What did Pius IX smell like? by Fr Ephraem, and Odor Sanctitatis? by John at The Inn at the End of the World, link to the San Francisco Chronicle article about the man who has recreated Blessed Pius IX's cologne: Doctor's inspiration is heaven scent, San Rafael man re-creates fragrance possibly worn by Pope Pius IX.

'Look sharp, feel sharp, be sharp ... '

The Trope and liturgical drama

The Christmas piper post this year at The Inn at the End of the World takes a verse found in Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, by Clement A. Miles. Miles has some interesting things to say about Christmas in Liturgy and Popular Devotion and about Christmas Drama. As Christianity penetrated deeper and deeper into the popular mind, the Gospel and non-Biblical tales began to be dramatized, by the commonfolk, performed outside church, and by the choir and clergy, inside. We are, as Daniel Mitsui points out in Legend and Apocrypha and Athanasius in Christmas Eve, not a sola scriptura people.

The mediaeval religious drama was a natural development from the Catholic liturgy, not an imitation of classical models. . . .

While the secular stage decayed, the Church was building up a stately system of ritual. It is needless to dwell upon the dramatic elements in Catholic worship. The central act of Christian devotion, the Eucharist, is in its essence a drama, a representation of the death of the Redeemer and the participation of the faithful in its benefits, and around this has gathered in the Mass a multitude of dramatic actions expressing different aspects of the Redemption. Nor, of course, is there merely symbolic action; the offices of the Church are in great part dialogues between priest and people, or between two sets of singers. [footnote omitted, emphasis in original]

Miles says that the trope, an insertion into the liturgical text, was the source of liturgical dramas.

[T]he poetical contents, the Tropes . . . [are] all the more interesting for the student of liturgy, and especially great is its significance in the development of music and poetry. It is worthy of note that, instead of short insertions into the liturgical text, as time went on several verses, entire stanzas, even a number of stanzas, were fitted in. The non-essential part developed into the main work; the liturgical text withdrew entirely into the background, and was scarcely even considered as the starting-point. In this manner the Tropes grew to be independent cantions, motets, or religious folk-songs. Also the dramatic character, which was quite peculiar to many Introit Tropes at Christmas and Easter, developed more and more luxuriantly until it reached its highest perfection in larger dramatic scenes, mystery plays, and plays of a purely religious character. [And, the Rev. Walter Howard Frere writes:] '[T]he Tropers practically represent the sum total of musical advance between the ninth and the twelfth century. . . . All new developments in musical composition, failing to gain admission into the privileged circle of the recognised Gregorian service-books, were thrown together so as to form an independent musical collection supplementary to the official books'. [links omitted]

Drama on other feasts

The linked Catholic Encyclopaedia article has other information about the development of tropes and drama. Christmas, including the feasts of St Stephen (for deacons), St John (for priests), the Massacre of the Holy Innocents (for choristers and altar servers) and the Circumcision (for subdeacons), Epiphany, the Annunciation, the Passion, Easter, the Ascension, Corpus Christi, all and others had their mystery plays, miracle plays, or other sort of liturgical and extra-liturgical drama.

That the drama was done inside the sanctuary, by clergy and laity, there is no doubt. Miles quotes a Christmas trope from a St. Gall manuscript, where the rubric calls for 'On the Nativity of the Lord at Mass let there be ready two deacons having on dalmatics, behind the altar, saying . . . Let two cantors in the choir answer . . .' The earliest known liturgical drama was Easter's Quem Quaeritis?. Its rubrics, originally in Latin, can be found in English translation at Larry Wild's page, Quem Quaeritis, 'From Regularis Concordia (965-975), a book of rules and advice for the English Benedictine Order by Ethelwold [912-984], the Bishop of Winchester, England.' When it was first done, the choir chanted the versicles and responds, but within forty years perhaps, priests took over the antiphonal melodies and words.

The drama of the Annunciation: the Golden Mass or Missa Aurea

As for yet other great feasts, I'll only mention the Annunciation and the Golden Mass or Missa Aurea.

In illo tempore : Missus est angelus Gabrihel a Deo in civitatem Galilaeae cui nomen Nazareth

At that time, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth

(Latin Vulgate, and English Douay-Rheims Challoner translation) These are the opening words of the continuation of the Gospel according to St Luke, ch 1, verse 26, used in the Masses for the Feast of the Annunciation and for Ember Wednesday in Advent, the 'Golden Mass' or 'Missa Aurea'.

When this Mass was said in some places during the Middle Ages, a sacre rappresentazione or sacred representation of the events was presented to the faithful while attending at Mass. And the faithful, through the familiarity not only of the chanted words of the Mass, but through viewing works of art beautifying and adorning the church, and the postures, motions and gestures at set moments by the clergy-performers of the sacred representation during the Mass, recalled the message of salvation.

Throughout Europe, the Golden Mass had a special nature, often expressed through the employment of musical arrangements and dramatic embellishments that were not strictly part of the Annunciation Mass as it would have been celebrated from the service books of a particular church. At major churches the Golden Mass was often elaborated by a small musical play in which members of the clergy enacted the roles of the Angel and the Virgin Mary. This happened at the cathedral of Padua itself during this period. Here [at Padua], the play took the form of a gospel reading of the stories of the Annunciation and Visitation (Luke 1:26-56) in which the passages of direct speech were chanted as a sequence of antiphons and responses by costumed actors. ... However, such a play is unlikely to have been performed inside the Arena Chapel [or Cappella Scrovegni, in Padua, Italy] in Giotto's time, for it would have largely duplicated the ancient representatio salutationis angelicae performed immediately outside. [In the Arena Chapel in Giotto's time] the frescoed figures of Giotto's Annunciation provided a visual accompaniment to the sung Mass. One might even put this a different way, for in effect the frescoes "performed" to musical accompaniment, their famous dialogue being chanted by the choristers below.

Source: Giotto's 'Annunciation' in the Arena Chapel, Padua, by Laura Jacobus.

The setting of the re-enactment in Giotto's Annunciation, the costumes and scenery, the postures and gestures 'correspond with known staging practices of the liturgical dramas during the Middle Ages' and Giotto's frescoes 'achieved maximum exposure during this Mass.' Though Jacobus refers to the Mass for the Annunciation, March 25th, Paduans, inside the chapel and already familiar with the sacred representation, would recollect the re-enactment on Ember Wednesday in Advent when the same Gospel was used.

More from Jacobus's article and images of the Cappella Scrovegni, the Arena Chapel at Padua, below the break.

St Paul's Epistle to the Philippians, chapter two, verses five through eight, has long been a favorite of mine

5 For let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
6 Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
7 But emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and in habit found as a man.
8 He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross.

