Why three Masses on Christmas Day?
I have often wondered why there are three Masses prescribed for Christmas Day. The first Mass is indicated for midnight, the second for dawn and the third for during the day. What historical background can there be for this out-of-the-ordinary practice? And why may one priest take three stipends for these three Masses on Christmas Day, when he may not otherwise do so?
Unlikely as it may appear, the clue to your question can be found in the feast of St Anastasia. She was a Roman of noble birth who became a Christian and was martyred in the year 304 under the persecution launched by the emperor Diocletian. Apparently, she was a woman of exemplary virtue and kindness whose memory was widely celebrated throughout the Church, both in the east and west.
Her feast day was December 25, probably the day she died, and it was the custom of the pope to celebrate Mass in her honour on that day every year in Romes St Anastasia basilica.
Then, when Constantine became the first Christian emperor, the liturgical feast of the Nativity of Jesus began to be celebrated in Rome on December 25, about the year 330. After the Council of Ephesus (431) declared that Mary is the Mother of God, Pope Sixtus III built the basilica of St Mary Major and it was there that the first Christmas midnight Mass was celebrated, imitating a custom already established in Jerusalem. After celebrating this Mass the pope then went back to the basilica of St Anastasia at dawn and, as usual, celebrated the saints customary Mass.
The Roman faithful also had to be considered, and so the pope celebrated the daytime Christmas Mass for them in St Mary Major later.
In this development, the feast of St Anastasia was eclipsed by Christmas, but she cannot be neglected as the reason why three separate Christmas Masses became the pope s custom in Rome.
This is the one exception in canon law that otherwise forbids a priest to accept more than one stipend a day, even if he needs to offer more than one. If the priest should offer a vigil Mass before midnight, this does not count as one of the three Masses.
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