CIRCUMCISION
70
CIRCUMCISION
anything else characterized it (see Gal., ii, 7, 8). Yet
St. Paul, while showing his freedom from the legalil iea
of the Old Dispensation by not circumcising Titus (< ial.,
ii. 3), wished to bury the synagogue with honour by
ing Timothy to the law of circumcision (Acts,
wi, 3). Even though Christ Himself , as a true son of
Abraham, submitted to the law, His followers were to
be children of Abraham by faith, and were to "adore
the Father in spirit andin truth" (John. iv,23). The
Council of Jerusalem decided against the necessity of
the rite, and St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Calatians,
condemns the teachers that wished to make the Church
of Christ only a continuation of the synagogue: "Be-
hold, 1 Paul tell you, that if you be circumcised, Chris!
shall profit you nothing" (v, 2). Here he refers to the
supposed efficacy and necessity of circumcision, rather
than to the mere ceremony; for he did not consider it
wrong to circumcise Timothy. It was wrong, how-
ever, i,,r the Galatians, having been baptized, and
having taken upon themselves the obligations of the
law of Christ with all its privileges, to be circumcised
as a necessary means of salvation, since, by going for
salvation from the Church to the Synagogue, they vir-
tually denied the sufficiency of the merits of Chris!
(cf. Piconio, " Trip. Exp. in Gal.," v, 2). The Apostle
rives the essence of Christianity when he says: "In
Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing,
nor uueircumeision: but faith that worketh by char-
ity" (Gal., v, 6). In his Epistle to the Romans, iv, he
shows that Abraham was justified by faith, before cir-
cumciflion was given as a sign of the covenant; so that
the uneircumcision of the New Law is the continuation
of the first ages of faith upon the earth. The gentile
church of uneircumcision, according to St. Gregory
the Great, is composed of men from the time of Abel
the Just to the end of ages (Horn, xix in Evan.). St.
Justin also says that as Henoch and the just of old re-
ceived the spiritual circumcision, so do we receive it
in t he Sacrament of Baptism (Dial. cumTryph., n. xliii).
St. Thomas holds that circumcision was a figure of
baptism: this retrenches and restrains the animal
man as that removed a part of his body — which phys-
ical act indicated the spiritual effect of the sacrament
il)e Sac, Summa, III, Q. lxx, a. 1). He gh' <>s three
- why the organ of generation rather than any
other was to be circumcised: (a) Abraham was to be
blessed in his seed; (b) The rite was to take away original
sin, which comes by generation; (c) It was to restrain
concupiscence, which is found especially in the genera-
tive organs(III,Q. lxx, a. 3). According to his teaching.
as baptism remits original sin and actual sins com-
mitted before its reception, so circumcision remitted
both, but ex opere operantis, i. e. by the faith of the re
cipient, or, in tin' case of infants, by the faith of the
parents. Infants that died before being circumcised
could be saved, as were those who lived prior to the in-
stitution of circumcision, and as females were even
after its institution, by some sign — the parents' prayer,
for instance — expressive of faith. Adults did not re-
ceive the remission of all the temporal punishment due
to sin as in baptism: — "Adulti, quando circumcide-
bantur, consequebantur remissionem, non solum orig-
inalis peccati, Bed etiano actualium peccatorum; non
tamen its quod liberarentur ab omm reatu poena;, si-
cut in baptismo, in quo confertur copiosior gratia"
(III, Q. lxx. a. 4 i. The main points of the teaching
Angelic Doctor were commonly held in the
Church, even before the days of St. Augustine, who
with other Fathers maintained that circumcision was
not a mere ceremony, but a sacramental rite. (Cf. De
Civ. Dei. xvi, 27.)
