Ember Days
ember days
(probably a corruption of Latin: quatuor tempora, English, quarter tense, four times; possibly Anglo-Saxon, yimbren, circuit)
A Wednesday, Friday; and Saturday, set apart by the Church during each of the seasons as days of special prayer, fast, and abstinence. The Embertides of June, September, and December were first introduced, and that of March about the 6th century . They were probably occasioned by the agricultural feasts of ancient Rome. Gelasius I permitted ordinations at all the Embertides. Gregory VII (1073 -1085 ) definitely arranged the Embertides for the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after Ash Wednesday , Pentecost, feast of the Exaltation of the Cross (14 September ), and feast of Saint Lucy (13 December ).
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Ember Days
Ember days (corruption from Lat. Quatuor Tempora, four times) are the days at the beginning of the seasons ordered by the Church as days of fast and abstinence. They were definitely arranged and prescribed for the entire Church by Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085) for the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after 13 December (S. Lucia), after Ash Wednesday, after Whitsunday, and after 14 September (Exaltation of the Cross). The purpose of their introduction, besides the general one intended by all prayer and fasting, was to thank God for the gifts of nature, to teach men to make use of them in moderation, and to assist the needy. The immediate occasion was the practice of the heathens of Rome. The Romans were originally given to agriculture, and their native gods belonged to the same class. At the beginning of the time for seeding and harvesting religious ceremonies were performed to implore the help of their deities: in June for a bountiful harvest, in September for a rich vintage, and in December for the seeding; hence their feriae sementivae, feriae messis, and feri vindimiales. The Church, when converting heathen nations, has always tried to sanctify any practices which could be utilized for a good purpose. At first the Church in Rome had fasts in June, September, and December; the exact days were not fixed but were announced by the priests. The “Liber Pontificalis” ascribes to Pope Callistus (217-222) a law ordering: the fast, but probably it is older. Leo the Great (440-461) considers it an Apostolic institution. When the fourth season was added cannot be ascertained, but Gelasius (492-496) speaks of all four. This pope also permitted the conferring of priesthood and deaconship on the Saturdays of ember week–these were formerly given only at Easter. Before Gelasius the ember days were known only in Rome, but after his time their observance spread. They were brought into England by St. Augustine; into Gaul and Germany by the Carlovingians. Spain adopted them with the Roman Liturgy in the eleventh century. They were introduced by St. Charles Borromeo into Milan. The Eastern Church does not know them. The present Roman Missal, in the formulary for the Ember days, retains in part the old practice of lessons from Scripture in addition to the ordinary two: for the Wednesdays three, for the Saturdays six, and seven for the Saturday in December. Some of these lessons contain promises of a bountiful harvest for those that serve God.
———————————–
FRANCIS MERSHMAN Transcribed by Carl H. Horst
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VCopyright © 1909 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, May 1, 1909. Remy Lafort, CensorImprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Ember Days
These are days of fasting occurring quarterly, in commemorationi of’the seasons (Lat, quatuor temporum, whence by contraction the German Quatember, and the English Ember). We find them at an early period associated with. the invoking of God’s blessing on each of the four seasons in turn, and the special striving by prayers and fasting to merit such blessings. They were celebrated at Nativity, Easter, Epiphany, and Pentecost. About the time of Gelasius they were selected as the most fitting for the ordination of the clergy. In the Eastern Church there is no trace whatever of an observance of the Ember seasons. The passage of Athanasius, which some have quoted in support of a different conclusion, merely proves the existence of a fast at Pentecost. As regards the Gallican Church, the Ember seasons do not seem to have been established much before the time of Charlemagne. The second Council of Tours (A.D. 567), in prescribing the fasts to be observed by monks, makes no mention whatever of the fasts of the four seasons.
The observance of the Ember days is purely a Western institution. It was, doubtless, at first a rite merely of the local Roman Church, whence it gradually spread throughout the West. The history of the development of the custom is probably thus: Fasts were celebrated at the times of Lent, Pentecost, and the Nativity; these periods would roughly correspond with three of the four seasons, and thus some bishop of Rome, Leo or one of his predecessors, may have conceived the idea of making them symbolize the return of the seasons, and so added the one necessary to complete the four. It would soon come to pass, then, that they would be spoken of as originally ordained with that view; the length of celebration settled, the fasts then became associated with the seasons, and were regarded as independent of Lent, etc. Thus they might occasionally fall outside of these seasons, and finally such irregularity may have caused the settlement of the matter as at present.