Palm Sunday

A twofold name: the Palms and the Passion

The day's official name in the Roman Missal promulgated by Saint Paul VI states the whole programme by itself: Dominica in Palmis de Passione Domini, "Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord". The General Norms for the Liturgical Year (1969) define it as the sixth Sunday of Lent, "on which Holy Week begins"^[8]. The twofold title is no modern invention: the Gelasian Sacramentary, one of the oldest Roman liturgical books, already bears the heading Dominica in palmis, De passione Domini; the liturgical historian Ferdinand Probst (1892), followed by the Catholic Encyclopedia, even held the "of the Passion" mention to be the original title, with the palms added afterwards^[9].

The Christian people gave this Sunday many other names, each expressing one aspect of the feast^[10]:

• "Day of Palms" (dies palmarum), already in Saint Isidore of Seville in the 7th century;
• "Hosanna Sunday", after the cry of the crowd;
• "Flowering Easter" (Pascha floridum, in Spanish Pascua florida): every great feast recalled the Resurrection and could receive the name of "Easter", and on that day flowers were blessed and woven into the palms;
• in England, "Olive Sunday", "Branch Sunday", "Willow Sunday", "Yew Sunday" or "Flower Sunday", according to the foliage available;
• in Visigothic Spain, "Capitilavium", "washing of the head", because of the baptismal preparatory rite performed on that day (see below).

In the liturgy of Holy Week restored by Pius XII in 1955, it was called "Second Sunday of the Passion, or of the Palms" (Dominica II Passionis seu in Palmis)^[11]. The 1970 Missal restored the day's ancient twofold name, uniting the Palms and the Passion in the same title.

The gateway to Holy Week

Palm Sunday opens Holy Week, which the General Norms define as follows: "Holy Week is ordered to the commemoration of Christ's Passion from his messianic entry into Jerusalem"^[12]. The Catechism says it in one sentence: "It is by its celebration, on Palm Sunday, that the liturgy of the Church opens the great Holy Week"^[13]. Benedict XVI used the image of a monumental threshold:

"Palm Sunday is the great gateway that introduces us into Holy Week, the week in which the Lord Jesus walks towards the summit of his earthly life. He goes up to Jerusalem to fulfil the Scriptures and to be hung upon the wood of the Cross, the throne from which he will reign for ever [...]." — Benedict XVI, Palm Sunday homily, Saint Peter's Square, 1 April 2012^[14]

The very word "great week" comes from Jerusalem: as early as the end of the 4th century, Egeria notes that the Christians of the city call the Easter week opening on this Sunday by that name, septimana maior^[15]. Lent itself continues until Holy Thursday: it ends at the evening Mass of the Lord's Supper, where the Paschal Triduum begins^[16]. From Monday to Holy Thursday inclusive, the days of this week take precedence over every other celebration^[17]. At Mass the anointing at Bethany is read on Monday (Jn 12:1-11), the announcement of Judas's betrayal and Peter's denial on Tuesday (Jn 13:21-33, 36-38), the bargain of Judas on Wednesday (Mt 26:14-25)^[18], on the way towards Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil.

A Sunday of Lent that outranks every feast

Liturgically, Palm Sunday remains a Sunday of Lent — the sixth — and that fixes its rank. The General Norms are formal: "the Sundays of Advent, Lent and Easter take precedence over all feasts of the Lord and all solemnities"^[19]. No saint's feast and no solemnity can therefore be celebrated on that day, even when it falls on the same date: Christ himself, going up towards his Passover, takes up all the room.

In the liturgical ranking, the Palms are a Sunday of Lent, whereas the Epiphany and Christmas are solemnities. This distinction of rank does not dispense from Mass: Sunday is already, in the words of the Code of Canon Law taken up by the Catechism, "the foremost holy day of obligation". The Sunday obligation therefore applies fully to the Palms^[20].

When does Palm Sunday fall?

Palm Sunday always precedes Easter by seven days. It is therefore moveable like Easter: since Easter can only fall between 22 March and 25 April in the Gregorian calendar, the Palms fall between 15 March and 18 April^[21]. Both extremes are rare: Palm Sunday has not fallen on 15 March since 1818 and will not return to it until 2285; it was celebrated on 18 April in 1943 and will be again in 2038^[22]. The mechanism of the reckoning — the equinox fixed on 21 March, the paschal full moon, the following Sunday — is explained in the article Why does Easter change date?.

The table below gives the dates from 2026 to 2031, computed according to the Gregorian reckoning of the Latin Church.

The Orthodox Churches, which reckon Easter by the Julian calendar, often celebrate the Lord's entry into Jerusalem on another date; in some years, as in 2025, the two calendars coincide and Christians of East and West carry their branches on the same day^[23].

The liturgy of this Sunday commemorates not an idea, but a fact in the life of Jesus: his arrival in Jerusalem for the last Passover, a few days before his death. All four evangelists recount it, each with its own emphases, and the reading that opens the procession changes according to the lectionary year (see below). The detailed study of the episode — itinerary, chronology of the last week, historical significance — belongs to the article The Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem; only what the Palm liturgy proclaims and takes up from it is retained here.

The four Gospel accounts of the entry

Saint John sets the scene precisely: "Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom he had raised from the dead" (Jn 12:1); then: "The next day, the great crowd that had come for the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem" (Jn 12:12)^[24]. The entry thus follows the meal at Bethany and the reverberation of Lazarus's resurrection: "The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb bore witness" (Jn 12:17). It is this link that the East kept by celebrating, on the eve of the Palms, "Lazarus Saturday".

The table below compares what each evangelist retains of the scene, in the official liturgical translation.

Sources: Mt 21:1-11; Mk 11:1-11; Lk 19:28-42; Jn 12:1-19, AELF liturgical translation^[25].

Only Saint John expressly mentions palms: "They took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him" (Jn 12:13). Matthew speaks of "branches from the trees", Mark of "leafy branches cut from the fields", Luke of cloaks alone^[26]. The Latin name of the feast, Dominica in Palmis, thus comes from John.

The Catechism stresses the initiative of Jesus: he who "had always resisted the popular attempts to make him king", this time "chose the time and prepared the details of his messianic entry into the city of 'David, his father'"^[27]. The entry is neither a crowd accident nor a misunderstanding: it is a willed messianic gesture, by which Jesus presents himself as the King-Messiah at the very moment he goes up towards his Passion.

