Lent has ancient roots in early Church

Printer-friendly versionSend to friend

Lent has ancient roots in early Church

The penitential season of Lent begins next Wednesday, Feb. 22. Catholics across the archdiocese and around the world will once again receive the ashes on their foreheads marking the beginning of the Church's 40-day season of prayer, penance and almsgiving in preparation for the paschal sacrifice of Christ on Good Friday and His glorious resurrection on Easter Sunday.

We know what Lent is. We're familiar with its practices — fasting, abstinence, the voluntary giving up of things we love (like chocolate), and increasing participation in Mass, liturgies, Stations of the Cross and other devotions. We try to give more to charity, to pray more and sacrifice more.

We remember the Lents of our childhood and think of Lent as a constant thing, an annual, never-changing event. But actually, Lent has evolved a lot in the 2,000 years since Christianity began, explained Msgr. Michael Witt, associate professor of Church history at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary.

"As a historian interested in Church history, I find Lent fascinating," Msgr. Witt said.

Just the word is interesting, he said. "The word 'Lent' has to do with the (natural) seasons, not with the penitential sense. It comes from the Anglo-Saxon word 'Lencten,' which means spring. We get the word 'lengthen' from that word, because they looked at spring as being a lengthening of the days, the days getting longer and longer. The word 'Lent' had to do with days getting longer."

Lent goes back to "a very, very ancient practice in the Church," Msgr. Witt explained, during the time of the Roman persecutions in the first centuries of Christianity — and it was only two days long!

"Lent originated out of the two-day fast, on Good Friday and Holy Saturday, in preparation for the Easter Vigil. It was specifically for the people who were going to be baptized." At some point it became a seven-day event, running through Holy Week.

Around the year 300 Lent began to change. "There were two reasons," Msgr. Witt said. "One, there were very few adult baptisms, because families were now being baptized, including infants. So there was a decline in the number of adults being received into the Church at the Easter Vigil. And two, the Roman Empire stopped persecuting Christians."

After his battlefield conversion to Christianity around 312, the Roman Emperor Constantine issued an edict legalizing the Christian religion.

"As a result, Christians had to go out and find their own mortification and ways to sacrifice. Some became hermits, joined monasteries, but the vast majority of Christians didn't do that. But they still felt some kind of call to asceticism, voluntarily giving up something for Christ and His Church." All Christians are drawn to asceticism to some extent, Msgr. Witt explained, as way of entering into the suffering of Christ and providing a foundation for a life of holiness and virtue.

A few years later, in 325, the Council of Nicea makes mention of "40 days of preparation for Easter," Msgr. Witt said. "This was based on Jesus and His 40 days in the desert, and two other important 40-day fasts from the Old Testament, Moses and Elijah. And the Israelites were also in the desert for 40 years. So 40 is an important number for asceticism."

At first, in the early Church, the 40-day fast meant one meal a day, with no meat, fish or dairy products. "That's a pretty tough fast," Msgr. Witt said.

That fast is how the tradition of making pancakes and paczki, or Polish doughnuts, before Lent began, to get rid of food that couldn't be eaten during Lent. A friendly competition is held each Fat Tuesday between the folks in Liberal, Kan., and in Olney, England, to see who can run the best time carrying a skillet with a pancake in it. Legend has it, according to the Wichita Eagle, that "the Olney race started in 1445, when a harried housewife arrived at church still clutching her frying pan with a pancake in it." Liberal, Kan. issued a friendly challenge to Olney in 1950, and the race was on. The Wichita Eagle also reported, last March, that "Liberal wins ... again!" It's Liberal 36, Olney 25.

Pancakes eventually became an approved Lenten food as Lenten customs changed. In the Middle Ages, the Church allowed fish and dairy products during the Lenten fast, "while also abstaining from lots of things we would consider OK to eat during Lent today."

