Speaking of dating Christmas, my favorite account comes from the Eastern liturgical great, St. John Chrisostom. Here is a note from NC Times, with the saint’s account of the matter:
Inside the Vatican magazine also supported Dec. 25, citing a report from St. John Chrysostom (patriarch of Constantinople who died in A.D. 407) that Christians had marked Dec. 25 from the early days of the church.Chrysostom had a further argument that modern scholars ignore:
Luke 1 says Zechariah was performing priestly duty in the Temple when an angel told his wife Elizabeth she would bear John the Baptist. During the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, Mary learned about her conception of Jesus and visited Elizabeth “with haste.”
The 24 classes of Jewish priests served one week in the Temple, and Zechariah was in the eighth class. Rabbinical tradition fixed the class on duty when the Temple was destroyed in A.D. 70 and, calculating backward from that, Zechariah’s class would have been serving Oct. 2-9 in 5 B.C. So Mary’s conception visit six months later might have occurred the following March and Jesus’ birth nine months afterward.
“Though it is not a matter of faith, there is no good reason not to accept the tradition” of March 25 conception and Dec. 25 birth, the magazine contended.
David Bennett
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Fr. J.
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papaz
December 10, 2007 at 8:18 am
Father J, great post.
Simpler still, a hopelessly plain-spoken traditionalist priest (Fr. Wolfe, FSSP) came out shooting straight from the hip on this issue.
He asks in a live sermon, “What mother here can forget the date of thier first child’s birth?”
As the Catholic Encylopedia relays “No doubt, the words of St. John (19:27), “and from that hour the disciple took her to his own”, refer not merely to the time between Easter and Pentecost, but they extend to the whole of Mary’s later life.”
Traditions are pretty clear that Mary, our inheritance from the last will & testament of Christ (”Woman, behold your son!” Then He said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” ), remained with the Apostles after Pentecost, encouraging the faithful, and recieving pilgrims.
Think about that. If you lived with the Mother of Our Lord, what would you ask of her? EVERYTHING.
“Mother what was Jesus’ favorite food? When was He born? What games did He play as a child? What were His first words?…”
They knew when His birthday was.
Furhter, we all celebrate it on the same day. People who tell you eastern Christians celebrate it in January are confused by (a) the Epiphany or (b) use of the Julian calendar! From as far East as India to as far West as Spain, it is on the same date on all liturgical calendars. Coincidence?
This has only been doubted in the recent era by folks adhearing to sola scriptura (though the veracity of this date using Biblical evidence is possible!) and modern biblical scholars who rely heavily on a historical critical method that does not consider ancient traditional teachings. The idea that we can’t be sure of the dating of Scripture or what in Scripture is authentic, is just plain odd and foreign to a Catholic.
December 25: Not just a memorial, an actual birthdate.
December 10, 2007 at 3:09 pm
Simple Sinner,
Okay, so now I have a new favorite account of the Christmas date. Thanks.