So, when I read Brandon's fine post God in the Trough, it was delightful. Not only does he use that part of the Epistle, he considers what makes Christmas 'grab us' , 'dominat[ing] over all, to some extent overbalancing even Easter':

And so we see the significance of Christmas. Annunciation is the Feast of the Incarnation, the Word made flesh; Epiphany is the Feast of His manifestation to the world as flesh. But Christmas grabs us, seizes us, because it is the Feast of His Humility ... God wrapped in a blanket, lying in a trough in some cave in a tiny little town because no one had room for him elsewhere; unheralded and unsung except by angels in the heavens and shepherds coming in from the fields. Luke knew what he was doing; what he wrote down was one of the most memorable religious images in all of history. It seizes the mind, overwhelms it, sets it alight, and moves it to action. ...

[People celebrating Christmas] are caught in the grip of an image that cannot be shaken; it inflames them with a fever that they can hardly bear. It grabs their hearts by their handles and pours them out until they are half-mad and all irritable from the strain of it. And, absurd as some of the festivities may be, the fire that lights them is a little bit contagious; even on the fringes, where people isolate themselves as much as possible from the religious side, one still feels its influences.

And, one of my favorite G.K. Chesterton quotes says something similar:

There is in this buried divinity [when Christ was born in a cave] an idea of undermining the world; of shaking the towers and palaces from below ... [The Everlasting Man]

With the Advent ember days upon us, I did a little searching on them, and found mention of the Missa Aurea or Golden Mass, at the Ember Days page at Boston's Holy Trinity Church site, where it says 'Ember Wednesday of Advent (a.k.a the "Golden Mass"), commemorates the Annunciation while the Ember Friday two days later commemorates the Visitation, the only time in Advent when this is explicitly done.'

In a later post, I hope to have some discussion on what I've found about Jan van Eyck's two Annunciations with Missa Aurea references: The Ghent Altarpiece in the Cathedral of St Bavo, Ghent, and The Annunciation in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., U.S.A., and about Giotto di Bondone's Frescos, in the Cappella Scrovegni (Arena Chapel), Padua, Italy, an older example of the once familiar connection which has been forgotten since the works' execution.

Oddly, Blessed Jacopo de Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa, a Dominican, doesn't mention Our Lady, the Annunciation, or the Missa Aurea in the section of The Golden Legend on Ember Days. Likewise, searching the Catholic Encyclopeda for "Missa Aurea" or "Golden Mass" returns nothing pertaining to Ember Days. What the Rev. Edward Sutfin writes in True Christmas Spirit makes up. in a little way, this omission.

The Masses of the winter Ember Days present us with the antecedents of the birth and coming of the Savior. ...

The Mass of Ember Wednesday is known as the Missa Aurea, or Golden Mass, because on this day the Church celebrates the "golden Mystery" of the Faith. This "Golden Mystery" is Mary's fiat (Thy will be done to me) at the Annunciation. It is Her fiat which brought about the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Trinity in her virginal womb. Throughout the ages, this Mass has been celebrated with great solemnity. In the Middle Ages, the great St. Bernard of Clairvaux preached his homilies on the Gospel of the day which begins with the words "Missus est [angelus Gabriel]". ...

All of this beautiful prayer [the Angelus] is taken from the liturgy of Advent, and especially from the Golden Mass. The first two versicles and responses are taken directly from the Gospel of Ember Wednesday; the third versicle and response are taken from the Last Gospel of St. John. The oration at the end is the Postcommunion prayer of the Mass of Our Lady on Saturdays in Advent. The evening Angelus, recited at 6:00 p.m., is recited in honor of the Incarnation. 6:00 p.m. has long been piously believed to be the very hour the Angel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary. This prayer was accompanied by the jubilant ringing of bells.

The Angelus (link is to the article in the Catholic Encyclopedia):

V. Angelus Domini nuntiavit Mariae. R. Et concepit de Spiritu Sancto. Ave Maria, gratia plena; Dominus tecum: benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui Iesus. * Sancta Maria, Mater Dei ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.

V. The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary. R. And she conceived of the Holy Ghost. Hail Mary, full of grace; the Lord is with Thee: blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.* Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

V. Ecce ancilla Domini, R. Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum. Ave Maria, gratia plena; Dominus tecum: benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui Iesus. * Sancta Maria, Mater Dei ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.

V. Behold the handmaid of the Lord, R. Be it done unto me according to Thy word. Hail Mary, full of grace; the Lord is with Thee: blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.* Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

V. Et Verbum caro factum est, R. Et habitavit in nobis. Ave Maria, gratia plena; Dominus tecum: benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui Iesus. * Sancta Maria, Mater Dei ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.

V. And the Word was made flesh, R. And dwelt among us. Hail Mary, full of grace; the Lord is with Thee: blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.* Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Oremus. Gratiam tuam, quaesumus, Domine, mentibus nostris infunde; ut qui, Angelo nuntiante, Christi Filii tui incarnationem cognovimus, per passionem eius et crucem ad resurrectionis gloriam perducamur. Per eumdem Christum Dominum nostrum. R. Amen.

Let us pray. Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts; that, we, to whom the Incarnation of Christ Thy Son was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection (or, as we have known the Incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, by the message of an angel, so by His Passion and Cross we may be brought to the glory of the Resurrection). Through the same Christ our Lord. R. Amen.

Wikipedia has an article Companions of Saint Nicholas, who are in some ways polar opposites of the industrious elves laboring for the American version of 'the jolly old elf' himself.

Often the subject of winter poems and tales, the Companions travel with St. Nicholas or his various equivalents ... carrying with them a rod (sometimes a stick, bundle of switches or a whip, and in modern times often a broom) and a sack. They are sometimes dressed in black rags, bearing a black face and unruly black hair. In many contemporary portrayals the companions look like dark, sinister, or rustic versions of Nicholas himself, with a similar costume but with a darker color scheme.

Some of the companions take on more monstrous forms, namely in Austria. Krampus and Klaubauf are variously depicted as horned, shaggy, bestial, or demonic. In many depictions the Krampus looks like popular images of the Devil, complete with red skin, cloven hooves, and short horns. They whip everyone that comes on their path.

There is some more information on Knecht Ruprecht, Père Fouettard, and Krampusse.

Hat tip to WFMU's Beware of the Blog post by Fatty Jubbo, The Companions of Saint Nicholas. Fatty posts some images of the companions at the linked blog post.

This will be the fifty-first year the North American Aerospace and Defense Command (NORAD) will track Santa by radar, satellites and cameras (requires Flash), as he leaves the North Pole and enters Canadian and American airspace.

