High Days and Holy Days for April
1 April Fools Day
3 Richard of Chichester
9 - 16 HOLY WEEK
*21 Anselm
23 St George
25 St Mark the Evangelist
1 All Fool’s Day
In years gone by, the rules surrounding April Fool were this: between midnight and noon on 1 April, everyone is ‘fair game’ to be made a fool of. It is the morning of the practical joke. But the aim is not just to discomfort the victim: he must be tricked into taking action himself, sent on a ‘fool’s errand’.
And so children would be sent to the dairy for a pint of dove’s milk, or to the bookseller for The Life of Eve’s Mother. Practical jokes on a bigger scale were played: in 1860 a vast number of people received an official looking invitation to the Tower of London that read: ‘Admit the Bearer and Friends to view the Annual Ceremony of Washing the White Lions.’ Precisely the same trick had been played in 1698.
Then, on the stroke of noon, tradition decrees, April Fools is finished. If anyone attempts devilry thereafter, even while the clock is still striking, it recoils on his own head. A child would then race through the sing-song formula: ‘April-Fool-Day’s-past-and-gone-you’re-the-fool-and-I-am-none!’
3 Richard of Chichester (c1197 – 1253)
Ever wonder where the prayer … ‘May I know thee more clearly, love thee more dearly, and follow thee more nearly, day by day’ comes from? Richard of Chichester, a bishop in the 13th century, wrote it.
He began life as Richard de Wych, of Droitwich, the son of a yeoman farmer. But Richard was a studious boy, and after helping his father on the farm for several years, refused an advantageous offer of marriage, and instead made his way to Oxford, and later to Paris and Bologna to study canon law.
In 1235 he returned to Oxford, and was soon appointed Chancellor, where he supported Edmund, Archbishop of Canterbury, in his struggles against King Henry III’s misuse of Church funds. After further study to become a priest, Richard was in due course made a Bishop himself. He was greatly loved. He was charitable and accessible, both stern and merciful to sinners, extraordinarily generous to those stricken by famine, and a brilliant legislator of his diocese. He decreed that the sacraments were to be administered without payment, Mass celebrated in dignified conditions, the clergy to be chaste, to practise residence, and to wear clerical dress. The laity were obliged to attend Mass on Sundays and holy days, and to know by heart the Hail Mary as well as the Lord’s Prayer and the Creed.
Richard was also prominent in preaching the Crusade, which he saw as a call to reopen the Holy Land to pilgrims, not as a political expedition. He died at Dover on 3 April 1253. In art, Richard of Chichester is represented with a chalice at his feet, in memory of his having once dropped the chalice at Mass! One ancient English church is dedicated to him.
And, of course, he is author of that famous prayer, now set to popular music, which runs in full:
‘Thanks be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ for all the benefits thou hast given me, for all the pains and insults which thou hast borne for me. O most merciful redeemer, friend and brother, may I know thee more clearly, love thee more dearly and follow thee more nearly, day by day.’
9 Palm Sunday: Holy Week begins
This year, Easter Day falls on 16 April. The week leading up to it, which begins with Palm Sunday on 9 April, is very special in the church year, and is known as Holy Week.
Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday, the day when the Church remembers the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. The gospels tell us that he had gone up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, and that when he entered the city, the crowds gave him a rapturous welcome, throwing palm fronds into his path. On this day churches worldwide will distribute little crosses made from palm fronds in memory of Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem.
The next highlight of Holy Week falls on Maundy Thursday. Maundy Thursday focuses on one of the final acts concerning Jesus to be related in John’s Gospel – the washing of the disciples’ feet by Jesus. The ceremony of the ‘washing of the feet’ of members of the congregation came to be an important part of the liturgy (regular worship) of the medieval church, symbolising the humility of the clergy, in obedience to the example of Christ.
‘Maundy’ is an unusual word, and relates to this medieval practice of foot-washing. In the Middle Ages, church services were held in Latin. The opening words of a typical service on this day are based on the words of Jesus recorded in John 13: ‘A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.’ In Latin, the opening phrase of this sentence is ‘mandatum novum do vobis’ The word ‘mundy’ is thus a corruption of the Latin ‘mandatum’ (or command).
In England, in by-gone years, as an affirmation of humility, the monarch would wash the feet of a small number of his or her subjects. This has now been replaced by the ceremony of the ‘Maundy money’, in which the Queen distributes specially minted coins to the elderly at cathedrals throughout England.
Good Friday is the day on which Jesus died on the cross. It is the most solemn day in the Christian year, and is widely marked by the removal of all decorations from churches. In Lutheran churches, the day was marked by the reading of the passion narrative in a gospel, a practice which lies behind the ‘passions’ composed by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750). Both the St Matthew Passion and the St John Passion have their origins in this observance of Good Friday.
