Ember Days
Four seasons of the year, four times to fast and pray with the turning earth
Ember Days are four sets of three days of fasting and prayer spread across the four seasons, marking the year with penance and petition. Pope Leo I preached on these seasonal fasts, and the practice belonged to the Western or Roman tradition, kept by Catholics and historically by Anglicans but not observed in the East. Their use has differed over time and became largely disused after the Second Vatican Council.
How it traveled
- The Letters and Sermons of Leo the GreatRome · c. 461 CEapplies
Key passages(2)
Each passage is tagged by what it does with the idea: explains it, applies it in practice, redefines it with a new meaning, or challenges it. Relevance shows how directly the passage is about this idea.
The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great · Pope Leo the Great
Sermon LXXXVIII. On the Fast of the Seventh Month, III That is the September, or as we should now say, the Michaelmas Embertide. I. The Fasts, which the ancient prophets proclaimed, are still neces
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The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great · Pope Leo the Great
Sermon XII. On the Fast of The Tenth Month, I. That is the December or, as we should now call it, the Advent Embertide. Cf. Serm. XIX. chap. 2, where the four seasons, as arranged in Leo’s day, are
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