For more than 50 years, NORAD and its predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) have tracked Santa. The tradition began after a Colorado Springs-based Sears Roebuck & Co. store advertisement for children to call Santa on a special "hotline" included an inadvertently misprinted telephone number. Instead of Santa, the phone number put kids through to the CONAD Commander-in-Chief's operations "hotline." The Director of Operations, Colonel Harry Shoup, received the first "Santa" call on Christmas Eve 1955. Realizing what had happened, Colonel Shoup had his staff check radar data to see if there was any indication of Santa making his way south from the North Pole. Indeed there were signs of Santa and children who called were given an update on Santa's position. Thus, the tradition was born.

Source: History: Why track him?

Last year's post: NORAD go for tracking Santa.

There's an article on The Art Newspaper site discussing the efforts of National Museum of Ireland conservator Rolly Read and his team to recover as much as possible from the remains of the ninth century psalter found last summer in County Tipperary, southern Ireland: Restorers are hoping to separate the pages of the ninth-century psalter and recover some of the ancient text. 'The difficult issue is how to separate the pages, preserving as much as possible of the ancient text.' A glimpse at the image of the 'congealed mass' below makes the difficulty plain.

Here's how they are proceeding.

[The psalter] is kept damp, at 100% relative humidity, in refrigerated storage (at four degrees centigrade). The room in which examination and recording takes place is cooled to 14 degrees, and the compacted vellum mass is only removed from the refrigerator for a maximum of two hours a day.

Sadly, much of the text has been lost. Some of the periphery of most of the pages has survived, but the centres of all the pages have rotted away. Where the vellum has survived, written portions vary from full legibility to complete loss. In some areas the ink has had a preservative effect, although the vellum around the letters has been lost. This has led to a series of inked letters piled on top of each other.

The first stage of the work, which has almost been completed, is a full investigation of the book in its excavated condition. This has involved an analysis of the binding and book structure, photography, magnetic resonance imaging, multi spectral imaging, analysis of vellum deterioration and an investigation of pollen samples.

Work is about to start on the second stage, which will involve the delicate separation of the pages and the process of drying out the vellum. Sadly, the vellum losses mean that only a fairly small part of the text of the Psalms remains, but it should be enough to enable scholars to see how the book has been written, decorated and bound.

It looks as if there were 104 or 108 pages to the psalter, and at 'ten words to a line, and 30 lines to the page ... the entire text of Psalms would fit neatly into the book, with perhaps a few pages left over for decorations.'

Previous posts here on the Bog, or Faddan More, Psalter:

• Ninth century psalter found in Irish bog,
• Bog psalter ... that's Ps 83 in the Latin Vulgate, and
• More on the Bog Psalter (Fadden Book, or Fadden Psalter).

Hat tip to Jim Davila's post on Paleojudaica, Update on the Bog Psalter and its Conservation, and to a post at freerepublic: How A Manuscript Found In An Irish Peat Bog Was Saved (Psalms).

Bog, or Faddan More, Psalter, a tangled mass

Augustiniaster has a nice video on youtube, about eight minutes long, of A Walk on the Caelian Hill, beginnning with San Tommasso in formis, which belongs to the Ordo Sanctae Trinitatis et Captivorum, the Order of the Most Holy Trinity, or Trinitarians, the ones with the red cross on their habit. They also have a scapular peculiar to their Order, one of the four oldest small scapulars.

He also visits the Villa Celimontana and the Church of SS. John and Paul (see also Santi Giovanni e Paolo).

More information here on the Caelian Hill.

Villa Celimontana, 1761
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SS Giovanni e Paolo, 18th century

Hat tip to Argent by the Tiber's A Walk on Caelian Hill.

Maria Trapp mentions, in Around the Year with the Trapp Family (by the way, the Trapp family blogs at Around the Year with the Trapp Family), that

There is also the tradition, going back to Honorius of Autun, that connects the "O-Antiphons" with the seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost with which the Holy Child was filled at the moment of His birth.

Curious about this, I searched google on '"+O Antiphons" "seven Gifts of the Holy"', and came across this reference, in The Divine Office, by the Rev. E. J. Quigley (I've reformatted the swipe-and-paste for readability):

[The 'O' Antiphons] have formed the subjects of study for poets, scholars and liturgists, ancient and modern. It is asked why these antiphons introduce the Magnificat and not the Benedictus. And liturgists reply: Because the Incarnation was of Mary, and hence these heralds of the Infant King more appropriately introduce Mary's canticle rather than that of Zachary. And the old liturgists add that these antiphons are said at Vespers, the evening Hour, because the Messias was expected and watched for in the world's evening.

They tell us, too, why there are seven great antiphons. They are to excite our piety during this octave preparatory to the birthday of Christ. This number seven typifies the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost; it represents the seven miseries of mankind, ignorance, eternal punishment, the slavery of the devil, sin, gloom and exile from our fatherland, which is Heaven.

And those wonderful men of mediaeval days tell us why we have need of a Teacher, O Sapientia; of a Redeemer, O Adonai; of a Liberator, O Radix Jesse; of a Guardian, O Clavis David; of a brilliant Instructor, O Oriens; of a Saviour to bring us, Gentiles, back to our Great Father, God; O Rex gentium; a Herald to the Jews.

Honorius of Autun tells that these antiphons refer to the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost and are arranged in the well-known order in which these gifts are always arranged in works of piety. He says that Christ came in the Spirit of Wisdom, O Sapientia, that in the word "Adonai" is indicated that Christ redeemed us in the Spirit of Understanding. He says, too, that the antiphon "O Radix" signifies the sign of the cross, and that Christ redeemed us in the Spirit of Counsel. "O Clavis" indicates that Christ opened Heaven and closed Hell in the Spirit of Strength or Fortitude. "O Orient" shows forth Christ enlightening us in the Spirit of Knowledge. "Rex gentiam" points out the holy King who saved men by the Spirit of Piety. "O Emanuel" refers to Christ coming in the Spirit of Fear, but giving us also the Law of Love.

This is last year's post, reformatted to make more readable, I hope, and I've added the parts of Dom Guéranger's Liturgical Year which I left out last year.

From my ScrapBook grab of the catholichaven.org site, here Dom Guéranger's commentary.

Today's Introit, Gradual, Alleluia, Offertory and Communion in mp3 format, chanted, can be downloaded or listened to at Hebdomada tertia adventus Dominica.

Because I noticed someone typing in French getting blocked for not answering the Pivot Blacklist question, I've used babelfish to translate the question into French and German. If anyone out there reads French or German and has a correction to the translation, please leave a comment. Tusend tak.

Quoting Rorate cæli's translation of the Il Giornale article (Some more information on yesterday's meeting):

'[T]he Missal of Saint Pius V ... can subsist as an "extraordinary rite".'

'That voice, where have I heard that voice before?'

