Quadragesima

 Quadratus

 Quality

 Quamichan Indians

 Quam singulari

 Quantity

 Quapaw Indians

 Quarantines

 Franciscus Quaresmius

 Archdiocese of Quebec

 Province of Quebec

 Hyacinthe-Louis de Quelen

 Quem terra, pontus, sidera

 Jacopo Della Quercia

 Diocese of Querétaro

 Pasquier Quesnel

 Juan de Quevedo

 Quiche

 Quichua Indians

 Quicumque Christum Quæritis

 Councils of Quierzy

 Prayer of Quiet

 Quietism

 Diocese of Quilon

 Diocese of Quimper

 Michael Joseph Quin

 Sts. Quinctianus

 Francis Quiñones

 Quinquagesima

 Agustín Quintana

 Sts. Quiricus and Julitta

 Angelo Maria Quirini

 Sts. Quirinus

 Archdiocese of Quito

Quadragesima


(Lat., the fortieth).

Quadragesima denotes a season of preparation by fasting and prayer, to imitate the example of Christ (Matt., iv). Several such were observed by the early Christians, viz. before Christmas, Easter, and the feast of St. John the Baptist; the Greeks had four, the Maronites six, and the Armenians eight (Du Cange, "Gloss."). The major, before Easter, is commonly known. It is mentioned in the fifth canon of the Council of Nicæa, in the sixty-ninth of the Apostolic Canons, and in the Pilgrimage of Ætheria (Duchesne, 499). In the Anglo-Saxon Church Mass was said on the weekdays of Quadragesima late in the afternoon and food was taken only near sunset (Rock, IV, 76). According to the Roman Rite, the feriæ of this time, beginning with Ash Wednesday, are major (see FERIA). The season has a proper preface. In ferial masses a special oration is added after the ordinary postcommunion, with the invitation: "Humiliate capita vestra Deo". Octaves are forbidden, and if, by special concession, they are allowed they must be interrupted on Sundays. The first Sunday of Lent, known as Invocabit from the first word of the Introit, is for the Greeks a commemoration of the veneration of images (19 Feb., 842). For Gaul it was the jour de bures or fête deu brandons and for Germany Funkentag or Hallfeuer, because on that day the young people ran about the streets with burning torches (Nilles, II, 102). The second Sunday, Reminiscere, was marked by the Greeks as vacat (Nilles, II, 122). The third Sunday, Oculi, was for the Greeks Adoratio Crucis with a ceremony similar to that of the Latins on Good Friday. For the Bohemians it was the Ned. Kychávná in memory of the sneezing plague at the end of the sixth century and of Litania septiformis of Gregory the Great. The remaining Sundays Lætare, Passion and Palm Sunday (q. v.). (See also Lent; Septuagesima.)

ROCK, Church of Our Fathers (London, 1904); DUCHESNE, Christian Worship (London. 1904), KELLNER, Heortologie (Freiburg, 1906, tr. London and St. Louis, 1908); BENGER, Pastoraltheologie, III (Ratisbon, 1863), 201; BINTERIM, Denkwürdigkeiten, V, 1, 169), Nilles, Kalendarium manuale (Innsbruck, 1897).

FRANCIS MERSHMAN