Palm Sunday
PALM SUNDAY
The Sunday next before Easter, so called from palm branches being strewed on the road by the multitude, when our Saviour made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
Fuente: Theological Dictionary
Palm Sunday
Sunday before Easter, the sixth and last of Lent, and the beginning of Holy Week, commemorating Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem when olive and palm branches were strewn in His path. Before the Mass of the day the Palms are to be solemnly blessed. In connection with this blessing a procession is prescribed. The palms which have just been blessed are carried in the hands of the participants in the procession. It leaves the church proper, and should move entirely about the outer circumference of the church, where this is feasible. Before re-entering the church two chanters enter, and behind closed doors sing or chant the Gloria laus et honor, awaiting the answer from those still outside the door. The Cross-bearer strikes the door with the foot of the Cross, whereupon the door is opened and the procession enters. According to Almar this procession was already in vogue in the 9th century. There is no trace of it in Rome so early. However, in the Middle Ages it was quite common everywhere. In the 16th century the procession was often dramatic in its arrangements; it was almost a pageant in severai places in Germany, and many of the processions went from one church to another at some distance. The way was often strewn with cloths of rare texture in imitation of what was done on the first Palm Sunday. Other bits of pageantry were the figure of the Christ riding on an ass. The palms, when burned, supply the ashes for distribution on Ash Wednesday of the next year. Palm Sunday is also called Flower, Olive, Branch, Sallow, Willow, Yew, Blossom, and Fig Sunday.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Palm Sunday
The sixth and last Sunday of Lent and beginning of Holy Week, a Sunday of the highest rank, not even a commemoration of any kind being permitted in the Mass. In common law it fixes the commencement of Easter duty. The Roman Missal marks the station at St. John Lateran (see STATIONS) and before September, 1870, the pope performed the ceremonies there. The Greeks celebrate the day with great solemnity; they call it kyriake or heorte ton baion or heorte baiophoros or also Lazarus Sunday, because on the day before they have the feast of the resuscitation of Lazarus. The emperors used to distribute branches of palm and small presents among their nobles and domestics. The Latin liturgical books call it Dominica in Palmis, Dominica or Dies Palmarum. From the cry of the people during the procession the day has received the name Dominica Hosanna or simply Hosanna (Ozanna). Because every great feast was in some way a remembrance of the resurrection of Christ and was in consequence called Pascha, we find the names Pascha floridum, in French Pâques fleuries, in Spanish Pascua florida, and it was from this day of 1512 that our State of Florida received its name (Nilles, II, 205). From the custom of also blessing flowers and entwining them among the palms arose the terms Dominica florida and dies floridus. Flower-Sunday was well known in England, in Germany as Blumensonntag or Blumentag, as also among the Serbs, Croats, and Ruthenians, in the Glagolite Breviary and Missal, and among the Armenians. The latter celebrate another Palm Sunday on the seventh Sunday after Easter to commemorate the “Ingressus Domini in coelum juxta visionem Gregorii Illuminatoris” called Secundus floricultus or Secunda palmarum dominica (Nilles, II, 519). Since this Sunday is the beginning of Holy Week, during which sinners were reconciled, it was called Dominica indulgentioe, competentium, and capitilavium from the practice of washing and shaving of the head as a bodily preparation for baptism. During the early centuries of the Church this sacrament was conferred solemnly only in the night of Holy Saturday, the text of the creed had been made known to the catechumens on the preceding Palm Sunday. This practice was followed in Spain (Isidore, “De off. eccl.”, I, 27), in Gaul (P. L., LXXII, 265), and in Milan (Ambrose, Ep. xx). In England the day was called Olive or Branch Sunday, Sallow or Willow, Yew or Blossom Sunday, or Sunday of the Willow Boughs. Since the celebration recalled the solemn entry of Christ into Jerusalem people made use of many quaint and realistic representations; thus, a figure of Christ seated on an ass, carved out of wood was carried in the procession and even brought into the church. Such figures may still be seen in the museums of Basle, Zurich, Munich, and Nürnberg (Kellner, 50).