'This is the one Church of Christ which in the Creed is professed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic, ... This Church constituted and organized in the world as a society, subsists in the Catholic Church ...'

Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium).

The 'That voice' quote is well known to viewers of

00:32 || amusements || Permalink to this entry || No comments yet

Giovanni Guareschi's Don Camillo stories, free, online

Zadok's post Don Camillo (the Italian priest with 'hands like shovels') thanks Julie's Two Italian Hotheads and Jesus, which links to The Little World of Giovanni Guareschi, where Vajrang Parvate has the Stories Section:

• The Little World of Don Camillo,
• Don Camillo and The Devil,
• Don Camillo and The Prodigal Son (or Don Camillo and His Flock),
• Don Camillo's Dilemma,
• Comrade Don Camillo,
• Don Camillo meets Hell's Angels (or Don Camillo Meets the Flower Children, published in 1969 and taking place in 1966 or 1967, a few years after the Council),
• The House That Nino Built,
• My Home, Sweet Home.

The English publisher's copyrights to these works have expired, according to Giovanni Guareschi's survivors.

Wikipedia has a Don Camillo page, and Karen Welbourn has The Little World Wide Web Homepage of Don Camillo, with some of the angel and devil images via her Don Camillo Galleries.

"You may know people," Don Camillo says to the Lord at one point, "but I know Italians!" Source: Important Themes in the Don Camillo stories.

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Donatello's David undergoes pre-restoration tests

ansa.it reports that the first free-standing nude statue since ancient times and the first major work of Renaissance sculpture, Donatello's David, will go through 'X-rays and other diagnostic tests ahead of a major restoration that is scheduled to start next summer.' (Full text below the break.) See Donatello's David given check- up, Bronze statue undergoes pre- restoration tests.

Donatello's David

Numerous images, from all angles, with closeups, may be found at Donatello, (1386 - 1466), The Bronze David, as well as a clip of Sir Kenneth Clark's brief description of the statue (direct link to the mp3 audio file here).

For Donatello's bas relief of St George and the Dragon on Florence's Orsanmichele church, mentioned in the ansa.it article, see Statues for the Orsanmichele in Florence by Donatello.

St George and the Dragon, Donatello
Right mouse click and 'view image' to see full size

For an earlier post, on Bernini's David, go to Remembering December 7: Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini born.

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12 13 06 16:15 || images, sculpture || Permalink to this entry || Only one comment

December 13, St Lucy, Virgin and Martyr

Today is the feast of St Lucy, who suffered a particularly gruesome death under the Emperor Diocletian. It is no surprise that she is patron saint of the blind, but why peddlers?

Below the break are breviary.net's Lessons iv. v. and vi. from the Divine Office readings for the St Lucy as well as several images portraying this Saint. One of the churches of Rome dedicated to St Lucy is Santa Lucia in Selci. The Poor Clares are in part of it, and in the atrium there is a wooden wheel with drawers with which abandoned newborn children were given to the nuns.

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04:06 || Breviary, churches, chapels, basilicas, oratories and the like, Divine Office, saints || Permalink to this entry || No comments yet

Rorate caeli desuper (or Rorate cæli desuper) in mp3 format

That's what a number of people came here looking for. One copyright free mp3 audio file of it is on Hebdomada quarta adventus Dominica, since it's the Introit for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, which does not occur this year, since what would be the Fourth Sunday is December 24, the Vigil of the Nativity.

From the Gregorian Chant page at the site which hosts this mp3: 'These recordings are live ones, made at St. Benedict's Monastery in São Paulo (Brazil).'

12 10 06 18:45 || audio, chant, song, hymns and music || Permalink to this entry || No comments yet

St Patrick's father, from Mary Harrsch's images of the ancient world database, Hendrik Goltzius and St Paul's martyrdom

In the post Two small images of the restored frescoes of the 'Sistine Chapel of 13th century', I mentioned Mary Harrsch, who administers the College of Education Novell file servers, database servers, and management information systems at the University of Oregon, U.S.A. She has a database of ancient images, mostly before Christ, but with a few from the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. It is free for non-commercial, educational use.

Below the break is the image of Calphurnius, father of St Patrick and a Roman decurio from her database. It is an engraving by the Dutch artist Hendrik Goltzius. The Vatican has a number of his works online. I've also put Goltzius's Saint Paul's martyrdom below the break.

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17:22 || blogs and other internet resources, images, paintings, frescoes, sketches and drawings || Permalink to this entry || No comments yet

Two small images of the restored frescoes of the 'Sistine Chapel of 13th century'

Canada's CBC has an article, Restoration unveils Roman 'Sistine Chapel of the Middle Ages' dated Wednesday, December 6, 2006, accompanied by a small photo of the frescoes. And ‘Sistine Chapel’ of 13th century unveiled, from the UK's Italy magazine, has another small image. I've put both images below the break.

Hat tip to Mary Harrsch's post Restoration unveils Roman 'Sistine Chapel of the Middle Ages' on the Roman Archaeology blog.

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16:01 || churches, chapels, basilicas, oratories and the like, Church history, images, paintings, frescoes, sketches and drawings, parishes, chapels, lay and religious organizations || Permalink to this entry || No comments yet

The Second Sunday of Advent, Excerpts from Dom Guéranger's Liturgical Year; mp3s of Introit, Gradual, Alleluia, Offertory and Communion, and images illustrating the Epistle, Gospel and station church, including the relics of the Passion and Crucifixtion

It looks as if some font or formatting messed up last year's post and google doesn't have the old page in its cache any longer.

The Wayback Machine for catholichaven.org does have the page for the First Two Weeks of Advent, so go below the break for the Abbot's commentary.

Today's Introit, Gradual, Alleluia, Offertory and Communion in mp3 format, chanted, can be downloaded or listened to at Hebdomada secunda adventus Dominica.

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00:46 || audio, The Liturgical Year, by Dom Gueranger || Permalink to this entry || No comments yet

Artistic Expression of Jesuit Values

When putting together the post December 7, St Ambrose, Bishop, Confessor and Doctor of the Church, looking for images of Chair of St Peter, in St Peter's Basilica, Rome, by Gianlorenzo Bernini, I came across a page relating artistic values, Bernini, Giacomo della Porta, Peter Paul Rubens, and others, to the Society of Jesus, Artistic Expression of Jesuit Values, by Fr Joseph F. MacDonnell, SJ. This page treats the visual arts. Another page by Fr MacDonnell, Jesuits Do Not Sing, But Their Companions Do, deals with music.

Sir Kenneth Clark, Bernini's 'sympathetic imagination', the 'application of the senses' and Ignatius's The Spiritual Exercises, below the break.

