Presentation of the Lord (February 2)

Few feasts bear as many names as that of February 2. None contradicts the others: each sheds light on one facet of the same account by Saint Luke. The following table brings together these four names, the language they come from, and the aspect of the mystery each brings to the fore.

These four names designate a single event seen from the Child who is offered, from his Mother who fulfills the Law, from those who welcome him, and from the liturgy that celebrates him^[9].

Presentation of the Lord: the title restored in 1969

The current title dates from the reform of the Roman calendar approved by Saint Paul VI in the motu proprio Mysterii paschalis of February 14, 1969, which took effect on January 1, 1970^[10]. The official volume of the Calendarium Romanum notes it soberly, in the commentary written by the Consilium charged with the reform: "The title of the feast of this day is changed: it is called 'Presentation of the Lord,' so that it may be understood more clearly that it is a feast of the Lord"^[11]. The same commentary specifies that the 1960 Code of Rubrics had already declared that this celebration was to be held as a feast of the Lord, "in full agreement with the tradition of the Eastern Churches"^[12].

Saint Paul VI himself explained this choice in the exhortation Marialis cultus, which he dated — no coincidence — February 2, 1974, "on the feast of the Presentation of the Lord"^[13]. The change of name takes nothing away from the Virgin: it restores her part within the mystery of the Son.

"The feast of February 2, to which the name 'Presentation of the Lord' has been restored, must also be kept in mind, so as to gather its great richness. It is a joint memorial of the Son and the Mother, that is, the celebration of a mystery of salvation accomplished by Christ, with whom the Virgin was intimately united as Mother of the Suffering Servant of Yahweh, as executor of a mission that belonged to ancient Israel and as figure of the new People of God." — Saint Paul VI, Marialis cultus, no. 7, February 2, 1974^[14]

The word "restored" is exact: the oldest known name of the feast, at Jerusalem, did not mention the purification but counted the days from the birth of the Lord, and the East has never ceased to see in it a feast of Christ^[15].

Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary: the title of the Latin tradition

The second name comes from the first sentence of the account: "When the time prescribed by the law of Moses for purification was fulfilled" (Lk 2:22). According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the feast already appears under the title of Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Gelasian Sacramentary, whose manuscript tradition goes back to the 7th century^[16]; according to the commentary on the 1969 calendar, it was the Western liturgical books of the 10th century that brought Mary's purification to the fore, to the point that it gave its name to the feast^[17]. In the 19th century, Dom Guéranger noted the difference of usages: "The Greek Church and the Church of Milan place this feast among the solemnities of Our Lord; but the Roman Church has always counted it among the feasts of the Holy Virgin," adding at once that the glory of the Son, "far from being obscured by the honors the Church renders to the Mother, receives from them new increase"^[18]. The 1969 reform thus aligned Rome with the East and with Milan, without renouncing anything of the old title.

Hypapante: the feast of the Meeting

In Greek, the feast is called Hypapante, the "meeting": that of the Lord, carried by his Mother, with Simeon and Anna^[19]. Rome first received the feast under this name: the notice of Pope Sergius I, at the end of the 7th century, speaks of the feast "of Saint Simeon, which the Greeks call Hypapante"^[20]. The Catechism takes up this Eastern vocabulary in describing the episode as the meeting of all Israel's hope with its Savior, specifying that "the Byzantine tradition calls this event by that name"^[21]. Benedict XVI summed up the passage from East to West:

"In the East, this feast was called Hypapante, feast of the meeting: indeed, Simeon and Anna, who meet Jesus in the Temple and recognize in Him the long-awaited Messiah, represent humanity meeting its Lord in the Church. Then this feast also spread to the West, developing above all the symbol of light, and the procession with candles, which is at the origin of the term 'Candlemas.'" — Benedict XVI, homily at vespers of the Presentation of the Lord, February 2, 2010^[22]

The Armenian Church keeps the same idea in the name it gives to the feast, Tiarnundaraj, understood as "coming to meet the Lord"^[23].

Candlemas: the feast of candles

The French name is that of the procession. The Trésor de la langue française derives it from the Latin festa candelarum, "feast of candles," and records its earliest attestations: chandelur in 1119 in Philippe de Thaon, chandeleur in 1262; the feast, it states, "takes its name from the blessed candles carried in procession"^[24]. Dom Guéranger spoke of the "blessed candles on Candlemas day, for such is the popular name of the feast of the Purification, borrowed from the very ceremony"^[25]. The Christian meaning of these candles, found again at Easter, at baptisms or before altars, is presented in the articles The Symbolism of Candles and Why Light Candles?; here it suffices to note that on February 2 it flows directly from Simeon's canticle.

The episode is recounted only by Saint Luke (Lk 2:22-40), just after the circumcision and the giving of the name of Jesus, on the eighth day (Lk 2:21). The Evangelist, whom Saint Paul's letters name among his fellow workers (Col 4, 14 ; 2 Tm 4, 11 ; Phm 24), displays here a precise knowledge of the Law of Moses and of the Temple — see Saint Luke the Evangelist.

"When the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, the parents of Jesus brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, as it is written in the Law: Every firstborn male shall be consecrated to the Lord. They also came to offer the sacrifice prescribed by the Law of the Lord: a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons." — Gospel according to Saint Luke, 2:22-24^[26]

In three verses, Luke weaves together two distinct prescriptions of the Law, which Saint Thomas Aquinas already distinguished: one, general, concerned every birth; the other, particular, concerned only firstborn sons^[27].

Two prescriptions of the Law of Moses

The following table compares, for each of the two prescriptions, the text of the Law, the prescribed period, the prescribed offering, and what Luke reports.

Luke follows the Law to the letter on the purification, but he remains silent on the redemption: this silence, as will be seen, is one of the keys to the narrative^[28].

The purification of the mother according to Leviticus

The Law declared a woman who had given birth to a boy unclean for seven days; she then remained thirty-three days "to purify her blood," touching nothing consecrated and not entering the sanctuary (Lv 12, 2-4). At the end of those forty days, she brought to the priest a lamb for the holocaust and a young pigeon or a turtledove "as a sacrifice for sin"; if she could not afford it, she offered two turtledoves or two young pigeons (Lv 12, 6-8)^[29]. This uncleanness was ritual, not moral: Saint Thomas explains that the rites of the old Law "do not purify from the stain of sin, which is the work of grace"; they only prefigured that purification, purifying "in a certain carnal manner" from a legal "irregularity"^[30].

