Terminology Tuesday: PROTOPASCHITES

PROTOPASCHITES. Numerous methods for observing Easter and calculating the date on which it had to be celebrated were already known in ancient Christianity; nonetheless, the Council of Nicaea imposed the Alexandrian calculation on all the churches of the empire: this date was similar to the practice in Rome. As part of this calculation, authorities kept in mind the spring equinox; therefore, permission to celebrate Easter before this time was not granted. Some Christians in Syria, however, whose method of calculating Easter did not take into account the equinox, were not aware of this rule. For this reason, their Easter was occasionally celebrated on a different date from that of Alexandria and Rome: this question was resolved in a condemnation in 387. These Antiochene Christians, who were condemned by Athanasius (Chronicon Paschale: PG 92, 76CD; Pasch. Ep. 39) and John Chrysostom (Adv. Jud. 3,3), became known as Protopaschites.

V. Grumel, Traité d’études byzantines, I, La Chronologie, Paris 1958, 42; R. Cantalamessa, La Pasqua della nostra salvezza, Casale Monf. 1984 (repr.), 134.; P. L’Huillier, The Church of the Ancient Councils. The Disciplinary Work of the First Four Ecumenical Councils, Crestwood, NY 1996, 19–26; K. Gerlach, The Antenicene Pascha. A Rhetorical History, Leuven 1998, 257–317.

Stewart-Sykes, A. (2014). Protopaschites. In A. Di Berardino & J. Hoover (Eds.), J. T. Papa, E. A. Koenke, & E. E. Hewett (Trans.), Encyclopedia of Ancient Christianity (Vol. 3, p. 338). Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic; InterVarsity Press.