Three Hours' Agony
or THREE HOURS' SERVICE, a devotion practised on Good Friday, from noon till three o'clock, in commemoration of the Passion. It was introduced by Father Messia, S. J., of Lima, about 1730, and reached Rome in 1738. It was introduced into the English Church about 1865, and was rendered legal by the Act of Uniformity Amendment Act (1872), which permits additional services, consisting of any prayers from the Liturgy or Bible, with address or sermon, and hymns. The service consists, in all cases, of hymns, collects, or litanies, and addresses, generally on "the seven words from the cross," ss," though this last feature is sometimes varied by meditations on other details of the Passion. The editor of the "Dictionary of Religion" notes that the name of the devotion may possibly occasion a mistake as to the length of our Lord's sufferings. (Mark xv: 25, 34.)