CatholicSaints.Info

Also known as

• Our Lady of the Candles
• Presentation of the Infant Jesus in the Temple
• Presentation of the Lord
• Purification of the Blessed Virgin
• Candelas (Spanish)
• Candelora (Italian)
• Chandeleur (French)
• Hromnice (Feast of Candles among the Slovaks and Czechs)
• Lichtmess (German)
• Stretenije Gospoda (Meeting of the Lord by the Slavs of the Eastern Rite)
• Svijetlo Marijino (Light Feast of Mary in Yugoslavia)

Memorial

• 2 February

About the Feast

The feast commemorates the purifying of the Blessed Virgin according to the Mosaic Law, 40 days after the birth of Christ, and the presentation of the Infant Jesus in the Temple. The feast was introduced into the Eastern Empire by Emperor Justinian I, and is mentioned in the Western Church in the Gelasian Sacramentary of the 7th century. Candles are blessed on that day in commemoration of the words of Holy Simeon concerning Christ “a light to the revelation of the Gentiles” (Luke 2), and a procession with lighted candles is held in the church to represent the entry of Christ, the Light of the World, into the Temple of Jerusalem. “Candlemas” is still the name in Scotland for a legal term-day on which interest and rents are payable (2 February).

Patronage

• candle makers
• wax refiners
•  
• Naxos–Andros–Tinos–Mykonos, Greece, archdiocese of
• in the Philippines
  • Jaro
  • Western Visayas

MLA Citation

• “Candlemas“. CatholicSaints.Info. 20 October 2023. Web. 20 May 2024. <>