The Lateran Basilica hosted three pivotal papal liturgies of the Roman ecclesiastical calendar – Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and the Easter Vigil.Due to their importance and infrequency, these feasts are well described in medieval sources.These celebrations, which commemorated the death and resurrection of Jesus, featured unique and dramatic observances such as the blessing and distribution of palms, the blessing of new oils, the washing of feet, the lighting of the new paschal candle, the chanting of fitting Biblical texts, and the baptism of infants.The action of the liturgy made use not only of the church, but also of the atrium and the baptistery of the Lateran.Although worship is sometimes characterized as having become ossified in the Middle Ages, the clergy did in fact allow modification and even experimentation in their liturgies.Perhaps the greatest single change came in the rite of reconciliation of penitents on Maundy Thursday, which once had the pope interceding for the people of the city for forgiveness of their sins; this allowed them to rejoin the faithful in taking the Eucharist at Mass.However, starting in the thirteenth century, the pope took the opportunity to excommunicate sinners to exclude them from the Eucharist.