THE CHURCH CALENDAR

 

The visiting celebrant and preacher on the last Sunday in January spoke about the commemoration (on January 30th) of the beheading of King Charles I.  An old copy of the Book of Common Prayer in the museum corner includes this feast day in the Calendar at the front of the book, and therefore must pre-date 1859, when for some reason the feast was removed from the B.C.P. calendar.  Have you ever taken a close look at that calendar?

 

The First English Prayer Book of 1549 had no calendar of lesser saints’ days, and only included those feasts for which Collects, Epistles and Gospels were provided, i.e. the so-called Red-Letter Days.  These were: The Circumcision; The Epiphany; The Conversion of St Paul; The Purification or Presentation of Christ in the Temple; St Matthias; The Annunciation; St Mark; St Philip and St James (the Less); St Barnabas; The Nativity of St John Baptist; St Peter; St Mary Magdalene; St James (the Great); St Bartholomew; St Matthew; St Michael & All Angels; St Luke; St Simon & St Jude; All Saints; St Andrew; St Thomas; The Nativity of Our Lord; St Stephen (the First Martyr); St John Evangelist; and Holy Innocents Day.  A number of changes to these Red-letter Days have occurred over the years.  The first change occurred as soon as the second B.C.P. appeared in 1552 – St Mary Magdalene was omitted (and wasn’t restored as a Red-Letter Day until 1928).  Some other dates were included in 1552, such as the commencement of the university terms, astrological dates (!) and such peculiarities as “dog days” (July 7th and September 5th), whatever they were!

 

After the temporary return to Roman Catholicism under Queen Mary, the 1552 Book of Common Prayer was restored to use (with some changes) in a third version of 1559.  Within two years, a large number of lesser saints were restored to the calendar, and included in later editions of the 1559 Book.  These were much the same as those listed in the 1662 Prayer Book, and among the stranger commemorations in the list are The Invention of the Cross (May 3rd), and St John before the Latin Gate (May 6th).

 

Apart from the addition in 1662 of the Venerable Bede, St Alban, Commemoration of the Popish Plot (i.e. 5th November) and the Beheading of King Charles I, no other changes were made until 1859, when the latter two were removed from the calendar.  The Proposed Prayer Book of 1928 contained the whole of the 1662 Prayer Book, plus a number of alternative forms of service.  There was also an alternative calendar, and the 1928 version had several additional saints and minor alterations to dates, with the feasts of St Mary Magdalene and the Transfiguration of Our Lord “promoted” to Red-Letter Days.  Our small blue prayer books are in fact the 1928 edition.

 

A much more radical revision of the calendar took place with the publication of the Alternative Service Book in 1980.  St Joseph was added to the Red-Letter saints days, a number of martyrs from the reformation era were added to the lesser saints (Thomas More and Thomas Cranmer, for example), and King Charles the Martyr was restored to the calendar after an absence of 120 years.  In common with the Roman Church, an attempt was made to remove major saints’ days from the penitential seasons of Lent and Advent.  In the case of Thomas the Apostle, this was an easy decision – he was simply moved back to July 3rd, the original date in the Western Church.  St Matthias was transferred from late February to May 14th.

 

The series of Common Worship books has seen a further revision of the calendar with commemorations falling into four categories indicated by colour and typeface.  The most important feasts are in bold red type: other red-letter days are shown in ordinary type and include the apostles, and certain other major feasts.  Two “promoted” feasts are Holy Cross Day (September 14th), and (at last, some would say) St George, Patron of England, both of which have been in the calendar as lesser feasts since 1560.  Among commemorations in black type, the most notable addition is that of Janini Luwum, the Archbishop of Uganda murdered on the orders of Idi Amin in 1977.  Common Worship supplements provide bible readings for all these lesser saints’ days, together with collects and post communion prayers in both modern and traditional language.  The fourth category of commemorations is shown in light italic type and includes, as well as new names, some “demotions” from the old “black-letter” list.  The Welsh, Irish and Scottish churches have their own calendars and as you might expect, St David, St Bride, St Patrick, St Columba, St Kentigern, St Ninian and St Margaret all get Red-Letter status in their respective calendars, and a large number of other local saints are also commemorated. 

 

GAD 

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DFM