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the Saturday before Pentecost also. The following Saturday, however, was never called Sabbatum in albis, probably because the colour of the vestments of the Church during that octave were red, in commemoration of the fire of the Holy Spirit. The Saturday before Easter Sunday obtained the appellation "holy", from the circumstance of the neophytes being sanctified, made holy on that day. The ceremony of blessing the Paschal candle, which originated in the catacombs, was afterwards confined exclusively to the great basilicas. The introduction of the ceremony of blessing the Paschal candle on Holy Saturday, is by many historians attributed to Pope Zozimus, who was elevated to the chair of Peter in the year 417. I have no doubt, however, that the usage prevailed in the preceding century, for a Christian poet named Prudentius, who lived nearly a hundred years before the pontificate of Zozimus, made the Paschal candle the subject of one of his poems. It was emblematic of the resurrection of Christ, who was, as it were for a moment, extinguished by His Passion; but by rising from the dead was lit again by a new and brilliant light. The wax represents the body of Christ, the wick His soul, and the flame His divinity. The five grains inserted in the wax represent His five wounds, and they are composed of eastern aromatical incense, to typify the myrrh and spices with which Nicodemus and Joseph of Aramathea so piously embalmed the body of our Lord, and the torrent of balm which flowed from those wounds, to cure the sores of a diseased world. It is lit from one of the flames of the triangular candle, to signify that, though all the persons of the Blessed Trinity coöperated in the work of the resurrection, we especially attribute it to Christ.

Pope Zozimus was the first who allowed this cere

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mony to take place in parochial churches; it was afterwards permitted in other churches. The large candle, which is introduced in the interval between our Lord's Passion and glorious Resurrection, represents the cloud by day, and, when lighted, the pillar of fire by night, which guided God's people through the dreary desert to their happy land of promise-and significantly represents to the catechumens, the great Captain and Leader of salvation, who guides them through the Red Sea of Baptism, to a land where they shall be fed on the manna of the Blessed Eucharist, and through the desert of this life to the happy regions of the blessed, where they shall be regaled on the milk and honey of the good things of the Lord. The deacon at the Gospel side of the altar proceeds with the benediction of the Paschal candle, by singing the "Exultet jam angelica turba", proclaiming the first joyous intelligence of our Lord's having risen. The deacon alone is vested in white, whilst all the other ministers are still robed in the violet with which they were originally vested, to represent the white garments, the emblems of joyfulness in which the angelic messenger announced the first tidings of the memorable event to the disciples, who were still overwhelmed with affliction for the passion and death of our Saviour. Of all the hymns or canticles introduced into the Church's liturgy, there is not one of which the music is more peculiar, more mystical, and more appropriate to the occasion than this of the "Exultet". It forcibly expresses the gradual transition from sorrow to gladness. The varied intonations and cadences through every scale, blend the plaintive and piteous strains of the woe-stricken and desolate soul, mourning over the beloved one, with the rapturous exultations and exclamations of delight, at the

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more hopeful anticipations that the rumoured tidings may be true, that "he who was dead hath truly risen, and dieth now no more". This most remarkable hymn is undoubtedly of very great antiquity, but at what precise time it was first introduced into the ceremonies of Holy Saturday, or by whom composed, ecclesiastical historians can give no decided information. Some attribute it to Peter the Deacon, others to St. Leo, others again to St. Augustine; but I entirely lean to the opinion of those who assert that it was composed and set to music by St. Ambrose. At the ends and in the centre of the cross depicted on the candle are five holes, representing the five principal wounds, those of His hands, feet, and side, inflicted on our suffering Saviour on the cross. Into those the deacon inserts the five grains of incense, to commemorate the embalming of His body by His disciples. Near the close of the ceremony of the blessing, the candle is lit, to represent the reanimation of the body of Christ, and it is subsequently lit on all solemn occasions, till the feast of the Ascension, to remind us of Christ's having dwelt with His disciples, and cheered and illuminated them by His conversation and instructions, till eventually on that festival he took His leave of them, and ascended to His heavenly Father; and after the gospel of the Mass of that day, it is finally extinguished.

The ceremony of enkindling the new fire, and the lighting of the triangular candle emblematic of the resuscitated light of Christ, is everywhere impressive, but in the Catacombs was invested with a solemnity and mystic signification productive of the most irresistible and overwhelming devotional effects on the soul. After the solemn offices of the three preceding evenings, and the tenebræ, commemorative of the general darkness which

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SCENES IN THE CATACOMBS.

overwhelmed the earth, and after the desolate, disconsolate aspect of the catacombs, where every light was extinguished, when the Deacon, no longer wearing the sable habiliments of mourning, lit successively each of the three candles from the flickering embers, and on each occasion chaunted "Lumen Christi !" "the light of Christ", every feeling was thrilled, all knelt in adoration, and every teeming soul overflowed with gratitude, and every fibre of the heart vibrated to sentiments of thanksgiving and divine love. As he progressed in the procession, and the radiant lustre fell in succession, and illuminated the features of those devoted priests of God, of the angelic virgins, and saintly youths, it seemed indeed as a gleam rendering their heavenly countenances radiant with uplifted hopes, and with the light of the rising sun of righteousness, rendered more brilliant and mysterious when relieved by the darksome ravines of the radiating chambers. Oh! such striking contrasts of prominent lights and depths of shade were never revealed even by Rembrandt's crafty graver! As the gleam momentarily lit up the waxen and rose coloured complexion and golden hair and faces of the charming children, and then passed on, they seemed as angel visitors flitting past, as bright, as transient too!

After the blessing of the Paschal candle has been completed, the lessons called the Prophecies, which foretold all that was to happen, and which are twelve in number, are read and the appropriate orations are chaunted. In St. John of Lateran, and in all parochial churches, the baptismal font is then solemnly blessed. This blessing does not take place in the Sistine Chapel. The litanies are then sung, after which the Pope's throne is divested of its mourning drapery of violet, the candles on the altar and

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balustrade are lit, the altar appears decorated, the Cardinals change their violet for red cappas, and the Holy Father enters vested in white cape and mitre, and commences the solemn Mass. At this mass there is no introit, or song of entrance, as all are supposed to have been assembled in the church long previously. When the "Gloria in excelsis" is entoned, the veil is removed, the chapel and walls resound with a triumphant flourish of trumpets, the great bells of the Basilica agitate the air with their vibrations, and a salvo of artillery thunders from St. Angelo. This demonstration of exultation is again repeated at the consecration. After the epistle, a subdeacon kneels at the feet of the Pope, and addresses His Holiness, "Pater Sancte, annuntio vobis gaudium magnum quod est. Alleluia". "Holy Father, I announce to you great joy that is. Alleluia". At the Gospel no light is borne, because, though Christ has arisen, the Gospel has not as yet been fully proclaimed. No "Agnus Dei" is said to-day in the Mass, to denote the silence with which the holy women approached the sepulchre in search of the body of Christ. The first time this salutation of the "Agnus Dei" was introduced into the Mass was about the year 700, and at the command of Pope Sergius. No "Pax" is given at the Mass of this day, as the faithful in early ages saluted each other by the salutation," Christ has arisen". The custom prevails still everywhere in Russia, where the people salute each other not merely in the churches, but in their houses and in the streets by the salutation "Christ has arisen", and are accosted in return by the words, "He has truly arisen". In Russia also the custom prevails on Good Friday, that all distinctions of position or social rank are abolished the private soldier and the general, the ser