Holy Saturday

The day of God's great rest

The first meaning of Holy Saturday is given by the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which devotes a full paragraph of its exposition of the Creed to the burial of Christ. The Son of God did not merely undergo death: he knew "the state of death", the time when his soul and his body remained separated, between the moment when he expired on the cross and that of his resurrection^[6].

"The state of the dead Christ is the mystery of the tomb and the descent into hell. It is the mystery of Holy Saturday, when Christ, lying in the tomb (cf. Jn 19:42), reveals God's great sabbath rest (cf. Heb 4:7-9) after the fulfilment (cf. Jn 19:30) of man's salvation, which brings peace to the whole universe (cf. Col 1:18-20)." — Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 624^[7]

The image is that of Genesis: on the seventh day, God had rested from the work of creation; on the morrow of "It is accomplished" (Jn 19:30), Christ rests in death, the work of salvation completed^[8]. The Letter to the Hebrews proclaims this rest promised to the people of God: "a sabbath rest still remains for the people of God. For whoever enters God's rest also rests from his works as God did from his" (Heb 4:9-10)^[9].

This rest is not an absence. According to the Catechism, "the divine person of the Son of God" "continued to assume his soul and his body, separated from each other by death": the body laid in the tomb remains the body of the Word, and that is why it did not undergo corruption, in the words of the psalm taken up by Saint Peter: "you will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor let your Holy One see corruption" (Acts 2:27)^[10][11]. Saint Thomas Aquinas draws the consequence: during the three days of his death, "Christ was wholly in the tomb, for his whole person was there through the body united to him", and wholly also in hell through his soul^[12].

A day without Mass or Communion

Holy Saturday is first recognised by what is missing. The Roman Missal devotes a few lines to it "on a large blank page", in the apt words of the French national service for liturgical and sacramental pastoral care^[13]:

"On Holy Saturday, the Church remains beside the tomb of her Lord. She meditates on the passion and death of Christ, and on his descent to the abode of the dead, as she awaits his resurrection in prayer and fasting. The altar table having been stripped, the Church refrains from celebrating the sacrifice of Mass. After the solemn Vigil — this nightly wait for the resurrection — paschal joy will burst forth, a joy that will overflow into fifty days of celebration. Today, Communion may be given only as viaticum." — Roman Missal, Holy Saturday (French translation of the 3rd typical edition, 2021)^[14]

Good Friday is also a day without Mass, but it has its Celebration of the Passion, during which the faithful receive Communion. Holy Saturday has nothing of the sort: it is the only day of the year on which Communion is given only to the dying, as viaticum, and on which the Church celebrates no sacrament apart from penance and the anointing of the sick^[15]. The Latin text of the typical edition of the Missal says the same thing in three short rubrics, under the heading Sabbato sancto^[16].

The second day of the Paschal Triduum

Holy Saturday is the middle day of the three days the Church calls the Paschal Triduum. The Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year (1969) set its bounds: "The Paschal Triduum of the Passion and Resurrection of the Lord begins with the evening Mass In Cena Domini, the Easter Vigil is its centre, and it ends with Vespers of Easter Sunday"^[17]. The 1988 letter on the Easter feasts recalls that this season is named the "Triduum of the crucified, buried and risen Christ": Saturday is the day of the buried one^[18].

This middle day is not a neutral day between two feasts. It extends the Good Friday fast, observed "as appropriate" until the Vigil^[19], and it prepares the paschal night, which may begin "only after nightfall"^[20]. The article The Paschal Triduum describes all three days together; the sections that follow deal with what belongs to Saturday alone.

Why "Holy Saturday"?

The name comes from the Jewish calendar: the day Jesus rested in the tomb was a sabbath, and indeed a solemn sabbath, since Saint John notes that "that sabbath was the great day of the Passover" (Jn 19:31)^[21]. The liturgical Latin says Sabbatum sanctum, and the Eastern Churches speak of "Great and Holy Saturday", the title their liturgical books still bear^[22]. The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1910 noted other ancient names: "Great Saturday", "Angel Night", "Easter Vigil"^[23].

A Sabbath of rest for the disciples

Jesus died on the eve of the Sabbath and was buried before sunset; the Catechism recalls that his body had been "buried hastily because of the arrival of the Sabbath on the evening of Good Friday"^[24]. Saint Luke describes what followed in a few lines:

"It was the day of Preparation for the feast, and already the lights of the Sabbath were shining. The women who had accompanied Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph. They looked at the tomb to see how the body had been laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and perfumed oils. And, during the Sabbath, they observed the prescribed rest." — Gospel according to Saint Luke, 23:54–56^[25]

Saturday was therefore, for the disciples, a day of obedience to the Law: they could neither finish the embalming nor go to the tomb. Saint Mark notes that the women bought the spices only "when the Sabbath was over" (Mk 16:1)^[26]. Saint Matthew shows Mary Magdalene "and the other Mary" sitting "facing the tomb" on Friday evening (Mt 27:61)^[27].

The guard at the tomb, the only event dated to Saturday

Only one event of that Saturday is reported by the Gospels, and it takes place at Pilate's house. "The next day, after the day of Preparation" — that is, on Saturday, since the Preparation was "Friday" (Jn 19:31) — the chief priests and the Pharisees ask for a guard:

"Sir, we have remembered that this impostor said, while he was still alive: 'After three days, I will rise again.' So give the order that the tomb be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples come and steal the body […] So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and posting the guard." — Gospel according to Saint Matthew, 27:63–66^[28]

The adversaries of Jesus thus remembered the announcement of the Resurrection, while the disciples remained shut in, "the doors of the place where the disciples were being locked for fear of the Jews" (Jn 20:19)^[29]. This detail has a significance the Fathers had already noted: seals, guard, and great stone made a discreet removal of the body impossible. Saint Thomas, quoting Saint Jerome, remarks that the "great stone" rolled before the tomb showed "that the tomb could not have been opened without the help of several men"^[30]. The precautions taken on Holy Saturday thus became one of the witnesses to the empty tomb; the case is developed in the article The Resurrection of Jesus.