In some places in Germany and France it was customary to strew flowers and green boughs about the cross in the churchyard. After the Passion had been recited at Mass blessed palms were brought and this cross (in consequence sometimes called the Palm cross) was wreathed and decked with them to symbolize Christ’s victory. In Lower Bavaria boys went about the streets singing the “Pueri Hebræorum” and other carols, whence they received the name of Pueribuben (“Theologisch-praktische Quartalschrift”, 1892, 81). Sometimes an uncovered crucifix, or the gospel-book, and often the Blessed Sacrament, was carried in recession. In many parts of England a large and beautiful tent was prepared in the churchyard. Two priests accompanied by lights brought the Blessed Sacrament in a beautiful cup or pyx hung in a shrine of open work to this tent. A long-drawn procession with palms and flowers came out of the church and made four stations at the Laics’ cemetery north of the church, at the south side, at the west door, and before the church-yard cross, which was then uncovered. At each of these stations Gospels were sung. After the singing of the first Gospel the shrine with the Blessed Sacrament was borne forward. On meeting, all prostrated and kissed the ground. The procession then continued. The door of the church was opened, the priests held up on high the shrine with the Blessed Sacrament, so that all who went in had to go under this shrine, and thus the procession came back into the church. The introduction of the Blessed Sacrament into the Palm Sunday procession is generally ascribed to Bl. Lanfranc who ordered the ceremony for his Abbey of Bec.
Liturgical writers differ in assigning a time for the introduction of the benediction of palms and of the procession. Martène, “De antiq. eccl. discipl.” xx, 288, finds no mention of them before, the eighth or ninth century. Peliccia, “Christian. eccl. politia”, II, 308, is of the same opinion and mentions Amularius, “De div. off.”, I, x, as the first to speak of them. Binterim, V, i, 173, on the authority of Severus, Patriarch of Antioch, and of Josue Stylites, states that Peter Bishop of Edessa, about 397 ordered the benediction of the palms for all the churches of Mesopotamia. The ceremonies had their origin most probably in Jerusalem. In the “Peregrinatio Sylviæ”, undertaken between 378 and 394, they are thus described: On the Lord’s Day which begins the Paschal, or Great, Week, after all the customary exercises from cook-crow till morn had taken place in the Anastasia and at the Cross, they went to the greater church behind the Cross on Golgotha, called the Martyrium, and here the ordinary Sunday services were held. At the seventh hour (one o’clock p. m.) all proceeded to the Mount of Olives, Eleona, the cave in which Our Lord used to teach, and for two hours hymns, anthems, and lessons were recited. About the hour of None (three o’clock p. m.) all went, singing hymns, to the Imbomon, whence Our Lord ascended into heaven. Here two hours more were spent in devotional exercises, until about 5 o’clock, when the passage from the Gospel relating how the children carrying branches and Palms met the Lord, saying “Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord” is read. At these words all went back to the city, repeating “Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord.” All the children bore branches of palm or olive. The faithful passed through the city to the Anastasia, and there recited Vespers. Then after a prayer in the church of the Holy Cross all returned to their homes.
In the three oldest Roman Sacramentaries no mention is found of either the benediction of the palms or the procession. The earliest notice is in the “Gregorianum” used in France in the ninth and tenth centuries. In it is found among the prayers of the day one that pronounces a blessing on the bearers of the palms but not on the palms. The name Dominica in palmis, De passione Domini occurs in the “Gelasianum”, but only as a superscription and Probst (“Sacramentarien und Ordines”, Münster, 1892, 202) is probably correct in suspecting the first part to be an addition, and the De passione Domini the original inscription. It seems certain that the bearing of palms during services was the earlier practice, then came the procession, and later the benediction of the palms.
The principal ceremonies of the day are the benediction of the palms, the procession, the Mass, and during it the singing of the Passion. The blessing of the palms follows a ritual similar to that of Mass. On the altar branches of palms are placed between the candlesticks instead of flowers ordinarily used. The palms to be blessed are on a table at the Epistle side or in cathedral churches between the throne and the altar. The bishop performs the ceremony from the throne, the priest at the Epistle side of the altar. An antiphon “Hosanna to the Son of David” is followed by a prayer. The Epistle is read from Exodus xv, 27-xvi, 7, narrating the murmuring of the children of Israel in the desert of Sin, and sighing for the fleshpots of Egypt, and gives the promise of the manna to be sent as food from heaven. The Gradual contains the prophetic words uttered by the high-priest Caiphas, “That it was expedient that one man should die for the people”; and another the prayer of Christ in the Garden of Olives that the chalice might pass; also his admonition to the disciples to watch and pray. The Gospel, taken from St. Matthew, xvi, 1-9, describes the triumphant entry of Christ into Jerusalem when the populace cut boughs from the trees and strewed them as He passed, crying, Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. (In private Masses this Gospel is read at the end of Mass instead of that of St. John.) Then follow an oration, a preface, the Sanctus, and Benedictus.
