Note 9 — ERECTION OF THE MANILA CATHEDRAL1

Feria is a name given to all the days of the week except Sunday and Saturday in the ecclesiastical calendar. It seems strange that the title of feria or feast should be given to days that are not feasts, or at least are not considered as such, so far as they are called feriæ. The explanation given in the breviary, that clerics are to be free from worldly cares and keep a perpetual feast to God, scarcely suffices, and perhaps is not intended, to account for the actual origin of the name. The true explanation is probably this. The Jews were accustomed to name the days of the week from the Sabbath, and thus such expressions as “the first day from the Sabbath,” or, in other words “the first day of the week” are found in the gospels. The early Christians reckoned the days in Easter week in the same fashion: only as all the days in that week were holy days, they called Easter Monday, not the first day after Easter Sunday, but the second feria or feast-day; and as every Sunday is a lesser Easter, the practice prevailed of calling each Monday “feria secunda,” each Tuesday “feria tertia,” etc. Feriæ are divided into greater and lesser.—The latter give place to any feast-day within an octave or vigil, without even being commemorated. The former are the week-days of Advent and Lent, the Ember-days, and Monday (not Tuesday) in Rogation Week. If a simple feast falls on such a feria, the ferial office and mass are said, the feast being only commemorated, and if a double, semi-double, or day within an octave coincides with the feria, the festal office is, indeed, said, but the feria is commemorated. The privilege granted by apostolic indult of reciting a votive office on certain days of the week or month cannot be made use of on these greater feriæ. Some of the greater feriæ are privileged (the days of Holy, Easter, and Whitson Weeks, and Ash Wednesday). These days exclude any feast of however high a rank, and cause it to be transferred to another day. This must be understood of the celebration in choir, for the obligation of resting from servile work and hearing mass on holidays usually remains, even if the holiday falls on a greater feria. See Addis and Arnold’s Catholic Dictionary, pp. 346, 347. ↑