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12 08 06 18:24 || prayer and prayers, saints, sculpture || Permalink to this entry || No comments yet

The Ambrosian Mass, Canon and Chant

The traditional Latin Mass was described as a 'tapestry of prayers, scriptures, gestures, rituals, language, music, silence, contemplation, supplication'. (see What They Don't Understand.) And just as popular piety and local devotions express the peculiar (see the fourth definition here) local personality, the Church, over Her history, has encouraged (or tolerated, as the case may have been) a varietyof distinctive local, but official, forms, uses or rites of the Sacraments.

Of those popular piety and local devotions expressing a peculiar local personality, I have in mind examples such as The San Rocco Festival, New York City and The San Gennaro Festival, New York City, as well to the Divine Mercy (but there are opposing views: Aesthetics and Sr. Faustina's "Divine Mercy" Crock and On the "Divine Mercy" devotion), and pilgrimages, such as those to Chartres (see The 24th Whitsun Pilgrimage to Chartres and The Pilgrimage is Completed, and for more photos, Pèlerinage de Chartres 2006) and to Our Lady of Częstochowa.

The Ambrosian Liturgy and Rite, '[t]he liturgy and Rite of the Church of Milan', is an example of worthy and precious differences expressed.

There is a distinctive Ambrosian chant, some differences in the Ritual (baptism by immersion, for example), a distinctive Ambrosian Preface and Canon (Anaphora of St. Ambrose), a calendar different from Rome's (their Advent begins two weeks before Rome's and they have no Ash Wednesday, for example), and the ceremonies of the Ambrosian Mass are shown in this Video of Solemn High Ambrosian Rite Mass and the photos at Traditional Ambrosian Rite - Milan, Italy.

The linked Catholic Encyclopedia article has this to say about differences in the ceremony of the Mass:

The Ambrosian Mass in its present form is best shown by an analysis pointing out the differences from the Roman. As a great part of it agrees word for word with the Roman, it will only be necessary to indicate the agreements, without giving the passages in full. There are a certain number of ceremonial differences, the most noticeable of which are:

• (1) When the deacon and sub-deacon are not occupied, they take up positions at the north and south ends of the altar facing each other.
• (2) The Prophecy, Epistle, and Gospel are said, in Milan Cathedral, from the great ambon on the north side of the choir, and the procession thereto is accompanied with some state.
• (3) The offering of bread and wine by the men and women of the Scuola di S. Ambrogio.
• (4) The filing past and kissing the north corner of the altar at the Offertory.
• (5) The silent Lavabo just before the Consecration.
• (6) The absence of bell-ringing at the Elevation.

Below the break, I present the Latin and an English translation, of the Anaphora of St Ambrose, side by side.

In addition to the Epistle and Gospel, a Prophetical Lesson is generally read before the Epistle on Sundays, 'Solemnitates Domini' and 'Solemnia'.

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12 07 06 22:46 || chant, song, hymns and music, Church history, devotions, public processions and the like, heritage, liturgy, rubrics, ceremonies and the like || Permalink to this entry || No comments yet

'The First Christmas Tree'

Many places refer to St Boniface felling the huge oak tree worshipped by the German heathen, but only the Maria Lectrix blog reads the story to you.

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December 7, St Ambrose, Bishop, Confessor and Doctor of the Church

Today is the feast of St Ambrose, patron of bee keepers and chandlers, among others. His figure is one of the four men which support Bernini's Chair of St Peter, in St Peter's Basilica, Rome. (The other three are St Augustine of the Latin Church and Saints Athanasius and John Chrysostom, of the Greek Church.) He is frequently depicted in art with three other early Doctors of the Church, Augustine of Hippo, Pope Gregory the Great and Jerome.

Below the break are breviary.net's Lessons iv. v. and vi. from the Divine Office readings for the Feast of St Ambrose as well as several images portraying this Saint.

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Glossary of Medieval Art and Architecture

I saw a referrer in my web server log files I didn't recognize, and went over to Maior autem his est caritas, where I found that The Tomb of the Apostle Found? by the Paulist novice there linked to St Paul's burial place confirmed: in Rome's San Paolo fuori le Mura / St Paul Outside the Walls here.

Like him, I haven't found any images on the 'net of the confessio at San Paolo fuori le Mura / St Paul Outside the Walls, but in google searching for "confessio", the first image is from confessio at Jane Vadnal's Glossary of Medieval Art and Architecture.

Lots of good images there, but all are copyrighted and can't be used without consent, unfortunately.

12 06 06 23:32 || blogs and other internet resources, churches, chapels, basilicas, oratories and the like, images, resources || Permalink to this entry || Only one comment

The Lion of Lucerne and the Massacre of the Swiss Guards

Tea at Trianon is Elena Maria Vidal's blog 'on politics, history, art, music, books, morals, manners, and matters of faith.' She has an colorful post, The Massacre of the Swiss Guards, which post refers to the Lion of Lucerne, a sculpture commemorating Louis XVI's troops in their final stand against the mob. The lion, exhausted and in agony, is shown 'collapsed across broken symbols of the French monarchy' (see the Wikipedia entry on the Swiss Guards in France).

Some images of the Lion are below the break. The American writer Mark Twain said of the work, in A Tramp Abroad

...the Lion of Lucerne is the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world.

[ read the rest of this post ]

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Michael Davies's True and False Liturgical Reform, on the 'net

Dr Philip Blosser is putting Michael Davies's True and False Liturgical Reform, on Scripture & Catholic Tradition, one of his blogs. Part one is here. The articles were originally published in the Summer and Fall 2002 issues of Latin Mass magazine. I've never come across anything by Davies not worth reading, and this is no exception; 'lucid, reliable, and engaging', in Dr Blossers' words.

Many thanks to Dr Blosser for this generosity on the day we remember the Saint of gift-giving.

21:20 || Church history, liturgy, rubrics, ceremonies and the like, prayer and prayers || Permalink to this entry || No comments yet

musopen.org, a new online repository of public domain classical music

A new online repository of public domain classical music. It hasn't got a lot yet, neither does it have an RSS feed, but there are some selections, browsable by composer, performer, instrument, form (concerto, prelude, etude, oratorio, etc.), and period (no Medieval category, it only goes back to the Renaissance).

Found via the post at Boing Boing: Open classical music repository.

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Rome's 13th century 'Sistine Chapel': Santi Quattro Coronati (The Four Holy Crowned Martyrs) on the Celian Hill, a fortified church

Another one from today's ansa.it feed: Sistine Chapel of 13th century, Rome authorities present restoration of stunning frescoes, the full text of which is below the break. The article gives some information on the results of the restoration of Rome's Santi Quattro Coronati monastery, near S Clemente.

