Maundy or Green or Sheer Thursday Before Easter.

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Maundy Thursday has been the traditional
English name for the Thursday preceding
Easter, derived from the first antiphon of
the ceremony of the washing of the feet,
‘manadatum novum’ (Jn. 13. 34). Its special
celebration in the commemoration of our Lord’s
Institution of the Eucharist on that day is attested
already for the 4th cent. by the Council of Hippo
(393). Two other traditional liturgical features are
The Blessing of the Holy Oils and the Reconcilia-
tion of Penitents, though the latter has long been
obsolete. Two or even three Masses were celeb-

rated on the day (of Maundy Thursday) in the

early centuries (of The Church), but the

Gregorian Sacramentary and the oldest

Ordines Romani allow only one.
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In the Western Church peculiarities of the
Maundy Thursday Mass are the solemn ringing,
at the ‘Gloria in excelsis’ of all the bells, hence-
forward silent until the Easter Vigil; the con-

secration of a second Host for the Mass of the
Presanctified on Good Friday, which is carried
in procession to the Altar of Repose after the
Mass; the omission of the Kiss of Peace in
commemoration of the kiss of Judas; and
the general communion of clergy.
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In cathedral churches the Holy Oils are
blessed during the Mass. After Vespers the
Altars are stripped and the holy water stoups
emptied. In some churches the altars are then
ceremonially washed. The Maundy Thursday
ceremonies conclude with the Pedilavium
(or washing of the feet), which is performed
by bishops in their cathedrals, by abbots in
their monasteries, and formerly also by cer-

tain sovereigns, of which the ‘Maundy
Ceremony’ at Westminster Abbey
is an abbreviated survival.
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:: GREEN THURSDAY ::
[Lat. dies viridium; Germ.
Grundonnerstag].
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The usual name in Germany, also occasionally
found elsewhere, for Maundy Thursday. Its
origin is perhaps connected with the custom of
providing penitents, who made their confession
on Ash Wednesday, with green branches on that
day as tokens that their penance was completed
and that they were thereby received back into
full ecclesiastical communion.
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:: SHEER THURSDAY ::

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An old name for Maundy Thursday,
perhaps from ‘skere’ or ‘sheer’ (= ‘clean,’
‘free from guilt’), with reference to the
practice of receiving absolution or (alter-
natively) of ceremonially washing the
altars of the church on that day.
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:: Source ::
The Oxford Dictionary Of The Christian Church
Maundy, pp. 876 + 877. Green, p. 582. Sheer, p. 1250
By Dr. F. L. Cross,

Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity and

Oxford Anglican Canon of Christ Church.
Oxford University Press, 1961.
Blog Edited by Uncle Monty
+Eve of Maundy Thursday, 2oo8.