Posted on 11/23/2021 6:35:23 AM PST by Antoninus
There are two facile and credulously accepted claims that make the rounds of Late Roman-interest online fora and social media with some frequency. They are roughly as follows:
“Christianity sought to destroy the art, architecture and culture of classical civilization.”
and
“Modern Christian holidays are nothing more than ancient pagan holidays with a Christian overlay.”
Both of these declarations are treated uncritically as fact by those who use the outmoded Gibbon as their sole guide to Late Antiquity. The second is also used by those of a Protestant persuasion who wish to prove that Catholicism (and Orthodoxy to a lesser extent) are little better than warmed-over paganism.
Context has been added to the first statement on numerous occasions on this blog, including here, here, and here. The second has been dealt with as well, here and here.
Interestingly, there is a 1,400 year-old letter from Pope Saint Gregory the Great that addresses both of these claims rather directly. Recalling this letter to the attention of our readers is also especially fitting for this season of Thanksgiving in the United States as St. Gregory specifically calls out in his letter one of the reasons for the institution of feasts as to “return thanks to the Giver of all things”.
The letter was recorded by Saint Bede the Venerable as part of his great work, the Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, which was written shortly before Bede’s death ca. AD 735. By that time, Gregory's letter was over a century old. It was addressed to the abbot Mellitus (later, Saint Mellitus), a missionary who would go on to become the bishop of London and archbishop of Canterbury. In the letter, Gregory offers advice to Mellitus, then still in France, about how to conduct himself as a missionary among the heathen barbarians who ruled over formerly Christian Britain.
Here is the letter in full, with some comments interspersed:
Chapter XXX: A Copy of the Letter Which Pope Gregory Sent to the Abbot Mellitus, then going into BritainThe aforesaid messengers being departed, the holy father, Gregory, sent after them letters worthy to be preserved in memory, wherein he plainly shows what care he took of the salvation of our nation. The letter was as follows:
To his most beloved son, the Abbot Mellitus; Gregory the servant of the servants of God.
We have been much concerned since the departure of our congregation that is with you, because we have received no account of the success of your journey. When, therefore, Almighty God shall bring you to the most reverend man our brother bishop, St Augustine, tell him what I have, upon mature deliberation on the affair of the English, determined upon, viz. that the temples of the idols in that nation ought not to be destroyed. Let holy water be made, and sprinkled in the said temples; let altars be erected, and let relics be deposited in them. For if those temples are well built, it is requisite that they be converted from the worship of the devils to the service of the true God; that the nation, seeing that their temples are not destroyed, may remove error from their hearts, and knowing and adoring the true God, may the more familiarly resort to the same places to which they have been accustomed.
Here we see Gregory advising Mellitus to preserve and reconsecrate pagan temples as Christian churches. To anyone familiar with late Roman history, this advice should come as no great surprise. While certainly a few celebrated examples exist of Christian populations actively tearing down their local pagan temples, examples of pagan temples converted into Christian churches abound, including the Pantheon in Rome which, under Gregory’s successor Pope Boniface IV, became the Church of Saint Mary and the Martyrs. Another famous example was the Parthenon at Athens, which became the Church of Maria Parthenos in the late 6th century AD. A scholarly article written in 2017 by Dutch classicist Feyo Schuddeboom goes into considerable detail about the pagan temples in the city of Rome that were reconsecrated as churches, counting eleven examples. The list may be found in this excellent article by Sarah Bond that appeared in Forbes: Were Pagan Temples All Smashed Or Just Converted Into Christian Ones?
The trend among contemporary scholars seems to view the shift from paganism to Christianity in Late Antiquity as less an abrupt and violent clash of cultures and more a gradual transition that involved, as the Apostle Paul would famously recommend, “the proving of all things, holding fast that which is good, but refraining from all appearances of evil.” [1 Thessalonians 5:21]. Gregory’s letter, though written regarding the pagan temples in Britain rather than Rome, supports that thesis.
The second section of Gregory’s letter deals with the replacement of pagan feasts with those particular to Christianity:
And because they have been used to slaughter many oxen to devils, some solemnity must be exchanged for them on this account, as that on the day of the dedication, or the nativities of the holy martyrs, whose relics are deposited, they may build themselves huts of the boughs of trees, about those churches which have been turned to that use from temples, and celebrate the solemnity with religious feasting, and no more offer feasts to the Devil, but kill cattle to the praise of God in their eating, and return thanks to the Giver of all things for their sustenance, to the end that, whilst some gratifications are outwardly permitted them, they may the more easily consent to the inward consolations of God. For there is no doubt that it is impossible to efface every thing at once from their obdurate minds; because he who endeavors to ascend to the highest place, rises by degrees or steps, and not by leaps.Thus the Lord made himself known to the people of Israel in Egypt; and yet he allowed them the use of the sacrifices which they were wont to offer to the Devil, in his own worship; so as to command them in his sacrifice to kill beasts, to the end that, changing their hearts, they might lay aside one part of the sacrifice, whilst they retained another; that whilst they offered the same beasts which they were wont to offer, they should offer them to God, and not to idols; and thus they would no longer be the same sacrifices.
