Note 112 — CHAP. VI.

Footnote 112:

(return)

As for the Paschal candle, Anastasius says that Zosimus, who was elected pope in 417, gave leave that candles should be blessed in the churches. Bened. XIV, Merati and Gretser understand by these words, that that Pontiff only extended to the parish churches a custom already practised in the greater churches: however this may be, the blessing of this candle is at least as old as the time of Pope Zosimus. It is inserted in the ancient sacramentary of Pope Gelasius (A.D. 495). S. Augustine (lib. 15 de Civ. Dei) mentions some verses written by himself in praise of the paschal candle. S. Jerome also speaks of it in his epistles; and Ennodius bishop of Pavia in 519 wrote two formulas, according to which it might be blessed. Cancellieri, at the end of his Funzioni della Settimana Santa, describes two blessings of the paschal candle contained in manuscripts of the 12th century. Du Vert as usual rejects every mystical meaning of the candle: but why then should it be lighted on this night, and not on christmas and other nights? The 4th Council of Toledo, held in 633, states that the paschal candle is blessed, in order that we may receive the mystery of Christ's resurrection; and hence the abbot Rupert says, that the candle when lighted represents Christ's resurrection from the dead. That such is its meaning appears from the five holes made in it in the form of a cross, to represent the five wounds of Christ: in them the five grains of incense are fixed by the Deacon, in order to represent, according to Rupert, the spices applied to Christ's body by Joseph of Arimathea. In confirmation of this explanation, we may observe that this candle is not removed from the church till the gospel has been sung on Ascension-day when Christ departed from among men: and it is lighted at solemn mass before the gospel and at vespers before the Magnificat on the Sundays and holidays which occur between holy saturday and the ascension. To the same symbolical meaning of this candle we must attribute the ancient custom of affixing to it (as a symbol of Christ) a tablet on which the current year of our Lord and its indiction were marked: sometimes these, if not other chronological dates, were inscribed on the candle itself by the deacon, before he sang the Exultet, as Ven. Bede testifies, The same idea was preserved in the practice of forming the Agnus Dei with the wax of the paschal candle. "On this day" (holy saturday) says Durandus "the acolythes of the Roman church make lambs of newly blessed wax, or of the wax of the paschal candle of the preceding year mixed with chrism: on Saturday in Albis they are distributed by the Lord Pope to the people in the churches". Amalarius likewise mentions this custom. It appears also from the two benedictions of Ennodius mentioned above, that the faithful used particles of the pascal candle as a preservative against storms: the good effects hoped for in this and similar cases are attributed to the prayers of the church, which God in His goodness has promised to hear. The paschal candle is painted according to an ancient custom.

S. Paulinus Nat. VI. S Felicis

Pierin del Vaga, whom Vasari considered as the most distinguished of Raffaello's assistants, was originally nothing more than a candlepainter. His creation of Eve at S. Marcello at Rome, and his frescoes in the Doria place at Genoa, are well-known; at the Vatican he assisted Giovanni d'Udine in his arabesques, Polidoro in his antique chiaroscuri, and executed some of the most beautiful historical paintings of the loggie di Raffaello. Hence may we judge of the versatility of his talents.