In the five prayers which are then said the bishop or priest asks God to bless the branches of palm or olive, that they may be a protection to all places into which they may be brought, that the right hand of God may expell all adversity, bless and protect all who dwell in them, who have been redeemed by our Lord Jesus Christ. The prayers make reference to the dove bringing back the olive branch to Noah’s ark and to the multitude greeting Our Lord; they say that the branches of palms signify victory over the prince of death and the olive the advent of spiritual unction through Christ. The officiating clergyman sprinkles the palms with holy water, incenses them, and, after another prayer, distributes them. During the distribution the choir sings the “Pueri Hebræorum”. The Hebrew children spread their garments in the way and cried out saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” Then follows the procession, of the clergy and of the people, carrying the blessed palms, the choir in the mean time singing the antiphons “Cum appropinquaret”, “Cum audisset”, and others. All march out of the church. On the return of the procession two or four chanters enter the church, close the door and sing the hymn “Gloria, laus”, which is repeated by those outside. At the end of the hymn the subdeacon knocks at the door with the staff of the cross, the door is opened, and all enter singing “Ingrediente Domino”. Mass is celebrated, the principal feature of which is the singing of the Passion according to St. Matthew, during which all hold the palms in their hands.
Palm branches have been used by all nations as an emblem of joy and victory over enemies; in Christianity as a sign of victory over the flesh and the world according to Ps. xci, 13, “Justus ut palma florebit “; hence especially associated with the memory of the martyrs. The palms blessed on Palm Sunday were used in the procession of the day, then taken home by the faithful and used as a sacramental. They were preserved in prominent places in the house, in the barns, and in the fields, and thrown into the fire during storms. On the Lower Rhine the custom exists of decorating the grave with blessed palms. From the blessed palms the ashes are procured for Ash Wednesday. In places where palms cannot be found, branches of olive, box elder, spruce or other trees are used and the “Cæremoniale episcoporum”, II, xxi, 2 suggests that in such cases at least little flowers or crosses made of palm be attached to the olive boughs. In Rome olive branches are distributed to the people, while the clergy carry palms frequently dried and twisted into various shapes. In parts of Bavaria large swamp willows, with their catkins, and ornamented with flowers and ribbons, were used.
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ROCK, The Church of Our Fathers (London, 1904); DUCHESNE, Christian Worship (London, 1904), 247; American Ecclesiastical Review (1908), 361; Kirchenlexicon; KELLNER, Heortology (tr. London, 1908); KRAUS, Realencyklopädie; NILLES, Kalendarium Manuale (Innsbruck, 1897).
FRANCIS MERSHMAN Transcribed by Mark E. Maier
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XICopyright © 1911 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, February 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Palm Sunday
(Lat. Dominica Palmarum, or Dom. in Palmis) is the name usually given to the last Sunday of Lent, after the custom of blessing branches of the palm-tree, or of other trees substituted in those countries in which palm, cannot be procured, and of carrying the blessed branches in procession, in commemoration of Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Joh 12:12-16; Mat 12:1-11; Mar 11:1-11). Palms and the branches of palms were used in this important historic entry because they were then regarded as an emblem of victory, and the carrying and waving of its branches was emblematic of success and in honor of royalty. At the time of this triumphal entry a psalm of rejoicing was chanted by the thousands who recognised the royalty of Christ. No sooner did he enter the city than he proceeded to the Temple, and wrought several miracles for the relief of both maimed and blind who came to him. These things were done on the day when the lamb was separated and devoted for the Paschal service, and other preparations were made for the Passover.
The date of the first observance of Palm-Sunday by the Church is uncertain. The name is as old as the time of Amalarius. I In the Greek Church Palm-Sunday was apparently observed as early as the 4th century. The writings of the Greek fathers contain allusions to the celebration of this day. In the Western Church there are no signs of the observance of it during the first six centuries. The first writer in the West who expressly refers to it is St. Ambrose; but according to Venerable Bede the usage certainly existed in the 7th century. A special service is found in the Roman missal, and also in the Greek euchologies, for the blessing of branches of palms and olives; but in many countries other trees, as in England the yew or the willow, and in Brittany the box, are blessed instead. A procession is formed, the members of which issue from the church carrying branches in their hands, and singing a hymn, suited to the occasion, of very ancient origin. In the Greek Church the book of the Gospels is borne in front. In some of the Catholic countries of the West, a priest, or occasionally a lay figure, was led at the head, mounted upon an ass, in commemoration of Christ’s entry into the city a usage which still exists in some parts of Spain and Spanish America. Before the party returns to the church the doors have been closed, and certain strophes of the hymn are sung alternately by a choir within the church and by the procession without, when, on the subdeacon’s knocking at the door, it is again thrown open, and the procession re-enters. During the singing of the Passion in the solemn mass which ensues, the congregation hold the palm branches in their hands, and at the conclusion of the service they are carried to their respective homes, where they are preserved during the year.
