Vigils (Night Watches)
Keeping watch through the darkness until the light of Easter breaks
Vigils are night-long or pre-dawn services of prayer and watching, above all the Paschal Vigil kept before Easter. Tertullian and the Apostolic Tradition attest early night prayer, and the pilgrim Egeria, around 380, describes such observances in Jerusalem. The Great Vigil is celebrated across Catholic, Orthodox, Oriental, Anglican, and Lutheran traditions, and is especially elaborate in the East. Many Free churches keep a simplified vigil or none at all.
How it traveled
- The Church History of EusebiusCaesarea · c. 339 CEexplains
Key passages(18)
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.
Letter CIX. To Riparius. Riparius, a presbyter of Aquitaine had written to inform Jerome that Vigilantius (for whom see Letter LXI.) was preaching in southern Gaul against the worship of relics and t
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A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles · John Chrysostom
Here indeed my discourse is for both men and women. Bend thy knees, send forth groans, beseech thy Master to be merciful: He is more moved by prayers in the night, when thou makest the time for rest a
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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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The Church History of Eusebius · Eusebius of Caesarea
Chapter IX.—The Miracles of Narcissus. 1. The citizens of that parish mention many other miracles of Narcissus, on the tradition of the brethren who succeeded him; among which they relate the followi
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The Twelve Books on the Institutes of the Cœnobia, and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults · John Cassian
I.e., Prime. Some confusion is likely to be caused by the fact that Cassian speaks of both “Lauds” and “Prime” by the same title of Mattins. Immediately below, where he speaks of the “Mattin service a
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The Church History of Eusebius · Eusebius of Caesarea
Egypt, exclusive of the cities Alexandria and Ptolemais, was divided into land districts, originally 36 in number, which were called νομοί (see Mommsen’s Provinces of the Roman Empire, Scribner’s ed.
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Against Vigilantius. ———————————— Introduction. Full details respecting Vigilantius, against whom this treatise, the result of a single night’s labour, is directed, may be found in a work on “Vigil
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On Baptism. · Ethical
Chapter XX.—Of Preparation For, and Conduct After, the Reception of Baptism. They who are about to enter baptism ought to pray with repeated prayers, fasts, and bendings of the knee, and vigils all t
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Selected Epistles of Gregory the Great · Pope Gregory the Great
Epistle XXXIII. To Marinianus, Bishop of Ravenna. Gregory to Marinianus, &c. On the arrival here of a certain man of Ravenna, I was smitten by most grievous sorrow for that he told me of thy Frater
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The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril · Cyril of Jerusalem
ἐκ τῆς ὑπερθέσεως τῆς νηστείας τῆς παρασκευῆς, Ed. Bened. “The ecclesiastical term τῆς ὑπερθέσεως we have rendered, according to the interpretation received among the Latins, by the word ‘superpositio
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The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril · Cyril of Jerusalem
Ps. cxxxix. 12. On Easter Eve the Church was full of lights which were kept burning all night, and the newly-baptized carried torches. Gregory of Nyssa, preaching on the Resurrection (Orat. iv.) descr
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The Life of Constantine with Orations of Constantine and Eusebius · Eusebius of Caesarea
He ordained, too, that one day should be regarded as a special occasion for prayer: I mean that which is truly the first and chief of all, the day of our Lord and Saviour. The entire care of his house
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Appendix to the Works of Hippolytus. Containing Dubious and Spurious Pieces. · Hippolytus
Heads of the Canons of Abulide or Hippolytus, Which are used by the Æthiopian Christians. 1. Of the holy faith of Jesus Christ. 2. Of bishops. 3. Of prayers spoken on the ordination of bishops, an
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The Commentary and Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Galatians and Ephesians · John Chrysostom
“FieryRom. viii. 18.) Seest thou how many darts the righteous quenched in those days? Seemeth it not to thee to be “fiery darts,” when the patriarch burned with inward fire, as he was offering up his
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The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus · Socrates Scholasticus
Chapter XI.—On the Arrival of Gregory at Alexandria, tended by a Military Escort, Athanasius flees. After these things, Syrian, the military commander, and the corps of heavy armed soldiers, five tho
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The Life of Constantine with Orations of Constantine and Eusebius · Eusebius of Caesarea
It is also worthy of record that about the time of which I am at present writing, the emperor, having heard of an insurrection of some barbarians in the East, observed that the conquest of this enemy
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7. 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, le
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The Canons of the Councils of Ancyra, Gangra, Neocæsarea, Antioch and Laodicea, which Canons were Accepted and Received by the Ecumenical Synods · The Ecumenical Councils
None of the priesthood nor of the clergy may go on a journey, without the bidding of the Bishop. Canon XLII. None of the priesthood nor of the clergy may travel without letters canonical. Notes. A
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