"Three days and three nights": the sign of Jonah

Jesus had himself given the sign of his burial by citing the story of Jonah: "just as Jonah was in the belly of the sea monster three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights" (Mt 12:40)^[31]. Christ treats the episode of Jonah (Jon 2:1) as a fact, and it is from this fact that he draws the sign of his own burial.

The objection is well known: from Friday evening to Sunday morning, one does not count seventy-two hours. Saint Augustine already answered it by recalling the Scriptural way of counting, which takes the part for the whole; Saint Thomas takes up his demonstration: "the first day includes the end of Friday, on which Christ died and was buried; the second day is complete with its twenty-four hours of night and day; as for the following night, it belongs to the third day"^[32].

"From the evening of the burial to the dawn of the Resurrection, thirty-six hours elapsed, that is, one complete day between two whole nights." — Saint Augustine, De Trinitate, IV, 6, 10, quoted by Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, IIIa, q. 51, a. 4^[33]

The "entire second day" of this reckoning is precisely Holy Saturday. Saint John Paul II spoke likewise of the "three days (not complete)" during which Jesus experienced "the state of death," and he expressly linked this mystery to the sign of Jonah^[34]. The Catechism adds that the Resurrection "on the third day" was proof that the body had not known corruption, "for corruption was held to appear from the fourth day onwards (cf. Jn 11:39)"^[35].

An article of the Creed

The Apostles' Creed confesses that Jesus "was buried, descended into hell, on the third day rose again from the dead." These words are not a late addition. Saint John Paul II recalled that the formula appeared in the Symbol of Aquileia, "drawn up at the end of the 4th century," and that it then entered "definitively into the teaching of the Councils" with the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) and the Second Council of Lyons (1274)^[36]. The Fourth Council of Toledo (633) already specified the object of this descent: Christ "descended into hell to deliver the saints who were held there, and having conquered the power of death, he rose again"^[37]. The Fourth Lateran Council defined its mode: Christ "descended in his soul and rose again in his body"^[38].

The Catechism grounds the article on many New Testament texts. Saint Paul writes that Christ "had first descended into the lower regions of the earth" (Eph 4:9); Saint Peter, that "he went to proclaim his message to the spirits held in captivity" (1 Pet 3:19) and that "the Gospel was proclaimed even to the dead" (1 Pet 4:6)^[39][40]. On the day of Pentecost, the same Peter applies David's psalm to Christ: God could not abandon him "to the abode of the dead" (Acts 2:27), "for it was not possible for it to hold him in its power" (Acts 2:24)^[41].

"Hell" here is not the hell of the damned

The word can mislead today's reader. It designates the abode of the dead, which Hebrew calls sheol and Greek hades: all the dead awaited the Redeemer there, though their lot was not the same. The Catechism is explicit:

"The abode of the dead to which the dead Christ went down, Scripture calls hell, Sheol or Hades (cf. Phil 2:10; Acts 2:24; Rev 1:18; Eph 4:9) because those who are there are deprived of the vision of God […] Jesus did not descend into hell to deliver the damned, nor to destroy the hell of damnation, but to free the just who had gone before him." — Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 633^[42]

Saint John Paul II insisted on the same distinction: the word inferi "does not mean hell, the state of damnation, but the abode of the dead"^[43]. The Church had settled the matter as early as the 8th century: the council held at Rome on 25 October 745 condemned a certain Clement, who claimed that Christ, "in descending into hell, snatched away the godly and the ungodly alike"^[44]. Holy Saturday is therefore not the day of a universal amnesty: it is the day on which the just of the Old Covenant, who had hoped for the Messiah without seeing him, finally receive his visit.

The Catechism quotes here the Roman Catechism issued by the Council of Trent: "It is precisely these holy souls, who awaited their Liberator in Abraham's Bosom, that Jesus Christ delivered when he descended into hell"^[45]. It joins to it Saint Matthew's account: at Jesus' death, "the tombs were opened; the bodies of many saints who had died rose again" (Mt 27:52)^[46]. For the Church's teaching on eternal destiny, see also What does the Church say about hell?.

What Saint Thomas Aquinas says about it

The Summa Theologiae devotes a whole question in eight articles to the descent into hell (IIIa, q. 52), preceded by a question on Christ's burial (q. 51). Its answers shed light on three questions raised by Holy Saturday.

Why did Christ descend into hell?

Saint Thomas gives three reasons of fittingness: to deliver us from the punishment we had deserved, "so as to preserve us from descending there ourselves"; to deliver those whom the devil held captive; to manifest Christ's power even in hell "by visiting it and spreading light there"^[47]. From this he draws an overview of great beauty:

"To the living, the power of Christ's Passion is applied through the sacraments which conform us to Christ's Passion; to the dead, it was applied through Christ's descent into hell." — Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, IIIa, q. 52, a. 1, reply to objection 2^[48]

How long did Christ's soul remain in hell?

The Angelic Doctor answers that Christ's body "remained in the tomb for one whole day and two nights, in order to prove the reality of his death," and that his soul "dwelt in hell for just as long," "so that his soul might be drawn out of hell and his body out of the tomb at the same time"^[49]. All of Holy Saturday is thus the time of the descent: the whole day the body spends in the tomb is also the day the soul spends among the dead, until the dawn of the Resurrection when both are reunited.

