(From Pierre Lebrun’s Explanation, Preliminary Treatise)
Article V
On Candles. Why they are lit in the daytime. The origin of this practice.[1]
During the first centuries of the Church, the Christians who assembled on Sunday mornings before the break of day, and who were often forced during times of persecution to meet in dark places, found it necessary to light a number of candles or lamps for illumination. Following a custom of the Jews, they even sometimes lit a great number of them to mark a day of particular joy.[2] St. Luke says that there were many lamps in the place where St. Paul held his long discussion on the first day of the week,[3] the day St. John calls the Lord’s Day. Hence it is that candles are lit not only to provide light during the night offices but also to augment the solemnity of great feasts.[4] Around the year 230, God sent a miracle to prevent the Church of Jerusalem from going without the joy of these lights. Eusebius tells us that on a certain day, when the oil ran out, the bishop St. Narcissus ordered the lamps to be filled with water from a nearby well. The lamps burned more brightly than if they had been filled with the best oil.[5]
Eusebius also informs us that on the night of Easter, in addition to the lights of the churches, the Emperor Constantine ordered large candles to be lit in the streets of the city, and all sorts of lamps that lit up the night more brilliantly than the brightest day.[6]
If we were to content ourselves with explanations that are merely probable, we might follow certain contemporary authors[7] in maintaining that the practice of lighting candles at Masses held during the day comes from the fact that Christians were originally obliged to light them by necessity, but continued to light them during the day out of custom. But because our duty is to discover the truth, and not to stop before we reach it, several points must be acknowledged: 1) that candles have not always been lit at daytime masses; 2) that certain other churches have followed the Eastern Church in lighting the candles at the Gospel and then during the whole mass; and 3) that the real reason candles are lit during day masses and the other offices is to render them more solemn, and for other even more mystical reasons.
In the second century, Christian assemblies met ordinarily in elevated and well-lit places, a fact that can be gathered from Lucian’s Philopatris (or The Catechumen), and from Tertullian: in editis semper et apertis et ad lucem.[8] In these places lighting candles was not necessary.
In the third century, around the time of St. Cyprian, Mass was said during the daytime because the Church was usually at peace. However, we do not find evidence that candles were lit during the day. This practice had not been introduced even at the beginning of the fourth century, when the Church enjoyed complete peace, and was able to carry out her most solemn ceremonies in full majesty. Even by the year 400, candles were still not lit during Mass. When Vigilance was so bold as to reproach the devotion of certain pious persons who lit candles on the tombs of the martyrs in broad daylight, calling it a superstition, St. Jerome responded forcefully and with indignation, saying the following with regard to the ecclesiastical offices:
“As to the question of tapers, however, we do not, as you in vain misrepresent us, light them in the daytime, but by their solace we would cheer the darkness of the night, and watch for the dawn, lest we should be blind like you and sleep in darkness.”[9]
There was no one better informed about these practices than this holy Doctor, who had visited both Gauls and traveled through nearly the entire West, not to mention the East where he resided. Therefore we must take him as an authority when he says that candles were not lit in the daytime, in the first place, because the custom was to light them at night, and secondly, that the Churches of the Orient lit candles during the day for mystical reasons:
“Throughout the whole Eastern Church, even when there are no relics of the martyrs, whenever the Gospel is to be read the candles are lighted, although the dawn may be reddening the sky, not of course to scatter the darkness, but by way of evidencing our joy […] so that, under the figure of corporeal light, that light is represented of which we read in the Psalter, Your word is a lamp unto my feet, O Lord, and a light unto my paths.”[10]
Thus the use of candles at day masses comes from the Churches of the Orient. If we are to ask where these churches got this practice, there is room to believe that they took it from the Jews. It is clear that during the first three centuries these Churches practiced a number of Jewish rites, such as celebrating Easter on the 14th of Nisan and not on a Sunday, and it is possible that they consciously imitated the manner in which the Jews treated the book of the Law. The Jews used to, and in fact still do, leave a lamp continually burning before the book of the Law of Moses. It was even more fitting that the solemn proclamation of the Gospel be accompanied by lights that indicated the respect due to the holy Book that illuminates the shadows of the Old Law.
