Library Chronography of 354 Philocalian Calendar (Selections)
Depositio Martyrum (Nativity Entry)
Source Latin: Chronography of 354, Part 12 (Mommsen, MGH Chronica Minora I, 1892). English: study rendering. Digital Latin via Roger Pearse / tertullian.org.
Opening of the Depositio Martyrum (Chronography of 354, Part 12). This is the earliest known reference to an annual feast of Christ’s birth on 25 December—the same civil calendar day marked Natalis Invicti in Part 6.
VIII kal. Ian. — natus Christus in Betleem Iudeae.
English: On the eighth day before the Kalends of January [25 December], Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea.
Selected later commemorations in the same list (for context of the Roman church calendar that opens with the Nativity):
XIII kal. Feb. — Fabian in [the cemetery of] Callistus; and Sebastian at the Catacombs.
XII kal. Feb. — Agnes on the Via Nomentana.
VIII kal. Martias — Natale of Peter’s Chair.
Non. Martias — Perpetua and Felicity, of Africa.
IIII idus Aug. — Laurence on the Via Tiburtina.
Latin text after Theodor Mommsen’s editions of the Chronography of 354 (calendar and Depositio Martyrum). Digital Latin via Roger Pearse, tertullian.org. English glosses: study rendering for BWAB Library.