Whom did the descent deliver?

The following table summarises, on the basis of question 52, the effect of this descent according to the places of the abode of the dead distinguished by Saint Thomas^[50][51].

The table reads from left to right: one and the same act of Christ, performed once, produces different effects according to the state of those it reaches. Saint Thomas also examines the case of children who died with original sin alone (a. 7); on this question, the Church's current teaching is presented in the article What does the Church say about Limbo?.

Victory over death and over the devil

The Catechism sees in the descent into hell "the fulfilment, to the fullest extent, of the Gospel proclamation of salvation":

"It is the final phase of Jesus' messianic mission, a phase condensed in time but immense in its real significance as the extension of the redemptive work to all men of all times and all places, for all those who are saved were made sharers in the Redemption." — Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 634^[52]

The Letter to the Hebrews gives its fruit: through his death, Jesus "was able to reduce to powerlessness the one who held the power of death, that is, the devil, and he set free all those who, through fear of death, spent their whole lives in a state of slavery" (Heb 2:14–15)^[53]. The Risen One can say to Saint John: "I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever; I hold the keys of death and of the abode of the dead" (Rev 1:18)^[54]. The Exsultet, quoted by the Catechism, will sing in the Easter night of "Christ, your Son who, risen from the underworld, shed his serene light upon the human race"^[55].

The icon of the Anastasis

The Christian East made this mystery the very icon of Easter. It is called Anastasis, "Resurrection," and does not show Christ coming out of the tomb, but Christ descended into hell, breaking down its gates and raising our first parents.

The most famous example is the fresco of the parekklesion of Saint Saviour in Chora, at Constantinople, painted around 1316–1321 in the funerary chapel added to the church by Theodore Metochites: Christ, robed in white, having broken the gates of hell, raises Adam and Eve from their sarcophagi, while Satan lies bound at his feet^[56]. The broken door leaves beneath his feet illustrate the words of Revelation about "the keys of death and of the abode of the dead."

This image translates the Church's teaching exactly: Christ descends as conqueror, not as captive; he comes to seek the just, beginning with Adam and Eve. The Byzantine liturgy sings it from the matins of Saturday: "When Thou didst descend into death, O immortal Life, Thou didst put hell to death by the splendour of Thy divinity"^[57]. On the place of the sacred image in the faith of the Church, see The theology of the icon.

A debated theology of Holy Saturday

In the 20th century, the Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar made Holy Saturday the centre of an original reflection, set out in Mysterium Paschale (1969): he sees in it the dead Christ entering into the most extreme solidarity with sinners, even into abandonment. This reading provoked sharp objections, in particular those of Alyssa Lyra Pitstick, whose book Light in Darkness (2007) confronts it with the Catholic doctrine of the descent into hell^[58]. The article devoted to Balthasar presents this debate. The Catechism, for its part, holds to the traditional doctrine of a victorious descent: Christ descended to the abode of the dead "as Saviour, proclaiming the Good News to the spirits imprisoned there"^[59].

A Text Read Each Year by the Whole Church

Every Holy Saturday, the Office of Readings has the Church read a Greek homily that the Liturgy of the Hours entitles "An Ancient Homily for Great and Holy Saturday"^[60]. Its full text is printed in the Patrologia Graeca (vol. 43, col. 439–464) under the name "Epiphanius, Bishop of Cyprus", with this title: a discourse "on the divine burial of the body of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, on Joseph of Arimathea and on the descent of the Lord into hell, accomplished in a wondrous manner after the saving Passion", "for Holy and Great Saturday"^[61]. Handed down under the name of Epiphanius, it is not the work of the great Saint Epiphanius of Salamis (died 403); it is listed as no. 3768 of the Clavis Patrum Graecorum^[62]. It circulated throughout the East: the Slavist André Vaillant published its Old Slavonic version in 1958^[63].

The Catechism quotes it at no. 635^[64], and Pope Benedict XVI took it up before the Holy Shroud, in Turin, in 2010^[65].

"Today, Great Silence Covers the Earth"

"What is happening? Today, great silence covers the earth; great silence and then solitude because the King sleeps. The earth trembled and then grew still, because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up those who have been sleeping from the beginning. God has died in the flesh and the realm of the dead has begun to tremble." — Ancient Homily for Great and Holy Saturday, Office of Readings^[66]

From the outset the homily sets out the two faces of the day: on earth, silence and solitude; beneath the earth, the trembling of the abode of the dead. It then follows Christ in his descent: "It is the first man he goes to seek, like the lost sheep. […] it is towards Adam held captive, and at the same time towards Eve, herself also held captive, that God makes his way, and his Son with him, to deliver them from their sorrows"^[67].

Adam Raised Up by the Hand

The central scene is that of the icon: "The Lord advanced towards them, bearing the cross, the weapon of his victory." Adam, struck with amazement, recognises his God; Christ "takes him by the hand and raises him up", taking up the baptismal hymn quoted by Saint Paul (Eph 5:14): "Awake, O sleeper, arise from the dead, and Christ will enlighten you"^[68][69].

"I command you: Awake, O sleeper, I did not create you to remain captive in the abode of the dead. Arise from the dead: I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands; rise up, my likeness, who were created in my image. Awake, let us go out from here. For you are in me, and I in you, we are a single, undivided person." — Ancient Homily for Great and Holy Saturday^[70]

The Garden, the Wood and the Sleep

The whole of Christ's address to Adam rests on a point-by-point correspondence between the fall and the redemption. The following table lists the main parallels, quoted from the liturgical translation of the homily^[71].