Though the name of the complex refers to four martyrs, nine martyrs are buried there, causing some confusion. For some information on the Four Holy Crowned Martyrs, patrons of scultors, as well as some images not included in this post, see the post here November 8, the Four Crowned Martyrs, with images of them and of Santi Quattro Coronati and the Chapel of Pope St Sylvester I.

This is the church where the chapel of [Pope] St Sylvester was reserved for 'private masses of the Holy Father and members of the Curia', according to Chris Nyborg's page Santi Quattro Coronati. The old page had a floor plan of the church, but he's (so far?) only moved the text to the new wiki, not images. Cloistered contemplative Augustinian nuns live next to the church. Liturgical chant is one of their main activities.

Some images also below the break.

From the article:

The frescoes, which were buried under layers of plaster for centuries, were discovered during a nine-year restoration of the Santi Quattro Coronati monastery on Rome's Celian Hill.

They are in superb condition and the restoration has left their colours blazing.

The paintings depict the months of the year, the virtues, and the 'arts' of grammar, geometry, music, mathematics and astronomy, marine landscapes, zodiac signs and the constellations. ...

Critics say the discovery will re-open a long-standing dispute between supporters of Giotto's Florentine school and those who favour Pietro Cavallini's Roman school as the leading exponent of Italian medieval art.

The Santi Quattro Coronati cycle is thought to have been painted in the fourth and fifth decades of the 13th century ... The monastery is not usually open to the public, but Rutelli said the areas that host the artwork will be opened in the spring so everyone can enjoy it.

There's a copyrighted image of a wedding in the church at Claudio Berrettoni's page here (scroll down a bit or search the page for Coronati).

The Basilica of the Santi Quattro Coronati page has this, about the fortification of the complex of monastery and chapel:

The steep Via dei Santi Quattro passes high thick walls and embattled towers supported by buttresses. Above this mass looms the truncated bell-tower (ninth-twelfth centuries, historians differ), which clearly served as a defensive structure. In the late Middle Ages the monastery was sometimes used as a refuge for Popes escaping conspiracies and conflicts in the nearby Lateran Palace, and as a protected hospice for important visitors to the papal court.

When Pope Paschal II rebuilt the church after the Normans sacked Rome in 1084, he used the earlier nave for the entire church, but kept the earlier apse size for the new church. He also built the matronea, or women's galleries, above the nave.

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12 05 06 18:16 || churches, chapels, basilicas, oratories and the like, Church history, images, paintings, frescoes, sketches and drawings || Permalink to this entry || No comments yet

St Paul's burial place confirmed: in Rome's San Paolo fuori le Mura / St Paul Outside the Walls

I have an earlier blog post about this at Archeologists discover St Paul´s tomb, so I'm not sure what new discovery this represents, but Ansa.it is reporting today, December 5, 2006, on a press conference confirming that St Paul's burial place is in San Paolo fuori le Mura (St Paul's Outside the Walls). Ansa doesn't keep all of its articles up beyond a little while, so below the break is the text of the article.

From the article:

'[Vatican archaeologist Giorgio Filippi, head of the dig] said his team had found a Roman sarcophagus "exactly underneath the epigraph Paulo Apostolo Mart (Paul the Apostle and Martyr) at the base of the cathedral's main altar".'

At the present time, the article is at St Paul burial place 'confirmed'.

By the way, Chris Nyborg has converted his old site on the Churches of Rome to a wiki. The old URLs/URIs redirect to the corresponding entry on the new site.

The news of the confirmation came to me via the RSS feed for English articles from ansa.it. If you wish to be updated on English articles from ansa.it, use this URL/URI in your RSS reader: Today's news from ANSA.

Images of the church and of the tomb (?) displayed to visitors, are below the break.

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15:06 || churches, chapels, basilicas, oratories and the like, Church history, heritage, saints || Permalink to this entry || Only one comment

Comparing the First Sunday of Advent's collects in the 1962 and 1969 Missals

The major objectives of Prof Lauren Pristas' The Orations of the Vatican II Missal: Policies for Revision are (from p 626 in the original, p 6 in the .pdf file)

• first, to explain the makeup and the working methods of the group charged with the revision of the liturgical books;
• second, to present a contemporary account written by the man who headed the group that actually revised the orations;
• third, to show from official records and from the contemporary account that certain of the revision policies underwent modification during the course of the revision work;
• fourth, to inquire into the nature of these modifications.

At the start of the article, she includes a discussion comparing the Collect for the First Sunday of Advent in the 1962 Missal with that of the 1969 Missal. The 1969 Missal's prayer is an edited postcommunion from the Old Gelasian Sacramentary, Gelasianum Vetus 1139, a manuscript 'probably composed between 628 and 715 A.D.' (fn 3, p 622 in the original, p 2 in the .pdf file) GeV 1139 appears in at least thirteen codices, never as a collect, instead always as 'an Advent postcommunion or super populum (prayer over the people or blessing).' (ibid)

'[T]he decision to adopt a new collect required displacing a collect that had been in unbroken use on the first Sunday of Advent for at least twelve hundred years. [citation omitted] Otherwise unchanged, the former collect for the first Sunday of Advent is now the collect for Friday of the first week of Advent.' (pp 622-3 in the original, pp 6-7 in the .pdf file)

The 1966 Schema for the revision of the 1962 Missal '[retained] the 1962 collect for the first Sunday of Advent on the same day without any changes at all, and presents GeV 1139 as the collect for Thursday of the fourth week of Advent ... This confirms that the above-named policies did not require a change in the collect for the first Sunday of Advent.' (p 625 in the original, p 5 in the .pdf file) The policies the quote refers to were, in her summary (p 624 in the original, p 4 in the .pdf file)

• 1. That the text of orations not be repeated in the revised missal.
• 2. That corrupt texts be corrected.
• 3. That a) the commemoration of local or historical events whose significance has been lost to the Church universal of the present day be removed from orations; and b) orations be accommodated to the rules/customs of Christian life today in cases where there are discrepancies.
• 4. That the proper literary genre be preserved or restored in each prayer present in, or inserted into, the missal.
• 5. That the orations of the Roman Missal, in general, be directed to the Father.
• 6. That new texts, composed principally by the method of centonization, be inserted into the Roman Missal.

She cites Schema n. 186, De Missali n. 27, September 19, 1966, p. 2–4 and addendum, p. 1 as the source. The schema which presented these policies of the Consilium also kept the 1962 collect for the First Sunday of Advent with no changes to the text of the prayer. The logical inference is that these policies did not pose an obstacle to retaining the 1962 collect, nor did they require that the collect be replaced.