Lent continued to slowly change, but the regulations remained very strict for Catholics. According to a 1953 listing of Irish Lenten regulations, "Every day (of Lent), except Sundays and St. Patrick's Day, will be a fast day" for everyone between the ages of 21 and 60, eating only one full meal, with two light meals and "take meat at the one meal only." Abstinence, then as now, meant eating no meat and applied to Ash Wednesday and all Fridays. Very similar Lenten regulations appeared in a St. Louis Review article from February 1965: All the weekdays of Lent were fast days, with meat allowed only at the main meal.

Changes followed after the Second Vatican Council in the late 1960s. Today the Lenten days of abstinence include Ash Wednesday, all the Fridays in Lent and Good Friday, which is not actually in Lent (see glance box). Fast days are Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. With the relaxation of the dietary regulations (although most Catholics continue the tradition of "giving up" a favorite food as a Lenten sacrifice), more emphasis has perhaps been placed on good works, the "almsgiving" facet of Lent.

The 40 days of Lent don't include Sundays. "Every Sunday is a little Easter," Msgr. Witt said. That's why Lent starts on Ash Wednesday and adds four extra days to the season. The four Sundays in Lent don't count."

Preceding Lent is the festival of Mardi Gras, a major party event for many people. Most Catholic know there is a connection to Lent. Many revelers, on the other hand, have no idea that Mardi Gras has any relation to religion.

"Mardi Gras is what it's called in the French-speaking world," Msgr. Witt said. In the United States, the major celebrations are linked to New Orleans, a town with strong French roots. "The rest of the world calls it Carnival." Countries like Brazil consider Carnival a major celebration. "Carnival comes from the Latin word 'carne,' which means 'meat,' and the idea is you eat up all the meat you have before Ash Wednesday, because you can't eat it during Lent. It becomes a big barbecue, a big feast."

Mardi Gras means Fat Tuesday, alluding to eating everything up before the fast of Lent.The day is also called Shrove Tuesday, from the Anglo-Saxon word "shriven," which means to confess. "In many parts of the Catholic world, Shrove Tuesday is also the day to go to confession."

Confession, the Sacrament of Reconciliation, has also evolved through the years, Msgr. Witt said.

"In the old days, you made a public confession and wore ashes and sackcloth until you received absolution from the bishop. Around 600, the practice of private confession was introduced. You went privately to the priest on Shrove Tuesday, got your penance and did it all through Lent. Then you received absolution on Holy Thursday."

Those penances were "kind of rough and very public," he said and included not being allowed to bathe during Lent or not be able to cut your hair or shave.

The type of private confessionals modern Catholics are familiar with were introduced around 1500, Msgr. Witt said, as part of "what is called the Catholic Reformation. The Catholic Church had began to reform itself about 30 or 40 years before Martin Luther came along in places like Spain and Portugal, so there was no interest in a Protestant Reformation there." Part of that Catholic Reformation included turning back to the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, and "with this, confession becomes a more important sacrament again and it takes on greater spiritual direction."

The most visible sign of the beginning of Lent, the dispersal of ashes, did not begin until around 900. "It was a custom in parts of Germany to put ashes on you on Ash Wednesday and sackcloth, which you wore to go to confession and wore during Lent. That custom of ashes spread throughout the Church, but took about 200 years to get to Rome. Now it's a universal custom."

Several popular foods are directly connected to Lent, Msgr. Witt said, including hot cross buns, a sweet roll with a cross made of icing traditionally eaten on Good Friday, and pretzels, which originated as Lenten food made of only flour, water and salt, and shaped like two little arms crossed in prayer. "The Latin term is bracellae, which means 'little arms' in Latin. When the Germans heard this word, they thought it was 'Bratzel,' which is German for pretzel. In English we changed the b to p and got pretzels."

Lent is really a retreat for the whole Church, Msgr. Witt said. "All around us, nature is going in one direction, spring is coming around, things are turning green, there is a sense of life that's happening naturally. In the Church we are going in the other direction. We have purple, subdued colors and music, penance. The Church is telling us, 'No, not yet, take this 40-day retreat. Then after you go through Lent in this subdued fashion, all of a sudden the Easter Vigil just springs out. When that Gloria is sung and they toll the bells and the lights come on, it really is a remarkable experience."