At Rome, the Procession of the Palms, in which the pope has his place, is among the most striking of the picturesque ceremonies:of the Holy Week. In the Capelle Pontificie, the only authorized rubric of the mode in which these high ceremonies are to be conducted, is the following account of the ceremony of the palms: Before describing the blessing of the palms, it is necessary to remember that the festival, the blessing and the procession of palms, was instituted for the solemn entrance of Jesus Christ into the city of Jerusalem, that by the faithful united it might not only be represented in spirit every year to the Christian multitude, but might also be renewed in some other mode. Besides this the Church wished to signify by this solemn ceremony the glorious entrance into heaven which the divine Redeemer will make with the elect after the general judgment. Seymour thus describes the ceremony: The pope, as the vicar of Jesus Christ, and therefore his most suitable representative, is carried into St. Peter’s, not indeed meek and lowly, riding upon an ass, but seated in his chair, and carried on the shoulders of eight men. He is arrayed in all possible magnificence, preceded by the long line of bishops and cardinals in their robes of splendor, accompanied by all the high officers of state, and surrounded by the naked swords of his guardsmen. After he descends from the litter, and takes his place upon the throne, and has received the homage of each cardinal, as usual on those state occasions, the ceremonies peculiar to the day commence. Three priests, each carrying aloft a palm, descend from the high-altar, and slowly approach the throne.
The pope receives them, reading over them a prescribed form of prayer, sprinkling them with holy water, and thus blessing them. Each cardinal, archbishop, bishop, prelate, ambassador, etc., then approaches the throne, and on his knees receives a palm from the pope, which he accepts with the usual forms of kissing the hand, or knee, or foot of the pope, according to his rank, and then retires to his place. When every person is thus supplied, the procession of palms is formed; the pope leaving his throne again, mounts his chair on the men’s shoulders, and preceded by candles lighted, the choir singing, the incense burning the whole column in their magnificent and many colored robes moves down the aisle by one side of the high-altar, and returns by the other. Borne above all by the height of the litter, his holiness moves, the conspicuous representation of the meek and lowly One.’ As the procession moves slowly along, the splendor of the costumes, their brilliant colors, and their gold and silver brocade-the long array of mitres, and many branches of palms moving among them-the strains of sacred music from the choir, mingling with the heavy tramp of the guardsmen the long and brilliant lines of military extending the whole length of the church, and the procession itself, with the pope lifted on high above all, and all this in the most magnificent temple in the world, presents to the eye a scene of pageantry most striking and beautiful, but wholly ineffective, because unsuitable as representing the entrance of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem.
When the procession has ended, and the pope has returned to the throne, and the cardinals, archbishops, bishops, etc., have retired to their places, the high mass is celebrated, and an indulgence granted to all present, a special rubric being used on this occasion. Each member of the congregation carries home his branch, which is regarded as a charm against diseases. Some of these branches are reserved to burn to ashes for the next Ash-Wednesday. In England Palm-Sunday anciently was celebrated with much ceremony; but the blessing and procession of the palms was discontinued in the Church of England, together with the other ceremonies abolished in the reign of Edward VI. (For the different ceremonies anciently observed on Palm-Sunday in England, see Walcott, Sacred Archeology, p. 421-424; Brand, Popular Antiquities of Great Britain [see Index in vol. 3]. See also Collier, Eccles. Hist. 2:241; Wheatley, Commentary on Book of Common Prayer, p. 222.) At a recent observance of Palm-Sunday by Romish churches in the diocese of New York, palms supplied from Charleston, S.C., were used. See Riddle, Christian Antiquities; Wetzer u. Welte, Kirchen-Lex. s.v. Palmsonntag.
