By Brother Victor-Antoine D’Avila-Latourrette
Advent: A Brief History
(November 15 Entry)
The season of Advent, containing a wealth of spiritual tradition and practices, has its origins in antiquity, in the early centuries of the Church. It is hard to pinpoint exactly the precise moment Advent was instituted as a liturgical season. In the Christian East, the season was conceived as a forty-day fasting period in preparation for the feast of the Nativity of the Lord. In this and many other ways, Advent was similar to the Lenten fast that leads to Easter. In the East, this time of preparation started around November 15, when Eastern Christians celebrated the feast of the Apostle Philip. Hence it is sometimes called “the Saint Philip fast.”
Likewise in the West, it was the practice of the Church of France to have a similar penitential season leading ultimately to the celebrations of Christmas and Epiphany. It was the custom in France to start the fast on November 11, the feast of Saint Martin. For that reason, it was often referred to as “the Saint Martin fast.” One of the earliest documents that comments on the concrete spiritual practices of this period is the second book in Ten Books of Histories by Saint Gregory of Tours, bishop of Tours, around 480 AD. Gregory relates in his books that the Christians in his diocese usually practiced three weekdays of fasting (Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays) in preparation for the Christmas/Epiphany/Theophany celebrations. A bit earlier, around 330 AD, the Church of Spain at the Council of Saragossa ordered a time of prayer and fasting before the feast of the Epiphany/Theophany that was similar to the practices observed in the Christian East. Around 581, a synod held in Macon, France, extended this Advent preparation to the rest of the diocese of France. From France, the Advent observance spread to England and the northern European countries. The fasting aspect was emphasized as an ascetical practice, and it ultimately led to the feast of the Epiphany/theophany, which celebrated God’s manifestation during Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan.
The Adventus Domini (the coming of the Lord) observance arrived late in Rome. It was only adopted as such around the sixth or seventh centuries. It was the custom of the Roman Church to place emphasis on Christmas, the feast of the Nativity of the Lord. This was in contrast to the customs of the churches of the East and France, where emphasis was placed on the feasts of the Epiphany/Theophany. Pope Gregory the Great, a trained monk living under the Rule of Saint Benedict, developed the theme of the Adventus Domini in many of his homilies. He also established around the seventh century the Advent Roman rite style more or less as we know it today. For a while, there was a back-and-forth period of experimentation between the Roman practice and the one of the Church of France. At one point, the French churches accepted some of the improvements brought about by Pope Gregory. At the same time, Rome and the other Churches accepted the French Church’s emphasis on the Second/Final Coming of the Lord during the Advent liturgy. The theology of the Lord’s final coming in power and majesty was central to the Advent liturgical practice of the French Church, which coincided in part with the practice also found in the Eastern churches. According to present usage in the Western Church, Advent begins on the Sunday nearest to the feast of the Apostle Andrew (November 30). This is similar to the Eastern custom of starting Advent close to the feast of another Apostle, Saint Philip (November 15). In the Roman rite, the Advent season comprises about four weeks, or a minimum of four Sundays. The first Sunday of Advent may fall as early as November 27.
In both the churches of the East and the West, the Advent season or Advent fast is considered as an ascetical and prayerful spiritual journey in preparation for the solemn commemoration of the Lord’s birth, and ultimately for his Second Coming in glory. In the Church of the East, Saint Gregory Nazianzen was the great proponent of the Advent/Christmas observances; thus he wrote beautiful, poignant homilies on those themes. The mystery of the Incarnation and the festival of the Lord’s birth were at all times on his mind. In appearance, the Advent liturgical traditions from the East and the West may seem to differ in certain aspects and practices, but deep down I find they complement and complete each other in the one and common celebration of the Nativity and Theophany of our Lord and Savior.
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