Suffering With Joy

The History of Ash Wednesday

February 16, 2010

“Remember, man, that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return.”  These sobering words based on Genesis 3: 19 are a call to conversion shrouded in the mists of ancient time.  As with many Christian observances, Ash Wednesday as we know it today is an organic development of Old Testament practices.  Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Jonah, Judith, Job and Maccabees all speak of the use of sackcloth and ashes as a penitential act to invoke God’s mercy.

Although the Old Testament is rich in its reference to the use of ashes, only a few written records exist from the first millennia of the Church to tell us of the evolution of this first signpost on the journey through Lent.  We do know from the early Church Fathers that if a Christian committed a serious sin, he had to confess first and then was given a sackcloth garment and his head sprinkled with ashes.  He was required to remain in this state for some period of time and then was reconciled with the rest of the Christian community by the bishop.

From these beginnings the practice of using ashes as a penitential symbol grew into more formal use throughout the Church.  By the sixth century the Spanish-Mozarabic rite called for signing the foreheads of penitents with ashes before admitting a gravely ill person to the Order of Penitents.  The Order of Penitents were those whose sins were so grave they were required to do public penance starting on the Wednesday before the first Sunday of Lent and ending with re-admittance to the community on Holy Thursday.  This is the first historical indication we have that what we know today as “Ash Wednesday” was a regular observance for at least part of the Church.

As the piety of penitence and mourning for sin grew, so did the formal liturgical rites for Lent. The name “dies cinerum” (Day of Ashes) is the first record of the formal name for Ash Wednesday and appears in the Gregorian Sacramentary ritual book dating from sometime in the eighth century. In the Romano-Germanic Pontifical of 960 we find a full-fledged ceremony for ash sprinkling on this day.

By the eleventh century, the practice of public penance began to fall into disuse but Ash Wednesday began to take on a wider significance for all. Abbot Aelfric (955-1020) of Eynsham wrote that the faithful took part in a ceremony involving the imposition of ashes on the Wednesday before Lent.  After the Synod of Beneventum in 1091 Pope Urban II established the use of ashes on that day for all Catholics everywhere.

As the evolution of the Ash Wednesday liturgy continued, new ceremonials came to be. Using blessed palms and olive branches from the previous year’s Palm Sunday celebration as the source for ashes began in the 12^th century. Today in many parishes people bring their blessed palms to be burned for the ashes in a ritual observance.

The celebration of Ash Wednesday in the twenty-first century in the Catholic Church is a combination of ancient prayers and rituals, assimilation of newer rituals like the congregational participation in the burning of palms, and a post-1965 recovery of the baptismal focus of Lent.  At baptism the Christian promises to reject sin and profess the Gospel.  Ash Wednesday is the start of the conversion journey made time and again by the baptized.  It also is a solemn reminder that all will die yet a joyous reminder that in death, with a life of conversion, heaven awaits.

And as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive…So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, it shall rise in incorruption. It is sown in dishonour, it shall rise in glory. It is sown in weakness, it shall rise in power. (1 Cor. 15: 22, 42-43)

A faithful saying: for if we be dead with him, we shall live also with him. If we suffer, we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he will also deny us…But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and earth: and some indeed unto honour, but some unto dishonour.  If any man therefore shall cleanse himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified and profitable to the Lord, prepared unto every good work.  But flee thou youthful desires, and pursue justice, faith, charity, and peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. (2 Tim. 2: 11-12, 20-22)

Tags: Catholic Church, conversion

1 Comment to The History of Ash Wednesday

1. 

   Just as we talked about, a nice piece of journalism and well-researched. I knew some of this… but not all by far. Thanks.
Lynn on February 16th, 2010

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