The ordinary reckoning of the events of Passion-week places this event, as its name imports, on Sunday; but a more careful examination of the Gospel narratives inclines us to locate it on Monday. The indications of date are most explicit in the Gospel of John, which states (Joh 12:1) that the final arrival of Jesus at Bethany was six days before the Passover. That this term is inclusive of both extremes is clear not only from the usual method of reckoning such intervals among the Jews (comp. especially Joh 20:26; Mat 26:1), but also from the fact that as Jericho was about one day’s journey distant, Jesus would otherwise have been obliged to travel the entire Sabbath, instead of spending that sacred day, as he naturally would and actually seems to have done, at Zacchaeus’s house (Luk 19:5). The Passover-day that year was Friday as all admit the 15th of Nisan (Num 33:3); the Paschal lamb was slain on the afternoon of the 14th (Exo 12:6), and it was eaten in the evening immediately after (Lev 23:5), i.e. Thursday. (Andrews, in his Life of our Lord, p. 397, misstates this position, as making the 14th fall on Friday, and yet including both extremes in the six days referred to; which would not make the arrival on Sunday, the 10th, but on the 9th, which we compute to have been Saturday.) But it is most natural to regard the evening only when the Passover-meal was eaten in this case Thursday evening, or that beginning the 15th as the included terminus ad quem, or the sixth day, and the afternoon of the day when our Lord arrived at Bethany as the included terminus a quo, or the first day of the series. This leaves only four whole days in the interval (precisely as the three days and three nights of Christ’s remaining in the tomb, Mat 12:40, are known to have been but one whole day and fractions of the preceding and following days), and brings the arrival at Bethany on Sunday. The triumphal entry into Jerusalem certainly took place the very next morning (Joh 12:12), i.e. on Monday.
Those who place this last event on Sunday must not only reckon the Passover as having fallen that year on Thursday, but they must also exclude both extremes in the computation of the six days in question; or else they will bring as in fact they do the arrival at Bethany on either Saturday or Friday afternoon. Either of these days is extremely improbable; Saturday, as requiring the whole Sabbath to have been spent in travelling, and Friday as bringing. the feast narrated by John as occurring the same evening (12:2 sq.) with all its bustle and special preparation, on the beginning of the same sacred day (i.e. from sunset; for the cannot have been any other than an evening supper).
This view is confirmed almost to certainty by the order of subsequent events during Passion-week as narrated by each of the evangelists. They allow a space of five days only for all these transactions, beginning with the entry into Jerusalem, and ending with the crucifixion. As the latter is almost universally conceded to have taken place on Friday, the former must have occurred on Monday. Thus Matthew assigns the first day to the triumphal entry and the cleansing of the Temple (Mat 21:1-17, ending with the lodging at Bethany); Mark has the same arrangement (Mar 11:1-11); Luke also, but not so explicitly (Luk 19:29-46); and John likewise, but still less definitely (Joh 12:12-19). The second day was occupied with cursing the barren fig-tree (in the morning as he returned from Bethany, Mat 21:18; Mar 11:12), and various teachings, closing again at Bethany (Mar 11:19), and the third with witnessing the withering of the tree (in the morning again, Mar 11:20), and still other teachings. Luke vaguely joins both these two days’ proceedings together (daily, Luk 19:47; on one of those days, Luk 20:1); while John passes them over with but one intimation of time (at the feast, Joh 12:20), although we know from all the evangelists that they embraced an extensive series of discourses to various classes, concluding with the remarkable prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem, etc. That this closed Christ’s public teachings is directly stated (Mat 24:1; Mar 13:1; Joh 12:36). But there is not an intimation that more than three days were consumed up to this time. It was now two days prior to the Passover (Mat 26:1-2; Mar 14:1). These two days at the utmost can only make five, when added to the preceding three. They are to be computed of course as before, i.e. inclusively of both extremes, namely, one day for that immediately following the previous discourses, or, on our reckoning, from Wednesday afternoon to Thursday afternoon, and the other from Thursday afternoon onward into the ensuing evening of the Paschal meal with which the Passover was introduced. In this way every note of time is consistently observed. The single intermediate or apparently vacant day (Thursday) was spent by our Lord in private preparation for the coming solemnities, and by Judas in bargaining for the betrayal of his Master. To take two entire days for these purposes is opposed to the requirements of the case, as well as the whole tenor of the Scripture narrative. It was in fact but Thursday morning that remained unoccupied, for in the afternoon the disciples were despatched to prepare the Passover meal (Mat 26:17; Mar 14:12; Luk 22:7). The phrase after two days, used by both evangelists here, can only mean, as we would say, day after to-morrow; for it obviously cannot be the same as simply to-morrow, nor yet the second day after to-morrow. And that it dates from Wednesday is certain from Matthew’s expression, When () Jesus had finished all these sayings. That its terminus ad quem, the feast of the Passover ( ), includes the proper Passover-day on Friday, seems clear from the added clause, When the Son of Man is betrayed to be crucified. The betrayal itself must have occurred considerably past midnight or on Friday morning. It is only by neglecting or violating some element of the evangelical history that Palm-day can be brought on Sunday. Even the accurate Dr. Robinson acknowledges in his later edition of his Harmony that he was misled in the days of Passion-week by following too implicitly the authority of the learned Lightfoot.