The custom of observing a period of three hours’ devotion from 12 midday to 3 pm on Good Friday goes back to the 18th century. The ‘Three Hours of the Cross’ often take the form of an extended mediation on the ‘Seven Last Words from the Cross’, with periods of silence, prayer, or hymn-singing.
Lent ends with Holy Saturday. The Eastern Orthodox churches hold the ‘Paschal Vigil’ – a late evening service which leads directly into the following Easter Day.
21 Anselm (1033 – 1109)
Anselm is a good saint to remember next time someone asks you to prove that there is a God. His brilliant and original Proslogion, written 1077-8, sets out the ‘ontological’ proof for God’s existence. Nearly ten centuries later, it is still studied by theological students as one of the great philosophical ‘proofs’ of God’s existence.
Anselm was born at Aosta, the son of a spendthrift Lombard nobleman, whom Anselm detested. In time he decided to become a Benedictine monk, and joined Lanfranc’s famous monastery at Bec (c. 1060). He became prior, then abbot. He was loved by his monks, appreciated for his sensitivity and intuitiveness. He remained friends also with Lanfranc, who had gone on to be Archbishop of Canterbury. After his death, Anselm reluctantly agreed to accept the job.
Archbishops did not have press offices in those days, but Anselm made his views on Church-versus-King known all the same, and they did not please the king. William Rufus exiled him in 1097 and King Henry I exiled him in 1103. Anselm was utterly committed to what he saw as the cause of God and the Church, and had no time for temporal politics. Peace between archbishop and monarch was not achieved until 1106.
Anselm spent the rest of his life in England. His theological stance of ‘Faith seeking understanding’ and the mind at faith’s service were the keys to his life and teaching.
23 St George’s Day d circa 300 AD
The Saint of an English Army before he was Patron Saint of England, St George may have been a soldier, but he was no Englishman. He was an officer in the Roman army under Diocletian, who refused to abandon his faith during the Terror, and was martyred at Lydda in Palestine about the year 300 AD - supposedly 23 April. Over the years St George became the example of a Christian fighting-man, a powerful helper against evil powers affecting individual lives. He was the soldier-hero of the Middle Ages, of whom remarkable deeds were reported.
In the Golden Legend of the 13th century, Jacobus de Voragine gave St George a handsome write-up. The story runs thus:
One day, St George rode up to the heathen city of Sylene in Lybia, where he found the citizens in great distress. A neighbouring dragon had forced them to surrender two sheep each day for its dinner, and when the sheep gave out, two of their children; and now they were about to sacrifice the King’s daughter, dressed as if for her wedding. St George encountered the little party by a stagnant lake, where the dragon lived, and persuaded the sobbing Princess to tell him why she was so miserable. At that moment the dragon appeared, looking inexpressibly revolting. The Saint charged, and drove his spear into the gaping mouth. To everyone’s amazement, he tumbled the monster over and over.
Then St George borrowed the Princess’ girdle, tied it round the dragon’s neck, and persuaded her to lead it back to Sylene herself. The sight of her approaching with the befuddled dragon on its makeshift lead emptied the town. When the inhabitants timidly crept back, St George promised to behead the dragon if they would all believe in Jesus Christ and be baptised.
It was a most effective form of evangelism, for everybody said ‘yes’ at once. So 15,000 people were baptised, and four carts were commissioned to remove the dragon’s body.
St George thus became a symbol of the war against evil, and is usually portrayed trampling the dragon of sin under his horse’s hoofs. The Crusaders had a vision of him helping them against the Saracens at Antioch, during the first Crusade, and so brought the story of St George back with them from Palestine. Presently England put herself under the protection of the Saint. His day was a declared a holiday in 1222. A red cross on a white field is the flag of St George.
25 Mark (d c 74)
Mark, the son of Mary, whose home in Jerusalem became a place of rest for Jesus and his 12 apostles, is considered the traditional author of the second gospel. He is also usually identified as the young man, described in Mark 14.51, who followed Christ after his arrest and then escaped capture by leaving his clothes behind.
Papias, in 130, said that in later years Mark became Peter’s interpreter. If so, then this close friendship would have been how Mark gathered so much information about Jesus’ life. Peter referred to him affectionately as his ‘son’.
Mark was also a companion to Paul on his journeys. When Paul was held captive at Rome, Mark was with him, helping him.
Mark’s Gospel, most likely written in Italy, perhaps in Rome, is the earliest account we have of the life of Jesus.
Early in the 9th century Mark’s body was brought to Venice, whose patron he became, and there it has remained to this day. The symbol of Mark as an evangelist, the lion, is much in evidence at Venice.