Christmas day liturgy celebrates St. Anastasia

The splendour of the Christmas mystery dazzles the understanding and brings joy to the hearts of both children and adults.

Christmas Day is the consummation of the designs of God in time, the endless subject of admiration and wonder of the saints and angels; nay, it is the source and cause of their beatitude.

Indeed, everything is mystery in this holy season. The Word of God, whose generation is before the day star (Psalm 109:3) is born in time. A child is God. A virgin becomes mother and remains a virgin.

The Church has a beautiful way of offering this mystery to her children, veiled under the symbolism of her liturgy, rich with the customs and traditions of time. 

In the Christmas liturgy the things divine are commingled with those that are human. While the Church offers to the Infant-God on this holy day the tribute of her profound adoration, the enthusiasm of her exceeding joy is played out in not one, but three Masses on Christmas.   

Formerly the Masses for this day were celebrated at intervals according to their arrangement in the Roman Missal – that is, at midnight, at dawn, and in the daytime. This custom is still observed in some places, including various monastic communities and by some priests. 

What better way to appropriate to ourselves the joys of Christmas than to know something of these admirable formulas of the Latin Church’s historic worship.   

So that the Church may better solemnize the divine birth, Christmas begins first with a Mass at midnight, for it was at that silent hour that Our Lady gave us the blessed fruit of her womb.

The second Mass, at dawn, especially recalls the spiritual birth of Jesus in our souls, calling to mind the faithful who spend the night in fervent prayer and spiritual watch during the cold nighttime vigil.

The third Mass, said during the daytime, recalls the eternal generation of Jesus – it was by the Word that God made the world.  Let all nations and kings come and adore him, the angels fall down to worship him. 

What many do not know is that in the Latin Church, Christmas Day is also the feast of St. Anastasia.  She enjoys the unique distinction in the Roman liturgy of having a special commemoration in the second Mass on Christmas Day. 

The reason for this is because it is believed, according to the Roman Martyrology, that St. Anastasia was thus born to eternal life on Dec. 25; Christmas is the day she suffered death for her confession of the faith.  

Little is known of the life of Anastasia.  This holy saint was caught up in the dreadful storm of persecutions during the reign of Diocletian, which began in 303 – the last and worst of the persecutions. 

Being apprehended as a Christian, Anastasia was, according to the Martyrology, imprisoned and burnt alive on the island of Palmaria (today a resort island in the Ligurian Sea, an arm of the Mediterranean). 

Anastasia is venerated in both East and West.  In the Latin Church, she is known as one of seven women commemorated by name in the Roman Canon. In the Byzantine Church, she is known as the Deliverer from Poisons, the patroness of those poisoned.     

In Rome pilgrims flock from the Byzantine and Latin corners of the world to venerate her relics, entombed in the ancient Basilica named in her honour, Sant’Anastasia.  This church, also a Lenten stational church, is located in the old Greek neighbourhood at the foot of the Palatine Hill, just across from the famous Circus Maximus.

The basilica was built in the late 3rd or early 4th century.  The church was restored several times by various popes.  The last restoration occurred in 1636, when the façade – known for its unique simplicity with lower Doric and upper Ionic order, was reconstructed after a rare cyclone storm caused damage in 1634.

The lovely painting in the sanctuary above the high altar, the Nativity, is by Lazzaro Baldi, a famous artist who worked and died in Rome.  It is this iconic image that draws the attention of pilgrims on Christmas morning. 

During the Middle-Ages a succession of popes, cultivating the tradition of solemnizing the divine mystery of Christmas with three Masses, celebrated all three in succession at different Roman basilicas. 

Midnight Mass was celebrated at the Basilica of St. Mary Major to honour Our Lady (where it is believed the relics of the manger are kept to this day). 

After, the papal chapel assembled outside and processed under the nighttime stars to the Basilica of St. Anastasia for the Mass of the Aurora (the Mass of Dawn), giving honour to St. Anastasia.    

Finally, the procession continued to St. Peter’s Basilica where it concluded with Christmas Morning Mass celebrated by the pope and countless faithful.    

How admirable is this delicate consideration of holy Mother Church, wishing to associate one of her saints with the glory of the Christmas solemnity on which the world receives its triumphant recompense.

This choice of the ancient Church, which is dictated by her heavenly wisdom and by the love she has for all her children, reminds us of how lively is the faith of Christmas and the faith it instilled in a canonized woman who gave her own life for God on Christmas Day.

 J.P. Sonnen is a tour operator and history docent with Vancouver-based Orbis Catholicus Travel.