Rogation Days

The name Rogation comes from the Latin, rogamus, we ask. They were days of petition for the success of the crops and against such disasters as floods or drought. The farms did not produce large surpluses and the peasants owed payment of food to the manor as well needing to fulfil their own needs. The lives of everyone in the village, manor or abbey depended on a good yield.

Rogation days were marked by a High mass with invocations to God to protect the crops. Special litanies developed which would ask protection from various disasters and beg for an abundant harvest. There would be processions around the churchyard, the fields and the village, with some peasants continuing with a circling of their homes, repeating the prayers.