Book description
The liturgical year is a relatively modern invention. The term
itself only came into use in the late sixteenth century. In antiquity,
Christians did not view the various festivals and fasts that they
experienced as a unified whole. Instead, the different seasons formed
a number of completely unrelated cycles and tended to overlap and
conflict with one another. Drawing upon the latest research, the
authors track the development of the Church's feasts, fasts and
seasons, including the Sabbath and Sunday, Holy Week and Easter,
Christmas and Epiphany, and the feasts of the Virgin Mary, the martyrs
and other saints.
