The Feast of the Ascension of the Lord, forty days after His Resurrection, was once graced with its own Octave. In 1955 Pius XII suppressed all but the Octaves of Christmas, Easter and Pentecost. These three remain now in the Roman Church’s Vetus Ordo. However, the Octave of Ascension dated back only to the 15th century, relatively late compared to many aspects of the Roman Rite. Earlier…
