Apostles Festivals, Fasts, Etc

Apostles' Festivals, Fasts, Etc

I. Festivals.

1. In the Apostolical Constitutions we find abstinence from labor enjoined on certain "days of the apostles;" but what these days were does not appear, though the injunction betokens a great festival.

2. The first Sunday after Easter appears to have been sometimes called "The Sunday of the Apostles." This Sunday was one of the highest festivals in the AEthiopian calendar.

3. In the West the commemoration of all the apostles was anciently joined with that of the two great apostles, Peter and Paul.

4. The Festival of the Twelve Apostles is celebrated in the Orthodox Greek Church on the morrow of that festival, June 30.

5. In the Armenian calendar, the Saturday of the sixth week after Pentecost is dedicated to the Twelve Holy Apostles; and the Tuesday in the fifth week after the -Elevation of the Cross is dedicated to Ananias of Damascus, Matthias, .Bariabas,. Philip, Stephen, Silas, and Silvanums, and the Twelve Apostles.

6. On May. occurs the Festival ,of Sts. Philip and James and (some add) All Apostles.

7. July 15 is, in the Roman. calendar, the Feast of the "Division of the Apostles."

II. Fasts.

1. As early as the Apostolical Constitutions, we find the week following the octave of Pentecost marked as a fast.

2. There is a collect for a fast in the mass in the Leonine sacramentary.

III. Dedications.-A church dedicated to the Twelve Apostles, second in splendor only to that of St. Sophia, was.. built at Constantinople by Constantine the Great, who intended it for the place of his own sepulture. He also dedicated at Capuam in honor of the apostles, a church to which he gave the name of Constantinian. The ancient: church at Rome dedicated to the apostles is said to have been begun by pope Pelagius I (555-560), and completed by his successor, John III (560-573).