.jpg)
.jpg)
feast day: 11 January 2015 (Sunday)
- Pope Paul VI set its date as the first Sunday after 6 January or, if in a particular country the Epiphany is celebrated on 7 or 8 January, on the following Monday.
about:
- The Baptism of the Lord has historically been associated with the celebration of Epiphany. Even today, the Eastern Christian feast of Theophany, celebrated on January 6 as a counterpart to the Western feast of Epiphany, focuses primarily on the Baptism of the Lord as the revelation of God to man.
- The Baptism of the Lord is observed as a distinct feast in the Roman rite, although it was originally one of three Gospel events marked by the feast of the Epiphany. Long after the visit of the Magi had in the West overshadowed the other elements commemorated in the Epiphany, Pope Pius XII instituted in 1955 a separate liturgical commemoration of the Baptism.
In fact, the Tridentine Calendar has no feast of the Baptism of the Lord. It was almost four centuries later that the feast was instituted, under the denomination "Commemoration of the Baptism of our Lord", for celebration on 13 January as a major double, using for the Office and the Mass those previously said on the Octave of the Epiphany, which Pius XII abolished; but if the Commemoration of the Baptism of Our Lord occurred on Sunday, the Office and Mass were to be those of the Feast of the Holy Family without any commemoration.
In his revision of the calendar five years later, Pope John XXIII kept on 13 January the "Commemoration of the Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ", with the rank of a second-class feast.
A mere 14 years after the institution of the feast, Pope Paul VI set its date as the first Sunday after 6 January or, if in a particular country the Epiphany is celebrated on 7 or 8 January, on the following Monday.
Pope John Paul II initiated a custom whereby on this feast the Pope baptizes babies in the Sistine Chapel.
The feast marks the end of the liturgical season of Christmastide. On the following day the season of ordinary time begins.
links/ sources:
- "Baptism of the Lord" (source: Wikipedia):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baptism_of_the_Lord
- "Feast of the Baptism of the Lord" (source: About Religion -> Catholicism):
http://catholicism.about.com/od/holydaysandholidays/p/Baptism_of_Lord.htm
