Acathistus
(Gk. ‘not sitting’, because it was sung standing), a famous Greek liturgical hymn in honour of the BVM. It may be the work of St Romanos ‘Melodos’, but the authorship is disputed.
Akathistos hymn
(c.6th century)Anonymous kontakion, originally for the Annunciation; still sung on Sundays and a Saturday in Great Lent. Its form consists of two prooimia and twenty-four oikoi (stanzas). The ...
angel
Hermes was the messenger of Zeus. Iris was ascribed the same function; for Plato the two are the divine angeloi. By the 3rd cent. ad, angels played a large part in Judaism and Christianity, and they ...
Benedetto Antelami
(late 12th century) Emilian sculptor whose work, informed by both antique Roman and contemporary French sculpture,includes the free-standing prophets in façade niches of Fidenza cathedral and the ...
book of Hours
A personal devotional book for the rich medieval laity, containing prayers for each of the eight times of prayer of the daily liturgy. They were often beautifully illuminated. See John Harthan, Books ...
Christmas
The commemoration of Christ's nativity. The earliest mention of its being celebrated on 25 Dec. is in the Philocalian Calendar, which represents Roman practice in 336. The date was probably chosen to ...
crozier
A hooked staff carried by a bishop as a symbol of pastoral office, originally denoting the person who carried a processional cross in front of an archbishop. Recorded from Middle English, the word ...
door
A door must either be shut or open said of two mutually exclusive alternatives; saying recorded from the mid 18th century.leave the door open ensure that there is still an opportunity for ...
Elizabeth
Female forename, name of two saints.St Elizabeth in the Bible, the wife of Zacharias and mother of John the Baptist; she is said to have been the cousin of the Virgin Mary (see the Visitation). Her ...
epiphany
The manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi; the festival commemorating this on 6 January. The name is recorded from Middle English, and comes ultimately from Greek ...
Fra Angelico
The Italian painter Giovanni da Fiesole (c. 1400–55). His work was intended chiefly for contemplation and instruction, and his simple and direct style shows an understanding of contemporary ...
Gabriel
One of the seven archangels. He figures in Dan., foretells the birth of John the Baptist, and announces the conception of the Lord to the BVM. Feast day, in the E., 26 Mar.; in the W., formerly 24 ...
genuflexion
A momentary kneeling on the right knee, with the body erect, used in the W. Church as a ceremonial reverence when passing before the Blessed Sacrament and on certain other occasions.
Gospel of Mary
An apocryphal Gnostic Gospel, of which 3rd-cent. fragments survive in the original Greek. In it Mary [Magdalene] describes a vision in which the progress of the Gnostic through the seven planetary ...
Great Feasts
Were originally distinguished from regular liturgical feasts on the basis of the special liturgical practices surrounding their celebration. In the Typikon of the Great Church only Easter, the ...
Holy Year
A year during which the pope grants, subject to particular conditions, a plenary indulgence, the so-called Jubilee, to all those who visit Rome. A bull specifies the particular purposes of the year ...
Hubert van Eyck
(d. 1426) and(d. 1441), Flemish painters. Jan became court painter to Philip, Duke of Burgundy, in 1425, and probably in 1430 settled in Bruges. The Ghent Altarpiece, for which the brothers are ...
Infancy of Christ
Specifically the period from the Annunciation through the Flight into Egypt (Mt 1:18–25, 2:1–23; Lk 1:26–55, 2:1–52; Protoevangelion of James, chs. 11–21). Christ's infancy was illustrated esp. ...
Joyful Mysteries, the five
The first chaplet of the rosary, consisting of (1) the Annunciation, (2) the Visitation, (3) the Nativity of Christ, (4) the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, and (5) the Finding of the Child ...
Konrad Witz
(c.1400×10–1445/6).Swiss painter, a native of the German town of Rottweil (Württemberg) who settled in Basle in 1434. Despite his relatively short career, a remarkable number of paintings survive, ...