The practice observed in the Eastern Churches and practiced all throughout the fourth century was imitated by the other Churches after the time of Jerome. Candles were lit for the Gospel reading and extinguished afterwards, as noted by the ancient Roman Ordines and by Amalarius. Edifying practices commonly spread to neighboring Churches, and the cause of their origin was also the cause of their progress. The same mystical reason that first inspired the lighting of candles during the Gospel led to their being lit during the sacrificial action, where Christ our true Light is really present. Around the year 600, St. Isidore says that “they are called acolytes in Greek and candle-bearers in Latin, from the fact that they carry the candles when the Gospel is read or when the sacrifice is offered, not to scatter the darkness, since the sun is shining, but by way of evincing our joy, so that, under the figure of corporeal light, that light is represented of which we read in the Gospel: Erat lux vera…. ”[11] By this time the candles were lit only during the Gospel and the sacrificial action, and these candles were held by acolytes. Finally, some time later they came to be lit at the beginning of Mass and during certain of the divine offices when more solemnity was called for, and in order to give the people a more tangible sign of Jesus Christ who is the true light.
The Church has always esteemed and approved these sorts of mystical symbols which are so many brief and edifying instructions for the people. There is nothing more ancient than the custom of the newly-baptized holding a candle. In 350 St. Cyril of Jerusalem says to them: “You who have just lighted the torches of faith, guard them carefully in your hands unquenched.”[12] In some places Epiphany came to be called the Feast of the Holy Lights, because it was a feast in honor of the Baptism of Christ. St. Gregory Nazianzen gave two very beautiful sermons on this Feast of Lights, where he uses many comparisons to show how physical light is a symbol of the divine light that should fill our souls.[13]
For more than twelve hundred years we have solemnly blessed and lit the Paschal Candle, not in order to provide light during the night of Easter, since the Church is already illuminated infinitely more brightly than at any other vigil of the year by the many candles and lamps. Rather, it is done for mystical reasons. The Fourth Council of Toledo (633) reprimands the churches that did not observe this ceremony and had requested to know the reason for it. The reason, the Council says, is “so that the blessing of this candle may cause us to contemplate the sacred mystery of the resurrection,” which is the luminous glory of the new life “of Jesus Christ.”[14]
It is also for mystical reasons that candles have been lit on the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, also called the Purification of the Virgin, in order to share the holy joy of the aged St. Simeon as he held the divine Infant in his arms, and in order more vividly to express the truth that he is the Light of the nations.
Since the fourth century, the bodies of the faithful who have died with the signs of faith have been carried to the Church followed by a great number of candles. The bodies of the emperor Constantine,[15] St. Paul, St. Simeon the Stylite, and many others were carried in this way, in order to show that these were true children of the light. The practice continues today.
Finally, we know from the witness of St. Paulinus and Prudentius[16] that, in the fourth century, a great number of candles that were left burning on the tombs of the martyrs day and night, for no other reason than to honor the heavenly light that these sounds enjoyed, and which is the whole joy of Christians.[17] Therefore, the candles lit in our churches in daytime have always been regarded as symbols of the divine light. St. Jerome and St. Isidore have told us so. The Roman Ordo, Amalarius, and Alcuin agree, and the Micrologus follows their authority when, in 1086, it expresses itself in the following manner: “We never celebrate the Mass without light: not of course to scatter the darkness, since it is daytime, but rather as a type of the light whose Sacrament we confect, and without whom we would grope around at midday as if it were midnight.”[18] The candles also remind us that once were in the darkness, but have been enlightened in Jesus Christ, and that we must act like children of light through works of charity.[19]
NOTES
[1] Ed. note: For a more comprehensive treatment of the use of candles in Catholic worship, see the excellent article “Candles” in the Catholic Encyclopedia.
[2] See Baronius, Annales Ecclesiastici, vol. I, an. 58. n. 70: “Quantumlibet ad noctis tenebras expellendas copiosum numerum, quem Lucas refert, fuisse lampadum in coenaculo collocatum, quisque jure dicere posse videatur: tamen exploratissimum est consuevisse Judaeos non tantum ad lumen inducendum, tenebrasque pellendas lucernas incendere, sed et laetitae causa, cum celebritatem aliquam agerent […]. Qui quidem usus in Ecclesiam dimanavit: nam non ad lucem tantum inducendam, sed ad pium religionis cultum amplificandum interdiu vel in sacris adhiberi, vel aliter in honorem numinis accendi lumina, consuetudinem fuisse, complura sunt antiquorum exempla.”
[3] Una Sabbati cum convenissemus ad frangendum panem, Paulus … protraxit sermonem usque in mediam noctem…. erant autem lampades copiosae in coenaculo ubi eramus congregati (Acts 20:7, 8).
[4] Concil. Trid.
[5] Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica, book 6, chapter 9.