Each line reads as a reparation: Christ retraces Adam's path in reverse, down to the details of the Passion. The homily thus applies to Holy Saturday the oldest Christian reading of Genesis, the one that sees in Christ the new Adam.

The homily ends on a promise of feasting. Adam will not merely be restored to the lost paradise: "I shall no longer set you in paradise, but on a heavenly throne"^[72]. Its closing words already announce the joy of Easter:

"The throne of the cherubim is prepared, the bearers are alert, the bridal bed is made, the food is prepared, the tents and the eternal dwellings are too. The treasures of happiness are opened and the kingdom of heaven has been ready from all eternity." — Ancient Homily for Great and Holy Saturday^[73]

Holy Saturday, the day of silence, is also, in this homily, the day when the wedding feast is prepared. That is why the Church reads it on this day, between the death and the Resurrection.

The Bare Altar and the Empty Tabernacle

On the evening of Good Friday, after the Celebration of the Passion, "the altar is stripped. However, the cross is left upon it, with two or four candlesticks"^[74]. The church remains so on Saturday. The French National Service for Liturgical and Sacramental Pastoral Care draws out the meaning: "The stripping of the church, the absence of altar cloth, flowers, candles, and even more the opening of the empty tabernacle helps us understand the reason for the silence: it reflects absence"^[75]. The Ordo published each year by the French National Service for Liturgical and Sacramental Pastoral Care sums up the custom: "There is no Mass, even in the evening, no Communion (except as viaticum, for the dying), the tabernacle is empty"^[76].

The circular letter of the Congregation for Divine Worship on the preparation and celebration of the Easter feasts, published in 1988 and known by its incipit Paschalis sollemnitatis, gives this emptiness its rule:

"On this day, the Church strictly abstains from celebrating the sacrifice of the Mass. Holy Communion may be given only as viaticum. The celebration of marriages and of the other sacraments is to be refused, with the exception of penance and the anointing of the sick." — Congregation for Divine Worship, circular letter Paschalis sollemnitatis, 16 January 1988, no. 75^[77]

The Office of Readings and Lauds

The prayer of Holy Saturday is the Liturgy of the Hours. The same letter "strongly recommends the celebration of the Office of Readings and Morning Prayer with the participation of the people"; where this cannot be done, "provision should be made for a celebration of the Word of God or a 'devout exercise' corresponding to the mystery of this day"^[78].

The Office of Readings for the day is entirely turned towards the tomb. It opens with the hymn "Watchers, keep watch"; its three psalms proclaim Christ's trusting rest ("In peace I lie down and sleep", Ps 4), his victory over corruption ("You cannot abandon me to death, nor let your friend see corruption", Ps 15) and his victorious entry ("Lift up, eternal gates: let him enter, the king of glory!", Ps 23). The first reading is taken from the Letter to the Hebrews, "Let us hasten to enter into the rest of God" (Heb 4:1–13); the second is the ancient homily presented above^[79]. The concluding prayer sums up the mystery of the day:

"Eternal and almighty God, whose only Son descended to the depths of the earth, whence he rose again in glory: grant to your faithful, buried with him in baptism, to attain eternal life through his resurrection." — Liturgy of the Hours, Holy Saturday, prayer of the Office of Readings^[80]

The Office of Tenebrae

Until the reform of Pius XII, the matins and lauds of the three holy days were sung by anticipation on the previous evening: this was the Tenebrae office, so called because the lights were gradually extinguished during it. The 1912 Catholic Encyclopedia recalls that, according to the first Ordo romanus and the Ordo of Saint-Amand, the candles were extinguished progressively during the matins of Friday, while on Saturday the church remained in darkness from beginning to end, a single candle staying lit near the lectern for the reading^[81]. The 1951 rubrics for the restored Vigil prescribed on the contrary that the matins and lauds of Holy Saturday "are not anticipated in the evening, but said in the morning"^[82].

The 1988 letter keeps the memory of this tradition and expresses the wish that it recover its place:

"This Office, formerly called the 'Office of Tenebrae', should be given its due place in the devotion of the faithful, to contemplate in holy meditation the Passion, death and burial of the Lord, while awaiting the announcement of his Resurrection." — Congregation for Divine Worship, Paschalis sollemnitatis, no. 40^[83]

What Is Permitted and What Is Not

The liturgical norms in force determine precisely what the Church does and does not do on this day. The following table brings them together, with the source of each rule.

The logic of the table is simple: everything that celebrates the Resurrection waits for the night; everything that prepares the heart to receive it — prayer, fasting, confession — is on the contrary encouraged^[84].

The Paschal Fast

The fast of Holy Saturday is not first of all a penitential fast: it is the "paschal fast", the fast of those days of which Jesus had said: "days will come when the Bridegroom will be taken away from them; then, on that day, they will fast" (Mk 2:20)^[85]. The Second Vatican Council restored it to honour:

"However, the paschal fast, on the Friday of the passion and death of the Lord, shall be held sacred; it shall be observed everywhere and, where opportune, extended even to Holy Saturday, so that we may arrive with uplifted and liberated hearts at the joys of the resurrection of the Lord." — Second Vatican Council, constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium, no. 110^[86]

The Code of Canon Law imposes fasting and abstinence only on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday (can. 1251): on Holy Saturday, fasting is recommended, not obligatory^[87]. The 1988 letter traces it back to "the tradition of the earliest ages" and states that "it is recommended that it also be extended to Holy Saturday, so that the Church may arrive with uplifted and open hearts at the joys of the Sunday of the Resurrection"^[88]. For the practice of fasting among the saints, see What the Saints Say About Fasting.