"Behold, your king comes to you": the oracle of Zechariah

Matthew and John expressly quote the prophet Zechariah. The text, in its full form, states both the kingship and the manner in which it is exercised:

"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. He shall cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall proclaim peace to the nations." — Zechariah 9:9-10^[28]

The contrast is deliberate: the horse is, in the Old Testament, the mount of battle, and Zechariah precisely announces the end of chariots and war horses. But the donkey is also a royal mount in Israel. To have Solomon recognised as his heir, David orders: "You shall set my son Solomon upon my own mule" (1 Kings 1:33), and it is "upon the king's mule" that Solomon is led to Gihon to receive the anointing (1 Kings 1:38)^[29]. Jacob's blessing on Judah already evoked the one who "binds his foal to the vine" (Gen 49:11)^[30]. Benedict XVI pointed out that Saint Luke composes the beginning of the procession "partly literally on the model of the coronation rite" of Solomon, so that "the Palm procession is also a procession of Christ the King"^[31].

By entering in this way, Jesus claims the kingship of David and reveals its nature: a "humble" king, who disarms instead of conquering. The Catechism says it in one sentence: the King of glory "does not conquer the Daughter of Zion, a figure of his Church, by ruse or violence, but by the humility that bears witness to the truth"^[32]. Pope Leo XIV, for his first Palm Sunday, took up the same prophecy:

"As the King of peace, He enters Jerusalem on a donkey, and not on a horse, thus fulfilling the ancient prophecy that called for rejoicing at the Messiah's coming." — Leo XIV, Palm Sunday homily, Saint Peter's Square, 29 March 2026^[33]

Matthew renders the prophecy as "gentle, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt" (Mt 21:5) and specifies that the disciples brought "the donkey and the colt" (Mt 21:7)^[34]. This detail, often presented as a difficulty, is revisited below.

Hosanna: a cry of supplication become praise

The cry of the crowd comes from Psalm 117 (118), one of Israel's great festal songs:

"Save us, we beseech thee, O Lord! O Lord, we beseech thee, give us success! Blessed be he who enters in the name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of the Lord. The Lord is God, and he has given us light. Bind the festal procession with branches, up to the horns of the altar." — Psalm 117 (118):25-27^[35]

Benedict XVI saw in it "ancient words of blessing for pilgrims which become, in this context, a messianic proclamation"^[36]. Hosanna transcribes the Hebrew of verse 25; the Catechism gives its meaning: "'Hosanna' means 'O save!', 'Give salvation!'"^[37]. Saint Jerome already explained it to Pope Damasus, at Rome, around 383: osi means "save", and anna is "the interjection of one who implores"; the proper form was therefore osianna, which usage contracted into osanna^[38]. The same Jerome adds that Matthew, "who wrote the Gospel in the Hebrew tongue", had noted "osanna barrama", that is "hosanna in the highest"^[39]. Saint Isidore of Seville would take up the same explanation two centuries later^[40].

What was a supplication — "save us, we pray" — becomes on the lips of the crowd an acclamation addressed to the one who comes to save. Saint Augustine noted it: Hosanna, "as some say who know the Hebrew tongue, is an exclamation of prayer; it expresses a feeling rather than a precise thing"^[41]. The same psalm also contains, in verse 27, the image of a procession "with branches" up to the altar: the Christian liturgy had only to take it at its word.

The Church has never ceased to sing this cry. The acclamation "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord" "is taken up by the Church in the 'Sanctus' of the eucharistic liturgy to open the memorial of the Lord's Passover"^[42]. At every Mass, before the consecration, the faithful thus take up the Hosanna of the Palms: the Christ who entered Jerusalem to offer himself comes upon the altar to make the same sacrifice present.

Cloaks, palms and branches: royal and paschal gestures

The gestures of the crowd recall several precise biblical motifs.

• The cloaks spread out repeat the enthronement of a king: when Jehu is proclaimed king of Israel, his companions "hastened, and each man took his garment and put it under him", then cried: "Jehu is king!" (2 Kings 9:13)^[43].
• The palms belong to the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles: "You shall take the fruit of majestic trees, branches of palm trees, and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days" (Lev 23:40)^[44].
• They also greet a liberator: Simon Maccabeus enters the citadel of Jerusalem "with praise and palm branches", because "a great enemy had been crushed and driven out of Israel" (1 Macc 13:51); and, at the purification of the Temple, the Jews carry "ivy-wreathed wands and beautiful branches and fronds of palms" singing hymns (2 Macc 10:7)^[45].
• In the Apocalypse, finally, the immense crowd of the elect stands before the Lamb "with palm branches in their hands" crying: "Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb!" (Rev 7:9-10)^[46]. The palms of Jerusalem foreshadow those of Heaven.

The Palm procession gathers these threads: the enthronement of a king, the joy of Tabernacles, victory over the enemy, the heavenly liturgy of the Lamb. Saint Augustine drew from it the key to the day:

"The palm branches are praises, and are the emblem of victory; for, in dying, the Lord was going to conquer death, and, by his Cross, to triumph over the devil, the prince of death." — Saint Augustine, Tractates on the Gospel of John, LI, 2^[47]

The procession celebrates a real kingship, and a victory that will pass through the Cross.

The Palm procession was not born of a late pious idea: it was born on the very places of the event, in the 4th-century Church of Jerusalem, which had taken the habit of celebrating each mystery of Christ where it had been accomplished.

The palm of the valley according to Cyril of Jerusalem

Around the middle of the 4th century, Bishop Saint Cyril of Jerusalem preached his famous Catecheses to the future baptised of the city. In the tenth, he lists the "witnesses" that bear testimony to Christ: the wood of the Cross, found in Jerusalem and whose fragments spread throughout the whole world, the garden of Gethsemane, the rock of Golgotha, the tomb and the stone that closed it. In the middle of this list, he names a tree:

"[...] the palm tree which is in this valley, and which gave of its branches to be strewn where he was to pass, and to be blessed by the people." — Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechesis X, 19^[48]

The detail is precious: for the Christians of Jerusalem, Christ's entry was not a distant story, but a fact whose witness could still be shown, "in this valley", at the gates of the city.

The Mount of Olives procession described by Egeria

A generation later, a great lady come from the West — from Galicia or the south of Gaul —, Egeria, visits the holy places between 381 and 384 and addresses to correspondents in the West a travel journal of exceptional precision^[49]. The single known manuscript, kept at Arezzo and discovered in 1884, saved, with the end of the travel narrative, a day-by-day description of the liturgy of Jerusalem^[50]. It is the oldest detailed account of the Palm procession.

Saturday, at Bethany. The day before, at the seventh hour (about one in the afternoon), the whole community goes to the Lazarium, the shrine of Lazarus's resurrection, at Bethany. A priest reads there the passage of Saint John: "Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany" — and Passover is thus held to be "announced"^[51].

