CANDLE MASS

thoughts on candlemas
OE Candelmæsse

In churches of the Western Catholic tradition, the celebration of Mass on February 2nd includes the Blessing of Candles for use during the following year.

While the candles are being blessed, the choir sings the canticle
nunc dimittis servum tuum domine

Lord, now lettest thou they servant depart in peace
According to thy word
My mine eyes have seen thy salvation
Which thou has prepared before the face of all people
To be a light to lighten the gentiles
And to be the glory of thy people Israel

These are the words attributed to Simeon, the elderly priest of the Jerusalem Temple, before whom stood Joseph and Mary with the baby Jesus.

Mary is there to fulfil the requirements of the ancient Jewish Law. She had given birth 40 days before. Now she comes to the Temple to be ritually purified and to present her first-born son to the priest. Hence the official name for the festival on February 2nd is either The Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary or The Presentation of Christ in the Temple. I am told that the former focuses on the status of Mary Theotokos (Mary the Mother of God) while the latter focuses on the masculinity of the infant Jesus.

I understand that this intention was first introduced – into the Greek-speaking Orthodox liturgy – during the eventful 4th century of the Common Era when Christianity was moved from ruthless persecution during the first decade of the 300s to the status of the one and only permitted religion in the final decade and, in the meantime, Christianity officially defined itself, by order of the Emperor Constantine, at the Council of Nikea in 325; and the Canon of the New Testament, sacred writings of the Orthodox faith, was finally specified.

There’s a rather interesting exposition attributed to Pope Innocent XII in the concluding years of the 1600s. The story goes that, in pagan Roman times, it was the custom for women to go about with lighted candles in imitation of the goddess Ceres seeking for her lost daughter Prosepine (who had been kidnapped by her uncle Pluto and held captive in the Underworld). [In the Greek version, it is Demeter the Earth Mother seeking for her lost daughter Persephone.]

There is also an association with the pagan practice of farm animals being moved out of the hayfield with the first signs of Spring.

© francis cameron
oxford, 27 january 2009