The consecration and redemption of the firstborn

The second prescription went back to the Exodus from Egypt: "Consecrate to me every firstborn among the sons of Israel" (Ex 13, 2). The Law gave the reason: the Lord had slain the firstborn of Egypt, "that is why I sacrifice to the Lord every firstborn male; but the firstborn of my sons, I redeem" (Ex 13, 15). The Book of Numbers fixed the price of this redemption: the child was redeemed "when they are a month old, at the price you value them, that is five silver shekels, by the sanctuary shekel – twenty gerahs to the shekel" (Nb 18, 16)^[31]. Dom Guéranger recalled that Joseph carried that day "the five shekels, the price of the redemption of the firstborn"^[32].

For Saint Thomas, this second precept "also prefigured Christ, the 'firstborn among many brothers' (Rm 8, 29)," and Luke shows that both prescriptions were observed "because Christ was born of a woman as a firstborn and had willed to be under the law"^[33].

The offering of the poor

Luke mentions only the birds. Mary and Joseph therefore presented the offering provided for those who could not offer a lamb (Lv 12, 8). Saint Thomas sees in this a choice of Christ himself:

"Therefore the Lord 'who, being rich, became poor for us, so that we might become rich through his poverty' (2 Cor 8:9), willed that the sacrifice of the poor be offered for him, just as at his birth he is wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger." — Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, IIIa, q. 37, a. 3, reply 4^[34]

Dom Guéranger added a remark that the whole tradition has savored: their poverty did not allow them to buy a lamb, "and besides, is he not the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, this heavenly Child whom Mary holds in her arms?"^[35]. Benedict XVI drew the same historical conclusion: Luke emphasizes "that Jesus was born into a family of simple people, humble but deeply believing: a family belonging to the poor of Israel, who form the true people of God"^[36].

Simeon, the righteous man who awaited the consolation of Israel

Luke presents Simeon as "a righteous and devout man, who awaited the Consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him"; the Spirit had announced to him that he would not see death before he had seen the Messiah, and it was "prompted by the Spirit" that he came to the Temple that day (Lk 2:25-27)^[37]. The Catechism stresses this role of the Holy Spirit, who "moves Simeon to come to the Temple to see the Lord's Christ"^[38]. The Gospel does not say he was a priest: the blessing of the candles calls him "righteous Simeon"^[39], and Saint John Paul II "aged Simeon"^[40].

The Nunc dimittis, the evening prayer of the Church

Receiving the child into his arms, Simeon blessed God with a canticle that the Church has sung for centuries:

"Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared in the sight of all the peoples: a light for revelation to the Gentiles and glory for your people Israel." — Simeon, Luke 2:29-32^[41]

This canticle, called the Nunc dimittis from its first Latin words, takes up the oracles of Isaiah on the Servant whom God makes "a light to the nations" (Is 42, 6 ; 49, 6). It has become the prayer of every evening: "These are the words we repeat each evening during Compline," Pope Francis recalled^[42]. Thus, each night, the Church falls asleep with the words of an old man who held God in his arms.

The prophecy of the sword

Simeon then blessed the parents, and afterward he spoke to Mary alone:

"Behold, this child is destined for the fall and the rising of many in Israel. He shall be a sign of contradiction – and your own soul a sword shall pierce – so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." — Simeon, Luke 2:34-35^[43]

The Catechism reads in this sword the announcement of "that other oblation, perfect and unique, of the Cross"^[44]. Saint John Paul II, in making the presentation in the Temple the fourth joyful mystery of the rosary, noted that it already mingles joy and drama:

"Indeed, the presentation in the temple, while expressing the joy of consecration and immersing aged Simeon in ecstasy, also stresses the prophecy of the 'sign that will be contradicted' which the Child will be for Israel, and of the sword that will pierce the soul of his Mother (cf. Lk 2:34-35)." — Saint John Paul II, Rosarium Virginis Mariae, no. 20, October 16, 2002^[45]

Catholic piety has made this prophecy the first of Mary's seven sorrows: Saint Alphonsus Liguori opens his meditations on the Seven Sorrows with "the Prophecy of Simeon"^[46]. On the prayer of the rosary itself, see Why do Catholics pray the Rosary?.

Anna, the eighty-four-year-old prophetess

The second witness is a woman: "a prophetess, Anna, daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher." A widow after seven years of marriage, eighty-four years old, "she never left the Temple, serving God night and day with fasting and prayer"; coming forward at that very hour, she proclaimed the praises of God "and spoke of the child to all who awaited the deliverance of Jerusalem" (Lk 2:36-38)^[47]. Egeria, in the fourth century, names her exactly so, "Anna the prophetess, daughter of Phanuel"^[48].

The contrast strikes the commentators: the Temple is full of priests and pilgrims, yet only two elderly people recognize the child.

"But none of them realizes anything. Jesus is a child like any other, the firstborn son of two very simple parents. The priests too are unable to grasp the signs of the new and particular presence of the Messiah and Savior. Only two elderly people, Simeon and Anna, discover the great newness." — Benedict XVI, homily at vespers of the Presentation of the Lord, February 2, 2011^[49]

Pope Leo XIV gave these two witnesses their full depth, on February 2, 2026:

"On the human side, on the other hand, the two elderly people Simeon and Anna represent the expectation of the people of Israel at its peak, as the summit of a long history of salvation stretching from the garden of Eden to the court of the Temple; a history marked by shadows and lights, falls and recoveries, but always crossed by a single vital desire: to restore the full communion of the creature with its Creator." — Leo XIV, homily at the Mass of the Presentation of the Lord, February 2, 2026^[50]

Why did Mary submit to a law that did not bind her?