Until Nightfall

Holy Saturday ends at nightfall, not at midnight. The norms are strict: the Easter Vigil "can begin only after nightfall; it must be finished before the dawn of Sunday. This rule must be interpreted strictly"^[89]. The 1969 Universal Norms say the same: its celebration "must therefore take place entirely at night, that is, begin after nightfall and end before the dawn of Sunday"^[90]. The Vigil is not for all that the last act of Saturday: the 1988 letter asks that, in announcing it, we avoid "presenting it as the last moment of Holy Saturday" and say rather that it is celebrated "on the night of Easter"^[91]. Holy Saturday thus ends in waiting; the night that follows already belongs to the Sunday of the Resurrection.

Until then, the bells remain silent. The Missal prescribes that on Holy Thursday, during the Gloria, "the bells are rung. They are then silent until the Easter Vigil, unless the diocesan bishop, if he judges it opportune, decides otherwise"; they ring again at the Gloria of the Vigil, "at least if local conditions permit"^[92]. The 1988 letter finally asks that the festive customs once born of the anticipation of the Vigil be "reserved for the night and the day of Easter": Holy Saturday must remain itself^[93]. What follows in the night is presented in the article Easter Vigil.

The two-day fast in the early Church

Holy Saturday is first known through its fast. Around 190, in the controversy over the date of Easter, Saint Irenaeus of Lyon wrote to Pope Victor that the Churches also differed on the fast that prepares the feast:

"The controversy is not only about the day, but also about the very manner of fasting. Some think they must fast one day, others two, others more; some count their day as made up of forty hours of day and night. […] And the disagreement about fasting confirms the agreement in faith." — Saint Irenaeus of Lyon, letter to Pope Victor, in Eusebius of Caesarea, Ecclesiastical History, V, 24, 12-13^[94]

The "forty hours" correspond to the time Christ spent in death; Saint Augustine will count them exactly, from the ninth hour of Friday to the dawn of Sunday^[95]. At the end of the 4th century, the Apostolic Constitutions make Holy Saturday a unique day: while Saturday is ordinarily a feast day, "there is only one Sabbath to be observed by you in the whole year, that of the burial of our Lord, on which one must fast and not hold a feast. For, since the Creator was then under the earth, sorrow for him outweighs the joy of creation"^[96].

A Saturday with no proper office

In the early centuries, Saturday had no liturgy of its own: the whole celebration was concentrated in the night vigil, which Saint Augustine called "the mother of all holy vigils"^[97]. The 1910 Catholic Encyclopedia sums it up: during the first six or seven centuries, the ceremonies lasted all night, so that the Alleluia coincided with the hour of the Resurrection; on Saturday, beforehand, there was "no office until the late hour of the vigil"^[98]. The day itself was thus entirely a time of fasting and waiting, which the Apostolic Constitutions expressed by forbidding it to be made a feast day^[99]. The history of this vigil, its readings and its rites, is presented in the article Easter Vigil.

When Easter joy invaded Saturday

From the 8th century onward, the ceremonies of the vigil were gradually moved earlier, first to Saturday afternoon, then, by a "singular anachronism" noted by the Catholic Encyclopedia, to Saturday morning^[100]. The general decree of 1955 places the culmination of this movement at the end of the Middle Ages, when all the celebrations of these days had been moved to the morning, and it draws the consequence for Saturday itself:

"Moreover, Holy Saturday itself, invaded by a premature paschal joy, lost its proper character of mourning, devoted to the memory of the Lord's burial." — Sacred Congregation of Rites, general decree Maxima redemptionis nostrae mysteria, 16 November 1955^[101]

The day of silence had become, in practice, a festive morning: the new fire was blessed and the Exsultet sung in broad daylight, then the festive customs of Easter began as early as Saturday^[102]. The 1910 Catholic Encyclopedia regretted that these ceremonies had "lost a great part of their symbolism by being anticipated and moved from twilight to broad daylight"^[103]. In 1642, moreover, the constitution Universa per orbem of Urban VIII ceased to count the three holy days among the holidays of obligation: Holy Saturday became an ordinary working day^[104], and, as the 1951 decree would observe, "a very great number of the faithful" could no longer attend the morning rites^[105]. The stages of this anticipation, and the exact role of the Roman decisions, are detailed in the article Easter Vigil.

Holy Saturday restored to its silence

The Liturgical Movement rediscovered the logic of the paschal night. On 9 February 1951, the Sacred Congregation of Rites, with the approval of Pius XII, permitted the Vigil to be celebrated at night on an experimental basis^[106]; the rubrics accompanying it at the same time gave Saturday back its morning office, since Matins and Lauds were no longer anticipated the evening before^[107]. On 16 November 1955, the general decree Maxima redemptionis nostrae mysteria restored the whole of Holy Week, with a new ordo obligatory from Palm Sunday, 25 March 1956^[108]. The instruction published with the decree defines Holy Saturday in terms that the following missals would take up almost word for word:

"Above all, the faithful must be carefully instructed about the proper liturgical character of Holy Saturday. It is a day of supreme mourning, on which the Church remains beside the Lord's tomb, meditating on his passion and death, abstaining from the sacrifice of the Mass, the altar stripped bare, until, after the solemn vigil, the nocturnal waiting for the Resurrection, room is made for paschal joys, whose abundance overflows into the days that follow." — Sacred Congregation of Rites, instruction attached to the decree Maxima redemptionis nostrae mysteria, 16 November 1955^[109]

The rubric of the Missal of Paul VI (1970) takes up this sentence; that of the third typical edition (2002) adds to it meditation on "the descent into hell" and waiting for the resurrection "in prayer and fasting," like the 1988 letter^[110]. The Second Vatican Council confirmed this direction: the constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium (4 December 1963) asked that the paschal fast be "even extended to Holy Saturday"^[111], and the 1969 Universal Norms took it up again^[112]. In 1988, finally, the Congregation for Divine Worship asked that the faithful be taught "the true character of Holy Saturday"^[113]. The reform of Pius XII is presented more broadly in the articles Easter Vigil and The Easter Triduum. The major stages in the history of Saturday itself are as follows.

