Maundy Thursday

He riseth from supper and laid aside his garments; and took a towel and girded himself.

After that he poureth water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe (them) with the towel wherewith he was girded. . . .

So after he had washed their feet and had taken his garments and was set down again he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you?

Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. . . .

Verily, verily, I say unto you, the servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. . . .

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. . . .*

Thus Jesus washed the feet of his Twelve Disciples on the Thursday before his resurrection, and since the Fourth Century most Catholic monarchs have performed a similar ceremony each year. Last week Victoria Eugenie washed the feet of 13 poor women at Madrid. By her side, Alfonso XIII washed the feet of 13 poor men. The grandees of Spain contributed to furnish the sumptuous dinner which was thereafter supplied to these 26 starvelings, the venerated living symbols of the Apostles.

*St. John XIII: 4, 5, 12, 13, 16, 34. On Maundy Thursday (the Thursday before Easter), "Maundy" being derived from the Latin "mandatum" (commandment) and referring to the "new commandment" given by the Savior. James II was the last English monarch to perform the rite of washing his subjects' feet; but since the time of Charles II "Maundy Pennies" (especially minted without milled edges) have been distributed by the Lord High Almoner. In all Catholic countries and at the Vatican the rites of Maundy Thursday are elaborately observed, although the ritual varies