in Bede's book On the Vernal Equinox. Moreover Theophilus there said: "The Lord suffered from the eleventh before the Kalends of April, on which night he was betrayed by the Jews, and on the seventh before the Kalends he rose." In the Palestinian Synod, Hence Bucherius infers, after serious investigation, that it was defined that Christ suffered on the tenth before the Kalends of April, that is, on the twenty-third of March, and rose on the eighth before the Kalends of April. A trace of this definition appears in the printed Greek Menaia, in which at March 23 these four titles with as many distichs are found: "The Crucifixion of Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior God. The memorial of the pious thief crucified with Christ. In the Greek Menaia, The Deposition of Christ the Savior from the cross. The burial of Jesus Christ our Lord by Joseph of Arimathea." The day before this, that is March 22, the Last Supper of the Lord is also indicated: and the day after, March 24, the memorial of Christ lying in the tomb and being guarded. And consequently, March 25 In the manuscript of Ado, the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is recalled. We found among the books of the Most Serene Christina, Queen of Sweden, a manuscript codex of Ado, written in the twelfth century of Christ, in which at March 23 these words were read near the end: "The Crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ, as the more ancient say," and at March 25 in the same manner was subjoined "the Resurrection of the Lord." Observed by the Gallican Bishops, Those who in the said Martyrology, which was written in Gaul, are called "the more ancient," were for the most part Gallican Bishops, who always celebrated the day of Easter on the eighth before the Kalends of April, on which day the Resurrection of Christ is said to have taken place, as Saint Martin of Dumium, Bishop of Braga, testifies, and by Saint Martin of Dumium who attested in the sixth century of Christ in his treatise On Easter, published by Tamayo Salazar in his Spanish Martyrology at March 20 (on which day we published his Acts), that this custom had been preserved until not long before. The said Saint Martin there embraced this opinion.

[13] Others assign the 26th Onuphrius Panvinius in book 2 of the Fasti at the year 786 from the founding of the City deduces this controversy at length, and at last refers Christ's death to the seventh before the Kalends of April, that is, March 26, on which day Maurolycus begins his Martyrology from the memorial of the passion of Christ the Savior, and then reports the thief, to whom the Savior on the cross promised Paradise, who is also mentioned in the ancient Breviary of Quimper, as will be related below. There are others who hand down that Christ suffered on the cross on the third before the Kalends of April, and March 30 or April 3. or even on the third before the Nones of April, on which days we find no mention of him in any Fasti. The last of these days is championed by James Grandami in his Evangelical Question on the Last and Birthday of Christ, and by Philip Labbe in various places, and most recently in a Compendium of Sacred and Profane Chronology in the French language, printed at Paris in the year 1665.