This it behooves your affection to communicate to our aforesaid brother, that he being there present, may consider how he is to order all things. God preserve you in safety, most beloved son.
Given the 17th of June, in the nineteenth year of the reign of our lord, the most pious emperor, Mauritius Tiberius, the eighteenth year after the consulship of our said lord. The fourth indiction. (AD 601).
Taken from Giles: The Complete Works of Venerable Bede, Vol. II, The Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, Book I, Chapter XXX, page 141
Note that Gregory is not calling for Mellitus to take pagan festivals and simply rename them as Christian feasts. Rather, he is suggesting that new feasts be instituted on the date of a particular martyr’s birth or death, or the date upon which a church is consecrated. Numerous such feast days may be found in ancient Catholic martyrologies and missals, including dates for remembering revered local saints as well as those celebrated by the universal Church. Again, Gregory is following the advice of St. Paul – pagan festal practices which are neutral and universal, such as holding banquets, decorating, and celebration may be incorporated into Christian holy days. Those practices, however, which are specific to pagan superstitions such as idol-worship, astrology, gluttony, sinful revels, and the like, must be done away with.
It is interesting to note that the same approach was used by the Jesuits of the 17th century when evangelizing the native tribes of America in New France. I outlined some of the pagan practices which the Jesuit missionaries considered incompatible with Christianity in a previous post—When the Jesuits were Catholic. That post also includes an insightful quote drawn from St. Jean Brebeuf’s speech to the elders of the Huron nation which distinguishes those neutral customs and practices of all nations from those which concern superstitious beliefs:
“As for our ways of doing things, [Fr. Brebeuf] said that it was quite true they were altogether different from theirs—that we had this in common with all nations; that, in fact, there were as many different customs as there were different peoples upon the earth; that the manner of living, of dressing, and of building houses was entirely different in France from what it was here, and in other countries of the world, and that this was not what we found wrong. But, as to what concerned God, all nations ought to have the same sentiments; that the reality of a God was one, and so clear that it was only necessary to open the eyes to see it written in large characters upon the faces of all creatures.”
Echoes of St. Gregory’s advice may be discerned in this statement, and in the Jesuits' mode of evangelizing the tribes of New France.
It’s worth mentioning as a final word that things fell out poorly for St. Mellitus and the pagans of London. Bede records in his History that King Sabert of the East Saxons was baptized by Mellitus and permitted a bishopric to be set up in London. Upon Sabert’s death in AD 616, however, his three sons looked with scorn upon Mellitus and returned to paganism. The dramatic confrontation between Mellitus and the sons of Sabert, as depicted in the etching at the top of this post, is described by Bede as follows:
This confusion was increased by the death of Sabert, king of the East-Saxons, who departing to the heavenly kingdom, left three sons, still pagans, to inherit his temporal crown. They immediately began to profess idolatry, which, during their father's reign, they had seemed a little to abandon, and they granted free liberty to the people under their government to serve idols. And when they saw the bishop, whilst celebrating mass in the church, give the eucharist to the people, they, puffed up with barbarous folly, were wont, as it is reported, to say to him, "Why do you not give us also that white bread, which you used to give to our father Saba (for so they used to call him), and which you still continue to give to the people in the church?"To whom he answered, "If you will be washed in that laver of salvation, in which your father was washed, you may also partake of the holy bread of which he partook; but if you despise the laver of life, you may not receive the bread of life."
They replied, "We will not enter into that laver, because we do not know that we stand in need of it, and yet we will eat of that bread."
And being often earnestly admonished by him, that the same could not be done, nor any one admitted to partake of the sacred oblation without the holy cleansing, at last, they said in anger, "If you will not comply with us in so small a matter as that is which we require, you shall not stay in our province." And accordingly they obliged him and his followers to depart from their kingdom.
Taken from Giles: The Complete Works of Venerable Bede, Vol. II, The Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, Book I, Chapter XXX, page 191
Mellitus then removed from London first to Kent and later back to France to await events. He would not return to London, but would eventually succeed St. Laurentius as archbishop of Canterbury in AD 619.
Meanwhile, the sons of Sabert would come to a bad end, defeated and slain by the Gewissae (or West Saxons) in AD 620.
Meanwhile, the feast days actually commanded by the very Mouth of G-d are considered positively forbidden.
Catholic / Church history ping.
One of the things I tried to educate my children about. Passover, Feast of Tabernacles, Feast of Weeks (Pentecost), etc.
