Pentecost
Fifty days after Easter, the Spirit descends and the Church is born
Pentecost, kept fifty days after Easter, celebrates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles, recounted in Acts 2. It is among the oldest Christian feasts; Tertullian and Origen attest the fifty-day season by the third century. Universally observed, the fifty-day Paschal season leading to it is especially marked in the Eastern tradition as a time of joy.
How it traveled
- ActsRome · c. 84 CEexplains
- Letters of Athanasius with Two Ancient Chronicles of His LifeAlexandria · c. 373 CEapplies
- The Catechetical Lectures of S. CyrilJerusalem · c. 386 CEexplains
- Select Orations of Saint Gregory NazianzenNazianzus · c. 390 CEexplains
- A Commentary on the Acts of the ApostlesConstantinople (Istanbul) · c. 407 CEexplains
Key passages(20)
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.
A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles · John Chrysostom
Homily IV. Acts II. 1, 2 “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven.” Dost thou perceive the type? What i
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Now when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all with one accord in one place.
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Suddenly there came from the sky a sound like the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
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On the Catechising of the Uninstructed · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 23.—Of the Mission of the Holy Ghost Fifty Days After Christ’s Resurrection. 41. “Thereafter, having confirmed the disciples, and having sojourned with them forty days, He ascended up into he
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The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril · Cyril of Jerusalem
Gen. ii. 7: and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Compare Cat. xiv. 10. Nahum ii. 1. The Septuagint, followed by Cyril, differs widely from the Hebrew: (R.V.) He that dasheth in pieces i
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Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John · Augustine of Hippo
Tractate VI. Chapter I. 32, 33 1. I Confess to you, holy brethren, I was afraid the cold would have made you cold in assembling yourselves together; but since you prove by this, your crowded assembl
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A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles · John Chrysostom
i.e. if the gift descended only upon the Twelve, there would have been specific and distinctive mention of them in this narrative, as there was in the former chapter; and with much more reason here th
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Book V · Constitutions of the Holy Apostles
XIII. Brethren, observe the festival days; and first of all the birthday which you are to celebrate on the twenty-fifth of the ninth month; after which let the Epiphany be to you the most honoured, in
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Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen · Gregory of Nazianzus
XVII. Next, since it was to inhabitants of Jerusalem, most devout Jews, Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, Egyptians, and Libyans, Cretans too, and Arabians, and Mesopotamians, and my own Cappadocians, t
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The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril · Cyril of Jerusalem
38. And may the very God of All, who spake by the Holy Ghost through the prophets, who sent Him forth upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost in this place, Himself send Him forth at this time also
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The Life of Constantine with Orations of Constantine and Eusebius · Eusebius of Caesarea
Chapter LXII.—Constantine’s Appeal to the Bishops, requesting them to confer upon him the Rite of Baptism. “The time is arrived which I have long hoped for, with an earnest desire and prayer that I m
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A History of the Work of Redemption · Jonathan Edwards
THE SUCCESS OF REDEMPTION FROM THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST TO THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM. I would now show, how the success of Christ’s purchase of redemption was carried on from Christ’s resurrecti
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Tongues like fire appeared and were distributed to them, and one sat on each of them.
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Reply to Faustus the Manichæan · Augustine of Hippo
9. If we are asked why we do not worship God as the Hebrew fathers of the Old Testament worshipped Him, we reply that God has taught us differently by the New Testament fathers, and yet in no oppositi
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Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen · Gregory of Nazianzus
Oration XLI. On Pentecost. It is uncertain to what year the following Oration belongs. It was, however, certainly delivered at Constantinople; the Benedictine Editors think in the year 381, in which
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The First Ecumenical Council: The First Council of Nice · The Ecumenical Councils
Canon XX. Forasmuch as there are certain persons who kneel on the Lord’s Day and in the days of Pentecost, therefore, to the intent that all things may be uniformly observed everywhere (in every pari
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A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles · John Chrysostom
“Being seen of them during forty days.” He was not always with them now, as He was before the Resurrection. For the writer does not say “forty days,” but, “during forty days.” He came, and again disap
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Letters of Athanasius with Two Ancient Chronicles of His Life · Athanasius of Alexandria
Thanks be to Divine Providence for those things which, at all times, it vouchsafes to us; for it has vouchsafed to us now to come to the season of the festival. Having, therefore, according to custom,
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Letters of St. Augustin · Augustine of Hippo
25. These are, it is true, good works, having rest for their recompense, but they are meanwhile laborious and painful: therefore we are told to be “rejoicing in hope,” that while we contemplate the fu
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Letters of St. Augustin · Augustine of Hippo
31. Hence also, in the number of the large fishes which our Lord after His resurrection, showing this new life, commanded to be taken on the right side of the ship, there is found the number 50 three
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