Sunday, on the Mount of Olives. Egeria notes that this Sunday opens what is called in Jerusalem the "great week"^[52]. In the morning, the Sunday Mass is celebrated as usual in the great church of Golgotha, the Martyrium; the archdeacon announces there the afternoon meeting. At the seventh hour, all the people and the bishop go up to the Eleona, the church on the Mount of Olives built over the cave where the Lord taught^[53]; hymns and antiphons are sung there and Scripture is read. At the ninth hour (about three o'clock), they go up to the Imbomon, the place of the Ascension^[54]. Then comes the awaited moment:

"When the eleventh hour begins, the passage from the Gospel is read in which the children came to meet the Lord with branches and palms, saying: 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.' Immediately afterwards, the bishop rises, and all the people with him, and then, from the top of the Mount of Olives, the whole way is made on foot. All the people go before the bishop with hymns and antiphons, always answering: 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.' And all the children of the country, even those who cannot walk because they are too young and whom their parents carry on their shoulders, all hold branches, some of palm, some of olive; and thus they escort the bishop in the same manner as the Lord was then escorted." — Egeria, Travel Journal 31, 2-3, trans. Pierre Maraval^[55]

The crowd thus comes down from the top of the mount to the city, then crosses the whole city to the Anastasis, the rotunda of the Holy Sepulchre; all on foot, even ladies of rank and notables, advancing "slowly, slowly, so that the people do not grow tired", so that they arrive only at nightfall. There, the evening office (the lucernare) is celebrated, then a prayer before the Cross, before dismissing the people^[56].

A liturgy celebrated on the very places

Three features of this liturgy have crossed the centuries.

• The place commands the text. Egeria repeats, at each stage, that the hymns, antiphons and readings are "suited to the day and to the place"^[57]. The entry into Jerusalem is read at the top of the Mount of Olives, then re-enacted on foot: this is the very principle of the Palm procession, which makes the faithful the actors of the story they have just heard.
• The bishop stands in Christ's place. He is escorted "in the same manner as the Lord was then escorted": the cortège does not replay a theatre scene, it accompanies the one who represents Christ in the midst of his people. Centuries later, the Franciscans of the Holy Land would still have the Father Custos ride a donkey for the procession^[58].
• Children are in the front rank. Egeria sees them, down to the smallest carried on shoulders, holding palms and olive branches. Matthew's Gospel already showed them crying "Hosanna to the Son of David!" in the Temple, with Jesus quoting the psalm: "Out of the mouths of babes and infants thou hast brought perfect praise" (Mt 21:15-16)^[59]. The Latin antiphons of the procession in turn sing of the Pueri Hebraeorum, the "children of the Hebrews".

The procession started from the Mount of Olives and ended at Christ's tomb: it went, literally, from acclamation to Passion and Resurrection. Palm Sunday already bore, from its birth, the two faces that the Roman liturgy unites today in its name.

In the East: the Feast of Palms and Lazarus Saturday

In the Churches of Byzantine rite, the Lord's entry into Jerusalem ranks among the great feasts of the year. The Greeks call it the "Feast of Palms" (heortê tôn baïôn, or baïophoros, "the bearing of the palms"), and sometimes "Lazarus Sunday", because the day before is devoted to Lazarus's resurrection: the Eastern liturgy kept the exact order of Saint John's narrative, Bethany then Jerusalem^[60]. The Byzantine emperors, reports the Catholic Encyclopedia, distributed on that day branches of palm and small gifts to their dignitaries and servants^[61].

In Jerusalem itself, the route grew longer. In the 9th century, the monk Epiphanius mentions, about a mile from the place of the Ascension, the spot where Jesus mounted the colt, near an olive tree from which a branch was cut each year to enter the city in procession on "Palm day": this is the origin of the present start of the procession, at Bethphage^[62]. The particular features of the Byzantine liturgy are presented in the article The Eastern liturgy, and the iconography of the feast in Byzantine icons.

In Spain: Saint Isidore of Seville's "Palm day"

Visigothic Spain knew the feast in the 7th century. Saint Isidore of Seville († 636) gives its name and meaning in his Etymologies:

"It is called Palm day because on that day our Lord and Saviour, as the prophet had sung, advancing towards Jerusalem, sat, it is said, upon a colt. Then the multitude of the people, going to meet him with branches of palm trees, cried: 'Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel.' The people also call this day Capitilavium, because it is then the custom to wash the heads of the children who are to receive the anointing, lest they approach the anointing soiled by the observance of Lent." — Saint Isidore of Seville, Etymologies, VI, XVIII, 13-14^[63]

This "washing of the head" recalls that Palm Sunday was a stage in the preparation for baptism, conferred in the Easter night. In Spain, Gaul and Milan, it was also on this Sunday that the text of the Creed was handed to the catechumens, which they would profess at baptism^[64].

In Rome: the feast of the Passion of the Lord

In Rome, the day's colour was first that of the Passion. Pope Saint Leo the Great (440-461) left a series of sermons "on the Passion of the Lord"; one of them bears in the manuscript tradition the note Dominico die habitus, "delivered on a Sunday", and opens thus:

"We celebrate, beloved, this longed-for feast, which the whole world always sees coming with joy, the feast of the Passion of the Lord." — Saint Leo the Great, Sermon 62 (On the Passion of the Lord, XI)^[65]

The sermon ends by postponing the rest of the explanation to the following Wednesday^[66]: the Passion was thus preached in Rome on the Sunday opening Holy Week, then on Wednesday. The same text comments details that belong only to Saint Matthew's narrative — the death of Judas who hangs himself, the cry "His blood be on us and on our children!" — which agrees with the reading of the Passion according to Matthew that the Roman liturgy kept on that day for centuries^[67]. The papal station was held at the Lateran basilica, where the pope presided over the ceremonies until 1870^[68].

The blessing of the branches reaches the West

The three oldest Roman sacramentaries mention neither blessing of branches nor procession; the earliest prayer relating to it appears in the Gregorian Sacramentary as used in France in the 9th-10th centuries, and it still blesses those who bear the palms, not the palms themselves^[69]. The liturgist Edmond Martène found no trace of it before the 8th-9th centuries, and the historian Pelliccia designated Amalarius of Metz († c. 850) as the first author to speak of it^[70]. The order of development therefore seems clear: palms were first carried during the office, then the procession was organised, and finally the branches were blessed^[71].

The timeline below summarises the formation of the feast, from Jerusalem to the present liturgy.

Gloria, laus et honor: the hymn of Theodulf of Orléans

The hymn that has accompanied the return of the procession for twelve centuries is the work of Theodulf, born in Spain around 760, poet and theologian at Charlemagne's court, bishop of Orléans around 798^[72]. Accused in 818 of having taken part in Bernard of Italy's conspiracy against Louis the Pious, he was deposed and exiled to Angers, where he died on 18 December 821^[73]. John Julian's Dictionary of Hymnology, authoritative in the field, judges the attribution of the hymn to Theodulf to be "beyond all reasonable doubt" and that it is "highly probable" he wrote it during his captivity at Angers, around 820 or 821^[74].