[6] In Vita Constantini, book 4, chapter 22: “The emperor himself, as a sharer in the holy mysteries of our religion, would seclude himself daily at a stated hour in the innermost chambers of his palace; and there in solitary converse with his God, would kneel in humble supplication, and entreat the blessings of which he stood in need. But especially at the salutary feast of Easter, his religious diligence was redoubled; he fulfilled as it were the duties of a hierophant with every energy of his mind and body, and outvied all others in the zealous celebration of this feast. He changed, too, the holy night vigil into a brightness like that of day, by causing waxen tapers of great length to be lighted throughout the city: besides which, torches everywhere diffused their light, so as to impart to this mystic vigil a brilliant splendor beyond that of day.”
[7] Ed. note: This is a veiled reference to the explanation advanced by Benedictine Claude de Vert in his Explication simple, littérale et historique des cérémonies de l’Église (4 vol., Paris, 1709-1713), the catalyst for Lebrun’s Explanation. Lebrun takes this mistaken explanation as emblematic of de Vert’s flawed approach to liturgical symbolism, which he refutes at length in the introduction to this work.
[8] Tertullian, Against Valent. ch. 3: “Let, then, the serpent hide himself as much as he is able, and let him wrest all his wisdom in the labyrinths of his obscurities; let him dwell deep down in the ground; let him worm himself into secret holes; let him unroll his length through his sinuous joints; let him tortuously crawl, though not all at once, beast as he is that skulks the light. Of our dove, however, how simple is the very home!— always in high and open places, and facing the light! As the symbol of the Holy Spirit, it loves the radiant East, that figure of Christ.”
[9] Cereos autem non clara luce accendimus, sicut frustra calumniatis: sed ut noctis tenebras hoc solatio temperemus et vigilemus ad lumen, ne caeci tecum dormiamus in tenebris (Jerome, Epistle against Vigilance).
[10] Per totas Orientis Ecclesias, quando Evangelium legendum est, accenduntur luminaria, iam sole rutilante, non utique ad fugandas tenebras, sed ad signum laetitae demonstrandum…ut sub typo luminis corporalis illa lux ostendatur, de qua in Psalterio legimus: Lucernae pedibus meis verbum tuum, Domine, et lumen semitis meis (ibid.). By “Churches of the Orient,” Jerome was referring to the cities and provinces governed by the Prefect of the Orient according to the division of the Roman Empire. Its capital was at Antioch of Syria. This included the Churches of Ephesus, Smyrna, and the rest of Asia Minor.
[11] Acolyti Graece, Latine ceroferarii dicuntur a deportandis cereis quando Evangelium legendum est, aut sacrificium offerendum […] (Isidore, Origines, book 7, ch. 12).
[12] Cathechesis 1
[13] In sancta lumina orationes 39 et 40.
[14] Lucerna et cereus in praevigiliis Paschae apud quasdam Ecclesias non benedicuntur, et cur a nobis benedicuntur inquirunt. Propter gloriosum enim noctis istius Sacramentum solemniter haec benedicimus, ut sacrae resurrectionis Christi mysterium, quod tempore huius votivae noctis advenit, in benedictione sanctificati luminis suscipiamus (Counc. Tolet. VI, can 9).
[15] Eusebius, Vita Constantini, book 4, ch. 66: “After this the soldiers lifted the body from its couch, and laid it in a golden coffin, which they enveloped in a covering of purple, and removed to the city which was called by his own name. Here it was placed in an elevated position in the principal chamber of the imperial palace, and surrounded by candles burning in candlesticks of gold, presenting a marvelous spectacle, and such as no one under the light of the sun had ever seen on earth since the world itself began. For in the central apartment of the imperial palace, the body of the emperor lay in its elevated resting- place, arrayed in the symbols of sovereignty, the diadem and purple robe, and encircled by a numerous retinue of attendants, who watched around it incessantly night and day.”
[16] Ed. note: See Prudentius’s “Hymn for the Lighting of the Lamps”:
“So by Thy gifts, great Father, hearth and hall
Are all ablaze with points of twinkling light
That vie with daylight spent; and vanquished Night
Rends, as she flies away, her sable pall.”
[17] Lux orta est iusto, et rectis corde laetitia (Psalm 96).
[18] Juxta Ordinem Romanum nunquam Missam absque lumine celebramus: non utique ad depellendas tenebras, cum sit clara dies, sed potius in typum illius luminis, cuius sacramentum ibi conficimus, sine quo et in meridie palpabimus ut in nocte (Micrologum, ch. 11).
[19] Eratis enim aliquando tenebrae, nunc autem lux in Domino, ut filii lucis ambulate (Ephesians 5:8).
Canticum Salomonis 
