How ancient is the Great Easter Vigil liturgy? We have evidence of a severe fast undertaken during Holy Week as early as 329 A.D. With regard to the Easter Vigil itself, we have descriptions of Jerusalem Easter Vigils, which include the twelve Old Testament readings, also from the 4^th century.

In the West, the celebration of the Easter Vigil got moved to — surprise! — Saturday morning which is where it was until 1951 when, as an experiment, Venerable Pius XII moved it to Saturday evening. In 1955 he made the change final, and, pursuant to the Vatican II document on the liturgy, Sacramentum Concilium (1963), promulgated a reformed liturgy in 1969.[i]

For an excellent description of the elements of this liturgy and its symbolism, I refer you to Rev. Ignatius Yeo of the Archdiocese of Singapore, “From Fire to Font: The Easter Vigil Explained,” and to the description provided by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Two Easter Vigils from 1,600 years ago are worth remembering. One was the occasion of the baptism of St. Augustine (354-430) by St. Ambrose (c. 339-397), bishop of Milan. Augustine was age 33 at the time of the all-night vigil of April 24-25, 387 A.D.

St. Augustine wrote over five million words, including his Confessions, City of God, On the Trinity, On Christian Doctrine, On Free Choice of the Will, Expositions on the Book of Psalms, two works on the Book of Genesis. We possess 300 of his letters and 900 of his sermons. He is cited nearly 90 times in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992). He was made a Doctor of the Church in 1298.

Ambrose’s cathedral was built in 379, so the church building was only eight years old at the time of the baptism of St. Augustine. Some of the original building remains in today’s Basilica di Sant’Ambrogio.

Augustine’s 15-year-old son, Adeodatus, and Augustine’s very good friend, Alypius, were baptized at the same time. (For more on the friendship with Alypius, see my recent blog.) Augustine’s mother, St. Monica, who died later that year, was present for the baptisms.

Here are some of Augustine’s thoughts about this occasion written in his Confessions ten years later:

The days were not long enough as I meditated, and found wonderful delight in meditating upon the depth of Your design for the salvation of the human race. I wept at the beauty of Your hymns and canticles and was powerfully moved at the sweet sound of Your Church’s singing. Those sounds flowed into my ears, and the truth streamed in my heart: so that my feeling of devotion overflowed, and the tears ran from my eyes, and I was happy in them. (Confessions, Book IX, ch. 6.14; F.J. Sheed, trans., 1942)

He recalled how it was that Western churches had started singing these beautiful hymns and psalms during worship. It was just a year earlier, in January 386, that the Empress Justina, an Arian heretic, had issued an edit requiring Bishop Ambrose to surrender several churches to the Arians. Ambrose instead arranged to have the churches filled with Catholics in February to prevent their confiscation (Book IX, ch. 7.15). Augustine wrote:

The devoted people had stayed day and night in the church, ready to die with your bishop [Ambrose], Your servant. And my mother [Monica], Your handmaid, bearing a great part of the trouble and vigil, had lived in prayer. I also, though still not warmed by the fire of Your Spirit [prior to my conversion], was stirred to excitement by the disturbed and wrought-up state of the city. It was at this time that the practice was instituted of singing hymns and psalms after the manner of the Eastern churches, to keep the people from being altogether worn out with anxiety and want of sleep. (Book IX, ch 7.15)

The Roman Missal[ii] quotes an undated sermon (No. 219[iii]) of St. Augustine when it says that the Easter Vigil is the “mother of all vigils.”

The second Easter Vigil from about 400 A.D. worth remembering occurred 17 years later, in 404, in connection with St. John Chrysostom (c. 347-407), patriarch of Constantinople (r. 398-death).

We possess 17 treatises by him, over 700 sermons, and over 240 letters. These deal with the Bible, the priesthood, wealth, marriage, and moral life. He is cited 18 times in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. He acquired his surname, which means “golden-mouthed,” in 553. He was named a Doctor of the Church no later than 1568.

The circumstances surrounding the event are complicated, but suffice it to say that during the Easter Vigil of 404, April 16-17, imperial soldiers invaded the baptistery, killing and wounding so many that it was described as a “massacre” and that the baptismal waters ran red with the blood of the new Christians. Consider what it must have been like for those present to witness the deaths and wounding of so many just before or just after their baptism.

Two months later, in June, Chrysostom was exiled to Cucusus in Armenia (in present-day southeastern Turkey), 400 miles from Constantinople as the crow flies. In the summer of 407, he was sent another 700 miles further away to Pityus on the Black Sea. He did not get very far. He died at Comana (now Şarköy) in Cappadocia during this walk due to exposure to the elements, ill health, and exhaustion.

This Easter Vigil, let us give thanks to God for the faithful men and women who have come before us.

———————————————

[i] Quoting an Apostolic Letter dated Feb. 14, 1969:

“Our predecessor Pius XII, of blessed memory, ordered by means of a decree [note 3] that in the Western church during Easter night the solemn vigil be restored, so that during it the people of God might renew their spiritual covenant with Christ the risen Lord in the course of celebrating the Sacraments of Christian initiation.”

“Approval of the Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the New General Roman Calendar,” Apostolic Letter, Feb. 14, 1969, printed in Roman Missal, 2d atypical ed. (2011), p. 102. Note 3: Cf. Sacred Congregation of Rites, Decree, Dominicae Resurrectionis, Feb. 9, 1951: Acta Apostolicae Sedis 43 (1951), pp. 128-129.

Quoting an Apostolic Constitution dated April 3, 1969:

“This task [of revising and enriching the Roman Missal of 1570] our same predecessor [Pius XII] inaugurated with the restoration of the Easter Vigil and of the rite of Holy Week [note 3], and thus took, as it were, a first step towards the adaptation of the Roman Missal to the sensitivities of this new age.”

“Promulgation of the Missale Romanum Renewed by Decree of the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican,” Apostolic Constitution, April 3, 1969, printed in Roman Missal, 2d atypical ed. (2011), p. 13. Note 3: Cf. Sacred Congregation of Rites, Decree, Dominicae Resurrectionis, 9 Feb. 1951: Acta Apostolicae Sedis 43 (1951), pp. 128ff.; General Decree, Maxima redemptionis nostrae mysteria, 16 Nov. 1955: Acta Apostolicae Sedis 47 (1955), pp. 838ff. Second Vatican Council, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, no. 21.

[ii] 2d atypical ed. p. 364.

[iii] Edmund Hill, O.P., trans., The Works of St. Augustine: A Translation for the 21^st Century, vol. 6, Sermons-Part 3, p. 198.