You can find Butes translation of the old Latin office of the Blessing of Epiphany Water here: https://books.google/books?id=FgEPAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=blessing+epiphany+water&hl=en&sa=X&ei=idC-VOfLN4abgwTyz4JY&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=cross&f=false he draws from the old rite until it experienced additional restrictions and tamperings by the SCR in 1904. Many authors find it tempting to purely attribute all aspects of the above service to merely late Eastern influence, but, what they mean by late can be debatable. For example, Derek Rivard, in his book, Blessing the World: Ritual and Lay Piety in Medieval Religion confirms the antiquity of many of the observances we find in the above office, such as plunging Cross into water and wine, as a means of sanctification, as early as the 7th century in England. He states: Remedies for such fevers were numerous, but the most popular included visits to holy wells, appeal to the saints, a small number of ecclesiastical blessings that invoked the pains and sufferings of Christ in an attempt to draw Gods mercy down upon the sick, and the touch or immersion of a cross in water or wine, the holiness of which was believed to transfer to the liquid it touched. The use of this Cross Water or Cross Wine spread from England to the continent in the seventh century, it spread no doubt assisted by the Immersio Crucis (the consecration of water during Epiphany), which served as a model for the dispensation of such liquid as a sovereign remedy for fevers and other illnesses. (pg. 186). I do not think Roman Catholics themselves realize how much their own worship has changed not just since the Schism from Orthodoxy, but even in the last 100 or 200 years. https://books.google/books?id=7pG61YnjQmsC&pg=PA186&lpg=PA186&dq=blessing+of+water+epiphany+sacramentary&source=bl&ots=8AR8LcHz7C&sig=NmyP-8JdvL7KAfeITheKlKoU7ok&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Ys-- It is interesting that he supports the teaching that it was in fact the English missionaries who brought many of these practices to the Continent. Whether it derived from Irish teachers who taught the English, or from the Roman mission of St. Augustine of Canterbury, I do not know. However, in his note 176 on the same page, Rivard states: By the ninth-century a ritual prayer for the consecration of water by the submersion of a cross can be found (see BAV Pal. LAT. 485), and from the eleventh century, rituals employing wine for the same purpose may also be found. In addition to the Immersio Crucis, support for this practice could come (as Amalarius of Metz [9th century] metnions) from the Adoratio Crucis on Good Friday, when the Cross was carried outside the church for this purpose......Franz remarks that this practice is reminiscent of [St.] Bedes account of St. Oswald, who, in 635, begged victory for his army at the foot of the cross, since all crosses were thought to have sacred power. [St.] Bede tells how in another instance the saint had small rods cut from this cross, immersed these in water, then distributed the water among sick persons or animals to speed their recovery.
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 22:19:41 +0000
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