The Forgotten Feasts of Lent’s Fridays

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The Forgotten Feasts of Lent’s Fridays

TIA | March 23, 2026

Our Holy Mother Church has given so many rich liturgical ceremonies and feasts to the season of Lent! While the ceremonies of Holy Week and the Triduum are widely known, there are other feasts of lesser degree that were once commonly celebrated in many churches to increase devotion to Our Lord’s Passion.

In the Middle Ages devotion to the instruments of Christ’s Passion was widely spread. These instruments were called Arma Christi, the Arms or Weapons of Christ,” and included the Holy Cross, Lance, Nails and Crown of Thorns. Medieval men had such a sublime view of Our Lord that they saw Him as the victorious Warrior King who vanquished Sin, Death and the Devil.

Arma Christi, from a 15th century Book of Hours

They understood that the instruments of His Passion, although seemingly signs of ignominy, were glorious since they were the weapons Our Lord had used to gain the Victory. Just as every earthly King bears his arms before him as he rides into battle, so also did Our Lord bear His arms as he entered the Battlefield of Calvary. This symbols were used by countless Catholic Kings and soldiers who bore the Arma Christi on their banners and shields.


The Crusades inspire zeal for the Passion

It was during the Crusades, when zeal and holy ambitions raised such epic horizons for the glory of God, that relics of Our Lord’s Passion were found and triumphantly brought to the cities of Christendom. Kings and Crusaders who had fought bravely against the Moors were thus instrumental in spreading love of the Cross and veneration for Our Lord’s Passion.

The feast of the Crown of Thorns was inaugurated by King St. Louis in 1239 when he brought a relic of the Crown of Thorns along with a point of the Holy Lance to the Sainte Chapelle in Paris. This event was commemorated each year on August 11 and the feast soon spread throughout northern France. In the following century parts of Spain, Germany and Scandinavia also established a Feast of the Holy Crown on May 4.

Crusaders embark for the Holy Land,
below, St. Louis carrying the relic of the Crown of Thorns

As early as 1092, a feast of the Winding Sheet (Shroud) was celebrated in Compiègne, France on the Fourth Sunday in Lent to commemorate the translation of a relic of the Shroud to a new shrine. This relic, whose origins are unknown, had been brought to Compiègne from Aachen in 877.

In 1204, after taking part in the siege of Constantinople, the crusader Otto de La Roche obtained the precious relic of the Shroud of Christ, which he displayed in Athens where he had been appointed Lord. Around the year 1225, he brought this relic to Besançon; thereafter the feast of its arrival – Susceptio – was celebrated on July 11 in the Diocese of Besançon.

Geoffroy de Charny, a knight renowned for his courage in battle, brought the Shroud to Livrey, Burgundy, around the year 1353. How he acquired this relic is unknown, but there is a convincing hypothesis that he obtained it from his wife, Jeanne de Vergy, who was a descendent of Otto de La Roche. Its authenticity has been attested to by miracles and it is known as the Shroud of Turin.

In 1432, the Shroud was transferred to Chambéry in Savoy, and May 4 became the patronal feast of the royal House of Savoy; it was celebrated in Savoy, Piedmont and Sardinia.


The Holy Lance

The relic of the Holy Lance is still somewhat shrouded in mystery. By the end of the Middle Ages several spearheads emerged, each with claims to be authentic and each popularly venerated as the one owned by Longinus.

One of these spearheads was discovered by the Crusaders in the year 1098 under the Cathedral of St. Peter in Antioch through a revelation of St. Andrew. Animated by the discovery, the Crusaders went on with newfound courage and zeal to win a glorious victory against the Muslims who were seeking to retake the city.

Years later the spear fell into the hands of Turks until the year 1492, when the Sultan Bajazet sent it to Innocent VIII. This relic has never since left Rome, where it is preserved under the dome of St. Peter's. Popes and scholars have defended it as being the authentic Holy Lance.

A Canon at St. Peter’s Basilica lifts the Holy Lance relic to be venerated by the public – Lent 2024

Another spearhead is preserved among the Imperial Insignia at Vienna and is known as the Lance of St. Maurice. This weapon was used as early as 1273 in the coronation ceremony of the Holy Roman German Emperor. In 1424, it was brought to Nuremberg and is believed to be the lance of Emperor Constantine, which enshrined a nail of the Crucifixion. Tradition holds that it was this lance that Charlemagne carried on his 47 victorious campaigns to unite Europe under the Catholic Church; thus it became a sacred relic of the Holy Roman Emperors.

The Lance in Vienna surely must be a sacred relic relating to Our Lord’s Passion, even though it does not seem to be the one that pierced Our Lord’s side. Regardless of the origins popular devotion led to the establishment of a liturgical feast in 1345. Pope Innocent VI instituted the Feast of the Holy Lance and Nails for Germany and Bohemia at the request of Emperor Charles IV, who enshrined the lance at Vienna in a distinctive gold cuff so that it could receive due honor. Soon, the Feast spread to other areas.