"In her alone faith remained"

The Latin tradition has seen in the Virgin Mary the one who, on Holy Saturday, kept intact the faith of the whole Church. In the 13th century, William Durandus, bishop of Mende, makes this one of the reasons why Saturday is consecrated to the Virgin:

"Another reason is that, the Lord having been crucified and put to death, and the disciples having fled in despair of the resurrection, all faith remained in her alone on that Saturday. For she knew how she had borne him without burden and brought him forth without pain; and so she was certain that he was the Son of God and that he would rise from the dead on the third day." — William Durandus of Mende, Rationale divinorum officiorum, IV, 1, 32^[114]

His contemporary Humbert of Romans, Master General of the Order of Preachers, gives the same reason in his commentary on the Dominican Constitutions: "as the saints say, while the others failed on the Sabbath day, faith remained firm in her"^[115]. The sequence then sung in honour of the Virgin on Saturdays said it again in three verses: "On this day, while in despair / the little flock of that time, / she holds the faith more firmly"^[116].

The Church remains exact about the origin of this memorial. The Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy (2001) notes that the Marian memorial of Saturday "certainly goes back to the Carolingian period (9th century), but the reasons for which Saturday was chosen are unknown"; yet it retains, among its values, the one that touches on Holy Saturday:

"… the memory of the unshakeable fidelity of the 'blessed Virgin Mary who, as mother and disciple, during the 'great Saturday', when Christ lay in the tomb, remained strong solely through her faith and hope, alone among the disciples, in confident expectation of the Lord's Resurrection." — Congregation for Divine Worship, Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy, 17 December 2001, no. 188^[117]

The Hour of the Mother

The liturgy itself associates Mary with the watch at the tomb. The responsory that follows the ancient homily, at the Office of Readings, addresses her: "Near the sealed tomb the guards keep watch; and why, if life is conquered? But in your heart, Virgin Mary, what hope keeps vigil? As once in the Temple, will you find again, on the third day, him whom you call upon in the night"^[118]. The 2001 Directory gives this intuition its ecclesial foundation:

"Tradition teaches that Mary gathers in her person, in some way, the whole body of the Church: she is the 'credentium collectio universa'. Thus, the Virgin Mary standing near her Son's sepulchre, according to the various representations of ecclesial tradition, is the icon of the Virgin Church, keeping watch near her Spouse's tomb, awaiting the celebration of the Resurrection." — Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy, no. 147^[119]

The same text explains that this intuition "comes from the pious exercise called 'the Hour of the Mother'": while the Son's body rests in the sepulchre and his soul has descended into hell to announce to the ancestors in faith "their imminent liberation", the Virgin, "anticipating and personifying the Church, awaits her Son's victory over death by showing unalterable faith"^[120].

Our Lady of Sorrows and the Desolata

Popular piety extends this vigil beside Mary. The Directory lists among the devotions of Good Friday the Planctus Mariae, the lamentation of the Virgin, and "the Hour of the 'Desolata'", during which the faithful "keep company" with the Lord's Mother, left alone; in some places in Latin America, this exercise is called El pésame, that is, condolences^[121]. These devotions, presented in the article Good Friday, naturally continue on Saturday, the day on which the Virgin remains alone: the Directory asks that they not be limited to human sentiments, but that they help, "in faith in the resurrection", to understand better the greatness of Christ's redeeming love, "with which his Mother is associated"^[122].

Moreover, the 1988 letter permits offering for the veneration of the faithful, on Holy Saturday, "the image of Our Lady of Sorrows", alongside that of Christ on the cross, in the tomb, or descending into hell^[123]. The Eastern Churches also sing the sorrow of the Mother: their Matins of Great Saturday include what are called the "Lamentations of the Mother of God"^[124]. The meditation on Mary at the foot of the cross found its most famous expression in the West in the sequence Stabat Mater.

What mystics contemplated

The Gospel is silent about Mary's day. Several Catholic mystics contemplated it in their visions: these are private revelations, cited under the names of those who received them.

Anne Catherine Emmerich: hope for the third day

In the visions collected by the poet Clemens Brentano, Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824), beatified by Saint John Paul II on 3 October 2004, sees the Virgin praying during the night with the holy women, beneath a lamp in the Cenacle, then going before dawn to the devastated Temple to venerate the places sanctified by her Son. As she leaves it, she recalls the words "Destroy this Temple, and I will rebuild it in three days":

"She thought that the enemies of Jesus had destroyed the temple of his body, and ardently longed to see the third day dawn, on which the word of eternal truth was to be fulfilled." — Anne Catherine Emmerich, The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, ch. LX, "The Friends of Jesus on Holy Saturday" (trans. Abbé de Cazalès)^[125]

Maria Valtorta: "She who waits"

In The Gospel as Revealed to Me, Maria Valtorta (1897-1961) describes, under the date of 30 March 1945, the Virgin seated in her room, hands on her knees, gaze fixed on the garden, while the holy women come and go around her: "She waits. She is nothing but waiting. She is She who waits." In the evening, left alone, she kneels and repeats: "I must believe. I must believe. For all"^[126]. Mary's faith appears here as an inward struggle, waged "for all".

