DAILY PROPER (apr25pom.htm)

The procession on this day is in no way related to the feast of St. Mark; if the feast be transferred the Great Litanies are not transferred, unless Easter Sunday should fall on April 25, when the procession would take place on the following Tuesday.

The feast of St. Mark was not regularly inserted into the Roman Calendar until about the Twelfth Century. This is explained by the original association of the commemorations of the saints with their tombs. Although St. Mark was among the first who with St. Peter brought the Faith to Rome and at the request of the Romans themselves, wrote his Gospel, he did not die in the Holy City.

St. Peter sent him to Alexandria in Egypt, and he was first bishop of that city. He governed his See for about twenty years and in the end was martyred, A.D. 70, by the heathen. His symbol is a lion, for his Gospel begins with the mission of John the Baptist in the desert and the voice of the lion resounds in desert places. Mark is said to have been the young man who, on the night that Jesus was made prisoner, left the sheet in which he was clothed, in the hands of the soldiers and fled naked. He accompanied his cousin, Barnabas and Paul, on their first apostolic mission. Paul, however, would not take him along on the second journey; when Paul was in prison at Rome, Mark was again closely associated with him.

His body was taken to Venice whose patron he has been since the Ninth Century.

The Greater Litanies

Collecta at the Title of Lucina. Station at St. Peter The Litanies and the Mass of Rogation for this day are of ancient origin, except the Introit, which in early days was replaced by the Litany in processions. The feast of St. Mark is of much later origin. The pagan festival, Robigalia, occurred on April 25th; young people used to go across the Milvian bridge to sacrifice to Robigus who preserved grain from blight. The Christian procession formed at St. Lawrence in Lucina and went by the Flaminian Way over the same bridge, where the sign In hoc singo vinces appeared to Constantine. Then going along the Tiber, passing in back of Castel Sant Angelo entered St. Peter's. The people were thus taught that it was not the favor of the heathen god, but a devout life, humble prayer, and the intercession of the saints, especially that of St. Peter, the Pastor ovium, which would disarm the justice of God offended by our sins. This rite is called the Greater Litanies, because it was of a much more solemn nature than the ordinary stational litanies.

The procession is a survival of classical tradition incorporated into religious customs; the Church preferred to give a spiritual significance to observances implanted in the hearts of the people, rather than suppress them partially. The Litany still preserves the very ancient type of prayer which ended the night vigil and served as a transition between the vigil office and the offering of the Holy Sacrifice. The oldest part of the Litany is that which begins with the words "Through the mystery of thy holy incarnation" which belongs to primitive Christianity.

The whole Mass shows us how highly we should value prayer. Even in the middle of the night, and even to the extent of seeming importunate, our prayers should rise to God, because our miseries and our weaknesses are so numerous, and because God has decreed that His grace shall be granted to us only on the wings of prayer.

We want to thank the Friends of Our Lady of Fatima for the resources. Sources: Saint Andrew Daily Missal and the Marian Missal , 1945