Good Friday 2016: March 25 Traditional Feast of the Annunciation

Saint Augustine here witnesses to the ancient tradition that the Annunciation and Good Friday both occurred on March 25. It is remarkable to consider, as some liturgical scholars do, that the Feast of tha Annunciation is more ancient than the Christmas Feast. If the early Church was focused first on the mystery of the Passion and the Incarnation, then the choosing of December 25 as the feast of the birth of the Savior may have had as much to do with thinking 9 months after the Annunciation as with anything else.

In any case, the congruence of Annunciation and Good Friday is an ancient and venerable notion indeed. 

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