Authorities, Patristic and Scholastic, may be found in De AcccflTlNls. lie Re Snrram., I. par. i, art. ii, tti iii. Asher. The Jewish Rite of Circumcision (London, 1873); Schechter, Studies in Judaism (1896), 288, 89, 343, Kf- uondino. History of Circumcision (Phila. and London. 1891); Andree, Ethnographische Parallelen und Vergleiche I l 1889), Beschneidung, pp. 166-213: Barney, Circumcision and Flagellation among the Filipinos (Carlisle, Pa., 1903); I
Circumcision in New York Medical Jour. (Feb. 13, 1886);
- \../iiptenunddie Bucher Moses (Leipzig, 186S); Maca-
lester in Hustings, Diet, of the Bible, s. v.
John J. Tierney.
Circumcision, Feast op the. — As Christ wished to fulfil the law and to show His descent according to the flesh from Abraham, lie, though not bound by the law, was circumcised on the eighth day (Luke, ii, 21), and received the sublime name expressive of His office, Jesus, i. e. Saviour. He was, as St. Paul says, "made under the law", i. e. He submitted to the Mosaic Dispensation, "that he might redeem them who were under the law: that we might receive the adoption of sons" (Gal., iv, 4, 5). "The Christ, in order to fulfil all justice, was required to endure this humiliation, and bear in His body the stigma of the sins which He had taken upon Himself" (Fouard, A Life of Jesus, tr., I, 54). The circumcision took.place, not in the Temple, though painters sometimes so represent it, but in some private house, where the Holy Family had found a rather late hospitality. The public ceremony in the synagogue, which is now the usage, w-as introduced later. Christmas was cel- brated on 25 December, even in the early centuries, at least by the Western Church, whence the date was soon adopted in the East also. (See Christmas.) Saint Chrysostom credits the West with the tradition, and St. Augustine speaks of it as well and long estab- lished. Consequently the Circumcision fell on the first of January. In the ages of paganism, however, the solemnization of the feast was almost impossible, on account of the orgies connected with the Saturna- lia!! festivities, which were celebrated at the same time. Even in our own day the secular features of i h. opening of the New Year interfere with the relig- ious observance of the Circumcision, and tend to make a mere holiday of that which should have the sacred character of a Holy Day. St. Augustine points out the difference between the pagan and the Christian manner of celebrating the day: pagan feast- ing and excesses were to be expiated by Christian fasting and prayer (P. L., XXXVIII, 1021 sqq.; Serm. exevii, exeviii). The Feast of the Circumcision was kept at an early date in the (lallican Rite, as is clearly indicated in a Council of Tours (567), in which the Mass of the Circumcision is prescribed (Con.Tur.. II., can. xvii in Labbe, V, 857). The feast celebrated at Home in the seventh century was not the Circum- cision as such, but the octave of Christmas. The hi Sacramentary gives the title "In Octabas
Domini", and prohibits the faithful from idolatry 1
the profanities of the season (P. L., l.XXIV, 1061). The earliest Byzantine calendars (eighth and ninth centuries) give for the first of January both the Cir- cumcision and the anniversary of St. Basil. The Feast of the Circumcision was observed in Spain before tin- death of St. Isidore (636), for the " llegula Monacho- 111111', X, reads: "For it hath pleased the Fathers to appoint a holy season from the day of the Lord's birth to the day of His Circumcision" (P. L.,
I, XXXIII. SSO). It seems, therefore, that th •-
tave was more prominent in the early centuries, and the Circumcision later.
It is to be noted also thai the Blessed Virgin Mary was not forgotten in the festivities of the holy season, and the Mass in her honour was sometimes said on this day. To-day, also, while in both Missal and Breviary the feast b.ars the title - In Circumcisione Domini et Octava' Nativitatis", the prayers have special refer- ence to the Blessed Virgin, and in the Office, the re- sponses and antiphons set forth her privileges and extol her wonderful prerogatives. The psalms for Vespers are those appointed for her feasts, and the antiphons and hymn of Lauds keep her constantly in view. As paganism passed away the religious festivi- ties of the Circumcision became more conspicuous and solemn; yet, even in the tenth century, Atto,