The complete poem runs to seventy-eight verses; the missals retained only the first six distichs, with their refrain^[75]. The 1970 Missal kept it under the title of "hymn to Christ the King"^[76]. The refrain and the fifth distich state the whole meaning of the day:

"Glory, praise and honour be to thee, Christ King, Redeemer, for whom the flower of childhood raised a loving Hosanna. [...] They offered thee the tribute of their praise as thou wentest to suffer; we, behold, sing to thee who reignest." — Theodulf of Orléans, Gloria, laus et honor, vv. 1-2 and 9-10^[77]

A fine legend surrounds the hymn: on Palm Sunday 821, the emperor Louis the Pious, passing in procession beneath the window of the captive bishop's cell, is said to have heard him sing these verses and to have freed him at once. The anecdote is reported notably by the theologian Josse Clichtove in his Elucidatorium (1516); but, Julian notes, it is not contemporary with the facts, Louis the Pious seems never to have come to Angers after 818, and Theodulf died in that city without recovering his see^[78]. The story is thus a late legend; the hymn itself is indeed Theodulf's.

In the Middle Ages, the custom was to entrust its singing to children, echoing the puerile decus, the "flower of childhood", of the first verse: at Salisbury, seven boys sang it from a raised place near the south porch; at York, from a gallery erected above the doorway; at Hereford, from the top of the city gates; at Tours and Rouen, at the city gate^[79].

The closed doors and the striking Cross

In the Roman rite fixed in the 16th century, the return of the procession took the form of a small drama. Two or four cantors entered the church and closed the door; turned towards the cortège left outside, they sang the Gloria, laus, which the priest and the people took up from outside. Then "the subdeacon strikes the door with the shaft of the Cross"; the door opens at once, and the procession enters singing the responsory Ingrediente Domino: "When the Lord entered the holy city, the Hebrew children, foretelling the resurrection of life, cried with palm branches: Hosanna in the highest"^[80].

The gesture referred to the psalm of the royal entry — "Lift up your heads, O gates! and be lifted up, O ancient doors! that the King of glory may come in!" (Ps 23 [24]:7)^[81] — which the procession still sings today. Benedict XVI gave a striking reading of it:

"In the ancient Palm Sunday liturgy, the priest, having arrived before the church, struck powerfully with an arm of the processional Cross upon the still-closed door, which then opened. It was a beautiful image of the mystery of Jesus himself who, with the wood of his Cross, with the force of his self-giving love, knocked from the side of the world upon God's door [...]. With the Cross, Jesus opened wide God's door, the door between God and men. Now it is open. But on the other side too, the Lord knocks with his Cross: he knocks at the doors of the world, at the doors of our hearts [...]." — Benedict XVI, Palm Sunday homily, 1 April 2007^[82]

Christ carried in procession

To make visible the one being acclaimed, the Middle Ages had a sign of his presence carried in the procession: an unveiled crucifix, the book of the Gospels, and often the Blessed Sacrament^[83]. In England, two priests carried the host in an openwork shrine to a tent erected in the churchyard; the procession, palms and flowers in hand, made four stations where the Gospel was sung, then, at the church door, the priests raised the shrine so that all entered passing beneath it^[84]. The introduction of the Blessed Sacrament into the Palm procession is generally attributed to Blessed Lanfranc († 1089), for his abbey of Bec^[85]. The intuition runs deep: the one the Jerusalem crowd acclaimed in the flesh is present in the Eucharist, and the procession follows the same Lord.

The Palmesel, the wooden donkey of the Germanic lands

In the Germanic lands, they went still further: a wooden statue of Christ seated on a donkey was carried in the procession, and sometimes into the church itself. They can still be seen in the museums of Basel, Zurich, Munich and Nuremberg^[86]. These Palmesel ("Palm donkeys") made children and people the actors of a true catechesis in motion: the entry into Jerusalem was not only told, it was seen passing through the streets of one's town.

Popular piety also made the blessed branches a sign to take home. In Bavaria, great willows covered with catkins, adorned with flowers and ribbons, stood in for palms; in Lower Bavaria, boys walked the streets singing the Pueri Hebraeorum, which earned them the nickname Pueribuben; in parts of Germany and France, the cemetery Cross was wreathed with blessed branches, as a sign of Christ's victory^[87]. The Church watches over these customs remaining signs of faith, not talismans — more on this below.

The 1570 rite: a "dry Mass" before the Mass

The Roman Missal promulgated by Saint Pius V in 1570 and reprinted until the 20th century gave the blessing of the branches an exceptional amplitude: it formed "almost an entirely separate Mass", what was called the "dry Mass of the Palms", because it followed the course of a Mass — readings, Gospel, preface, Sanctus — without consecration^[88]. It opened with the antiphon Hosanna filio David, continued with a prayer, a reading from Exodus, a gradual and the Gospel of the entry into Jerusalem according to Saint Matthew, then a preface and the Sanctus^[89].

The chosen reading was full of meaning: "In those days, the children of Israel came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped by the waters" (Ex 15:27)^[90]. The palms of the desert, at the end of the Exodus, foreshadowed those of the true Passover. There followed five prayers of blessing, which recalled the dove bringing back the olive branch to Noah and gave the key to the two foliages: the palm signifies victory over the prince of death, the olive the coming of the spiritual unction brought by Christ^[91]. The branches were sprinkled with holy water, incensed, then distributed to the singing of the Pueri Hebraeorum, before the procession and the rite of the door described above^[92]. One antiphon of the procession summed it all up:

"The crowds go to meet the Redeemer with flowers and palms, and render to the triumphant Victor the homage due to him: the nations proclaim with their mouths the Son of God, and voices thunder to the clouds in praise of Christ: Hosanna in the highest." — Roman Missal (1920 typical edition), antiphon Occurrunt turbae^[93]

The Mass itself was celebrated in violet; its summit was the chanting of the Passion according to Saint Matthew, shared among three ministers and beginning with the account of the Last Supper, the faithful holding their branches in hand^[94][95]. Two pieces of this Mass passed into the present Missal: the hymn of the Epistle to the Philippians (Phil 2:5-11, today 2:6-11) and, word for word, the collect asking to follow the Saviour's example of humility^[96].

The reform of Holy Week (1955)

The restoration of Holy Week decided by Pius XII — decree Maxima redemptionis nostrae mysteria of 16 November 1955, whose general history is retraced in the article The Paschal Triduum — notably simplified this Sunday. The day took the name "Second Sunday of the Passion, or of the Palms"^[97]. The "dry Mass" was abolished and replaced by a brief blessing of the branches before Mass, and the vestments of the procession changed from violet to red^[98].

The 1970 Missal: "Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord"

The Missal promulgated by Saint Paul VI completed this development by restoring the day's twofold name and clearly stating its purpose: "On this day, the Church recalls the entrance of Christ the Lord into Jerusalem to accomplish his paschal mystery"^[99]. The whole celebration is in red, the procession keeps its antiphons, Psalms 23 and 47 and the Gloria, laus, and the Passion is read from the three synoptic Gospels, in the rhythm of the three-year cycle^[100]. The rite of the door struck by the Cross was not retained: the cortège enters the church to the singing of the responsory Ingrediente Domino^[101].

