MAUNDY THURSDAY

The Thursday before Easter, being the day on which our Lord instituted the holy sacrament of his body and blood. The name of Maundy, Maunday, or Mandate, ( Dies Mandati ,) is said to have allusion to the mandate or new commandment which, on this day, Christ gave to his disciples, that they should love one another, as he had loved them. It has also been supposed by others, that the name arose from the maunds , or baskets of gifts, which, at this time, it was an ancient custom for Christians to present one to another, in token of that mutual affection which our Lord so tenderly urged, at this period of his sufferings, and as a remembrancer of that “inestimable gift” of Christ , to be our spiritual food in the sacrament of his body and blood. Says a writer of the age of Wickliff, “ Christ made his maundy and said, Take, eat,” . On this day it was customary for bishops, sovereigns, and nobles, to wash the feet of the poor, a ceremony still observed in many places abroad. In the Hierurgice Anglicana (p. 282, 283) is given an account of the ceremonial observed by Queen Elizabeth. King James II. is said to have been the last of our sovereigns who performed it. It is still the custom on Maundy Thursday for the Lord Almoner to distribute certain royal donations to the poor in the Royal Chapel at White hall. This service consists of appropriate psalms, le ons, anthems, and special prayers. It is performed with great solemnity. For the full particulars see Stephens’s edition of the Common Prayer Book.