Midlent Sunday

Midlent Sunday (or Mothering Sunday), imperfectly explained in the Antiquitates Vulgares; is founded on the Roman Hilaria (q.v.), or feast in honor of Cybele, the mother of the gods, who, the legend tells us, was converted by Christianity into the mother Church, whence, in the second step, the Antiquitates Vulgares deduces the origin of Midleit. See Broughton, Bibl. Historico- Sacra, 1:194; Fosbrook, British Monachism, page 61.