A Sunday Known by Many Names

The Second Sunday of the Easter Season is known by many names: the Octave Day of Easter, Low Sunday, Dominica in Albis Depositis, Quasimodo Sunday, Thomas Sunday, and in more recent times as Divine Mercy Sunday. The meaning of each sheds light on important theological and historical dimensions of our Paschal celebration.

The Octave Day of Easter

The Church’s current liturgical calendar has two octave celebrations for the chief mysteries of our salvation, the birth of the Lord at Christmas and His resurrection at Easter. During these octaves there is a pause in “liturgical time” where our celebration of these two feasts is prolonged for eight days. Pius Parsch, in The Church’s Year of Grace: Volume I: Advent to Christmas, explains why:

In the spirit of the Church the great feasts of redemption should not be restricted to a single celebration but should continue on through a full week. Mother Church is a good psychologist; she understands human nature perfectly. When a feast comes, the soul is amazed and not quite prepared to think profoundly upon its mystery; but on the following days the mind finds it easy to consider the mystery from all sides, sympathetically and deeply; and an eighth day affords a wonderful opportunity to make a synthesis of all points covered. (Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1962, 244-245.)

Eastern Christians call the Easter Octave “Bright Week,” considering it to be one continuous day of Paschal celebrations.

The current liturgical calendar of the Roman Church counts the Sunday after Easter as the eighth and final day of the Easter Octave, the Octave Day. The sequence used at mass all week called the Victimae paschali laudes, is used for the last time at the day’s mass.

Low Sunday

Prior to the liturgical reforms of Vatican II, however, the Octave of Easter was technically considered to end with Vespers on Easter Saturday, and as a result, the Sunday after Easter would begin the “ordinary” string of Sundays in the Easter season that do not include the sequence Victimae paschali laudes. For this reason, it is called “Low Sunday.”

“Low” is a comparative term in relation to what is “high.” Easter Sunday was the holiest day of the year. The liturgical differences of “Low Sunday” that closes the Octave are juxtaposed with the “High Sunday” that began it a week prior.

Dominica in Albis Depositis

At the Easter vigil, new members are incorporated into Christ’s Mystical Body of believers through the waters of baptism. These neophytes are given a white robe to wear called an “alb” from the Latin “albus-a” which means “white.” When given the alb as a sign of their baptismal innocence they are told: “you have become a new creation and have clothed yourselves in Christ. Receive this baptismal garment and bring it unstained to the judgment seat of our Lord Jesus Christ, so that you may have everlasting life.”

In ancient times the neophytes would wear their baptismal alb during the whole ensuing week of the Easter Octave. They were guests of honor in the parish. Each morning, they would come to mass in their white albs as a reminder to the rest of the congregation of their own baptism. On Easter Saturday they would come to the church of their baptism dressed in white for the last time and remove their albs. The next day they would attend Sunday mass in their regular clothes and take their place among the ordinary ranks of the faithful for the first time.

Pius Parsch, in The Church’s Year of Grace: Volume III: Easter to Pentecost, comments on this ancient ritual: “The Easter solemnity comes to an end with today’s liturgy. The neophytes therefore lay aside their baptismal robes, fully aware that the shining whiteness of those garments must be retained forever in their hearts.” (Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1962, 49-50, 53.)

For this reason, the Sunday after Easter has been called “Dominica in Albis Depositis, The Sunday of Putting Away the Albs.”

Quasimodo Sunday

Throughout the Easter Octave, the Church as a loving Mother continues to pray for her newborn spiritual children baptized at the Easter vigil. The introit or entrance antiphon of the Octave Day’s mass shows this, and is the source of yet another name this day is known by—“Quasimodo Sunday.” This liturgical text is drawn from 1 Peter 2:2: “Quasi modo geniti infantes, rationabile, sine dolo lac concupscite, ut in eo crescatis in salutem, alleluia, Like newborn infants, you must long for the pure, spiritual milk, that in him you may grow to salvation, alleluia.”

Just as newborn infants long for their mother’s milk, the neophytes born again by baptism are young in the Faith and must seek nourishment from the “milk,” that is, the grace, of Mother Church.

The name “Quasimodo” is familiar to many from Victor Hugo’s famous character, the Hunchback of Notre Dame. In Hugo’s novel, the protagonist was abandoned by his parents because of his deformities and left on the foundling bed at Paris’ cathedral where unwanted children were left to public charity. The archdeacon found the child on “Quasimodo Sunday” and named him for the first word of the mass’ introit by which the day is known. It is the pious custom of Christian parents to name their children after the liturgical feast of their birth.

Thomas Sunday

On the Sunday after Easter, Christ appeared to the Apostles in the same Upper Room as He did one week prior on the day of His resurrection. Unlike the last time, “doubting Thomas” is now present. The gospel reading of the day’s mass recounts what took place. In dramatic fashion Saint Thomas is permitted to touch the wounds of Christ, and with his newfound belief in the resurrection he proclaims, “My Lord and my God!” (Jn 20:28). The Lord then instructs all on the importance of believing without seeing: “Jesus said to him, ‘Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.’” (Jn 20:29).

The Sunday after Easter is called “Thomas Sunday” for this reason, especially among Eastern Christians.

This story is the source of a pious custom. During the Mass, when the priest elevates the sacred host and chalice, many of the faithful are in the habit of making Thomas’ profession of faith their own by saying under their breath, “My Lord and my God!” This is a sign that they have no doubts that Christ rose from the dead and now gives Himself to them in the Holy Eucharist.

Divine Mercy Sunday

In the present age, the Second Sunday of Easter is known most popularly as Divine Mercy Sunday. Through the polish nun, Saint Faustina Kowalska, the Lord made known His desire that a feast be dedicated to the Divine Mercy on the Sunday after Easter. At the canonization of Faustina on April 30, 2000, Pope Saint John Paul II instituted this feast for the whole Church.

Five years earlier, John Paul II had this to say in his April 23, 1995 Regina Caeli address about this day:

The whole octave of Easter is like a single day…This Sunday is, in a particular way, a day of thanksgiving for the goodness that God shows to man throughout the paschal mystery. That is why it is often called Divine Mercy Sunday. In its essence, God’s mercy, as it helps us to better understand the mystical experience of Blessed Faustina Kowalska, raised to the honor of the altars two years ago, reveals precisely this truth: good conquers evil, life is stronger than death, and God’s love is more powerful than sin. All this is manifested in Christ’s paschal mystery. Here God shows himself as he is: a Father of infinite tenderness, who does not give up in the face of the ingratitude of his children, and who is always ready to forgive.

This day was already properly suited to the request the Lord made through Faustina because the gospel reading of the day’s Mass recounts the institution of the sacrament of confession, which is the tribunal of Divine Mercy. The risen Christ said to His Apostles, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” (Jn 20:22-23).

Through these divine words Christ’s power is given to priests of the Church to absolve penitents of their sins. How grateful to God we should be for the grace of this sacrament! Though our souls can become like scarlet by sin, through absolution they become white as snow. (Isa 1:18). This is the gift of Divine Mercy.

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The Second Sunday of Easter brings the celebration of the octave to a close, but the Easter Season continues until Pentecost. Our celebration of the Lord’s resurrection draws to a close at Pentecost liturgically speaking, because it never really ceases in the hearts of faithful Christians. It is the joyful hope that sustains us always.