The table below compares, point by point, the rite of the Tridentine Missal (in use until 1955) with that of the 1970 Missal.

Sources: Missale Romanum, 1920 typical edition, "Dominica in Palmis"; Missale Romanum cum lectionibus, 1977, "Dominica in Palmis de Passione Domini"^[102][103].

Under different forms, the heart of the day has not changed: the acclamation of the King with branches, then the reading of his Passion. The continuity can be read down to the texts, since the opening prayer of the Mass has remained word for word that of the Missal of Saint Pius V.

Three ways of commemorating the Lord's entrance

All the Masses on this Sunday commemorate the Lord's entrance into Jerusalem, but not in the same way. The Missal provides three forms^[104][105]:

1. the procession, the principal form: the faithful gather, branches in hand, in a secondary church or another place, outside the church to which they go; it takes place only once, before the Mass that draws the largest crowd, even if it is held on Saturday evening or Sunday evening;
2. the solemn entrance, when the outdoor procession is not possible: the faithful, branches in hand, gather at the door or inside the church; the priest blesses the branches in a place from which most of the assembly can follow the rite, then goes to the altar with the ministers and a few of the faithful; this entrance may be repeated at one or two other well-attended Masses;
3. the simple entrance, at all other Masses: the antiphon is sung, "Six days before the solemn Passover, when the Lord was entering the city of Jerusalem, the children came to meet him, bearing palm branches in their hands", with Psalm 23.

Where neither procession nor solemn entrance is possible, the Missal recommends a celebration of the Word of God on the messianic entrance and the Passion of the Lord, on Saturday evening or Sunday^[106]. The letter Paschalis sollemnitatis (1988) specifies that these substitute forms are not provided "merely for convenience", but for situations where the procession is impossible, and asks pastors to prepare this procession in honour of Christ the King so that it may have "great spiritual significance" in the life of the faithful^[107].

The blessing of the branches and the procession

The priest and deacon, vested in the red vestments of the Mass, join the assembly while is sung "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel: Hosanna in the highest!"^[108]. After the greeting, a brief exhortation states the meaning of the whole day:

"Dear brothers and sisters, from the beginning of Lent we have prepared our hearts by penance and charitable works; today we gather together to herald with the whole Church the beginning of the celebration of our Lord's paschal mystery, that is to say, of his Passion and Resurrection: for it was to accomplish this that he entered his city of Jerusalem. Therefore, with all faith and devotion, let us commemorate the Lord's entry into the city for our salvation and follow in his footsteps, so that, being made by his grace partakers of the Cross, we may have a share also in his Resurrection and in his life." — Roman Missal, Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, opening exhortation^[109]

The priest then says one of the two prayers of blessing; the first asks that "we who joyfully acclaim Christ the King may by him come to the eternal Jerusalem", the second that "we who today present branches to the triumphant Christ" may bear "in him the fruit of good works"^[110]. He sprinkles the branches with holy water, saying nothing, then the deacon proclaims the Gospel of the entry into Jerusalem. A final invitation sets the march in motion: "Let us imitate, dear brothers and sisters, the crowds who acclaimed Jesus, and go forth in peace"^[111].

The procession moves off behind the incense, if used, and the adorned Cross, carried between two lighted candles; the priest follows with the ministers, then the faithful with their branches. Psalm 23 is sung — "Lift up your heads, O gates... that the King of glory may come in!" — framed by the antiphon Pueri Hebraeorum, "the Hebrew children, bearing olive branches, went to meet the Lord", then Psalm 46 and Theodulf's hymn, Gloria, laus et honor. On entering the church the responsory Ingrediente Domino resounds, and the priest, arrived at the altar, concludes the procession with the collect of the Mass^[112].

The Mass: the Servant, Psalm 21 and the hymn to the Philippians

Everything then changes tone. The collect, unchanged for centuries, moves from acclamation to the Cross:

"Almighty and everlasting God, who, to show mankind what abasement it must imitate, willed that our Saviour, in a body like our own, should undergo the death of the Cross: grant us this grace, to retain the teachings of his Passion and to share in his Resurrection." — Collect of Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, French liturgical translation (Liturgy of the Hours)^[113]

The three readings that precede the Passion form a progression^[114]:

• Isaiah 50:4-7, the third song of the Servant: "I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I hid not my face from shame and spitting";
• Psalm 21 (22), whose refrain is the cry Jesus will utter on the Cross: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Mt 27:46), and which describes in advance the pierced hands and feet, the garments divided by lot;
• the hymn of the Epistle to the Philippians (Phil 2:6-11): Christ "humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a Cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him".

Abasement and exaltation: the hymn to the Philippians alone sums up the movement of the day, which goes from the Hosanna to the Cross, and from the Cross to glory.

The Passion proclaimed by several voices

The reading of the Passion "holds a special place": according to traditional usage, it is sung or read by three persons, who take the part of Christ, that of the narrator and that of the people^[115]. It is proclaimed by deacons or priests, or by lay readers, the part of Christ being then reserved to the priest; it is read without candles or incense, without greeting or signs of the Cross over the book^[116][117]. When the narrative reaches the Lord's death, the whole assembly kneels and pauses a moment in silence^[118]. For the good of the faithful, the Passion must be proclaimed in full, and the preceding readings must not be omitted^[119]. In Jerusalem, in the basilica of the Holy Sepulchre, three brothers of the Custody of the Holy Land still chant it in Latin, in a tradition that spread from the 11th century^[120].

The readings according to years A, B and C

The Sunday lectionary follows a three-year cycle: the Gospel of the procession and the account of the Passion change each year, while the other three readings stay the same. The table below gives the distribution for the 2026-2028 cycle.

Sources: Missale Romanum cum lectionibus, 1977; AELF readings of 29 March 2026^[121][122].

Each account of the Passion also exists in a short form — for example Matthew 27:11-54 for year A, or Mark 15:1-39 for year B — which the priest may choose for a pastoral reason^[123][124].

Why red?

The violet of Lent gives way, on that day, to red. The General Instruction of the Roman Missal expressly prescribes it: "Red is used on Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord and on Good Friday, on Pentecost Sunday, on celebrations of the Passion of the Lord, on the feasts of the Apostles' and Evangelists' heavenly birthdays, and on celebrations of martyrs"^[125]. It is the colour of blood shed and of love given to the very end: the King acclaimed with palms is the one who goes to shed his blood. The meaning of the liturgical colours across the year is presented in the article The liturgical year.