The question is as old as the feast: did the Mother of God, virgin in conceiving and in giving birth, need to be "purified"? The Latin Fathers read Leviticus in the text of the Vulgate, where the law concerns the woman who gives birth "having received seed" from a man (suscepto semine, Lv 12, 2). Saint Bernard and Saint Thomas conclude that Moses chose his words to except the Mother of God, who did not conceive in this way^{[51] [52]}.

"Truly, blessed Virgin, truly you have no reason, you have no need for purification. But did your Son need circumcision? Be among women as one of them, for your Son too is thus among the children." — Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Third Sermon for the Purification, 2^[53]

Saint Thomas gives the deeper reason for this choice: the humility and obedience of the Son, which the Mother willed to share.

"Just as the fullness of grace flows from Christ upon his mother, it was fitting that the mother should model herself on the humility of her son, for, as St. James says (4:6), 'God gives his grace to the humble.' That is why, although he was not subject to the law, Christ willed to undergo circumcision and the other constraints of the law in order to give an example of humility and obedience, to approve the law, and to take away from the Jews any occasion to slander him. For the same reason, he willed that his mother too should fulfill the observances of the law, to which she was nevertheless not subject." — Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, IIIa, q. 37, a. 4^[54]

Saint Alphonsus Liguori puts it in one sentence: Mary "was not bound by the law of purification, since she had remained always virgin and always pure. Nevertheless, out of love for humility and obedience, she willed, like other mothers, to go and be purified"^[55]. Dom Guéranger saw in this a peaceful adherence to God's plan, which still willed to hide the mystery of the Incarnation under ordinary appearances:

"The divine will was dear to Mary, in this circumstance as in all others. The Virgin did not think she was acting against the honor of her son, nor against the glorious merit of her own integrity, by coming to seek an outward purification of which she had no need. She was, in the Temple, the handmaid of the Lord, as she had been in the house of Nazareth, at the Angel's visit." — Dom Prosper Guéranger, The Liturgical Year. Christmastide, vol. II^[56]

An exact and deliberately crafted narrative

The comparison with the Law shows Luke's precision: forty-day period, offering of the poor, consecration of the firstborn — nothing is approximate. One point, however, is surprising: Luke says nothing of the redemption of Jesus. Benedict XVI sees an intention here, not an oversight.

"It is important to observe that for these two acts — the purification of the mother and the redemption of the child — it was not necessary to go to the Temple. Yet Mary and Joseph want to accomplish everything in Jerusalem, and Saint Luke shows how the whole scene converges toward the Temple, and then focuses on Jesus entering it. And behold, precisely through the prescriptions of the Law, the main event becomes another, that is, the 'presentation' of Jesus in the Temple of God, which signifies the act of offering the Son of the Most High to the Father who sent him (cf. Lk 1:32, 35)." — Benedict XVI, homily at the Mass of the Presentation of the Lord, February 2, 2013^[57]

In Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives, Joseph Ratzinger explains that this child "was not redeemed and did not return to the possession of his parents, but on the contrary was personally handed over to God in the Temple," the Greek verb translated as "to present" also meaning "to offer," as one offers a sacrifice^[58]. The Old Testament already offered the model of such a gift: when Samuel was weaned, his mother, who was also named Hannah, led him to the House of the Lord at Shiloh and declared: "For my part, I give him to the Lord, that he may dispose of him. He shall remain at the Lord's disposal all the days of his life" (1 S 1:24-28)^[59]. Luke thus recounts, with the exact words of the Law, what the Law could not yet contain: the Son offered to the Father. On the historicity of the infancy narratives in general and the objections of modern exegesis, see the article Christmas (December 25).

The feast was born in Jerusalem, and its date has always followed that of Christmas: it falls forty days after the Nativity, according to the time prescribed by the Law and Luke's account. The timeline below traces its main stages.

Jerusalem, c. 384: The Testimony of Egeria

The earliest witness is a woman from the West who came on pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Her account, known as the Itinerarium or Travel Journal, survives only in part: the studies of Paul Devos established that her pilgrimage lasted from Easter 381 to Easter 384, and the surviving portion covers the period from December 16, 383 to June 384^[74]. It was thus at Jerusalem, in February 384, that she saw the feast she describes as follows:

“The fortieth day after Epiphany is celebrated here with the greatest honors. For on that day there is a procession to the Anastasis; all go there, and everything takes place in the customary order, with very great joy, as at Easter. All the priests preach, then the bishop, always commenting on the passage of the Gospel where, on the fortieth day, Joseph and Mary brought the Lord to the Temple, where Simeon and Anna the prophetess, daughter of Phanuel, saw him, and speaking of the words they said on seeing the Lord and of the offering his parents presented. Then, when everything customary has been celebrated in order, the holy mysteries are celebrated, and thus the dismissal takes place.” — Egeria, Travel Journal, XXVI^[75]

Three features stand out. The feast does not yet have a proper name: it is simply called “the fortieth day”^[76]. It is counted from Epiphany, because at Jerusalem at that time January 6 celebrated the birth of Christ: the feast therefore fell on February 14^[77]. Finally, it is presided over by the bishop and culminates in the Eucharist celebrated at the Anastasis, the rotunda of the Holy Sepulcher^[78].

The Armenian Lectionary: February 14 at the Martyrium

In the 5th century, the Lectionary of Jerusalem preserved in Armenian gives the feast the title of “fortieth day of the Nativity of our Savior Jesus Christ.” The assembly gathers at the Martyrium, the great Constantinian basilica, and there are read the Epistle to the Galatians (Gal 3:24–29), Psalm 97 (98) with the antiphon “All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God,” then the Gospel of the Presentation (Lk 2:22–40)^{[79] [80]}. The Armenian Church, which still celebrates the Nativity on January 6, keeps the feast on February 14 to this day^{[81] [82]}.

Constantinople and the East: The Hypapante on February 2

When the feast of Christmas on December 25, born at Rome, spread in the East at the end of the 4th century, the “fortieth day” moved with it to February 2^[83]. The Georgian Lectionary of Jerusalem, later than the Armenian, already places the Hypapante on February 2^[84]. The Catholic Encyclopedia reports, following the Byzantine chronicler Cedrenus, that the feast is attested at Antioch in 526, then that Emperor Justinian I introduced it in 542 throughout the Eastern Empire, in thanksgiving for the end of a great epidemic that had depopulated Constantinople^[85]. The Greek Church gave it the name it still bears: Hypapante tou Kyriou, the meeting of the Lord and his Mother with Simeon and Anna^[86]. On all these rites, see Eastern Liturgy.

