Saturday post: What's Septuagesima?
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Septuagesima: the forgotten season of preparation
Septuagesima this year is tomorrow, February 16, 2025
For many modern Christians, the liturgical season of Septuagesima is an unfamiliar concept. We might be Catholics who have never been exposed to the ancient liturgical traditions. Yet this mini-season of preparation for Lent provides an ideal time to focus on resolutions and spiritual discipline, far better suited than the weeks immediately following Christmas in which we are still enjoying a period of celebration and rest. Instead of setting and failing at “New Year’s resolutions” amid lingering festivity and over-turkey’d exhaustion, Septuagesima offers a structured and purposeful entry into a season of renewal.
Septuagesima is a treasure of the old calendar that was eliminated in the post-Vatican II liturgical reforms. Yet for over a millennium, Septuagesima served as an essential prelude to Lent, a season of transition that gently led the faithful from the joys of Christmastide and Epiphany into the penitential depths of Lent.
What is Septuagesima?
Blessed is the man who hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, * nor sat in the chair of pestilence.
But his will is in the law of the Lord, * and on his law he shall meditate day and night.
And he shall be like a tree which is planted near the running waters, * which shall bring forth its fruit, in due season.
Psalm 1. From the 1st Nocturn of Matins of the Sunday of Septuagesima
Septuagesima is the name given to the pre-Lenten season of three Sundays before Ash Wednesday: Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima. The term comes from the Latin for “seventieth,” though it does not mark precisely seventy days before Easter but is an approximation, part of a numerical system that also includes the better-known Quadragesima (“fortieth”), the Latin name for Lent.
This season, observed for many centuries in the Roman Rite prior to the liturgical changes of 1969, serves as a gradual entry into the discipline of Lent. The Gloria and Alleluia disappear from the liturgy, violet vestments replace the green of Epiphanytide, and the readings shift toward themes of labour, suffering, and exile. Unlike Lent, Septuagesima was not a period of mandatory fasting, but it encouraged a spirit of thoughtful preparation, self-evaluation and penitence.
The Custom of Burying the Alleluia
One of the most striking customs associated with Septuagesima in the medieval Church was the practice of “burying the Alleluia”. Since the Alleluia is omitted from the liturgy from Septuagesima until the Easter Vigil, some communities developed a ritual to mark its final use. In monastic and parish settings, a beautifully decorated plaque or banner bearing the word Alleluia would be solemnly processed to the altar and then symbolically buried, either in a chest or even in the ground.
This acted as a poignant reminder that the Church was now entering a time of preparation and penitence, setting aside expressions of pure joy until the great celebration of the Resurrection. Dom Prosper Guéranger, in his Liturgical Year, describes this practice as a way of “teaching the faithful, in a striking manner, the deep mourning of the Church for her divine Spouse, who is soon to suffer and die.”
The Historical Origins of Septuagesima
Dom Guéranger describes Septuagesima as the “opening of the Church’s campaign against the world and its vanities,” noting that it serves to “arouse the faithful from their spiritual lethargy” and prepare them for the demands of Lent. He explains that this preparatory season is essential because “man needs gradual transitions, and the wisdom of the Church has provided these by first taking away the Alleluia and later imposing the rigors of fasting.”
According to Gueranger, Septuagesima was not part of the earliest Christian liturgical calendar but seems to have originated in the eastern Church. The Eastern practice of never fasting on Saturdays meant their Lent fell short of forty fasting days. To compensate, they began their pre-Lenten observances earlier. The Roman Church, which had long observed fasting on both Wednesdays and Saturdays of Lent, had no need for such an adjustment. However, by the close of the 6th century, Pope St. Gregory the Great acknowledged in one of his homilies that, because of the non-fasting Sundays, Lent in the West originally had only thirty-six fasting days, that he called a “tithe of the year”.
