ROGATION MONDAY
The Liturgical Year
Abbot Dom Guéranger
It seems strange that there
should be anything like mourning during Paschal Time: and yet these three days
are days of penance. A moment's reflection, however, will show us that the
institution of the Rogation Days is a most appropriate one. True, our Saviour
told us, before his Passion, that the
children of the Bridegroom should not fast whilst the Bride groom is with them;
but is not sadness in keeping with these the last hours of Jesus' presence on
earth? Were not his Mother and Disciples oppressed with grief at the thought of
their having so soon to lose Him, whose company had been to them a foretaste of
heaven.
Let us see how the Liturgical
Year came to have inserted in its Calendar these three days, during which Holy
Church, though radiant with the joy of Easter, seems to go back to her Lenten
observances. The Holy Ghost, who guides her in all things, willed that this
completion of her Paschal Liturgy should owe its origin to a devotion peculiar
to one of the most illustrious and venerable Churches of southern Gaul: it was
the Church of Vienne.
The second half of the 5th
century had but just commenced, when the country round Vienne, which had been
recently conquered by the Burgundians, was visited with calamities of every
kind. The people were struck with fear at these indications of God's anger. St.
Mamertus, who, at the time, was Bishop of Vienne, prescribed three days' public
expiation, during which the Faithful were to devote themselves to penance, and
walk in procession chanting appropriate Psalms. The three days preceding the
Ascension were the ones chosen. Unknown to himself, the holy Bishop was thus
instituting a practice, which was afterwards to form part of the Liturgy of the
universal Church.
The Churches of Gaul, as
might naturally be expected, were the first to adopt the devotion. St. Aleimus
Avitus, who was one of the earliest successors of St. Mamertus in the See of
Vienne, informs us that the custom of keeping the Rogation Days was, at that
time, firmly established in his Diocese. St. Caesarius of Arles, who lived in
the early part of the 6th century, speaks of their being observed in countries
afar off; by which he meant, at the very least, to designate all that portion
of Gaul which was under the Visigoths. That the whole of Gaul soon adopted the
custom, is evident from the Canons drawn up at the first Council of Orleans,
held in 511, and which represented all the Provinces that were in allegiance to
Clovis. The regulations, made by the Council regarding the Rogations, give us a
great idea of the importance attached to their observance. Not only abstinence
from flesh-meat, but even fasting, is made of obligation. Masters are also required
to dispense their servants from work, in order that they may assist at the long
functions which fill up almost the whole of these three days. In 567, the
Council of Tours, likewise, imposed the precept of fasting during the Rogation
Days; and as to the obligation of resting from servile work, we find it
recognized in the Capitularia of Charlemagne and Charles the Bald.
The main part of the Rogation
rite originally consisted, (at least in Gaul,) in singing canticles of
supplication whilst passing from place to place, and hence the word Procession.
We learn from St. Caesarius of Arles, that each day's Procession lasted six
hours; and that when the Clergy became tired, the women took up the chanting.
The Faithful of those days had not made the discovery, which was reserved for
modern times, that one requisite for religious Processions is that they be as
short as possible.
The Procession for the
Rogation Days was preceded by the Faithful receiving the Ashes upon their
heads, as now at the beginning of Lent; they were then sprinkled with Holy
Water, and the Procession began. It was made up of the Clergy and people of
several of the smaller parishes, who were headed by the Cross of the principal
Church, which conducted the whole ceremony. All walked bare-foot, singing the
Litany, Psalms and Antiphons. They entered the Churches that lay on their
route, and sang an Antiphon or Responsory appropriate to each. Such was the
original ceremony of the Rogation Days, and it was thus observed for a very
long period. The Monk of St. Gall's, who has left us so many interesting
details regarding the life of Champagne, tells us that this holy Emperor used
to join the Processions of these three Days, and walk bare footed from his
palace to the Stational Church. We find St. Elizabeth of Hungary, in the 14th
century, setting the like example: during the Rogation Days, she used to mingle
with the poorest women of the place, and walked bare-footed, wearing a dress of
coarse stuff. St. Charles Borromeo, who restored in his Diocese of Milan so
many ancient practices of piety, was sure not to be indifferent about the
Rogation Days. He spared neither word nor example to reanimate this salutary
devotion among his people. He ordered fasting to be observed during these three
Days; he fasted himself on bread and water. The Procession, in which all the
Clergy of the City were obliged to join, and which began after the sprinkling
of Ashes, started from the Cathedral at an early hour in the morning, and was
not over till three or four o'clock in the afternoon. Thirteen Churches were
visited on the Monday; nine, on the Tuesday; and eleven, on the Wednesday. The
saintly Archbishop celebrated Mass and preached in one of these Churches.
If we compare the
indifference shown by the Catholics of the present age, for the Rogation Days,
with the devotion wherewith our ancestors kept them, we cannot but acknowledge
that there is a great falling off in faith and piety. Knowing, as we do, the
importance attached to these Processions by the Church, we cannot help
wondering how it is that there are so few among the Faithful who assist at
them. Our surprise increases when we find persons preferring their own private
devotions to these public Prayers of the Church, which to say nothing of the
result of good example, merit far greater graces than any exercises of our own
fancying.
The whole Western Church soon
adopted the Rogation Days. They were introduced into England at an early
period; so, likewise, into Spain, and Germany. Rome herself sanctioned them by
her own observing them; this she did in the 8th century, during the Pontificate
of St. Leo the Third. She gave them the name of the Lesser Litanies, in
contradistinction to the Procession of the 25th of April, which she calls the
Greater Litanies. With regard to the Fast which the Churches of Gaul observed
during the Rogation Days, Rome did not adopt that part of the institution.
Fasting seemed to her to throw a gloom over the joyous forty days, which our
Risen Jesus grants to his Disciples; she therefore enjoined only abstinence
from flesh-meat during the Rogation Days. The Church of Milan, which, as we
have just seen, so strictly observes the Rogations, keeps them on the Monday,
Tuesday and Wednesday after the Sunday within the Octave of the Ascension, that
is to say, after the forty days devoted to the celebration of the Resurrection.
If, then, we would have a
correct idea of the Rogation Days, we must consider them as Rome does, that is,
as a holy institution which, without interrupting our Paschal joy, tempers it.
The purple vestments used during the Procession and Mass do not signify that
our Jesus has fled from us, but that the time for his departure is approaching.
By prescribing Abstinence for these three days, the Church would express how much
she will feel the loss of her Spouse, who is so soon to be taken from her.
In England, as in many other
countries, abstinence is no longer of obligation for the Rogation Days. This
should be an additional motive to induce the Faithful to assist at the Processions
and Litanies, and, by their fervently uniting in the prayers of the Church, to
make some compensation for the abolition of the law of Abstinence. We need so
much penance, and we take so little! If we are truly in earnest, we shall be
most fervent in doing the little that is left us to do.
The object of the Rogation
Days is to appease the anger of God, and avert the chastisements which the sins
of the world so justly deserve; moreover, to draw down the divine blessing on
the fruits of the earth.
