EPIPHANY
505
EPIPHANY
Basilidians celebrate Christ's Nativity and also His
Baptism on 6 and 10 January, or did they merely keep
His Baptism on these days, as well as His Nativity on
another date? The evidence, if not Clement's actual
words, suggests the former. It is certain that the
Epiphany festival in the East very early admitted a
more or less marked commemoration of the Nativity,
or at least of the Angeli ad PaMores, the most striking
"manifestation" of Christ's glory on that occasion.
Moreover, the first actual reference to the ecclesiastical
feast of the Epiphany (Ammianus Marcellinus, XXI,
ii), in 361, appears to be doubled in Zonaras (XIII,
xi) by a reference to the same festival as that of
Christ's Nativity. Moreover, Epiphanius (Ha>r., li,
27, in P. G.. XLI, 936J says that the sixth of January
is iiii^pa yevedXluv ToiiTicmv iwitpa.i'ioip, Christ's Birthday,
i. e. His Epiphany. Indeed, he assigns the Baptism
to 12 Athyr, i. e. 6 November. Again, in chapters
xxviii and xxix (P. G., XLI, 940 sq.), he asserts that
Christ's Birth, i. e. Theophany, occurred on 6 January,
as did the miracle at Cana, in consequence of which
water, in various places (Cibyra, for instance), was
then yearly by a miracle turned into wine, of which he
had himself drunk. It will be noticed, first, if Clem-
ent does not expressly deny that the Church cele-
brated the Epiphany in his time at Alexandria, he at
least implies that she did not. Still less can we think
that 6 January was then observed by the Church as
holy. Moreover, Origen, in his list of festivals (Con-
tra Celsum, VIII, xxii, P. G., XI, 1549), makes no
mention of it.
Owing no doubt to the vagueness of the name Epiphant/, very different manifestations of Christ's glory and Divinity were celebrated in this feast quite early in its history, especially the Baptism, the miracle at Cana, the Nativity, and the visit of the Magi. But we cannot for a moment suppose that in the first in- stance a festival of manifestations in general was es- tablished, into which popular local devotion read spe- cified meaning as circumstances dictated. It seems fairly clear that the Baptism was the event predomi- nantly commemorated. The Apostolic Constitutions (VIII, x.xxiii; cf. V, xii) mention it. Kellner quotes (cf. Selden, de Synedriis, III, xy, 204, 220) the oldest Coptic Calendar for the name Dies baptismi sanclip.cati, and the later for that of Immersio Domini as applied to this feast. Gregory of Nazianzus identifies, indeed, rA 0€o<j>di'ia with ii ayta toS XpiffroO ydvvTia-is, but this sermon (Orat. xxxviii in P. G., XXXVI, 312) was probably preached 25 Dec, 3S0; and after refer- ring to Christ's Birth, he assures his hearers (P. G., 329) that they shall shortly see Christ baptized. On 6 and 7 Jan., he preached orations xxxi.x and xl (P. G., loo. cit.) and there declared (col. 349) that the Birth of Christ and the leading of the Magi by a star having been already celebrated, the commemoration of His Baptism would now take place. The first of these two sermons is headetl (h to. ILyia 0uto, referring to the lights carried on that day to symbolize the spir- itual illumination of baptism, and the day must care- fully be distinguished from the Feast of the Purifica- tion, also called Festum luminum for a wholly different reason. Chrysostom, however, in 386 (see Christ- M.^s) preached "Hom. vi in B. Philogonium" where (P. G., XLVIII, 752) he calls the Nativity the parent of festivals, for, had not Christ been born, neither would He have been baptized, Sirep iarl t4 9eo0i>'io. This shows how loosely this title was used. (Cf. Chrys., " Hom. in Bapt. Chr.", c. ii, in P. G., XLIX, 363; A. D. 387). Cassian (Coll., X, 2, in P. L., XLIX, 820) says that even in his time (418-427) the Egyp- tian monasteries still celebrated the Nativity and Baptism on 6 January.
At Jerusalem the feast had a special reference to the Nativity owing to the neighbourhood of Bethlehem. The account left to us by Etheria (Silvia) is mutilated at the beginning. The title of the subsequent feast,
QuadragesinUB de Epiphania (Peregrin. Silvise, ed.