Luisa Piccarreta: Mary's strength at the sepulchre

The Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta (1865-1947) devotes the last of her Hours of the Passion, from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m., to "the burial of Jesus" and to "the desolation of Mary"^[127]. On 16 April 1927 — it was Holy Saturday, since Easter fell that year on 17 April — she wondered how the Mother had found the strength to leave her Son's body at the tomb. Jesus answers her that the secret of this strength was the Divine Will reigning in Mary, that is, the Will of God living and acting in her to the point of taking the place of her human will:

"My daughter, do you want to know how my Mother found the strength to leave Me? The secret of her strength was in my Will reigning in her. She lived by a Divine Will, not a human one. […] Her beautiful soul followed Me into Limbo to take part in the feast organized for Me by the patriarchs, the prophets, her mother and father, and our dear Saint Joseph. By my Presence, Limbo became a paradise." — Jesus to Luisa Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, vol. 21, 16 April 1927^[128]

The same page concludes that joy sustained Mary in her sorrow, and that her sorrow sustained her in her joy: the Virgin of Holy Saturday is not only the Desolata, she is already the one awaiting victory. On this theme, see The Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will.

The Praises Around the Epitaphios

In the Byzantine rite, the matins of Great and Holy Saturday are sung from Friday evening, after the vespers at the end of which the Epitaphios was carried to the middle of the church^[129], as recalled in the article Good Friday. In the middle of the church lies the Epitaphios, an icon most often embroidered on a large cloth, depicting the dead Christ laid out for burial and used in the offices of Good Friday and Holy Saturday^[130]. The reader reads there the Hexapsalmos, the six psalms at the beginning of matins, "standing before the epitaphios"^[131]. The office opens with the troparion of Joseph of Arimathea:

"The noble Joseph took down from the cross Thy most pure body, wrapped it in a spotless shroud and laid it, covered with spices, in a new tomb." — Matins of Great and Holy Saturday, troparion (translation of the Orthodox parish of Metz)^[132]

Then come the "Praises", or Lamentations: many brief stanzas, sung in three "stances" and interspersed with the verses of Psalm 118^[133][134]. Their opening chant sets the tone of the whole office:

"Thou, O Life, wast laid in the tomb, O Christ, and the angelic powers, struck with amazement, glorified Thy abasement. Thou, O Life, how dost Thou die? How dost Thou dwell in a tomb? Thou destroyest the empire of death and raisest the dead from hell." — Matins of Great and Holy Saturday, first stance (translation of the Orthodox parish of Metz)^[135]

Toward the end of the office, during the great doxology, the Epitaphios is carried in procession, to the mournful sound of the bells, in memory of the cortege that bore the body of Christ to the tomb^[136]. One stanza of the same stance sums up the faith of this day: "Even buried in the tomb, O Saviour, even descended into hell, Thou hast emptied the tombs and laid hell bare"^[137].

Vespers and the Liturgy of Saint Basil

On Great Saturday itself, the Byzantine Churches celebrate vespers joined to the eucharistic liturgy of Saint Basil. This liturgy is celebrated only ten times in the year; on Maundy Thursday and Holy Saturday, it "is grafted onto vespers"^[138]. Its readings and the Byzantine paschal night that follows are presented in the article Easter Vigil. At the great entrance, when the gifts are carried to the altar, the usual hymn of the cherubim is replaced by a chant proper to this day:

"Let all human flesh keep silence, and stand in fear and trembling, and put away every earthly thought, for the King of kings and the Lord of lords advances to be sacrificed and to give Himself as food to the faithful." — Liturgy of Saint Basil, chant of the great entrance of Great Saturday^[139]

A homily from the monastery of Chevetogne, in Belgium, a Benedictine community that celebrates in the Latin and Byzantine rites, comments on its meaning: after these vespers, "this Saturday is no longer quite a Saturday, but it is not yet quite a Sunday"^[140]. The East thus celebrates, from Great Saturday onward, a Eucharist turned toward the Resurrection, while Rome keeps the altar bare until the night.

Two Ways of Keeping Vigil

The two great liturgical traditions of the Church, the Latin and the Byzantine, which several Eastern Catholic Churches also follow, honour the same mystery by different paths. The following table compares their Holy Saturday usages, as described by the sources cited above.

The difference is not an opposition. The West stresses the silence of the tomb; the East, the victory already won in hell. Both meet in the same confession of faith, and the Catechism cites one and the other tradition, the Latin Exsultet and the Byzantine Easter troparion: "Christ is risen from the dead. By His death He has trampled death, and to the dead He has given life"^[141][142]. For an overview of the Eastern rites, see The Eastern Liturgy.

The Bells "Gone to Rome"

In France, the silence of the bells, from Maundy Thursday to the Vigil, gave birth to a tradition well known to children. The Conference of Bishops of France recalls it:

"The bells are condemned to silence for three days as a sign of mourning. To explain the absence of ringing during this period, children were long told that the bells were leaving for Rome. The Pope blessed them before their return. It is only in the night from Saturday to Easter Sunday that they ring out to proclaim the joy of Christ's resurrection." — Conference of Bishops of France, "Why do we speak of the Easter bells?"^[143]

It was also said that they came back laden with sweets, left in gardens on Easter morning. In eastern France, the same page reports, children replaced the bells "gone to Rome" by sounding their rattles in the streets to announce the offices^[144]. On the meaning of bells in the liturgy, see The Symbolism of Bells.

The Blessing of Baskets in Poland

In Poland and in Polish communities throughout the world, Holy Saturday is the day of the święconka, the blessing of Easter foods. A document published by the Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference describes the custom: baskets containing a sample of the foods of the Easter meal are brought to church to be blessed on Holy Saturday; the basket is traditionally lined with a white linen or lace cloth and sprigs of boxwood^[145]. The blessing comprises three prayers, for the bread and cakes, for the meats and for the eggs, then the priest sprinkles the baskets with holy water^[146]. The custom respects the nature of the day: what is blessed is eaten only after the Resurrection.

