“In Nativitate Domini”. Zephyrinus’s Midnight Mass For Christmas. “Ad Primum Missam In Nocte”. The First Mass Of Christmas.

Illustration: ZEPHYRINUS

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The Tradition of a Midnight Vigil on the Eve of Christmas began in The East, and was observed in the Late-4th-Century A.D. in Jerusalem. The Tradition reached The West in 430 A.D. under Pope Sixtus III in the Basilica of Saint Mary Major.[1]

By the 12th-Century, the practice of Midnight Mass had become more widespread, as all Priests had been granted the faculty of Celebrating three Masses on Christmas Day (previously reserved to the Pope), provided the three different Propers were Celebrated at their appropriate times of Midnight, Dawn and Day.[1]