A major portion of the article is devoted to a translation from the French, of The Orations of the New Roman Missal by Antoine Dumas, O.S.B., which appeared in Rivista Liturgica in 1971. Her comments on this article relevant to the collect for the First Sunday of Advent are

Dumas discusses the use of ancient sources, but does not name the criteria according to which orations were selected and placed ... except to say that the revisers were attentive to the “true function” of texts .... Therefore, while he does not answer our initial questions about the choice of the new collect for the first Sunday of Advent, he does perhaps indicate the rationale according to which this postcommunion came to be a collect ... (p 639 in the original, p 19 in the .pdf file)

We learn from Dumas’ essay that the policies listed in Schema 186 were revised during the course of Coetus 18bis’ labors. ... (p 640 in the original, p 20 in the .pdf file)

The modified policies are those that deal with correcting texts which had become corrupt (policy n. 2) and updating orations (policy n. 3). ... (ibid)

In context, [the earlier] phrasing of the policy presupposes that revisers will distinguish texts that have been refined by the wisdom of the tradition from those that had suffered some sort of loss over the course of time.

Dumas’ 1968 rephrasing of the policy reads: “Corrupted texts are to be recognized and corrected according to their pristine (pristinam) form.”[citation omitted] While pristinus can mean former, previous, earlier, original, or pristine, in this context the word means that corrupt texts are to be corrected according to the original or most ancient available text. (p 645 in the original, p 25 in the .pdf file)

In her conclusion, Prof Pristas' evaluates the revisions of the prayers, employing Dumas' own claim to fidelity to the Catholic liturgical tradition as a standard (p 652 in the original, p 32 in the .pdf file):

Perhaps the most striking aspect of Dumas’ essay is its disclosure of the tremendous freedom the revisers enjoyed to create, as it were, new liturgical orations. On the strength of his own testimony, Dumas’ claim that the revisers preserved the traditional character of the missal and its prayers must be questioned, as he fails to substantiate it with the facts he presents. In truth, his essay exhibits a rather cavalier approach to tradition for he deems it entirely fitting for the men of a particular age to sift through a treasury amassed over two thousand years and separate, according to the lights of their own times, the wheat from the chaff. Most significantly, as we have seen, the revisers freely adjusted even the most ancient of the orations that they had selected.

One might wonder whether it is not the very essence of liturgical reform for one generation to review the current rites and texts, and to pass judgment on their continued suitability using the lights of its own times. We can only answer in response that never before have reformers freely altered the texts of orations. Indeed, the strongest proof of the conservative nature of liturgical reform prior to Vatican II is the multiplicity of manuscripts which show that, except in the case of prayers composed for more recently instituted feasts, most of the orations of the 1962 missal had been in use for a thousand years or more—in most cases without any textual change.

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Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs, now on the Wayback Machine

Fr Francis X. Weiser's 1958 Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs is no longer at the link I provided in the post Modern and other customs, from the Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs, but the same pages were captured by the Wayback Machine, and can be accessed here.

I'm operating the machine, under instructions, below the break.

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The First Sunday of Advent, Excerpts from Dom Guéranger's Liturgical Year; mp3s of Introit, Gradual, Alleluia, Offertory and Communion, and images of The Last Judgment

Last year's post is here. Since that time, I learned that Dom Guéranger's The History of Advent and The Mystery of Advent are on the 'net. I don't know whether the person who put them up intends to put up more selections in English of The Liturgical Year.

Many images depicting the Last Judgment, part of today's Gospel, are at The Return and the Judgment page at Biblical Art on the WWW, and I've chosen the Gospel illustration from Jerome Nadal's work, Giotto's fresco, two by Fra Angelico and two examples of the subject by William Blake, which appear below the break.

Some of Dom Guéranger's commentary in 'The Mystery of Advent':

The people are forcibly reminded of the sadness which fills the heart of the Church, by the sombre colour of the vestments. Excepting on the feasts of the saints, purple is the coulour [sic] she uses; the deacon does not wear the dalmatic, nor the sub-deacon the tunic. Formerly it was the custom, in some places, to wear black vestments. ...

The Church also, during Advent, excepting on the feasts of saints, suppresses the angelic canticle, Gloria in excelsis Deo, et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis; for this glorious song was sung at Bethlehem over the crib of the divine Babe; the tongues of the angels are not loosened yet; the Virgin has not yet brought forth her divine Treasure; it is not yet time to sing, it is not even true to say, 'Glory be to God in the highest, and peace on earth to men of good will.'

Again, at the end of Mass, the deacon does not dismiss the assembly of the faithful by the words: Ite missa est. He substitutes the ordinary greeting: Benedicamus Domino! as though the Church feared to interrupt the prayers of the people, which could scarce be too long during these days of expectation.

In the night Office, the holy Church also suspends, on those same days, the hymn of jubilation, Te Deum laudamus. It is in deep humility that she awaits the supreme blessing which is to come to her; and, in the interval, she presumes only to ask, and entreat, and hope. ...

On the ferial days, the rubrics of Advent prescribe that certain prayers should be said kneeling, at the end of each canonical Hour, and that the choir should also kneel during a considerable portion of the Mass. In this respect, the usages of Advent are precisely the same as those of Lent.

But there is one feature which distinguishes Advent most markedy from Lent: the word of gladness, the joyful Alleluia, is not interrupted during Advent, except once or twice during the ferial Office. It is sung in the Masses of the four Sundays, and vividly contrasts with the sombre colour of the vestments. On one of these Sundays, the third, the prohibitionof using the organ is removed, and we are gladdened by the grand notes, and rose-coloured vestments may be used instead of the purple.

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01:25 || audio, images, liturgy, rubrics, ceremonies and the like, The Liturgical Year, by Dom Gueranger || Permalink to this entry || No comments yet

Aristotle, on tickling, compassion and The Good Samaritan

Back on November 4, 2006, The Philosopher's Zone, a podcast of the program from Australia's Radio National, presenter Alan Saunders and freelance writer Paul Comrie Thomson, Associate Editor of Quadrant magazine, had a short exchange about tickling and compassion in the Nicomachean Ethics (F.H. Peters translation here and W. D. Ross translation here), with a little on the pertinence to the Parable of the Good Samaritan. The relevant section of the Nicomachean Ethics is in Book VII, Chapter VII, here in the two English translations side by side.

There are two kinds of incontinence, the hasty and the weak. Some men deliberate, but, under the influence of passion, do not abide by the result of their deliberations; others are swayed by passion because they do not deliberate; for as it is not easy to tickle a man who has just been tickling you, so there are people who when they see what is coming, and are forewarned and rouse themselves and their reason, are able to resist the impulse, whether it be pleasant or painful. People of quick sensibility or of a melancholic temperament are most liable to incontinence of the hasty sort; such people do not wait to hear the voice of reason, because, in the former case through the rapidity, in the latter case through the intensity of their impressions, they are apt to follow their imagination. (F.H. Peters translation)

Of incontinence one kind is impetuosity, another weakness. For some men after deliberating fail, owing to their emotion, to stand by the conclusions of their deliberation, others because they have not deliberated are led by their emotion; since some men (just as people who first tickle others are not tickled themselves), if they have first perceived and seen what is coming and have first roused themselves and their calculative faculty, are not defeated by their emotion, whether it be pleasant or painful. It is keen and excitable people that suffer especially from the impetuous form of incontinence; for the former by reason of their quickness and the latter by reason of the violence of their passions do not await the argument, because they are apt to follow their imagination. (W. D. Ross translation)

The particular discussion about tickling, compassion and The Good Samaritan, from the transcript of Converging on happiness is below the break.

