In the mid-2nd century, the Christian community was divided by a passionate debate: when should Easter be celebrated? A group in Asia Minor, known as the (from the Latin for "fourteenth"), insisted on celebrating the "Pascha" on the 14th day of the Jewish month of Nisan, regardless of which day of the week it fell. They believed this practice came directly from the Apostle John. To them, Easter was not just a Sunday morning celebration but a singular, intense liturgy of the passion, death, and resurrection combined. The Lost Voice: Melito of Sardis
The story of the most ancient Easter texts of the Church is a journey through the "Quartodeciman" tradition of the 2nd century, centered on the powerful poetic voice of and the mysterious Anonymous Quartodeciman . The Mystery of the Quartodecimans I piГ№ antichi testi pasquali della Chiesa. Le o...
Melito , the Bishop of Sardis (modern-day Turkey), was a "great luminare" of this era. For centuries, his works were thought to be lost, preserved only in brief fragments by historians like Eusebius. That changed in 1940 with the discovery of a Greek papyrus containing his complete homily, ("On the Pascha"). In the mid-2nd century, the Christian community was