Boxwood, olive, laurel or palm

The branches carried on that day vary by country. In France, boxwood, olive, laurel or palms are blessed, according to region^[126]; boxwood, evergreen, is the most widespread there^[127]. The old Ceremonial of Bishops suggested, where no palms are found, at least attaching to olive branches small flowers or small Crosses made of palm^[128]. At the beginning of the 20th century, olive branches were distributed in Rome to the people, while the clergy carried dried palms twisted into various shapes^[129]. In Jerusalem, the Latin Patriarch usually blesses, in the edicule of the Holy Sepulchre, palms from Jericho and olive branches from the Franciscan convent of Saint Saviour^[130].

This diversity is no folkloric detail: it answers the diversity of the Gospels themselves — palms in John, branches from trees in Matthew, foliage from the fields in Mark — and the ancient twofold symbol the blessing prayers explained: the palm of victory, the olive of unction, recalling the branch brought back by Noah's dove^[131].

Keeping one's branches: what the Church asks

Once blessed and carried in procession, the branches are brought home. The letter Paschalis sollemnitatis gives their meaning: they will serve in the home as a reminder of Christ's victory celebrated in the procession^[132]. In France, the custom is to adorn the Crosses of houses with them, "a gesture of veneration and trust in the Crucified", in the words of the Bishops' Conference^[133]. Formerly, they were also placed in barns and fields^[134].

The Church encourages this custom, but recalls its meaning so that it does not drift into superstition. The Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy (2001) states it plainly:

"The faithful must be properly instructed about the true meaning of this celebration, so that they may grasp its full scope. For example, it will be fitting to remind them that the most important thing is to take part in the procession itself, and that it is therefore not enough to obtain a palm or an olive branch; moreover, these must not be kept as amulets [...]. The palm and the olive branch must above all be kept as a witness of faith in Christ, the messianic King, and in his paschal victory." — Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy, no. 139^[135]

The blessed branch is what the Church calls a sacramental: a sacred sign which, "through the prayer of the Church", prepares for receiving grace and disposes to cooperate with it, without conferring it as sacraments do^[136]. It is faith in the crucified and risen King that gives it meaning, as with all sacramentals.

From branches to ashes

The blessed branch is not meant to be thrown away. The Missal provides that, on Ash Wednesday, ashes are blessed and imposed "made from branches of olive or other trees, blessed the previous year"^[137]. The branches of the Hosanna thus become, a year later, the ashes of Ash Wednesday opening the following Lent: one day's praise turns into humility, and the Lenten path leads back to the joy of the Palms, then of Easter.

In Jerusalem, from Bethphage to Saint Anne

In Jerusalem, Egeria's procession has had a long history. The shrine of Bethphage, on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, commemorates the beginning of Jesus' messianic entry; in 1870, an inhabitant found there a stone adorned with Crusader-era paintings depicting Lazarus's resurrection and the triumphal entry, and a small shrine was built, restored to its present form in 1954^[138]. The procession, which had disappeared by the end of the Latin kingdom, was taken up again by the Franciscans in the 16th-17th centuries, the Father Custos of the Holy Land riding a donkey representing Christ; since 1933, it has recovered all its solemnity and is presided over by the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem^[139].

On the usual route, the faithful gather at Bethphage to hear the Gospel of the entrance, then come down the Mount of Olives, past the monastery of the Ascension and the garden of Gethsemane, to Saint Anne's church, near the Lions' Gate, with palms and olive branches woven into garlands^[140][141]. In 2025, despite the war and the small number of foreign pilgrims, about four thousand faithful, mostly Christians of Jerusalem and Galilee, took part^[142]. In 2026, the Latin Patriarchate had to cancel the procession because of the war and replaced it with a time of prayer for the city^[143].

From the Palms to the World Youth Days

For more than three decades, Palm Sunday was also World Youth Day. Saint John Paul II had dated his letter to the young people of the world, Dilecti amici, written for the International Year of Youth, "31 March 1985, Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord"^[144]. The World Youth Days, instituted at that time, were henceforth celebrated each year in the dioceses on that Sunday; in 2013, Pope Francis exclaimed before the crowd in Saint Peter's Square: "for 28 years Palm Sunday has been Youth Day!", and greeted the young people carrying "the pilgrim Cross across all continents"^[145].

On 22 November 2020, at the Christ the King Mass marking the handing over of the WYD Cross, on the road to Lisbon 2023, Francis announced: "Thirty-five years after the institution of the WYDs [...], I have decided to transfer, starting next year, the diocesan celebration of the WYDs from Palm Sunday to Christ the King Sunday"^[146]. Since 2021, the diocesan youth day is therefore celebrated on the solemnity of Christ the King — which closes the liturgical year by proclaiming the same kingship the Palms acclaimed.

A King who abases himself

The day's first teaching concerns Christ's kingship. The crowd acclaims him as "King of Israel"; but what kind of king? Saint Augustine, commenting on the entry into Jerusalem before his faithful, answered:

"Jesus Christ was not King of Israel to exact tributes, to raise armies and fight visible enemies: he was King of Israel to govern souls, to prepare eternal goods and to lead to the kingdom of Heaven those who believe and hope in him and love him. The Son of God equal to the Father, the Word by whom all things were made, willed to be King of Israel, but by condescension and not to exalt himself: it is on his part a mark of goodness, and not an increase of power. For he who was called, on earth, King of the Jews, is in Heaven the Lord of angels." — Saint Augustine, Tractates on the Gospel of John, LI, 4^[147]

The same Augustine calls Christ "the teacher of humility": "he does not lose his divine nature, when he teaches us humility"^[148]. This is the key to the collect of the Mass, which asks to follow the Saviour's "example of humility", and to the hymn to the Philippians, which sings of Christ "obedient unto death, even death on a Cross". The King who enters Jerusalem does not seize power: he gives himself. On humility as a path of interior life, see How to grow in humility.

"It is ourselves that must be lowered before him"

What should be done, today, with this story? A Greek Father of the Church, Saint Andrew of Crete († 740), gave the answer the Church reads each year at the Office of Readings of this Sunday:

"So let us run with him who hastens towards his Passion; let us imitate those who went to meet him. Not to spread on his path, as they did, olive branches, garments or palms. It is ourselves that must be lowered before him, as much as we can, by humility of heart and uprightness of spirit, so as to welcome the Word who comes, so that God may find room in us, he whom nothing can contain." — Saint Andrew of Crete, Homily for Palm Sunday^[149]

And further on, with a wholly baptismal boldness:

"Our garment is his grace, or rather it is he himself entire that we have put on: all of you whom baptism has united to Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. It is ourselves that we must, by way of garments, spread beneath his steps. [...] Let us too, on this day, say with the children, waving the branches that symbolise our life: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel!" — Saint Andrew of Crete, Homily for Palm Sunday^[150]

Branches wither; offered lives remain. The true branch of the Palms is the faithful himself, laid before Christ by humility and trust.