You can celebrate the new and show how the old pointed to the new. Per Augustine “In the Old Testament the New is concealed, in the New the Old is revealed.”
I learned a few things listening to a Church historian the other day. Why is Christmas on December 25th? The calendar is off a few days from antiquity; Christmas was celebrated on the winter solstice (the shortest day of the year). Why then? For the Roman pagans of the time, it was near the celebration of Saturnalia, when a god lived with and took interest in humans. It was also near Sol Invictus, the celebration of the unconquerable sun. Both aligned with Christian theology.
Rather, that is much a polemical strawman, as while Catholicism (and Protestantism to much lesser degree) is guilty of attempting to Christianize distinctively pagan aspects, yet "copy cat" theories as regards doctrine are exposed as fallacious, and the main charge is that distinctive Catholic teachings are not manifest in the only wholly inspired substantive authoritative record of what the NT church believed (which is Scripture, in particular Acts through Revelation, which best shows how the NT church understood the gospels). Which is simply the manifest reality.
"“Modern Christian holidays are nothing more than ancient pagan holidays with a Christian overlay.” "
More overreach, yet as one of your own confesses,
In a later age the worship of images was introduced [Note 11]. {371} 4. The principle of the distinction, by which these observances were pious in Christianity and superstitious in paganism, is implied in such passages of Tertullian, Lactantius, and others, as speak of evil spirits lurking under the pagan statues. It is intimated also by Origen, who, after saying that Scripture so strongly "forbids temples, altars, and images," that Christians are "ready to go to death, if necessary, rather than pollute their notion of the God of all by any such transgression," assigns as a reason "that, as far as possible, they might not fall into the notion that images were gods."
The use of temples, and these dedicated to particular saints, and ornamented on occasions with branches of trees; incense, lamps, and candles; votive offerings on recovery from illness; holy water; asylums; holydays and seasons, use of calendars, processions, blessings on the fields; sacerdotal vestments, the tonsure, the ring in marriage, turning to the East, images at a later date, perhaps the ecclesiastical chant, and the Kyrie Eleison [Note 17], are all of pagan origin, and sanctified by their adoption into the Church. {374} - An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, Chapter 8 ; http://www.newmanreader.org/works/development/chapter8.html
"Note that Gregory is not calling for Mellitus to take pagan festivals and simply rename them as Christian feasts. Rather, he is suggesting that new feasts be instituted on the date of a particular martyr’s birth or death, or the date upon which a church is consecrated. "
Meaning that Catholicism is guilty is essentially engaging in the same adoptive tactic of Israel of old, who, when not actually nationally engaging in idolatry, usually attempted to turn "high places" of pagan worship into venues of worship of Yaweh. But which, rather than destroying them as commanded, perpetuated the existence of these sanctified places, (1Kings 15:14; 2 Chronicles 33:17) - despite the command, "Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees near unto the altar of the Lord thy God, which thou shalt make thee - (Deuteronomy 16:21) thereby easily enabling them to revert back to their original idolatrous purposes when Israel backslide once again. (1Kings 12:31; 13:33; 14:23; 2Kg.15:35; 16:4; 17:10-19, 31-34; 2 Chronicles 21:11; 28:4; Isaiah 57:5).
Likewise, the reason it is so hard to put Christ back into Christmas is because while celebrating events in the life of Christ as the Lord leads is honorable, as is showing His grace, yet the yearly annual and essentially required celebration that began with Catholicism and its religious syncretism (even if the Lord possibly was born in 12-25 and a pagan feast encompasses this, this celebration was a later development not seen in Scripture, and was part of Catholic accommodation of pagan celebrations) is not according to the New Testament in practice nor in principle.
And as observance of this is annual event a essentially required and which it is (about 48 weeks a year a pastor can preach whatever the Lord leads, but come December he better preach on Christmas themes without fail, while hardly anyone will find themselves attaining to an office in a church if they make it known they basically do not not this as a "holy celebration of obligation," much less with it tree that children knew before etc.) then it is a form of legalism, regardless of denials of this reality.
However, in a more complete revival then the high places were destroyed (2 Chronicles 17:6; 31:1; 34:3) consistent with such commands as Dt. 7:5. And the church began as a new creation, not a reformation and does not need help from distinctively pagan rituals or celebrations. And is called to put to death the flesh and the religion thereof, which includes man's ideas of accommodating culture in religious syncretism.
And in which believers are to worship in Spirit and in Truth under the New Covenant in which there is no liturgical calendar and the only day the NT church is recorded as specifically meeting on was the first day.
Thus, rather than being a "Grinch," Christians are free to worship the Lord, including celebrating the Lord's birth, any time, as the Lord leads (John 3:8; Rm. 8:12) as is the case in all areas of personal liberty, without compelling others to do the same, while observing the annual celebration that Catholicism began is not of the NT church but is essentially a affirmation of such.
Choose to be free.