Rome: The Procession of Pope Sergius I

At Rome, the feast arrived from the East. The Liber Pontificalis reports that Pope Sergius I (687–701), a pope of Syrian origin, introduced at the same time the singing of the Agnus Dei at the fraction of the bread and processions for four feasts of the Virgin^{[87] [88]}:

“He also established that on the days of the Annunciation of the Lord, of the Dormition and of the Nativity of the holy Mother of God, ever-virgin Mary, as well as of Saint Simeon, which the Greeks call Hypapante, a procession would set out from Saint Adrian and the people would go to Saint Mary.” — Liber Pontificalis, life of Pope Sergius I^[89]

The official commentary on the 1969 calendar sums it up: the feast “was received at Rome in the 7th century under the name of Hypapanti”^[90]. A century later, Ordo Romanus XX (c. 780–790) describes the ceremony in detail: at dawn, the people set out from the various churches of the city, candles in hand, toward the church of Saint Adrian in the Forum, where they await the pope; he distributes candles to those present, then the procession, preceded by crosses, makes its way to the stational basilica of Saint Mary Major singing antiphons and litanies^[91]. On this basilica, see The Basilica of Saint Mary Major.

The Latin of the Liber Pontificalis contains a fine play on words: the people “hasten” (occurrat) to Saint Mary, just as Simeon and Anna had come to meet (occursus, in Latin, renders the Greek hypapante) the Lord. The Roman procession reenacts the meeting in the Temple.

From the Procession to Blessed Candles

The solemn blessing of candles is later than the procession: according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, it only became common usage in the 11th century^[92]. It then took on great importance. In the 19th century, Dom Guéranger counted it among the three great blessings of the liturgical year, along with those of the Ashes and the Palms; it was performed in violet vestments, and if February 2 fell on one of the Sundays of Septuagesima, Sexagesima, or Quinquagesima, the Mass of the feast was postponed to the next day, but the blessing of the candles and the procession remained fixed on February 2^[93].

Medieval authors commented on the candle itself. Dom Guéranger reports the explanation of Saint Ivo of Chartres, for whom the wax, drawn from flowers by bees, represents the virginal flesh of Christ, and the flame Christ come to illumine our darkness, then that of Saint Anselm^[94]:

“Saint Anselm, in his Enarrations on Saint Luke, developing the same mystery, tells us that there are three things to consider in the candle: the wax, the wick, and the flame. The wax, he says, the work of the virgin bee, is the flesh of Christ; the wick, which is within, is the soul; the flame, which shines in the upper part, is the divinity.” — Dom Prosper Guéranger, L'Année liturgique. Le Temps de Noël, vol. II^[95]

The procession also received from the East a chant that remained famous, the antiphon Adorna thalamum tuum, Sion, composed by Saint John Damascene and one of the rare pieces the Roman Church borrowed from the Greeks, text and melody^[96]: “Adorn your bridal chamber, O Zion, and receive Christ the King; welcome with love Mary, who is the gate of heaven; for she holds in her arms the King of glory”^[97]. Before the liturgical reform of Saint Pius V (1568), the rite was more solemn in churches north and west of the Alps; in the Middle Ages, the clergy left the church to walk around the cemetery, and on the return a priest carrying an image of the Christ Child came to meet the procession at the door^[98].

One often reads that Candlemas is a Christianized pagan feast. The objection deserves to be stated in its strongest form. In the 19th century, Pierre Larousse's Grand dictionnaire universel claimed that the feast had been instituted by Pope Gelasius I and explained it by a strategy he attributed to Christianity:

“Later, when it wished to combat paganism, it established an outward worship; it gradually took over its temples, its very ceremonies, and replaced its feasts with others which, without destroying the habits of peoples, gently substituted the traditions of the Old and New Testaments for those of mythology. This is what happened for Candlemas, which was instituted to replace the Lupercalia and the feasts of Proserpina, which were celebrated at the same time of year, and in which those present likewise carried burning torches.” — Pierre Larousse, Grand dictionnaire universel du XIXᵉ siècle, art. “Chandeleur”^[99]

The idea was not limited to opponents of the Church. Dom Guéranger notes that the attribution to Gelasius came from Catholic scholars such as Baronius, Thomassin, and Baillet; that a sermon of Pope Innocent III linked the candles to the memory of Ceres's torches seeking Proserpina; and he himself preferred the hypothesis of a substitution for the pagan feast of the Amburbales^[100]. The ancient sources nevertheless allow a decision.

First Answer: The Feast Was Born at Jerusalem and Its Date Comes from the Gospel

The earliest witnesses to the feast are not Roman but from Jerusalem: Egeria in 384, then the Armenian Lectionary^{[101] [102]}. Yet the Lupercalia was a feast of the city of Rome, celebrated in February^[103]. Above all, the date of the feast never depended on a pagan calendar: it was always fixed at forty days after the Nativity, in accordance with the Law (Lev 12) and Luke's account (Lk 2:22). When Jerusalem kept the Nativity on January 6, the feast fell on February 14; when December 25 prevailed, it moved to February 2^[104]. A feast that follows Christmas in its moves does not take its date from a pagan feast. None of the ancient witnesses cited here — Egeria, the Armenian Lectionary, the Liber Pontificalis — links it to a pagan cult; all link it to Luke 2.

Second Answer: Gelasius Fought the Lupercalia; He Did Not Institute Candlemas

Pope Gelasius I (492–496) did write against the Lupercalia. His letter, preserved in the Collectio Avellana and edited in the Sources Chrétiennes collection, is an indictment: in it the pope “judges and condemns the Lupercalia in the course of a long indictment. Finally, he forbids every Christian to take part in it”^[105]. He forbids; he does not replace. And the feast of the fortieth day did not reach Rome until two centuries later, under the Greek name of Hypapante, with the procession of Pope Sergius I^{[106] [107]}. The Catholic Encyclopedia already concluded in 1908: “The feast was certainly not introduced by Pope Gelasius to suppress the excesses of the Lupercalia”^[108].

