Here we see change of His times and not just His Laws…
And then even more changes…
“The
Decree of Gratian (about 1150) mentions forty-one feasts besides the
diocesan patronal celebrations; the
Decretals of Gregory IX (about 1233) mention forty-five public feasts and Holy Days, which means eighty-five days when no work could be done and ninety-five days when no court sessions could be held. In many provinces eight days after
Easter, in some also the week after Pentecost (or at least four days), had the
sabbath rest. From the thirteenth to the eighteenth century there were
dioceses in which the Holy Days and
Sundays amounted to over one hundred, not counting the feasts of particular
monasteries and churches. In the Byzantine empire there were sixty-six entire Holy Days (Constitution of Manuel Comnenus, in 1166), exclusive of
Sundays, and twenty-seven half Holy Days. In the fifteenth century,
Gerson,
Nicolas de Clémanges and others protested against the multiplication of feasts, as an oppression of the
poor, and proximate occasions of excesses. The long needed reduction of feast days was made by
Urban VIII(Universa per orbem, 13 Sept., 1642). There remained thirty-six feasts or eighty-five days free from labour.
Pope Urban limited the right of the
bishops to establish new Holy Days; this right is now not abrogated, but antiquated…
By the
French revolution the
ecclesiasticalcalendar had been radically abolished, and at the reorganization of the French Church, in 1806, only four feasts were retained:
Christmas, the
Ascension, the Assumption, and All Saints; the other feasts were transferred to Sunday. This reduction was valid also in
Belgium and in
Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. For the
Catholics in
England Pius VI (19 March, 1777) established the following lists of feasts:
Easter and Pentecost two days each,
Christmas, New Year's Day, Epiphany,
Ascension,
Corpus Christi, Annunciation, Assumption, Sts. Peter and Paul,
St. George, and All Saints. After the
restoration of the hierarchy (1850), the Annunciation, St. George, and the Monday after
Easter and Pentecost were abolished.
Scotland keeps also the feast of St. Andrew,
Ireland the feasts of
St. Patrick and the Annunciation.
Feast Days, or Holy Days, are days which are celebrated in commemoration of the sacred mysteries and events recorded in the history of our redemption, in memory of the Virgin Mother of Christ, or of His apostles, martyrs, and saints, by special services and rest from work
www.newadvent.org
His calendar has 73 days off a year…7 festivals
