Rogation Days

Rogation Days, the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before Ascension-day, so called because on these days the Litany (q.v.) is appointed to be sung or recited by the clergy and people in public procession. The practice of public supplications on occasion of public danger or calamity is traceable very early in Christian use; but the fixing of the days before Ascension for the purpose is ascribed to Mamertus, Bishop of Vienne, in the middle of the 5th century. In England the usage dates from perhaps the 7th century; after the Reformation the recitation of the Litany upon these days was discontinued; but a memorial of the old processions long survived in the so-called Perambulation of Parishes (see BOUNDS, BEATING OF THE).