The Cross, throne of the King

The day's paradox lies in the juxtaposition of two scenes: the morning acclamation and the account of the Passion at Mass. Recent popes formulated it forcefully. Benedict XVI recalled that "we are called precisely to follow our King who chose the Cross as his throne"^[151]. Pope Francis, for his first Palm Sunday, said it in a sentence that became famous:

"Jesus enters Jerusalem to die on the Cross. And it is precisely here that his being as King according to God shines forth: his royal throne is the wood of the Cross!" — Pope Francis, Palm Sunday homily, 24 March 2013^[152]

Theodulf's hymn already sang it: the Jerusalem crowd praised the one who "was going to suffer"; the Church sings "for thee who reignest"^[153]. Between the two stands the Cross. It is because the King reigned from the Cross that the palms of the procession can already be, today, the palms of victory.

The joy that opens Holy Week

It would be wrong to make the Palms a sad day. The procession is first of all a feast. Benedict XVI defined it as "above all a joyful witness that we bear to Jesus Christ, in whom the Face of God was made visible to us and thanks to whom God's heart is opened to us all"^[154]. Francis drew from it the first word of his preaching:

"And this is the first word I want to say to you: joy! Never be sad men and women: a Christian can never be sad! Never let yourselves be caught by discouragement!" — Pope Francis, Palm Sunday homily, 24 March 2013^[155]

This joy does not deny the Passion: it passes through it. Palm Sunday teaches us to enter Holy Week not with fear, but with the trust of the children of Jerusalem crying Hosanna before the one who came to save them.

"Hosanna" and "Crucify him": the human heart between two cries

A few days after the triumphal entry, a crowd cries to Pilate: "Crucify him!" (Mk 15:13). The contrast strikes every reader of the Gospel, and Benedict XVI saw in it the central point of the feast:

"It is no accident that, a few days later, the crowd of Jerusalem, instead of acclaiming Jesus, will cry to Pilate: 'Crucify him!'. And the disciples themselves, as well as the others who had seen and heard him, will remain mute and lost. Indeed, most had remained disappointed by the way Jesus had decided to present himself as Messiah and King of Israel. It is precisely in this that lies for us too the central point of today's feast." — Benedict XVI, Palm Sunday homily, 1 April 2012^[156]

The question asked is therefore not first that of the Jerusalem crowds, but our own: "For us, who is Jesus of Nazareth? What idea of the Messiah do we have, what idea of God do we have?", asked the same pope^[157]. Palm Sunday places each of the faithful between two cries, and invites him to choose the one that lasts: the Hosanna of trust, taken up to the Cross.

Souls whom God closely associated with his Passion contemplated the entry into Jerusalem and received, on this Sunday, words that illuminate its meaning. These writings are private revelations: according to the Catechism, their role is not to "improve" or "complete" Christ's definitive Revelation, "but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history"^[158]. It is on that basis that they are cited here, each with its exact source.

Anne Catherine Emmerich and Seraphia's veil

Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824), Augustinian nun of Dülmen, was beatified by Saint John Paul II on 3 October 2004; the pope then recalled that "the sorrowful Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ" she "lived in her body"^[159]. Her visions were gathered and shaped by the poet Clemens Brentano, who read them back to her until she fully approved them^[160]. In them she links the Veronica of the Way of the Cross to Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. This woman, whom she names Seraphia, had already honoured the Lord on the day of his triumph:

"At the triumphal entry of Palm Sunday, I saw her detach her veil and spread it on the path where the Saviour passed. It was this same veil that she brought to Jesus during that sadder, yet still more triumphal march, to wipe away the traces of his sufferings, this veil which gave its owner a new name, the glorious name of Veronica." — Anne Catherine Emmerich, The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, ch. XXXIV^[161]

The same mystic reports that, on Good Friday, Jesus was led to Pilate in a parody of "his royal entry of Palm Sunday", stones and rags thrown under his feet instead of cloaks^[162]. The two scenes answer each other: the veil spread beneath the King's steps becomes the cloth that wipes the Crucified's Face. The "sadder march" of Calvary is, she says, "still more triumphal".

Maria Valtorta: the two voices of Christ's life

In The Gospel as Revealed to Me, Maria Valtorta (1897-1961) reports a word of Jesus on the fickleness of crowds that illuminates Palm Sunday:

"It is enough to speak the truth and to be good to be hated by the crowd after the first moment of enthusiasm. Truth is reproach and warning. [...] Hence the 'crucify him' after the 'hosanna' was said. My life as Master is full of these two voices. And the last was 'crucify him'." — Maria Valtorta, The Gospel as Revealed to Me, vol. 9, "Various introductions", II^[163]

In the same dictation, Jesus adds that his Mother, on Good Friday evening, "heard again within herself all the lying hosannas, become cries of death for her Child"^[164]. The contrast of the two cries, which the liturgy places side by side on this Sunday, becomes here Mary's sorrow.

Luisa Piccarreta: the acclaimed King and the Kingdom of the Divine Will

In the notebooks of the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta (1865-1947), gathered under the title of the Book of Heaven, two entries are dated Palm Sunday: 31 March 1901 and 16 April 1905. A third, 26 October 1926, meditates on the entry into Jerusalem apart from the feast day. On 31 March 1901, Luisa writes: "I saw that the Church was celebrating Palm Sunday"; and Jesus says to her:

"What instability, what inconstancy! Today they cried 'hosanna!' proclaiming me their King. Another day they will cry 'crucify him, crucify him!' My daughter, the thing that displeases me most is inconstancy and instability. For this is the sign that truth does not dwell in the soul." — Jesus to Luisa Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 4, 31 March 1901^[165]

And he concludes with a promise: "When the true light of Truth enters a soul and takes possession of its heart, that soul is not subject to inconstancy"^[166]. The Hosanna that does not turn into "Crucify him" is that of a heart inhabited by truth.

On Palm Sunday 16 April 1905, the word concerns kingship itself:

"Today is Palm Sunday on which I was acclaimed as King. All must aspire to a kingdom. To acquire the eternal Kingdom, the creature must acquire dominion over herself by mastering her passions. The only means of reaching this goal is suffering. For to suffer is to reign. By suffering with patience, the creature sets herself back in order by making herself queen of herself and of the eternal Kingdom." — Jesus to Luisa Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 6, 16 April 1905^[167]

It is the same logic as the day's liturgy: the acclaimed King reigns by the Cross, and the disciple who follows him, uniting his sufferings to his, reigns with him.