Geyer, c. sxvi), leaves us, however, in no doubt as to
what she is describing. On the vigil of the feast (5
Jan.) a procession left Jerusalem for Bethlehem and
returned in the morning. At the second hour the
services were held in the splendidly decorated Gol-
gotha church, after which that of the Anastasis was
visited. On the second and third days this ceremony
was repeated; on the fourth the service was offered on
Mount Olivet; on the fifth at the grave of Lazarus at
Bethany; on the sixth on Sion; on the seventh in the
church of the Anastasis, on the eighth in that of the
Holy Cross. The procession to Bethlehem was
nightly repeated. It will be seen, accordingly, that
this Epiphany octave had throughout so strong a
Nativity colouring as to lead to the exclusion of the
commemoration of the Baptism in the year 385 at any
rate. It is, however, by way of actual baptism on
this day that the West seems to enter into connexion
with the East. St. Chrysostom (Hom. in Bapt. Chr.
in P. G., XLIX, 363) tells us how the Antiochians used
to take home baptismal water consecrated on the
night of the festival, and that it remained for a year
without corruption. To this day, the blessing of the
waters by the dipping into river, sea, or lake of a
crucifix, and by other complicated ritual, is a most
popular ceremony. A vivid account is quoted by
Neale ("Holy Eastern Church", Introduction, p.
754; cf. the Greek, Syriac, Coptic, and Russian
versions, edited or translated from the original texts
by John, Marquess of Bute, and A. Wallis Budge).
The people consider that all ailments, spiritual and
physical, can be cured by the application of the
blessed water. This custom would seem, however, to
be originally connected rather with the miracle of
Cana than with the Baptism. That baptism on this
day was quite usual in the West is proved, however,
by the complaint of Bishop Himerius of Tarragona to
Pope Damasus (d. 384), that baptisms were being
celebrated on the feast of the Epiphany. _ Pope
Siricius, who answered him (P. L., XIII, 1134), identi-
fies the feasts of Naialilia Christi and of His Appari-
tio, and is very indignant at the extension of the
period for baptisms beyond that of Easter and that of
Pentecost. Pope Leo I (" Ep. xvi ad Sicil. episcopos",
c. i, in P. L., LIV, 701; cf. 696) denounces the practice
as an irrationabilis novitas; yet the Council of Gerona
(can. iv) condemned it in 517, and Victor Vitensis
alludes to it as the regular practice of the (Roman-)
African Church (De Persec. Vandal., II, xvii, in P. L.,
LVIII, 216). St. Gregory of Tours, moreover (De
gloria martyrum in P. L., LXXI, 783; cf. cc. xvii,
xix), relates that those who Uved near the Jordan
bathed in it that day, and that miracles were then wont
to take place. St. Jerome (Comm. in Ez., I, i, on verse
3 in P. L., XXV, 18) definitely asserts that it is for
the baptism and opening of the heavens that the dies
EpiphanioTum is still venerable and not for the Nativ-
ity of Christ in the flesh, for then absconditus est, et
non apparuit — " He was hidden, and did not appear."
That the Epiphany was of later introduction in the
West than the Christmas festival of 25 December, has
been made clear in the article Christmas. It is not
contained in the Philocalian Calendar, while it seems
most likely that 25 December was celebrated at Rome
before the sermon of Pope Liberius (in St. Ambrose,
De virg., iii, I, in P. L., XVI, 231) which many assign
to 25 Dec, 354. St. Augustine clearl_y observes Orien-
tal associations in the Epiphany feasts: "Rightly",
says he (Serm. ccii, 2, in Epiph. Domini, 4, in P. L.,
XXXVIII, 1033), "have the heretic Donatists always
refused to celebrate this day with us; for neither do
they love unity, nor are they in communion with the
Eastern Church, where that star appeared." St.
Philastrius (Hsr., c. cxl, in P. L., XII, l->73) adds that
certain heretics refu.se to celebrate tlio lOpiphany, re-
garding it, apparently, as a needless duplication of the
