Sunday Letter

Emperor Constantine established Sunday as a day of rest in 321 CE, but did not attach a particular theological rationale to it.

[6] It seems that Sabbatarianism that insisted on the special holiness of Sunday gained strength in the 5th, 6th, and 7th centuries, being more of an early medieval development.

[9] The Sunday teachings are especially prominent in the text, and Jesus warns readers of mortal and spiritual dangers for not respecting the Sabbath.

The Sunday Letter has been widely copied and translated into many languages and scripts, including Medieval Greek, Syriac, Armenian, the Garšūnī script for Arabic, Coptic, Ethiopic, Latin, Russian, modern Greek, French, German, English, Italian, Spanish, and more.

[1] It was written before 600 CE, as bishop Licianus of Cartagena [es] in Spain wrote a letter condemning the text around 584.

Voltaire reproduced a booklet, printed in Bourges in 1771, giving a version which purportedly descended from the sky at Paimpol.

[21] Hippolyte Delehaye, president of the Bollandist Society, saw in the words attributed to Our Lady of La Salette an avatar of the Letter of Jesus Christ on Sunday.

[22] Robert Priebsch compiled an attempt at organizing versions of the letter into different major recensions, which was published posthumously in 1936.