The first record known of a Feast of the Arma Christi is found in the Breviary of Meissen (1517) where it is listed as a Festum Simplex for November 15. As Lutheranism spread its poisonous doctrine, this Feast, along with many of the others, disappeared. But Our Lord gave the world a great Saint in the 18th century who would restore some o the ancient fervor for His Passion.


St. Paul of the Cross revives devotion to the Passion

In the 1700s, St. Paul of the Cross founded the Discalced Clerics of the Holy Cross and the Passion of Christ, the Passionists. In addition to the three ordinary vows of religion, the Passionists took a fourth vow – to propagate devotion to the Sacred Passion of Our Lord.

St. Paul of the Cross, founder of the Passionists

They did this admirably, being led on by their heroic founder whom Dom Guéranger describes: “A new Paul, recalling both in his name and his works the great Apostle of the Gentiles, rises in the midst of a generation intoxicated with pride and falsehood, to whom the Cross has become once more a folly and a scandal.” (The Liturgical Year, vol. VIII, p. 364)

Thus, St. Paul of the Cross, together with Bishop Thomas Struzzieri, composed an Office for the Feast of the Commemoration of Our Lord’s Passion and brought it to Pope Pius VI, who approved its use by the Passionist Order, which celebrated it as a double of the first class with an octave. In Rome, this feast was established as the Tuesday of Sexagesima

At the same time he authorized this Feast, Pius VI also approved the other Offices and feasts associated with Our Lord’s Passion:

• The Feast of the Prayer of Our Lord in the Garden (Tuesday after Septuagesima);
  
• The Feast of the Crown of Thorns (Friday after Ash-Wednesday);
  
• The Feast of the Holy Lance and Nails (Friday after the first Sunday in Lent):
  
• For the three following Fridays, the Feasts of the Holy Winding Sheet, the Five Wounds and the Precious Blood of Christ.
  

These feasts were adopted by many Dioceses and Religious Orders. In 1831, Rome added the seven Offices of the Mysteries of the Passion of Christ to the Breviary.

Restoration of devotion to the Passion

In his Apostolic Constitution Divino afflatu, Pope St. Pius X stressed the importance of the ancient ferial offices, including those of Lent, which were seldom being said due to the great number of other feasts celebrated throughout the year. This caused the Friday offices of Lent to regain their places of honor, resulting in the offices of the mysteries of the Passion being seldom said. The offices of the Passion were, however, still given the honor of being present in the Missal under the feasts pro Aliquibus Locis, which were celebrated in some places.

Votive panel, Wrocław, 1443

Suppression & invitation

John XIII’s 1960 Rubrics led to the suppression of these feasts altogether unless “truly special reasons” required their continued observance. Naturally, the result was that they were almost entirely forgotten.

It is a great tragedy that the ancient sources of true doctrine and liturgy have been lost or hidden due to the apostasy of the Church Hierarchy. And yet, all is not lost if fervent Catholics re-discover those sources and regain the spirit of the love of the Cross. Through the intercession of Our Lady Co-Redemptrix, may this spirit once again fill the hearts of Catholics with a desire to honor once again the Arma Cristi.

For such Catholics, below are links to documents with the Mass readings for each feast day provided by the Society of St. Bede:
The Prayer of Our Lord in the Garden (Tuesday or Friday after Septuagesima)

The Commemoration of the Passion of Our Lord (Tuesday or Friday after Sexagesima)

The Most Holy Crown of Thorns (Friday after Ash Wednesday)

The Most Sacred Lance and Nails (Friday in the First Week of Lent)

The Most Holy Winding Sheet (Friday in the Second Week of Lent)

The Holy Five Wounds of Our Lord (Friday in the Third Week of Lent)

The Most Precious Blood of Our Lord (Friday in the Fourth Week of Lent)

A PDF including Matins readings for all the above Feasts: Matins Readings for the Feasts of Our Lord’s Passion, can be found here.

Coat of Arms of Christ
Wernigerode/Schaffhausen Armorial, c. 1490

Sources:
Francis X Weiser, The Easter Book (San Diego, California: The Firefly Press, 1996), p. 49.
http://www.foodsofengland.co.uk/carlinpe...adgers.htm
E. I. Robson, A Guide to French Fêtes (London: Methuen and Company, 1930), p. 55.
W.M. Hackwood, Christ Lore: Being the Legends, Traditions, Myths, Symbols, Customs, and Superstitions of the Christian Church (London: Elliot Stock, 1902), p. 159.
Erna Fergusson, Fiesta in Mexico (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1934), p. 237.
http://www.allthesaintsyoushouldknow.com...exico-city.