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12 02 06 16:21 || audio, Philosophy, theology and intellectual history || Permalink to this entry || No comments yet

New '12 Byzantine Rulers' lecture released

This one is about Basil I, and includes a supplementary podcast on the Origins of Cyrillic. Download it from 12 Byzantine Rulers, The History of The Byzantine Empire.

Here is a little on what Lars Brownworth considers to be Byzantium's contribution to '[keeping] the flame of learning alive through the dark ages, and [transmitting] classical civilization to us':

'[T]he Byzantines played a similar (even more important) role [as Irish monks, mentioning How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill], by not only preserving a record of classical civilization, but by keeping it alive. For example Aristotle, one of the pillars of Western philosophy was lost in the West for 400 years, but during that time was a vital part of a noble Byzantine’s education. Constantinople, by comparison with the West, was a beacon of medicine, learning, and sophistication. When the fourth crusade brought the city to its knees in 1204 and the years following, most educated members of the city and empire fled to the west, bringing with them invaluable skills and knowledge. The most obvious (and yet under appreciated) result was the Renaissance- that “reawakening” and improving on the classical foundations. This cultural flowering of the Renaissance was the moment when the West “caught up” and surpassed the East, and yet it would not have occurred without the Byzantine Empire. In addition to providing the learning, Constantinople was also a bulwark, sheltering the nascent West from barbarian onslaught and the armies of the prophet alike. The Byzantines effectively blocked the tide of Islam, forcing their armies to go the long way across Africa, and giving the West vital time to develop.

Source: Author's Interview: Anders and Lars Brownworth, at The Scriptorium.

More on the podcast at 12 Byzantine Rulers, more free audio and at New '12 Byzantine Rulers' lecture: the Empress Irene.

15:27 || audio, Church history, Philosophy, theology and intellectual history || Permalink to this entry || No comments yet

Three articles by Lauren Pristas, on the 'net

In my RSS reader, I have one 'virtual folder' and two saved searches for Lauren Pristas, one from technorati and the other from icerocket. This allows me to see new blog posts mentioning her as those search sites locate such posts.

• technorati RSS feed for Lauren Pristas,
• icerocket RSS feed for Lauren Pristas.

Prof Pristas, of Caldwell College, Caldwell, New Jersey, U.S.A. has written several scholarly articles on the revision of prayers in the Mass after Vatican II. I mentioned some of her research in my blog post '[C]andid academic research is destroying the myth that Catholics who favor traditional liturgy [are] simply neurotic nostalgics'. The quote is not of Prof Pristas, but of Prof Philip Blosser, in Fr. James McLucas on the MOTIVES for restoring the Mass of Pius V.

Some of Prof Pristas's research is available, in .pdf format, on the 'net.

• The Orations of the Vatican II Missal: Policies for Revision, originally in Communio 30, Winter 2003,
• The Pre- and Post-Vatican II Collects of the Dominican Doctors of the Church, originally in New Blackfriars, Volume 86 Issue 1006 Page 604 - November 2005, and
• The Collects at Sunday Mass: An Examination of the Revisions of Vatican II, originally from Nova et Vetera (heh), 3:1 (Winter, 2005): 5-38.

15:00 || liturgy, rubrics, ceremonies and the like, prayer and prayers, resources || Permalink to this entry || two comments, already

How Christ Said the First Mass, free and complete, at books.google.com

TAN Books has this in paperback, but it is also available here, complete and free, at books.google.com.

14:06 || liturgy, rubrics, ceremonies and the like || Permalink to this entry || No comments yet

Latin with a Bronx accent

I've heard the Traditional Latin Mass said with French, Italian, Chinese, Jersey (Bergen County, not Jersey City), Chicago and a not so deep Sothern accent. Maybe one of these kids will fill in this lacuna.

Now here is Latin for All!

At the Bronx Latin School, one of New York’s multiplying number of small themed public middle and high schools ... [teachers are hoping] that teaching Latin will initiate poor and working-class students into the mysteries of how any language — especially English — works by illuminating the long-neglected art of grammar and enriching their English vocabulary with Latin roots.

The school has 156 students in grades six, seven and eight and will add one grade a year through and including twelve.

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Mencken on the Mass

H. L. Mencken was an American journalist and social, political and literary critic of the early and middle 20th century. Here's a revealing photgraph of him as he breaks his fast. He lived in Baltimore, Maryland, known as the Free State, hence the autograph on the photo.

Gerald Augustinus's post H.L. Mencken's poignant analysis of the liturgy acknowledges Rich Leonardi's post Go back to Bach with locating this Mencken quote:

If [the American Catholic bishops] keep on spoiling poetry and spouting ideas, the day will come when some extra-bombastic deacon will astound humanity and insult God by proposing to translate the liturgy into American, that all the faithful may be convinced by it.

It's part of a longer quote which is typical, i.e., characteristic of, Mencken. Its tone, the satire, is so more fitting a reaction than frustration and anger: 'One horse-laugh is worth ten-thousand syllogisms.' See dictionary.com's third definition of farce.

Some more on Mencken:

• Wikipedia's article,
• Gibbons Burke's Mencken page with many excellent links,
• The American Language, An Inquiry into the Development of English in the United States, free and complete,
• The Sahara of the Bozart, in .pdf format, available here,
• full view (complete) works on books.google.com,
• Mencken quotes at brainyquotes.com,
• Mencken quotes at quotationspage.com.

The quotes pages don't have his oft-repeated remark on the death of Calvin Coolidge ('How do they know?').

[ read the rest of this post ]

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December 1, the English Martyrs

Today is the day the English Martyrs are remembered in some places. Fr Nicholas Schofield has his plans (see Martyrs' Day), and we'd do well to read Bp Richard Challoner's (Wikipedia article here) book, Memoirs of Missionary Priests and William Cardinal Allen's (Wikipedia article here) book A Briefe Historie of the Glorious Martyrdom of Twelve Reverend Priests. Both books are available in .pdf format from cimmay.us's Queen Elizabeth page.

12 01 06 00:51 || blogs and other internet resources, Church history, Literature || Permalink to this entry || No comments yet