To correct this discrepancy and ensure a full forty-day fast, four days were added to Lent, leading to the establishment of Ash Wednesday by the 9th century. By this time, all Latin Christendom had come to observe the fulness of the great fast beginning on that day, as confirmed by numerous contemporary sources. Meanwhile, the earlier pre-Lenten mini-season of Septuagesima remained, serving as an important period of preparation. The Eastern Churches retain a similar concept in their liturgical calendar, where a pre-Lenten period gradually removes certain foods before the stricter fast of Great Lent.
The purpose of Septuagesima
Septuagesima serves as a time of transition, both spiritually and liturgically. While the season does not demand fasting, it encourages a shift in mindset. The gradual withdrawal of joyous elements from the liturgy, such as the Alleluia and Gloria, mirrors the journey from the festive season of Christmas and Epiphany to the sombre contemplation of Christ’s Passion. It is a time to begin considering one’s Lenten disciplines and to reflect on the deeper realities of sin, grace, and salvation.
Septuagesima is not merely about external preparations but about an interior reorientation. The gradual withdrawal from material pleasures and worldly comforts is not an end in itself but a means of making space for God. By stripping away distractions and the constant pursuit of earthly fulfilments, the soul is freed to recognize its true longing, the desire for the divine intimacy that reaches its perfection in heaven.
As the Song of Songs describes, the soul retreats from worldly things into a “garden enclosed” (Cant. 4:12), a space of recollection and prayer where the presence of God alone can satisfy. This withdrawal from external noise clears the way for deeper union with the Divine, allowing the soul to find its fulfilment not in transient pleasures but in the eternal embrace of God, perfected in heaven.
The loss of Septuagesima in the Post-Conciliar calendar
The liturgical reforms following the Second Vatican Council removed Septuagesima from the calendar of the Roman Rite in 1969. The reasoning officially given for this decision was that it was for “pastoral” reasons.
Many have viewed this as a euphemism for the broader dismantling of the Church’s traditional rhythms, and have lamented this deletion, arguing that the sudden arrival of Ash Wednesday after a period of nothing-much-happening (“ordinary time” being possibly the most dispiriting nomenclature of the new liturgy) can feel abrupt and that Septuagesima’s themes of preparation provide a needed spiritual ramp. Those who follow the traditional liturgical calendar still observe Septuagesima, preserving its ancient wisdom.
Recovering Septuagesima Today
Even for those who follow the post-Vatican II liturgy, there is much to be gained from informally observing the spirit of Septuagesima.
One might:
Do a kind of interior inventory of daily life, and think about what luxuries could be reduced, preparing for Lenten fasting.
Read and reflect on the scriptural readings of the season and their themes of labour and perseverance. (If you don’t have a traditional Missal or Breviary, these readings can be found here, in Latin and English.)
Pray a few of the traditional hymns, collects or Psalms of the Divine Office for Septuagesima.
In the pre-Vatican II liturgical calendar, there are no gaps, no empty spaces we have to cook up a name for, like “ordinary time”. The liturgical year was one continuous whole, a physical, cyclical manifestation in time of the whole of salvation history. Each season had its own meaning, its own weight, seamlessly following from one to the next, ensuring that no part of the Christian life was lived without reference to the mysteries of Christ. This organic, unbroken rhythm helped shape not only the liturgical year but also the way Catholics lived their faith daily, recognizing the passage of time as something sacred and ordered toward eternity.
Septuagesima reminds us that Lent is not an isolated penitential season but part of a larger spiritual cycle. The Christian life is one of constant preparation, discipline, and anticipation of the Kingdom of Heaven. By reclaiming the wisdom of Septuagesima, even in small ways, we align ourselves more deeply with the rhythm of the Church’s ancient traditions.
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From the shop: since we’re going to be talking about the opening of the monastic tradition in Egypt in this section of the Big Editorial Plan, this might be a good time for a little print of St. Anthony of the Desert, the father of monks. This is a little egg tempera painting I did based on a 14th century fresco in one of Narni’s medieval churches. The original is sold, but you can have a high quality art print either on a wood panel, or museum quality paper.
I think it would make an elegant addition to a prayer corner or mantel.
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