The Origin of Easter in Light of Church History
History books with an English bias frequently make the claim that the Celtic church established by Saint Patrick and spread through the efforts of generations of Irish missionaries, was a completely separate "autocephalous" church from the "Church of Rome." If correct, this would make the Irish church similar to the schismatic creation of Henry VIII in England and the various independent oriental churches identified under the label of orthodox. Apparently a conciliatory attempt to show that the Irish are just like the English, and that the Catholic Church has oppressively eliminated every vestige of independent thought or action that has shown itself, such a premise ignores the facts.
The Irish church, although differing in a number of liturgical practices from the Latin rite of the Church, always made it perfectly clear that it was a part of the Catholic Church with the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, at its head, and that any differences were only legitimate variations. Saint Patrick himself had urged the Irish church always to remember that the Bishop of Rome was the head of the Church.
Further, the claim that Rome has always and in every way oppressively eliminated all differences (similar to the way the English attempted to Anglicize the British Isles) ignores the existence of a number of different rites in the Catholic Church even today: Malabar, Mozarabic, Byzantine, Coptic, Armenian, Tudor (to accommodate Anglicans incensed over the legitimization of artificial contraception at the Council of Lambeth in 1931 and, more recently, the Pusseyites' anguish over the issue of the ordination of women, which they feel to be invalid), Greek, and so on, to a great multiplicity. All of these acknowledge the Pope as the Vicar of Christ on earth and the head of the Church.
The only reason that there is no longer an identifiable Celtic Rite is that the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169 completely eliminated all of the specifically Irish usages - and was allegedly carried out for just that purpose. This was as stated in the forged Bull, "Laudabilitur," issued by Henry II following the invasion of Ireland in order to justify it. Finally, the attempt by the English to set up an "established" church in Ireland during the English Reformation was exactly what the English have always accused the Catholic Church of doing: destroying the native church and imposing that of a foreign power. Nevertheless, there were definite differences between the Latin and the Celtic rites of the Church. One of the chief differences is the subject of this article.
In or about the year 600 Saint Columban wrote the first in a series of three letters to the Pope and the Bishops of the Church explaining and defending the practices of the Celtic Rite, spread throughout a large portion of the Western World by the Irish missionary effort of the fifth and sixth centuries. Continuing well into the seventh century, the effect of so many Irish monks choosing the White Martyrdom (an Irishman in exile from his home and family was a true martyr, though not a Red Martyr who gave his life in blood; a White Martyr was one who gave his life in service in a far land) continues to the present day in the rules of many religious orders and the ordering of monastic life. Its influence on everyday Church custom, such as the practice of private auricular confession, has also been pervasive. Setting aside minor differences, the conflict had to do with calculation of the date of Easter, the manner of Irish tonsure, and what was known as the "Three Chapters Controversy."
The Date of Easter
When Saint Patrick was appointed missionary Bishop to Ireland as the successor of Saint Palladius in 432, there were three methods of calculating the date of Easter in use throughout the Christian world. All used what was called the "Non-Quartodeciman" method, but with slight variations.
To explain, the oldest method of calculating the date of Easter was called the "Quartodeciman" method, drawn literally from the three Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke). Based on the Jewish lunar calendar, it held that Easter was to be celebrated on the first day of the full moon in the first month of Spring (i.e., the first full moon after the vernal equinox), no matter on what day of the week the full moon fell. This meant that the celebration of Pasch (i.e., Easter) would always fall on 14 Nisan of the Jewish calendar, the same as the preparation day for the Jewish Passover. More than a century before Patrick returned to Ireland, the Council of Nicaea in 325 determined that the universal Church should use the "Non-Quartodeciman" method.
The Non-Quartodeciman method of determining the date of Easter was based on a combination of the lunar and solar calendars. It placed Easter on the first Sunday immediately after the first full moon following the vernal equinox. This corresponds roughly to the first Sunday after 14 Nisan. By the fourth century, this method was in use in Rome and most local churches. However, the situation was not as simple as outlined. Different dates for Easter could be calculated for the same year as the result of different interpretations as to when the vernal equinox occurred. To make things extremely complicated, determining the date of the vernal equinox involved which "cycle" was used by the local church.
Ireland used the oldest cycle of 84 years, which had been advocated by Saint Jerome. This was the system that the Irish had received from Saint Patrick, it being the one with which he was familiar. This system had the vernal equinox falling on 25 March. The Italian church used the "Dionysian" cycle of 19 years which placed the vernal equinox on 21 March of each year. This is the system currently in use by the Catholic Church throughout the world. The schismatic oriental churches use a different method.
Gaul, that is, France, used yet another cycle. This was the "Victorian" cycle of 532 years. In spite of its name, it has nothing to do with Queen Victoria. Its name comes from the fact that it was the cycle promulgated by one Victorianus.
These differences caused Easter, the most important feast on the calendar, to be celebrated at different times in different areas. In one Gaulish royal court, the king and his followers were celebrating Easter while the Queen and her followers, who had been educated by Irish missionaries, were still keeping the Lenten fast. The old Roman method used by the Irish, although of greater antiquity and formerly in use throughout the entire Church, had been superseded by the "Dionysian" method in 343, which was implemented throughout most of Italy and North Africa.
In some years, the cycle used by the Irish resulted in Easter falling on the same day as it would have under the Quartodeciman method. This gave the jealous Gaulish bishops their chance to discredit the Irish, giving apparent substance to the claim made by them that the Irish were using an heretical system. The claim that the Irish were heretics or schismatics was ably demolished by Saint Columban, but it still left the actual differences in the calculation of the date of Easter to account for. It was considered important by the Pope that uniformity of practice be established in all significant liturgical matters so that they would reflect uniformity of doctrine. In view of the prevalence of heresy and the swiftness with which it could spread, this was certainly understandable, though not very conducive to preserving peculiar national, though orthodox, practices.