Third Answer: The Candles Draw Their Meaning from Simeon's Canticle

The blessing of candles, as seen above, only entered common usage in the 11th century; the same encyclopedia adds that it “has nothing in common with the Lupercalian procession”^[109]. The symbol of light comes from the Gospel of the day, where Simeon greets the child as the “light for revelation to the Gentiles” (Lk 2:32). That is how Saint Sophronius of Jerusalem already explained it, in a sermon the Liturgy of the Hours presents as delivered “for the feast of Lights”: “If our candles give such brightness, it is first to show the divine splendor of him who comes”^[110].

Christianizing a Season Is Not Borrowing a Religion

Even the hypothesis most favorable to the objection goes no further than a substitution. Dom Guéranger, who accepted it for the Amburbales, wrote that this pagan feast supposedly “gave occasion to the sovereign Pontiffs to substitute for it a Christian rite which they joined to the celebration of the feast in which Christ, Light of the world, is presented to the Temple by the Virgin Mother”^[111]. A Christian rite that takes the place of a pagan rite is the opposite of a borrowing: what is celebrated on February 2 is an event of the Gospel, dated by the Gospel, and sung with the very words of the Gospel.

The liturgy of February 2 links Luke's narrative to several Old Testament prophecies and to the Passion. Five themes intertwine here: the Lord's entry into his Temple, the offering of the Son, the offering of the Mother, God's encounter with his people, and the light of the nations.

The Lord enters his Temple

The first reading of the Mass proclaims Malachi's oracle:

"Look, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me; and suddenly the Lord whom you seek will come to his Temple. The messenger of the covenant whom you desire, see, he is coming – says the Lord of hosts." — Malachi, 3:1^[112]

The psalm of the day answers it: "O gates, lift high your heads; grow higher, ancient doors: let him enter, the king of glory! Who is this king of glory? The Lord, the mighty, the valiant, the Lord, the valiant in battle" (Ps 24:7-8)^{[113] [114]}. Dom Guéranger also linked the scene to the prophet Haggai's promise concerning the second Temple: "The future glory of this House will surpass the former [...], and in this place I will grant you peace" (Hg 2:9)^{[115] [116]}. The paradox of the feast lies in the contrast between these texts and the event: the king of glory who enters his Temple is a forty-day-old infant.

"But who is the valiant God who enters the temple? It is a Child; it is the Child Jesus, in the arms of his mother, the Virgin Mary." — Benedict XVI, homily for the Mass of the Presentation of the Lord, February 2, 2006^[117]

Saint Bernard drew from it a formula that the Latin liturgy long meditated upon:

"Today the Virgin Mother brings the Lord of the temple into the temple of the Lord; Joseph presents to the Lord, not a son who is his own, but the beloved Son of the Lord, in whom he has set his delight. The just man recognizes the one he awaited; the widow Anna extols him in her praises. These four persons celebrated for the first time today's Procession, which, in time to come, was to be solemnized in the joy of the whole earth, in every place, and by every nation." — Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, First Sermon for the Purification, 1^[118]

The Catechism recalls that Jesus always professed for the Temple of Jerusalem "the deepest respect" and that he "was presented there by Joseph and Mary forty days after his birth"^[119]. Benedict XVI added that, on that day, "Jesus enters the ancient temple, he who is the new Temple of God"^[120].

The offering of the Son, prelude to the Cross

The second reading, taken from the Epistle to the Hebrews, gives the key to the offering: "He had therefore to become like his brothers in every way, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make expiation for the sins of the people" (Heb 2:17)^[121]. Saint Thomas draws from it a lesson for every Christian: Christ "is presented to the Lord in order to teach us to present ourselves to God"^[122]. The prayer over the offerings of the Mass says the same thing, asking God to accept the gift of the Church, he "who willed that your only Son be offered to you as the spotless Lamb for the life of the world"^[123].

Saint Bernard saw in this morning offering the announcement of the evening offering, on Calvary. Saint Paul VI took up the beginning of this passage in Marialis cultus:

"Offer your Son, holy Virgin, and present to the Lord the blessed fruit of your womb. Offer for our common reconciliation the holy victim who is pleasing to God. [...] But this oblation, brethren, seems very slight: one does no more than present him to the Lord, redeem him with birds, and at once take him back. The day will come when he will no longer be offered in the Temple, nor in the arms of Simeon, but outside the city, in the arms of the cross. The day will come when he will no longer be redeemed with another's blood, but will redeem others with his own blood. [...] That will be the evening sacrifice; this is the morning sacrifice." — Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Third Sermon for the Purification, 2^[124]

The proper preface of the feast condenses this theology: on that day, the eternal Son, "presented in the Temple, is declared by the Spirit the glory of Israel and the light of the nations"^[125].

Mary, the Virgin who offers

Saint Paul VI gave Mary, on February 2, a title that says it all: the Virgo offerens.

"Mary, finally, is the Virgo offerens, the Virgin who offers. In the episode of the presentation of Jesus in the Temple (cf. Lk 2:22-35), the Church, guided by the Holy Spirit, glimpsed, beyond the fulfillment of the laws concerning the oblation of the firstborn (cf. Ex 13:11-16) and the purification of the Mother (cf. Lv 12:6-8), a mystery of salvation belonging to the history of salvation." — Saint Paul VI, Marialis cultus, no. 20^[126]

Saint John Paul II specified this union: "Mary, the mother of Jesus joins by the same movement of oblation in the presentation of Christ. Once again the enduring union of the Son and his Mother in their one and total offering for the salvation of the world is made manifest"^[127]. Saint Alphonsus Liguori stresses what distinguishes this offering from that of other mothers:

"But Mary's offering was very different from that of other mothers. They knew that the oblation of their children was only a simple legal ceremony. By redeeming them, they resumed all their rights over them, without fear of ever having to offer them really in sacrifice. But the holy Virgin really offered her Son to death. She was certain that the sacrifice she then made of Jesus would one day be consummated on the altar of the cross." — Saint Alphonsus Liguori, The Glories of Mary, Part II, sixth discourse^[128]

