134 ANDREW J. SHIPMAN MEMORIAL 



Style, and so on throughout the year. Easter is quite difficult 

 to reconcile with the same feast in the Roman Rite. This year 

 (191 5) it fell upon the same date, and both the Roman and 

 Greek celebrations coincided. Next year it will be a week 

 later, and some years the feast in the different rites can be 

 as much as a month apart. Being reckoned from the first full 

 moon of spring, the difference of thirteen days in reckoning 

 when March 21st comes, throws the two rites far apart. 



The Greek year is reckoned quite differently in its starting 

 point. For immovable feasts the Greeks count by the old 

 Roman year, starting at September i. For movable feasts, 

 they start with Easter. The Roman Church, on the contrary, 

 starts with Advent, about December i, and makes everything 

 else come into line. Many saint's days come on different dates 

 in the Greek calendar (leaving out the fact of being thirteen 

 days behind). Thus the Immaculate Conception falls in the 

 Greek calendar on December 9th, and not December 8th. All 

 Saints is celebrated on what we call Trinity Sunday; while 

 the celebration in honor of the Trinity comes on Monday after 

 Pentecost. There is no All Souls' day in the Greek Rite ; they 

 have four Saturdays in the year in which they offer Mass for 

 the dead. It would take too long to detail all the differences 

 in the calendar alone. 



Other Eastern Rites 



Besides the Greek Catholics, there are other Eastern Rites, 

 united with the Holy See, here in the United States. They 

 are not as numerous as the Greeks, who all together make over 

 8oo,o(X) persons who are united with the Holy See, to say 

 nothing of half as many more who belong to the so-called 

 Orthodox or schismatic Church. 



Among these others are the Maronites, who use the ancient 

 Syriac in the Mass, and who are proud to boast that they still 

 use the very language which Our Lord spoke whilst He was 

 on earth. They are Syrians, mainly from Mount Lebanon, 

 who have retained their Mass and liturgy. They speak Arabic 

 as their ordinary tongue, but use the Syriac upon the altar; 

 but they are all Catholics. 



Then, too, there are the Armenians, who use the ancient 