Festive Customs Restored to Easter Night

Many popular customs were born at the time when the Vigil was celebrated on Saturday morning. The 1988 letter and the 2001 Directory ask that they be "reserved to the night and the day of Easter", for popular piety "must not remain foreign to the particular character of Holy Saturday"^[147][148]. The devotions suited to this day are those of watching: prayer before the image of Christ in the tomb, the company of the Virgin of sorrows, silence.

The Day When God Hides Himself

On 2 May 2010, before the Holy Shroud exposed at Turin, Pope Benedict XVI gave a meditation on this day that has become famous, "suggested", he said, by the subtitle of the solemn exposition: "The Mystery of Holy Saturday"^[149]. In the shroud he sees the "Icon of Holy Saturday", the image of the body of Jesus lying in the tomb during that period "chronologically brief (about a day and a half), but immense, infinite in its value and meaning"^[150].

"After the two world wars, the lagers and the gulags, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, our epoch has become to an ever greater extent a Holy Saturday: the darkness of this day challenges all who question themselves about life, and in a particular way challenges us believers." — Benedict XVI, meditation before the Holy Shroud, Turin, 2 May 2010^[151]

The Pope does not stop at the darkness. Holy Saturday, he says, is a "land that belongs to no one" between death and resurrection, but into this land "has entered the One, the Only One who crossed it with the signs of His Passion for man"^[152]. The dossier on the shroud is presented in the article The Holy Shroud of Turin.

Love Descended into Solitude

The heart of Benedict XVI's meditation bears on the descent into hell, which the Pope rereads as God's answer to mankind's greatest fear, that of remaining alone in death:

"See, this is precisely what happened on the day of Holy Saturday: in the kingdom of death the voice of God resounded. The unthinkable happened: that is, Love penetrated 'into hell' […] The human being lives by the fact that he is loved and that he can love; and if, in the realm of death as well, love has penetrated, then life has arrived there too." — Benedict XVI, meditation before the Holy Shroud, Turin, 2 May 2010^[153]

This reading rejoins the most ancient teaching: death is no longer a place where God is not. Saint Thomas said that Christ descended into hell "in order to preserve us from descending there ourselves"^[154]; the Catechism, that "all who are saved were made partakers of the Redemption"^[155].

Keeping Vigil with Mary

Living Holy Saturday consists first in letting it be what it is: a day of silence and waiting. The Church offers the means: praying the Office of Readings and Lauds, prolonging the Friday fast, receiving the sacrament of penance, one of the only two sacraments celebrated on this day, keeping watch before the image of Christ in the tomb or of Our Lady of Sorrows^{[156][157][158]}. Popular piety adds "the Hour of the Mother": spending this day with Mary, who kept the faith when all seemed lost^[159].

Baptism gives this waiting its personal scope. Saint Paul writes that, "by the baptism which unites us to His death, we were buried with Him in the tomb", so as to lead "a new life" (Rom 6:4); the Catechism sees in baptismal immersion "the Christian's descent into the tomb, dying to sin with Christ with a view to a new life"^[160][161]. Every baptized person thus has his own Holy Saturday, which the Easter night brings to completion.

A Day of Hope

Holy Saturday is not a sorrow without issue. Jesus had announced it: "unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit" (Jn 12:24)^[162]. The closed tomb is the place where life germinates; the stone sealed by the guards will be rolled away at dawn. The Church knows it, and that is why she watches without anguish, like the Virgin. The ancient homily says it in its last words, placed in the mouth of Christ descended toward Adam: "The treasures of happiness are opened and the kingdom of heaven is ready from all eternity"^[163].

• The Easter Triduum — the three holy days, from Maundy Thursday to Easter Sunday, and the history of their restoration.
• Good Friday — the preceding day: the Celebration of the Passion and the Adoration of the Cross.
• The Easter Vigil — the night that brings Holy Saturday to its close.
• Easter — the solemnity of the Resurrection.
• Why does the date of Easter change every year? — the computation that fixes the date of Holy Saturday each year.
• The Resurrection of Jesus — the historical case for the empty tomb.
• The Holy Shroud of Turin — the shroud that Benedict XVI called "the Icon of Holy Saturday".
• The Hours of the Passion — Luisa Piccarreta's clock of the Passion, through the burial and the desolation of Mary.
• The Stabat Mater — the sequence of the Virgin of Sorrows.
• Eastern liturgy — the rites of the Eastern Churches.
• Hans Urs von Balthasar — the "theology of Holy Saturday" and its controversies.
• Christmas, Epiphany, Corpus Christi — other feasts of the liturgical calendar.

Primary sources

• Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 624–641.
• Missale Romanum, 3rd typical edition (2002), "Sabbato sancto"; Roman Missal, French translation (2021).
• Congregation for Divine Worship, circular letter Paschalis sollemnitatis, 16 January 1988, nos. 38–40 and 73–78.
• Congregation for Divine Worship, Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy, 17 December 2001, nos. 145–147 and 188.
• Sacred Congregation of Rites, decrees of 9 February 1951 and 16 November 1955 (Acta Apostolicae Sedis 43 and 47).
• Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, IIIa, qq. 51–52.
• Ancient homily for Great and Holy Saturday, Patrologia Graeca 43, 439–464 (Liturgy of the Hours, AELF translation).
• Benedict XVI, meditation before the Holy Shroud, Turin, 2 May 2010.