Chapter CXXXIII: Section V: Sunday Names

Sabbath (rest), in Hebrew, distinguished the seventh day, set apart from the service of the world in memory, first, of the cessation of the work of creation, and next, of the repose of the Israelites after their labours in Egypt.

While the Sabbath was still the sacred day, it does not appear to have suggested any historical name, except that of the father of Joses Barsabas, whose father must have been Sabas. In 532, however, was born in Cappadocia, Sabas, who became one of the most distinguished patriarchs of the monks in Palestine; and in 372, one of the first converts to Christianity among the Goths, then stationed in Wallachia, who had taken the name of Sabas, was martyred by being thrown into the river Musæus, now Mussovi. The locality attached the Slavonians to his name, and Sava is still common among them, as is Ssava in Russia.

Whether Sabea or Sabra, the king of Egypt’s daughter, whom St. George saved from the dragon, was named with any view to St. Sabas, cannot be guessed. I have seen the name in an old English register, no doubt in honour of the exploit of our patron saint.

The day of rest gave place to the day of Resurrection, the Lord’s day, as we still emphatically call it, after the example of the Apostles.

St. John called it Κυριακή ἡμέρα (the Lord’s day), and in this he has been followed by the entire Greek Church, with whom Sundays are still Kyriakoi.

It seems to have been the translators of the Septuagint that first gave its highest sense to Κύριος (Kyrios), a lord or master, from the verb κυρέω (kyreo), to find, obtain, or possess.

St. Kyriakos, or, as Rome spelt him, Cyriacus, was martyred under Diocletian, had his relics dug up afterwards, and his arm given to the abbey of Altdorff, in Alsace. From him came the Roman Ciriaco and the French Cyriac, all of which may mean either “the Lord’s,” or “the Sunday child.”

At the same time a little Kyriakos of Iconium, a child of three years old, fell, with his mother, Julitta, into the hands of the persecutors of Seleucia. The prefect tried to save the child, but he answered all the promises and threats alike with “I am a Christian,” till, in a rage, the magistrate dashed his head on the steps of the tribunal, and his mother, in her tortures, thanked Heaven for her child’s glorious martyrdom. Their touching story made a deep impression, perhaps the more from the wide dispersion of their supposed relics, which were said to have been brought from Antioch by St. Amator, to Auxerre, about the year 400, and thence were dispersed through many French towns, and villages, in which he was called St. Quiric or St. Cyr.

The ancient British Church became acquainted with the mother and child through the Gallic. Welsh hagiology owns them as “Gwyl Gwric ac Elidan;” and Cwrig has been continued as a name in Wales, whilst, on the other hand, the child is equally honoured in his native East—by Russia, Armenia, Abyssinia, and even the Nestorian Christians. He is probably the source of the Illyrian names Cirjar and Cirko.

┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ English. │ French. │ Portuguese. │ Spanish. │
│Cyril │Cyrille │Cyrillo │Cirilo │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ Italian. │ German. │ Russian. │ Illyrian. │
│Cirillo │Cyrill │Keereel │Cirilo │
│ │ │ │Ciril │
│ │ │ │Ciro │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘

Kyrillos (Κύριλλος) fell to the lot of two great doctors of the Church—patriarchs, the one of Alexandria, the other of Jerusalem; also to two martyrs, one a young boy, and thus it became widely known. The Welsh had it as Girioel, which really is nearer the pronunciation than our own Cyril, with a soft _C_. It is a name known everywhere, but more in favour in the East than the West, and of honourable memory to us for the sake of Kyrillos Lucar, the Byzantine patriarch, the correspondent of Laud, and afterwards a martyr. Latterly fashion has somewhat revived it in England; and the feminine, Cyrilla, is known in Germany.

Probably, however, this is only the diminutive of kyrios (a master), and did not begin with a religious import.

The Latin equivalent for the Greek, Kyriake, was Dies Emera Dominica. The immediate derivation of this word is in some doubt. It certainly is from Dominus; but there is some question whether this word be from _domo_ (to rule), a congener of the Greek δαμάω, and of our own _tame_; or if it be from _domus_ (a house), a word apparently direct from the Greek δόμος, from δέμω (to build); another branch from that same root, meaning to rule or govern.

Dominicus, the adjective formed from this word, is found in the French term for the Lord’s prayer, _l'Oraison Dominicale_, and it likewise named the Lord’s Day, Dies Dominica; Domenica, in Italy; Domingo, in Spain; Dimanche, in France. The first saint, who was probably so called from being born on a Sunday, was San Dominico of the Cuirass, a recluse of the Italian Alps, whose mortification consisted in wearing an iron cuirass, which he never took off except to scourge himself. He died in 1024; and a still sterner disciplinarian afterwards bore the same name, that Dominico whom the pope beheld in a vision upbearing the Church as a pillar, and who did his utmost to extirpate the Albigenses; whose name is connected with the foundation of the Inquisition, and whose brotherhood spread wherever Rome’s dominion was owned. He is saint for namesakes out of Romanist lands, but in these it occurs, and has an Italian feminine, Domenica; for short, Menica. Perhaps this likewise accounts for the Spanish Mendez and Mencia. This last may, however, be from Monica, the mother of St. Augustine, whose name has never been accounted for. It may be from some unknown language; but is sometimes supposed to be from _moneo_, to advise. Monique is rather a favourite with French peasants, and Moncha was Irish, but it has not been as common as it deserves.

┌───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ Irish. │ French. │ Italian. │ Spanish. │
│Domnech │Dominique │Domenico │Domingo │
│Dominic │ │Domenichino │Mendez │
│ │ │Menico │ │
├───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│ Portuguese. │ Slavonic. │ Hungarian. │ Servian. │
│Domingos │Dominik │Domokos │Dominic │
│ │Domogoj │ │Menz │
│ │Dinko │ │Menzel │
│ │Dunko │ │ │
└───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┘

The Slavonians have, however, a name for their Sunday in their own tongue—Nedele; and have formed from it the Nedelco of the Bulgarians; the Nedeljko, Nedan, Nedo, and the feminine, Nedelijka and Neda, of the Illyrians.

I am aware of no other names from the days of the week, except the ‘Thursday October Christian’ of Pitcairn’s Island, who was probably so called in recollection of the Man Friday.

All Saints' Day has furnished Spain with Santos; and France, or rather San Domingo, with Toussaint, unless this last be a corruption, or, perhaps, a pious adaptation, of Thorstein—Thor’s stone, turned into All Saints.[93]

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Footnote 93:

Grimm; _Church Festivals and Household Words_; Butler; Rees, _Welsh
Saints_; Facciolati; Michaelis.