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ASCENSION, FEAST OF THE

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Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 717 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ASCENSION, FEAST OF THE , one of the See also:oecumenical festivals of the See also:Christian See also:Church, ranking in solemnity with those of See also:Christmas, of See also:Easter and of See also:Pentecost. It is held See also:forty days after Easter, or ten days before See also:Whitsunday, in celebration of See also:Christ's ascension into See also:heaven forty days after the resurrection. It always falls on a See also:Thursday, and the See also:day is known as Ascension Day, or See also:Holy Thursday. The festival is of See also:great antiquity; and See also:ASCALON though there is no discoverable trace of it before the See also:middle of the 4th See also:century, subsequent references to it assume its See also:long See also:establishment. Thus St See also:Augustine (Ep. 54 ad Januar.) mentions it as having been kept from See also:time immemorial and as probably instituted by the apostles See also:Chrysostom, in his See also:homily on the ascension, mentions a celebration of the festival in the church of Romanesia outside See also:Antioch, and See also:Socrates (Hist. See also:eccles. vii. 26) records that in the See also:year 390 the See also:people of See also:Constantinople " of old See also:custom " (E E6ovs) celebrated the feast in a suburb of the See also:city. As these two references suggest, the festival was associated with a professional See also:pilgrimage, in See also:commemoration of the passing of Christ and his apostles to the See also:Mount of See also:Olives; such a See also:pro-cession is described by See also:Adamnan, See also:abbot of See also:Iona, as taking See also:place at See also:Jerusalem in the 7th century, when the feast was celebrated in the church on Mount Olivet (de loc. sanct. i. 22). The Peregrinatio of Etheria (Silvia), which See also:dates from c. A.D. 385, says that the festival was held in the Church of the Nativity at See also:Bethlehem (See also:Duchesne, Chr.

See also:

Worship, p. 515). In the See also:West, however, in the middle ages, the procession with candles and See also:banners outside the church was taken as symbolical of Christ's triumphant entry into heaven. In the See also:East the festival is known as the &v&Xfp/as, " taking up," or E7rLUwO bo , a See also:term first used in the Cappadocian church, and of which the meaning has been disputed, but which probably signifies the feast " of completed salvation." The word ascensio, adopted in the West, implies the ascension of Christ by his own See also:power, in contradistinction to the assumptio, or taking up into heaven of the Virgin See also:Mary by the power of See also:God. In the See also:Roman See also:Catholic Church the most characteristic See also:ritual feature of the festival is now the See also:solemn extinction of the See also:paschal See also:candle after the See also:Gospel at high See also:mass. This candle, lighted at every mass for the forty days after Easter, symbolizes the presence of Christ with his disciples, and its extinction his parting from them. The custom dates from 1263, and was formerly confined to the See also:Franciscans; it was prescribed for the universal church by the See also:Congregation of See also:Rites on the 19th of May 1697. Other customs, now obsolete, were formerly associated with the See also:liturgy of this feast; e.g. the blessing of the new beans after the Commemoration of the Dead in the See also:canon of the mass (Duchesne, p. 183). In some churches, during the middle ages, an See also:image of Christ was raised from the See also:altar through a hole in the roof, through which a burning See also:straw figure representing Satan was immediately thrown down. In the See also:Anglican Church Ascension Day and its See also:octave continue to be observed as a great festival, for which a See also:special See also:preface to the See also:consecration See also:prayer in the communion service is provided, as in the See also:case of Christmas, Easter, Whitsunday, and Trinity See also:Sunday. The celebration of the Feast of the Ascension was also retained in the Lutheran churches as warranted by Holy Scripture.

See See also:

Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopddie (190o), s." Himmelf ahrtsfest" ; L. Duchesne, Christian Worship (2nd Eng. ed., See also:London, 1904); The Catholic See also:Encyclopaedia (London and New See also:York, 1907).

End of Article: ASCENSION, FEAST OF THE

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