Well, that escalated quickly.
Christians do celebrate - the Passover (in Aramaic, Pascha) which all Christians celebrate. The Jewish passover was a foreshadowing of the real thing, in which God delivered all people from death. In almost every language except English and German, the annual celebration of that event is called something like Pascha.
Yom Kippur - the day of atonement - isn’t kept as a separate observance by the Church because it was fulfilled in Christ. In commemorating Christ’s resurrection on Pascha and every Sunday, we celebrate not only atonement but life and union with God.
Then seven weeks later is the Feast of Weeks, which we call by its Greek name Pentecost. The Jewish feast celebrated the giving of the Mosaic law to the Jews; the fulfillment is in the establishment of the Church on Pentecost in Acts 2; rather than a law of bondage, on this day we celebrate the universal Gospel of freedom.
At the end of summer is Sukkoth, the harvest feast. This is the time when we celebrate Christ’s Transfiguration.
With regards to #1 - the preservation of ancient architecture. This is not true always - as seen in Northern Europe or south-western India when the Portuguese came. However, in the main this is true for the Catholic/Orthodox/Coptic/Ethiopian church.
For the Anglicans - the dissolution of the monasteries let to destruction of centuries if not millenia old buildings.
For the Lutherans they do seem to have preserved the old
For the Swiss Calvinists they destroyed the old
Let me take first the bit about Saturnalia
Saturnalia was not celebrated on December 25th. It was, in fact, originally celebrated on December 17th. However, due to the holiday’s widespread popularity, by the first century BC, it was extended into seven days of celebration, starting on December 17th and culminating on December 23rd.NEXT - about Sol InvictusCaligula (ruled 37 – 41 AD) officially extended Saturnalia to five days of celebration, lasting from December 17th to December 21st.
by the time December 25th rolled around, Saturnalia was definitely already over. No one in ancient times ever thought Saturnalia was on December 25th.
Saturnalia was not a celebration of the winter solstice. In fact, at least on its original date of December 17th, it did not occur on the day of the solstice or even on a day that ancient Roman people believed was the solstice.
Saturnalia originated as a religious holiday in honor of the agricultural god Saturnus. The ancient Romans believed that, in very ancient times, before Iupiter became the king of the gods, the world had been ruled by Saturnus. They believed that the reign of Saturnus had been the “Golden Age” when all things were perfect. Saturnalia was seen as a temporary restoration of the rule of Saturnus, a time when the traditional rules and norms were reversed.
Saturnalia was bawdy, loud and MARDI-GRAS like, not Christmassy at all
The Roman winter solstice festival was not Saturnalia, but rather Brumalia. -- this was a relatively minor festival overshadowed by the earlier festival of Saturnalia.
If Christians had really chosen the date for Christmas based on the date of Saturnalia, we would be celebrating Christmas on December 17th, but instead we celebrate it on December 25th..
There is only one surviving ancient source that ever mentions the birth of Sol Invictus being celebrated on December 25th. - the Chronograph of 354, an ancient Roman calendar for the year 354 AD written by a Christian.FINALLY, to answer your first point Why is Christmas on December 25th?This is also the first source to mention Christmas being celebrated on December 25th. This means we actually don’t know which came first: the festival of Sol Invictus on December 25th or Christmas on December 25th.
Christians began celebrating Christmas on December 25th because they are known to have already believed that the Annunciation of Mary occurred on March 25th and December 25th is exactly nine months later.
Let's all have a big fight on FR!
So?
NOW the solstice is on December 22nd!
(Shouldn't it be on January first?)
You left out a LOT of RCC only stuff that now goes on in the ‘actual Church’.
Upon what evidence was this belief founded?
Yes; it did.
The angel told her what was going to happen in her life.
There was NOTHING Mary could have said or done to change it.
Your comment is not relevant to the article nor the post.
GOP’s post was a common misconception linking Christmas to Saturnalia. It is not. The Christian origin of December 25 is related to the annunciation.
The discussion of that annunciation is for another time, another thread.
From the earliest recorded history, the feast has been celebrated on March 25, commemorating both the belief that the spring equinox was not only the day of God’s act of Creation but also the beginning of Christ’s redemption of that same Creation.
All Christian antiquity held 25 March as the actual day of Jesus’ death. The opinion that the Incarnation also took place on that date is found in the pseudo-Cyprianic work “De Pascha Computus”, c. 240. It says that the coming of Jesus and his death must have coincided with the creation and fall of Adam. And since the world was created in spring, Christ was also conceived and died shortly after the equinox of spring. Similar calculations are found in the early and later Middle Ages, and to them, the dates of the feast of the Annunciation and of Christmas owe their origin. Consequently the ancient martyrologies assign to the 25th of March the creation of Adam and the crucifixion of Jesus;
Yet you commented.
I wonder what I touched?
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