Sabbath Historical Highlights

Wherefore, except Vespers and Nocturns, there are no public services among them in the day except on Saturday and Sunday, when they meet together at the third hour (or the purpose of Holy Communion. (John Cassian, Instituttes Book 3, Ch. 2.)

- Ioannis Cassiani eremitae De institutis renuntiantium libri 12, 1580

The joining together and concourse of these two days is excellent amongst christians, of the sabbath, I mean, and the Lord’s day, which in a circle returning time brings about every week, for as mothers and nurses of then church they both assemble the people, and cause the priests to sit down together to teach them, and so both lead and impel, as well the disciples as their teachers, to then care of souls ...

- S. Asterii Episcopi Amaseae Homiliae Graecè & Latinè Nunc Primùm Editae, 1615

The Celts held their own councils and enacted their own laws, independent of Rome. The Celts used a Latin Bible unlike the Vulgate, and kept Saturday as a day of rest, with special religious services on Sunday.

There are many among us now, who fast on the same day as the Jews, and keep the sabbaths in the same manner;

It is a fact that it was formerly the custom in the East to keep the Sabbath in the same manner as the Lord's day, and to hold sacred assemblies: wherefore Asterius calls Sabbath and Sunday a beautiful span, and Gregory of Nyssa calls these days brethren, and therefore censures the luxury and the Sabbatarian pleasures; while on the other hand, the people of the West, contending for the Lord's day, have neglected the celebration of the Sabbath, as being peculiar to the Jews.

So also Tertullian in his apology: 'We are only next to those who set apart the day of Saturn for rest and luxury.' It is therefore possible for the Goths to have thought, as the foster-sons of the discipline of the Greeks, that they would keep the Sabbath after the manner of the Greeks." "I would also not refrain from telling about that Sabbatarian luxury, for how is it possible to conceal that in public characters?

“On ordinary days, his table resembles that of a private person…. What need for me to describe the pomp of the Sabbath?”

- (Sidonius Appollinarius Book 1, Letter 2, Section 6.), Caii Sollii Apollinaris Sidonii Aruernorum. Episcopi Opera. Io. Sauaro Claromontensis, 1599

 For although almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries on the sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, have ceased to do this.

- Socrates Scholasticus Historia Ecclesiastica Graece et Latine, Book 5, Chapter 22

The people of Constantinople, and of several other cities, assemble together on the Sabbath, as well as on the next day; which custom is never observed at Rome, or at Alexandria. There are several cities and villages in Egypt where, contrary to the usages established elsewhere, the people meet together on Sabbath evenings; and although they have dined previously, partake of the mysteries.