Twenty years later, on 26 October 1926, Jesus rereads his whole public life in the light of what is the heart of Luisa's writings: the gift of living in the Divine Will, that is, not only doing God's will, but letting his Will live and act within us, as in Adam before the fall. Every miracle, he tells her, aimed at restoring this Kingdom to men; and the entry into Jerusalem too:

"And even when, triumphing, I entered Jerusalem amid the triumph of the crowds, surrounded by honour and glory, it was the triumph of my Will that I was establishing in the people." — Jesus to Luisa Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 20, 26 October 1926^[168]

The crowd cried: "Blessed is the kingdom that comes" (Mk 11:10). In the Book of Heaven, this Kingdom is the one Christ taught us to ask for in the Our Father: the "third Fiat" — the work by which God wills to restore his Will to men, after Creation and Redemption — "will bring about on earth the fulfilment of 'thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven'"^[169]. The 1926 word thus links the Palm acclamation to that petition of the Our Father. The difference between doing God's will and living in his Will is presented in the article What is the difference between doing God's will and living in the Divine Will?, and the hope of this Kingdom in Why speak of a reign of the Divine Will on earth?.

Why is the Passion read on Palm Sunday?

Because this Sunday unites two equally ancient traditions. Jerusalem, from the 4th century, commemorated the Lord's entry with a procession; Rome, in the 5th century, celebrated that same Sunday as the "feast of the Passion of the Lord"^[170][171]. The Roman liturgy kept both, and the Church expressly asks that their unity be shown: this Sunday "joins the foretelling of the regal triumph of Christ the King and the proclamation of his Passion", and "the connection between these two aspects of the paschal mystery" must be "shown and explained in the celebration and in catechesis"^[172][173]. The acclamation has meaning only through the Cross towards which it leads; the Cross is no failure, since the one who mounts it is the acclaimed King. Indeed, the whole Sunday assembly thus hears the entire account of the Lord's death at the threshold of the holy days.

Did those who cried "Hosanna" cry "Crucify him"?

The Gospels do not say so. Saint John specifies that those who welcomed Jesus were "the great crowd that had come for the feast" — pilgrims — and those who had seen Lazarus's resurrection (Jn 12:12, 17-18). Saint Matthew notes that when the cortège arrived, "the whole city" asked: "Who is this man?" (Mt 21:10). Before Pilate, it is "the chief priests and the elders" who "persuaded the crowds" to demand Barabbas and Jesus' death (Mt 27:20; Mk 15:11)^[174]. Nothing therefore requires identifying the two crowds purely and simply: at Passover, Jerusalem welcomed multitudes.

Spiritual tradition is nevertheless right to bring the two cries together, because they meet in the human heart. Benedict XVI saw in them the disappointment of those who expected another Messiah^[175], and, in the Book of Heaven, Jesus says it of the very faithful who celebrate the Palms: "Today they cried 'hosanna!' proclaiming me their King. Another day they will cry 'crucify him, crucify him!'"^[176] (see above). The day's question is that of each one's faithfulness.

Why does Matthew speak of a donkey and a colt?

Matthew reports that Jesus asked the disciples to bring "a donkey tied, and a colt with her", and that they "brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them" (Mt 21:2, 7); Mark and Luke speak only of the colt, "which no one has ever ridden", and John of "a young donkey" (Mk 11:2; Lk 19:30; Jn 12:14)^[177]. There is no contradiction here: Mark, Luke and John name the animal Jesus rode, a colt, which Mark and Luke say had never been ridden; Matthew adds that its mother was brought with it, which is most natural for a young animal that has never carried anyone. Saint Augustine already noted it — "both were brought to the Lord" — and read a spiritual meaning in it: the colt, which no one had ridden, figures the pagan nations called to faith, and the donkey the people of Israel who "knew the Saviour's manger"^[178]. Matthew thus stresses the word-for-word fulfilment of Zechariah's prophecy, which speaks of "a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey" (Zech 9:9). The detailed study of this question belongs to the article The Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.

What should be done with last year's blessed branches?

They are kept at home, often at the Cross or crucifix, as "a witness of faith in Christ, the messianic King, and in his paschal victory", and not as an amulet^[179]. When the following Lent comes, the previous year's branches find their liturgical use: the Missal provides for them to be made into the ashes blessed and imposed on Ash Wednesday^[180].

Related Ignispedia articles

• The Paschal Triduum — the three holy days towards which the week opened by the Palms leads.
• The liturgical year — the seasons, the colours and the place of Holy Week in the year.
• Why does Lent last forty days? — the penitential season of which the Palms are the last Sunday.
• Why does Easter change date? — the reckoning on which the date of the Palms depends.
• The Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem — the Gospel event studied for itself.
• The Passion according to the four Gospels — the accounts proclaimed at the day's Mass and on Good Friday.
• Lazarus of Bethany and The resurrection of Lazarus — the sign preceding the entry into Jerusalem.
• Ash Wednesday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Easter Vigil and Easter — the other days of the liturgical calendar around Holy Week.
• Christ the King — the solemnity of Christ's kingship, on which the diocesan youth day is now celebrated.
• Epiphany (6 January), Christmas (25 December), Holy Mary Mother of God (1 January) and Corpus Christi — other feasts of the liturgical calendar.
• The Eastern liturgy — the Feast of Palms and Lazarus Saturday in the Eastern Churches.
• Saint Cyril of Jerusalem and Saint Andrew of Crete — two Fathers witnessing to the feast.
• The Divine Will and Luisa Piccarreta — the Kingdom of the Divine Will evoked in the Book of Heaven.

Principal sources

• Egeria, Travel Journal (Itinerary), ed. and trans. Pierre Maraval, Sources chrétiennes 296, Paris, Cerf, 1982 (reprints 1997, 2002), ch. 29-31.
• Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, Catecheses, X, 19 (trans. J. Grancolas, Paris, 1715).
• Saint Leo the Great, Sermon 62 (De Passione Domini XI), PL 54.
• Saint Augustine, Tractates on the Gospel of John, LI (trans. Poujoulat and Raulx, Bar-le-Duc, 1864, vol. X).
• Saint Jerome, Letter 20 to Pope Damasus, PL 22.
• Saint Isidore of Seville, Etymologies, VI, XVIII and XIX.
• Saint Andrew of Crete, Homily IX for Palm Sunday, PG 97, 990-994 (Liturgy of the Hours, Office of Readings).
• Missale Romanum, 1920 typical edition ("Dominica in Palmis") and Missale Romanum cum lectionibus (1977) ("Dominica in Palmis de Passione Domini").
• General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar (1969), nos. 5, 28, 30-31.
• Congregation for Divine Worship, circular letter Paschalis sollemnitatis (16 January 1988), nos. 27-33; Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy (2001), no. 139.
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, §§ 559-560.
• Benedict XVI, Palm Sunday homilies (2007, 2012); Francis, homilies of 24 March 2013 and 22 November 2020; Leo XIV, homily of 29 March 2026.
• J. Julian (ed.), A Dictionary of Hymnology, 2nd ed., London, 1907, art. "Gloria laus et honor".
• F. Mershman, art. "Palm Sunday", The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 11, New York, 1911.