Anglican "Black Letter Days"

Over the centuries, the church calendar has developed many special days, beginning with each Sunday or Lord's Day and major observances such as Good Friday, Easter, and Pentecost. With time, other major feasts such as Epiphany, Christmas, and other observances associated with Christ, the Virgin, and the Apostles were included. Later, many local commemorations of martyrs, saints, and events were added. Some of these became universal or at least widespread in the Eastern or Western traditions. By the time of the Renaissance and Reformation, calendars had become very complicated, and many scholars of varying perspectives were calling for calendar reform and simplification.

Among Anglicans, the efforts of Archbishop Cranmer were influenced by other sixteenth-century efforts. In the 1549 Book of Common Prayer, Lutheran examples may have led him to only include "red-letter days," major feasts (and fasts) associated with Christ and other New Testament figures or events. Yet, many other commemorations remained part of popular English Christian culture. So in the 1552 Book of Common Prayer, many long-standing observances were added to the calendar as "black-letter days," or minor commemorations. These days mostly dealt with the feasts of ancient post-biblical saints or figures from early English church history. Some were well-known historical figures such as Augustine of Hippo or Jerome; some such as St. Agnes, St. George, and St. Valentine were probably ancient martyrs whose stories were elaborated in legend; some such as St. Blaise or St. Crispin may or may not have been historical. The 1552 list of days was augmented in 1561 and 1662.

On this blog, I do not always comment on particular "black-letter days." There are so many days, and there is little trustworthy information about some of them. Nevertheless, even as the names of almost forgotten martyrs and saints, many deserve to be remembered. Moreover, some of these days concern influential persons or events in the history of the universal or catholic Church which deserve our attention. So even if I do not comment on them in my posts, I commend the minor commemorations, especially those related to the ancient Church, to your attention.