The Encounter: God comes to meet his people

The monition that opens the celebration sums up the Eastern meaning of the feast. The Roman Missal proposes it thus: forty days ago, the Church celebrated the Nativity; today, Jesus is presented in the Temple by Mary and Joseph, "outwardly fulfilling the Law, but in truth coming to meet his believing people"; the holy elders, impelled and enlightened by the Spirit, recognized him, and the assembly in turn advances toward the house of God "to meet Christ," whom it will recognize "in the breaking of the bread, until he comes, manifested in glory"^{[129] [130]}. Pope Francis made this word of encounter the center of his February 2 preaching:

"The feast of the presentation of Jesus in the Temple is also called the feast of the encounter: in the liturgy, at the beginning, it is said that Jesus goes to meet his People; it is the encounter between Jesus and his people; when Mary and Joseph brought their child to the Temple of Jerusalem, the first encounter between Jesus and his people took place, represented by the two elders Simeon and Anna." — Pope Francis, homily for the Mass of the Presentation of the Lord, February 2, 2014^[131]

Pope Leo XIV took up this theme in 2026, describing "the encounter between two movements of love: that of God who comes to save man and that of man who awaits his coming with watchful faith"^[132]. An ancient antiphon of the feast says the same thing in one image: Senex puerum portabat, puer autem senem regebat, "the old man carried the child, but the child guided the old man." Dom Guéranger read it in the alleluia of the old Mass, and Pope Francis quoted it from the first vespers of the feast^{[133] [134]}.

The light of the nations

Simeon's canticle gives the feast its symbol: the child is the "light for revelation to the Gentiles" (Lk 2:32). Benedict XVI stressed that the liturgy here follows the very chronology of the Gospel:

"This is one of the cases in which the liturgical time reflects historical time, for precisely today, forty days have passed since the solemnity of the Lord's Christmas; the theme of Christ the Light, which characterized the cycle of the Christmas feasts and reached its peak in the solemnity of the Epiphany, is taken up again and extended in today's feast." — Benedict XVI, homily at the vespers of the Presentation of the Lord, February 2, 2012^[135]

The Office of Readings for February 2 gives voice to Saint Sophronius of Jerusalem, in a sermon for "the feast of Lights" that explains the procession better than any commentary:

"If our candles procure such brightness, it is first to show the divine splendor of him who comes, who makes the universe radiant and floods it with an eternal light by driving back the evil darkness; it is also and above all to manifest with what splendor of our soul we ourselves must go to meet Christ. For just as the Mother of God, the most pure Virgin, carried in her arms the true light to meet those who lay in darkness; so we, illumined by his rays and holding in our hands a light visible to all, let us hasten toward him who is truly the light." — Saint Sophronius of Jerusalem, Sermon for the Feast of Lights^[136]

Dom Guéranger saw in this fortieth day the end of a cycle: "Such is the mystery of the fortieth day, which closes the series of the days of Christmastide"^[137]. In the present calendar, Christmastide ends with the Baptism of the Lord, the Sunday following January 6^[138], but the feast of February 2 keeps this role as the last reflection of the light of Christmas before the ascent toward Easter.

A feast of the Lord that takes the place of Sunday

In the Roman calendar, the Presentation of the Lord has the rank of feast. But it is a feast of the Lord, and the norms of the calendar grant it a privilege:

"By reason of its special importance, Sunday gives way in celebration only to solemnities and feasts of the Lord; but the Sundays of Advent, Lent, and Easter Time take precedence over all feasts of the Lord and over all solemnities." — Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the Calendar, no. 5, 1969^[139]

When February 2 falls on a Sunday in Ordinary Time, the feast therefore takes the place of Sunday. This was the case on February 2, 2014, when Pope Francis presided at the Mass of the feast, and on February 2, 2025: the liturgical calendar places on that day "Presentation of the Lord in the Temple (Sunday)" between the 3rd Sunday (January 26) and the 5th Sunday (February 9) of Ordinary Time^{[140] [141]}. The Missal then provides for the singing of the Credo, and the feast receives first vespers on the previous evening^{[142] [143]}. February 2 is not, however, a holy day of obligation: canon 1246 of the Code of Canon Law, which lists the feasts of obligation, does not mention it^[144].

The blessing of candles and the procession

The celebration begins with a rite of light, for which the Roman Missal proposes two forms^[145]. In the first, the procession, the faithful gather if possible in another church or another place outside the church to which they will go, holding unlit candles; the priest wears the white vestments of the Mass, optionally with a cope. The candles are lit while singing an antiphon, for example "Behold the Lord God who comes with power; he comes to illumine our sight, alleluia"^[146]. The priest then addresses the monition to the faithful, and blesses the candles:

"O God, source and origin of all light, you who today showed to the just Simeon the Light for revelation to the Gentiles, we beseech you: deign to sanctify these candles by your blessing, receive the vows of your people, gathered to carry them to the praise of your name, and may it merit to attain, by the path of the virtues, the light that never fades." — Roman Missal, blessing of the candles of February 2^[147]

After the sprinkling with holy water, the procession sets off, all carrying their lit candles, singing the Nunc dimittis with the antiphon Lumen ad revelationem gentium ("A light for revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel") or the Eastern antiphon Adorna thalamum tuum, Sion. Upon reaching the altar, the Mass continues directly with the Gloria. In the second form, the solemn entrance, provided where the procession is impossible, the faithful gather in the church with their candles, and the blessing takes place near the door or in the church itself, before a shorter procession toward the altar^[148].

The texts of the Mass

The following table presents, in the order of the celebration, the principal proper texts of the Mass of February 2 and their source.

On weekdays, a single reading precedes the Gospel, either Malachi or the Epistle to the Hebrews at choice; on Sunday, both are proclaimed^[149]. The liturgical color is white^[150].

