Opusculum De Pascha

SEVENTH OPUSCULE. ON PASCHA. I. Many have wished to explain the mystery of Pascha from the reckoning of the month, the moon, and the day; but, whether from the impossibility of knowledge or of speech, they have left it more obscure, as if they had said nothing at all. For I know that many are accustomed to inquire rather scrupulously why, according to the custom of the Jews, we celebrate Pascha in different ways by the computation of the moon, saying that it seems to them more correct if the commemoration of the Lord's passion were observed, so that we might keep a single anniversary day of the nativity, as was maintained by many Gallican bishops until not long ago, that they always celebrated the day of Pascha on the VIII Kalends of April, on which the resurrection of Christ is said to have taken place. But it has pleased me, inquiring curiously what our ancestors followed, to set forth openly. II. The passion of Christ is the redemption of creation, concerning which the day and the moon concurred. For this is not without the authority of Scripture. For Moses says: "This month shall be for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first in the months of the year" (Exod. 12:2). By which word he consecrated the whole month to the day of the world's nativity. Thus our ancestors, who found the nativity of the world on the XI Kalends of April, established the first month, defining it on the XI Kalends of May. Thus it will be permitted to celebrate Pascha neither before the XI Kalends of April nor after the XI Kalends of May. But when in this month both the moon and the day concurred, that is, the fourteenth moon and the Lord's day, then Pascha would be celebrated.

Indeed, because the fourteenth moon frequently coincided with the Lord's day, they preferred to extend the moon by seven days, provided they retained the Lord's day in the joy of the resurrection. Thus, when the day has come in this way up to the twenty-first moon, on account of the Lord's day we always postpone Pascha, so that it is celebrated neither before the eleventh Kalends of April nor after the eleventh Kalends of May: thus it was found that the month, the day, and the moon were retained in the celebration of Pascha. VII. Prudently, therefore, we are reduced more to the moon and the day than to the eleventh Kalends of April, to the birth of the world. For the first moon illuminates the whole darkness of the night, and the Lord's day is the resurrection of days: for it returns to the beginning and renews the faith of the days. These things will be more to be observed in the joy of the birth and in the liberation of creation, especially since they are retained within the limits of the first month. Again, they called the religion of the greater day rather than that of the moon. For we go out from the fourteenth moon; but we never go out from the day, because the whole salvation is in the resurrection of the day. Moreover, the Lord's day has both the beginning of days and the resurrection; for which reason the Lord rose on it; the moon, however, although extended up to the twenty-first part, does not complete the whole night: yet it illuminates the greater part of the night, and leaves darkness behind it, indeed, but overcomes that which is ahead: in which our ancestors preferred Pascha to be celebrated up to the twenty-first rather than before the fourteenth.

Because it is better to leave the shadows behind than to be unable to overcome those that lie ahead. Therefore, by this sum and this conclusion, which was established by our predecessors, Easter can be celebrated neither before the eleventh Kalends of April nor after the eleventh Kalends of May. We have set forth, as far as our modest ability allowed, what the reasoning was for establishing this table, through the grace of our Savior Jesus Christ, to whom is honor and glory throughout the ages, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.