ANNUNCIATION

ANNUNCIATION, the Tidings which the Angel Gabriel brought to the Holy Virgin, of the Mystery of the Incarnation. See INCARNATION. Annunciation is also the name of a Feast, celebrated annually on the 25th of March, popularly called Lady Day, in Commemoration of that wonderful Event. See FEAST.

This Feast appears to be of great Antiquity in the Latin Church. Among the Sermons of St. Augustine, who died in 430, we have two on the Annunciation, viz. the 17th and 18th de Sanctis; And yet there are much earlier Testimonies of its use in the Greek Church. Proclus, who died in 446; Chrysostom, in 407; and even Gregory Thaumaturgus in 265; have all of them Discourses on the Annunciation. Rivet, Perkins, and some other Protestant Writers after them, have indeed questioned the Authenticity of the two Homilies of Gregory Thaumaturgus on the Annunciation but later research acknowledges them as the genuine Productions of that Father.



Add, that some Authors are of opinion that the Feast was originally solemnized in Honour of our Saviour; and that the holding it in the Name and Honour of the Virgin is of a much later standing. Several of the Eastern Churches celebrate the Annunciation at a different Season from those of the West. The Syrians call it Bashara, q.d. Search, Inquiry; and mark it in their Calendar for the first Day of December. The Armenians hold it on the 5th of January; thus anticipating the Time, to prevent its falling in Lent. But the Greeks make no scruple of celebrating the Festival even in Lent. See LENT.

The Word is compounded of the Latin ad and nuntio, I tell, I declare; of Nuntius, Messenger. The Greeks call it Εὐαγγελισμός, Good tidings; and χαιρετισμός, Salutation.

The Jews also give the title Annunciation to part of the Ceremony of their Passover, viz. that, wherein they explain the Origin, and Occasion of the Solemnity. This Explanation they call הגדה, Haggadah, q.d. Annunciation.

ANNUNCIATION