The collect of the feast illustrates the continuity of the Latin liturgy. It is read almost word for word in the Gregorian sacramentary sent to Charlemagne by Pope Hadrian, called the Hadrianum^[151]; it is the same one given by the old missal commented on by Dom Guéranger^[152], and it is still that of the present Missal^[153]:

"Eternal and almighty God, we address to you this humble prayer: since your only Son, having put on our flesh, was on this day presented in the Temple, grant that we too may, with a purified soul, present ourselves before you." — Liturgy of the Hours, prayer for February 2^[154]

The entrance antiphon, Suscepimus, Deus, misericordiam tuam in medio templi tui, is likewise common to the old and the new missal^{[155] [156]}. The prayer after communion asks that the faithful, "going to meet Christ," may also obtain eternal life, like Simeon, who was not to die before he had welcomed the Messiah^[157].

In the Divine Office

The Liturgy of the Hours for February 2 has read, at the Office of Readings, the passage from Exodus on the consecration of the firstborn (Ex 13:1-3a.11-16), then the sermon of Saint Sophronius of Jerusalem for "the feast of Lights"^[158]. Simeon's canticle, for its part, is not reserved to this day: it concludes every evening the office of Compline^[159].

In the Roman Missal before the reform

Before 1970, the feast bore the title of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary and had, at the beginning of the twentieth century, the rank of double of the second class. The celebrant blessed candles, which had to be of beeswax, in violet stole and cope, with five prayers; he sprinkled and incensed them, then distributed them during the singing of the Nunc dimittis, before the procession to the chant of the Adorna^[160]. The first of these prayers asked that the candles serve "for the use of men, and for the health of bodies and souls, whether on land or on water"^[161]. For the whole cycle of feasts, see The Liturgical Year.

In the East: the Hypapante

The Eastern Churches celebrate the feast under the name of Hypapante, the Meeting; Pope Francis recalled that, "in the Christian East, this feast is precisely designated as the 'Feast of the encounter'"^[162]. The Armenian Church celebrates it on February 14, forty days after its feast of the Nativity on January 6; on the evening before, after the evening office, a priest lights a candle at the altar, kindles a fire and passes the flame to the assembly^[163]. The Copts give it the name of "presentation of the Lord in the Temple"^[164].

Why February 2?

On January 6, 1997, Saint John Paul II announced: "I have decided to institute a Day of consecrated life, celebrated on February 2, the feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the temple"^[165]. He gave it a threefold purpose: to give thanks for the gift of consecrated life, to make it better known to the whole people of God, and to enable consecrated persons to "celebrate together and solemnly the wonders that the Lord has accomplished in them"^[166]. He also explained the choice of date:

"The Presentation of Jesus in the temple is an eloquent icon of the total gift of self for all those who have been called to reproduce in the Church and in the world, through the evangelical counsels, 'the characteristic features of Jesus, chaste, poor and obedient.'" — Saint John Paul II, Message for the First World Day for Consecrated Life, January 6, 1997^[167]

The pope recalled that, for several decades already, the feast of February 2 had been gathering almost spontaneously "around the Pope and the bishops" the members of institutes of consecrated life^[168]. On February 2, 1997, he opened his homily by noting that the feast was enriched that year with a new meaning: "for the first time, indeed, we are celebrating the Day of consecrated life"^[169]. On the Holy See body responsible for religious, see The Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life.

A day celebrated by the popes at Saint Peter's

Since then, the popes have usually presided at Saint Peter's, with religious, at the Mass or Vespers of the feast. Benedict XVI saw in it "the mystery of consecration: the consecration of Christ, the consecration of Mary, the consecration of all those who follow Jesus out of love for the Kingdom of God"^[170]. He contemplated Mary in the Temple as "the first and perfect consecrated woman, carried by that God whom she carries in her arms; Virgin, poor and obedient, entirely devoted to us, because wholly God's"^[171]. In 2006, he entrusted religious with an instruction drawn from the candles of the feast: "like lighted candles, always and everywhere radiate the love of Christ, light of the world"^[172].

On February 2, 2026, for the thirtieth World Day for Consecrated Life, Pope Leo XIV celebrated Mass in Saint Peter's Basilica; according to the bulletin of the Holy See Press Office, the rite opened with the blessing of the candles and the procession^[173]. In his homily, he described the way God gives himself on that day: "there is nothing constraining in his action, but only the disarming power of his disarmed gratuitousness"^[174].

Blessed Candles Kept at Home

The Candlemas candles were not used only for the procession. Dom Guéranger described a custom he wished to see maintained:

"It is also necessary that the faithful know that the candles blessed on Candlemas day [...] are blessed, not only to serve for the Procession, but also for the use of Christians who, by keeping them with respect in their homes, by carrying them with them, both on land and on water, as the Church says, draw down special blessings from heaven. These Candlemas candles should also be lit beside the bed of the dying, as a reminder of the immortality that Christ has merited for us, and as a sign of Mary's protection." — Dom Prosper Guéranger, L'Année liturgique. Le Temps de Noël, vol. II^[175]

The expression "both on land and on water" refers to the blessing prayer of the old ritual, which asked that these candles serve "for the health of bodies and souls"^[176]. On the meaning of candles in Christian life, see Why Light Candles?.

Candlemas Sayings: Winter and the Bear

Set in the heart of winter, the feast became a landmark of peasant almanacs. The Trésor de la langue française records the proverbs "À la chandeleur, l'hiver se passe ou prend vigueur" and "À la chandeleur, grandes douleurs"^[177]. In 1842, Le Roux de Lincy noted the first, in the form "La veille de la Chandeleur, l'hiver se passe ou prend vigueur," in Mathieu Laensberg's almanac and in the Calendrier des bons Laboureurs pour 1618; that calendar added a forecast in which the bear plays the role of harbinger:

"According to the old saying, if the bright sun shines on Candlemas, you may believe that you will have yet another winter; yet keep your hay well, for you will need it. By this rule is governed: the bear returns to its cave." — Calendrier des bons Laboureurs pour 1618, quoted by Le Roux de Lincy^[178]

The same almanac reported a Burgundian saying — "Si fait beau et luit Chandelours, six semaines se cache l'ours" — and specified that this forecast should henceforth be referred to February 12^[179].

