VIGIL, in the Christian Church, the eve of a festival. The vigiliae (pernoctationes, ravvvxibes) were originally the services celebrated during the night preceding the feast. The abuses con nected with nocturnal vigils led to their being attacked, especially by Vigilantius of Barcelona (c. 400), against whom Jerome ful minated in this as in other matters. The custom, however, per sisted until the middle ages, when the nocturnal vigiliae were, ex cept in the monasteries, gradually discontinued, the vigil services, with the term itself, being transferred to the day preceding the feast. The only surviving relic of the older custom, in the Roman
Catholic Church, is the midnight mass at Christmas.
The Church of England has a special collect, gospel and epistle for "Easter Even" only. For the other vigils recognized, the rubric directs that the collect appointed for the feast "shall be said at the Evening Service next before."