Good Friday: the Day the World Turned Dark
The Medieval Holy Week Series:
Cross, Silence, and Cosmic Sorrow
Good Friday was the most solemn day of the medieval year. Calling the day of Christ's death 'good' seems counter-intuitive. However, it can be explained linguistically or theologically. In old and middle English, 'good' had broader meanings of holy, sacred, or set apart for God. In other words, 'Good Friday' etymologically meant Holy Friday. Theologically, Christ's death was the ultimate sacrifice that brought redemption, forgiveness, and reconciliation between man and God. It opened the door and opportunity for salvation that had previously been closed. It was a good day because it marked the culmination of God's plan for salvation for mankind. It was a hinge point of salvation history.
It was a day without Mass, without joy, without bells. In the medieval world, it was a somber day of silence--including no bells, no music--and fasting.
Beliefs Around Good Friday
Medieval people saw the Bible as foundational but took a both/and approach, also seeking knowledge of Christ in the apocryphal gospels, early Christian writers and early sermons, which spoke of birds falling silent and animals reacting. Some of these sources and the ideas they express of the events of Good Friday are:
1. The Gospel of Peter (2nd century)
This apocryphal gospel describes:
cosmic darkness
earth trembling
creation reacting to Christ’s death
It does not explicitly mention birds falling silent, but it is the earliest source for the idea that nature itself protested.
2. The Gospel of Nicodemus / Acts of Pilate (4th century)
the sun hides
the earth shakes
the veil tears
It establishes the idea that all creation responded.
3. Early Christian commentators (2nd–5th centuries)
- Origen, Jerome, Augustine, Cyril of Jerusalem, and others describe the Crucifixion as a moment when:
- “all creation mourned”
- “the world fell silent”
- “creatures trembled”
Bernard of Clairvaux (12th century) -- Sermon on the Passion
Bernard vividly describes creation reacting to Christ’s death:
“The earth trembled, the rocks were split, the sun withdrew its light.”
He adds that all creatures “shuddered” at the death of their Creator.
Bernard doesn’t mention birds specifically, but his language about all creation trembling became foundational for later medieval imagery.
The Meditations on the Life of Christ (late 13th century)
Attributed to Pseudo‑Bonaventure, this was one of the most influential devotional texts of the Middle Ages. In the Good Friday section, the author describes:
birds ceasing their song
winds falling still
the whole world holding its breath
This text was read by clergy and laity alike and heavily shaped medieval preaching.
The Northern Homily Cycle (14th century, Middle English)
A collection of vernacular sermons used in northern England and southern Scotland.
The Good Friday homily describes:
“Fowles fel still” (birds fell silent)
“Bestes stode in drede” (beasts stood in dread)
“The erthe quakede for sorow” (the earth quaked for sorrow)
This is one of the clearest medieval references to birds and animals reacting.
John Mirk’s Festial (late 14th century)
John Mirk was an Augstinian Canon Regular (a priest or brother living in community) at Lilleshall Abbey. His Book of Festivals was likely the most-frequently printed English book in its time.
It was a collection of English sermons. In his Good Friday sermon, Mirk writes that:
the birds stopped singing
the beasts were afraid
the sun hid its face
Mirk’s sermons were read aloud in parish churches across England and Scotland, so this imagery reached ordinary people.
The York Mystery Plays (14th–15th century)
While not sermons, they functioned as public preaching and were a major source of popular belief. In the Crucifixion and Death plays:
the sun darkens
birds cease their song
the earth groans
creatures cry out
The N-Town Plays (15th century)
This influential English cycle with strong devotional influence, says, in the Crucifixion sequence:
birds fall silent
animals tremble
the world mourns
Gaelic Sermon Tradition (Highlands & Islands)
While fewer written texts survive, later Gaelic homilies preserve medieval patterns. A Good Friday sermon from the Leabhar Breac, The Speckled Book tradition describes:
“the birds of the air were silent in sorrow”
“the beasts of the field bowed their heads”
“the sea itself was still”
This reflects a distinctly Celtic sense of creation participating in Christ’s suffering.
This can be found online here but you might want to brush up on your Gaelic first.
Jacobus de Voragine’s Golden Legend (13th century)
In the Passion narrative, Jacobus cites earlier authorities to describe:
the sun darkening
the earth trembling
all creatures mourning
Medieval Traditions
Good Friday featured a liturgical service, but not a Mass. This included a passion reading, which was long, and often chanted and very theatrical. Another part of this liturgy was the Creeping, or the veneration of the Cross, in which worshippers approached the cross on their knees to kiss the feet of Christ and perhaps lay offerings at the base of the cross. The cross was often veiled until the last moment.
Another tradition was the singing of the Improperia (“Reproaches”), sung as if Christ Himself spoke:
“O my people, what have I done to you?”
These haunting words pierced medieval hearts. You can listen to it here:
Some places had public processions carrying a symbolic coffin or a shrouded cross.
Dramas were performed. Some towns performed:
The trial of Christ
The procession to Calvary
The lament of Mary
These were not considered entertainment, but devotion.
Shawn, being familiar with modern Good Friday services, would recognize most of the medieval service, with the exception that today's services don't include crawling, public displays of grief or public penance. The modern Catholic service leans more toward somber but hopeful with an emphasis on the Cross, the Passion, and the coming Resurrection, whereas the medieval focus tended more toward grief, atonement, Christ's suffering, mankind's sinfulness, and cosmic mourning.
Modern Protestant services will often read from the Passion, but do not have veneration of the Cross.
Apart from the liturgical service, Good Friday for the medieval Christian involved strict fasting, silence in the home, in most places no unnecessary work, mystery plays, pilgrimages to local shrines and, in later medieval years, the Stations of the Cross.
After the memorial of the horrible death of Jesus on Good Friday, what did the medieval world do on Holy Saturday? Stay tuned for tomorrow's post.
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