Page "Visitation (Christianity)" Paragraph 6

This feast is of medieval origin.

It was kept by the Franciscan Order before 1263 when Saint Bonaventure recommended it and the Franciscan chapter adopted it.

The Franciscan Breviary spread it to many churches.

In 1389 Pope Urban VI, hoping thereby to obtain an end to the Great Western Schism, inserted it in the Roman Calendar, for celebration on 2 July.

In the Tridentine Calendar, it was a Double.

When that Missal of Pope Pius V was replaced by that of Pope Clement VIII in 1604, the Visitation became a Double of the Second Class.

It remained so until Pope John XXIII reclassified it as a Second-Class Feast in 1962.

It continued to be assigned to 2 July, the day after the end of the octave following the feast of the birth of John the Baptist, who was still in his mother's womb at the time of the Visitation.

In 1969, however, Pope Paul VI moved it to 31 May, " between the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord ( 25 March ) and that of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist ( 24 June ), so that it would harmonize better with the Gospel story.