Daily Medieval

Michaelmas (Michael's Mass) honors St. Michael the Archangel. He is credited with defeating Lucifer during the war in Heaven that led to...

The term "Tridentine" refers to the Council of Trent (1545 through 1563), the 19th ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church...

It seems obvious to Westerners that the new year should start on the first of January, which we then named New Year's Day. This is fairl...

It is the first of April, and while you might expect something about pulling pranks and acting the fool, instead we are going to talk about...

Following on the heels of yesterday's discussion of Leap Day, I thought we should give some attention to the poor saint whose feast day...

Bernard of Botone (d.1266) gloss on Leap Day Most of you know that Julius Caesar in the 1st century BCE wanted to fix the fact that sol...

We have looked at some of the possible reasons for dating Christ's birth to December 25th, but how early was that dating settled upon?...

Was December 25th the default date for Christmas because of a Roman Saturnalia or because of deliberate copying with Mithraism? Connected...

Sunrise on the Winter Solstice at Stonehenge Sol stitium  [Latin: "sun standing still"] is the origin of the Modern English s...

This is the 500th post on the Daily Medieval blog. In its honor, let us look at the year 500 CE and how it overlaps some of the previous ...

Month of May from British Library MS Harley 2332 I don't mean locating a mate, but the practice of locating a particular event some...

[ source ] In the Middle Ages, birthdays were not usually marked by the common people. They didn't keep calendars on the kitchen wal...

Clearly, Old New Year is still a big deal! Happy New Year! Today, 14 January,* is the "original" New Year's Day in the J...

[ Notate bene : this post is based on one that originally appeared on 30 June 2012. ] Pope Paul III, as played by Peter O'Toole in ...

Way back here we mentioned Pope Liberius, sent into exile by Constantius II because he wouldn't censure St. Athanasius for condemning...

Syrian Astrolabe Yesterday I mentioned that Omar Khayyam spent some of his time working on calendar reform. This was not the same calen...

Tying the start of a year to the season of spring makes perfect sense in agrarian cultures. The Romans started their year in spring for a lo...

A collection of notes related to the date and to this blog*: St. Francis was first mentioned here , then the phenomenon of his stigmata h...

Hermann, with crutch & Salve Regina Hermann of Reichenau (1013-1054) was born to Count Wolverad II and his wife Hiltrud in Upper Swa...

Holy Trinity Church in Barsham, Suffolk The equinox, from Latin aequinoctium (the time of equal days and nights), the day twice each ye...