Christian Paschal Tables and Their Lunar Cycles from Anatolius to Bede
By (author) Daniel Mc Carthy
This is the first comprehensive published account of the evolution of the Christian use of a 19-year lunar cycle to schedule Easter, from Anatolius’ introduction of the cycle in the third century to Bede’s 532-year continuation of it in the eighth century.
The events of Jesus’ Crucifixion and his Resurrection three days later provide the basis for Christians’ belief in redemption and an existence after death. Consequently, the celebration of the events of Jesus’ Passion represents the most important feast in the Christian calendar, designated Pasch, or Easter in English. The four Gospels correlate the Crucifixion with the Jewish feast of Passover, celebrated at the time of the spring full moon, so initially the Passover full moon determined the approximate date of the Christian celebration. However, as Christianity spread beyond Palestine it became difficult for the dispersed Christian communities to synchronize their celebration of Pasch. In AD 269, Anatolius, bishop of Laodicea in modern Syria, established an accurate 19-year lunar cycle to predict the date of the spring full moon for future years. In circa AD 309, Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, used Anatolius’ 19-year lunar cycle to construct a table to schedule Pasch for the future years. In AD 328 Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, modified Anatolius’ lunar cycle by advancing all nineteen full-moon dates by exactly two days, and this cycle was continued by his episcopal successor, Theophilus. In circa AD 412 the Alexandrian mathematician, Annianus, further modified this cycle by advancing its saltus by three years. Annianus’ cycle was quickly adopted by Theophilus’ episcopal successor, Cyril, who misrepresented that Annianus’ cycle had been authorized by the Council of Nicaea. This was the cycle that prevailed in the Western Church until Pope Gregory reformed the calendar in 1582, and this book comprehensively documents for the first time the evolution of these Paschal cycles.
- By (author) Daniel Mc Carthy
Other Titles in this Series
The Easter Controversy of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Its Manuscripts, Texts, and Tables
Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on the Science of Computus, Galway, 18-20 July, 2008
Volume 10
My God, my God why have you abandoned me
The experience of God's withdrawal in late antique exegesis, Christology and ascetic literature
Volume 43
The ‘Universal Prayer’ in the Ancient Latin Liturgies. Patristic Evidence and Liturgical Texts
Volume 56
Seeking the Face of God
The Reception of Augustine in the Mystical Thought of Bernard of Clairvaux and William of St Thierry
Volume 11
Inventio meditativa
The Rhetoric and Hermeneutics of Meditation in Hugh of Saint-Victor, Guigo II, and Bonaventure of Bagnoregio
Volume 58
Friendship as Ecclesial Binding
A Reading of St. Augustine's Theology of Friendship from his In Iohannis Euangelium Tractatus
Volume 48
Analogical Identities
The Creation of the Christian Self: Beyond Spirituality and Mysticism in the Patristic Era
Volume 28
‘The Letter Killeth’
Redeeming Time in Augustine's Understanding of the Authority of Scripture
Volume 51
The Christian Topography of Early Islamic Jerusalem
The Evidence of Willibald of Eichstatt (700-787 CE)
Volume 2
Through the Bone and Marrow
Re-examining Theological Encounters with Dance in Medieval Europe
Volume 45
Removing Masculine Layers to Reveal a Holy Womanhood
The Female Transvestite Monks of Late Antique Eastern Christianity
Volume 13
Saints and Sinners in Early Christian Ireland
Moral Theology in the Lives of Saints Brigit and Columba
Volume 3
The Spirit, the World and the Trinity
Origen's and Augustine's Understanding of the Gospel of John
Volume 40
‘The loss of a minute is just so much loss of life’
Edward Robinson and Eli Smith in the Holy Land
Volume 39
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