Pancakes

In France, Candlemas is also the day of pancakes (crêpes). The custom is attested by 20th-century literature: the Trésor de la langue française quotes this sentence from Bernanos: "à la chandeleur, quand elle fait sauter dans la poêle les crêpes fumantes"^[180]. Paris press agencies in the 1930s were already photographing, every February 2, children eating Candlemas crêpes^[181]. None of the sources consulted for this article establishes the precise historical origin of the custom; the story attributing it to a pope is not documented there, and it is therefore not repeated here.

La Candelaria in the Hispanic World

In Spanish-speaking countries, the feast is that of Candelaria, and the Virgin of Candlemas is greatly venerated there. At Puno, Peru, the feast of the Virgen de la Candelaria, celebrated each year in February, was inscribed in 2014 on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity^[182].

Saint Alphonsus Liguori: Mary's Consent

For Saint Alphonsus, Doctor of the Church, February 2 is the day on which Mary gave her consent to the sacrifice of her Son. He thus imagines, in the form of a prayer, Mary's answer to Simeon's prophecy, emphasizing that she unites her will to that of the Father:

"Eternal Father, since you will it so, may your will be done and not mine. I unite my will to your holy will and I sacrifice to you my beloved Son!" — Saint Alphonsus Liguori, The Glories of Mary, Part II, Sixth Discourse^[183]

This is a meditation by the holy Doctor, who lends these words to Mary, and not a saying reported by the Gospel. See also Saint Alphonsus Liguori.

In the Writings of Luisa Piccarreta: The Presentation and the Divine Will

The writings of the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta (1865-1947), a laywoman of Corato, in Apulia, shed light on the feast from the standpoint of the Divine Will^[184]. What Jesus told Luisa is not limited to asking man to do God's will: God wants to give his very Will to the creature, so that it may live and act in it as it lived in Adam before the fall — see the difference between doing God's will and living in the Divine Will. In the Book of Heaven, Jesus connects the forty days of Bethlehem to the whole history of salvation:

"My daughter, forty is a symbolic and significant number in my life here below. At my birth, I remained forty days in the cave of Bethlehem — a symbol of my Divine Will which, though present in the midst of creatures, was as though hidden and outside the city of their soul. And I, in order to make reparation for the forty centuries of human will, wanted to remain outside the city for forty days [...]. And after forty days, I went to present myself at the temple to reveal myself to old Simeon. He was the first city that I called to the knowledge of my Kingdom. And his joy was so great that he closed his eyes to the earth to open them to eternity." — Jesus to Luisa Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, vol. 22, September 8, 1927^[185]

In The Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will, meditations written in 1932 in obedience to her confessor, Don Benedetto Calvi, who published them in Italian^[186], it is the Virgin who speaks. She presents the ascent to the Temple as an immediate response to the divine Will:

"The forty days having elapsed, the dear Child, overflowing with Love more than ever, wanted to obey the law and be presented at the Temple to offer himself for the salvation of all. It was the Divine Will that asked us to make this great sacrifice. We obeyed promptly. My daughter, when we respond promptly to the requests of the Divine Will, It places at our disposal its divine Strength, its Holiness and its creative Power in order to multiply our acts and our sacrifices for all." — The Virgin Mary to Luisa Piccarreta, The Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will, additional lesson no. 4^[187]

The same lesson sees in Simeon's prophecy the moment when, to Mary's titles, "was added that of Mother and Queen of Sorrows," and it invites each person, in his own trials, to repeat "the dear and sweet fiat: 'What you want, I want too!'"^[188]. As early as 1905, Jesus had told Luisa that whoever "places himself in the hands of Providence and offers himself to suffer [...] all that the Lord will send him, comes to share in the first sorrow of Simeon's prophecy"^[189]. Far from veiling the joy of the feast, this reading reveals its depth: in the Temple, Mother and Son have but one will, that of the Father. On this Marian work, see The Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will.

• Christmas (December 25) — the solemnity of the Nativity, forty days before the Presentation, with the question of the historicity of the infancy narratives.
• Holy Mary Mother of God (January 1) — the octave of Christmas and Mary's divine motherhood.
• Epiphany (January 6) — the other feast of Christ's manifestation to the nations, and the Eastern origins of January 6.
• Baptism of the Lord — the feast that closes Christmastide today.
• Annunciation of the Lord (March 25) — the other great feast of the Lord in which the Son is intimately united to his Mother.
• The Liturgical Year — the place of February 2 in the calendar as a whole.
• The Symbolism of Candles and Why Light Candles? — the Christian meaning of light.
• Why Does Lent Last Forty Days? — the biblical symbolism of the number forty.
• The Basilica of Saint Mary Major — the endpoint of the Roman Hypapante procession.
• The Divine Will and Luisa Piccarreta (1865-1947) — to explore further the reading of the feast in Luisa's writings.
• Corpus Christi — another feast of the liturgical calendar born of its own history.

Primary sources

• Bible, official liturgical translation (AELF): Luke 2:22-40; Leviticus 12; Exodus 13; Numbers 18; Malachi 3:1-4; Hebrews 2:14-18.
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, §§ 529, 583, 695, 725.
• Calendarium Romanum, editio typica, Vatican City, Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1969.
• Missale Romanum, editio typica tertia, 2002, « In Praesentatione Domini ».
• Saint Paul VI, apostolic exhortation Marialis cultus, February 2, 1974.
• Saint John Paul II, Message for the First World Day for Consecrated Life, January 6, 1997; Rosarium Virginis Mariae, 2002.
• Benedict XVI, Francis, Leo XIV, homilies of February 2 (vatican.va).
• Egeria, Journal de voyage, ed. and trans. P. Maraval, Sources Chrétiennes 296, Paris, Cerf, 1982.
• John F. Baldovin, The Urban Character of Christian Worship, Orientalia Christiana Analecta 228, Rome, 1987.
• Frederick Holweck, art. « Candlemas », Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 3, New York, 1908.
• Dom Prosper Guéranger, L'Année liturgique. Le Temps de Noël, vol. II.
• Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, IIIa, q. 37.
• Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons for the Purification I and III.
• Saint Alphonsus Liguori, The Glories of Mary.
• Luisa Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven; The Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will.