02/15/2026
QUINQUAGESIMA: THE 40 BEFORE THE 40
For the modern world, the days leading up to Lent are often defined by the noise and excess of "Carnival" or "Mardi Gras." However, for Traditional Catholics, there exists a profound and quiet counter-balance to this revelry: the Forty Hours’ Devotion of Eucharistic adoration.
The first recorded instances occurred in Milan around 1527, organized by Giovanni Antonio Bellotti as a plea for divine protection during the Sack of Rome and the threat of Turkish invasions. It was later formalized and popularized by St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria and the Capuchin friar Giuseppe da Ferno, who instituted a "station" format, where adoration moved from one church to the next so that prayer remained perpetual across the city.
The tradition of holding the Forty Hours during Shrovetide was formally solidified by Pope Benedict XIV in 1748. His intent was to make reparation for the excesses, sins, and scandals often associated with the pre-Lenten Carnivale festivities.
In the mid-1800s, St. John Neumann, the Bishop of Philadelphia, wanted to start the 40 Hours but feared anti-Catholic riots might lead to the desecration of the Eucharist. While working late one night, Neumann fell asleep at his desk. His candle burned down, setting his papers on fire. He woke up to find the papers charred but still readable. He took this as a divine sign: just as the fire had not destroyed his work, the "fire" of public hostility would not destroy the devotion. He launched it immediately, and the feared riots never touched the churches during the observance.
The Forty Hours Devotion has spread throughout the whole world, becoming one of the most solemn expressions of Catholic piety. Let us, then, who have the opportunity, profit by it during these last three days of our preparation for Lent. Let us, like Abraham, retire from the distracting dangers of the world, and seek the Lord our God.
The Forty Hours is obviously signified as a reference to the 40 days of Lent and the approximate forty hours that Christ rested in the tomb between His burial and Resurrection.
In a culture that moves rapidly from one distraction to the next, the Forty Hours’ Devotion invites a necessary stillness. It reminds us that before we can effectively "die to self" during Lent, we must first "live for Him" in adoration. For the Traditional Catholic, the road to the desert of Lent is paved with the golden light of the Monstrance, ensuring that the fast is not merely an exercise in willpower, but a response to a period of deep, Eucharistic love.
For most of us, our state of life, duties or stamina prevent us from finding and observing one of these Forty Hour observances. But the church recommends that, for at least one short hour during this period of “Carnivale,” we retire from the dissipation of earthly enjoyments, and spend some special time in the presence of our Jesus, that we may merit the grace to keep our hearts innocent and detached, while sharing in those traditional pre-Lenten festivities we cannot avoid.
--The FSSP Liturgical Year Project (with help from Gemini)
Art credit: Pieter Bruegel, The Fight Between Carnival and Lent, 1559
