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In the Ad regias Agni dapes, there is reference to the ancient custom of administering to catechumens the sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion. Originally there was no Mass on Holy Saturday proper. The long but beautiful ceremonies began Saturday evening and lasted throughout the night. The Litany and Mass were sung towards the morning. During Mass the neophytes, vested in beautiful white robes (stolæ albæ), were admitted for the first time to the “banquet of the Lamb,” i.e., to the Eucharistic table. The white garments were worn during the week following Easter, and on Low Sunday the newly baptized appeared for the first time without their white robes. It is for this reason that Low Sunday is known in the language of the Church as Dominica in Albis (depositis), i.e., the Sunday on which the newly baptized appeared after laying aside their white baptismal robes.
Read the articles on Catechumen, Holy Saturday, Baptism (esp. part XV), Red Sea (esp. the last paragraph), in the Cath. Encycl.
Come to the regal feast displayed, In robes of purest white arrayed, The Red Sea’s threatening perils past, And sing to Christ secure at last. |