midnight
He did not know how to behave himself , nor indeed where to go . Aspar conducted him into the seats set apart for the faithful ; he knelt down and burst into tears . It was approaching the third hour , the hour at which the Paraclete originally descended upon the Apostles , and which , when times of persecution were passed , was appointed in the West for the solemn mass of the day . In that early age , indeed , the time of the solemnity was generally midnight , in order to elude observation ; but even then such an hour was considered of but temporary arrangement . Pope Telesphorus is said to have prescribed the hour , afterwards in use , as early even as the second century ; and in a place of such quiet and security as the cavern in which we just now find ourselves , there was no reason why it should not be selected . At the lower end of the chapel was a rail extending across it , and open in the middle , where its two portions turned up at right angles on each side towards the altar . The enclosure thus made was the place proper for the faithful , into which Agellius had been introduced , and about fifty persons were collected about him .