The Feast of St Thecla, First-Martyr Among Women

In the Byzantine and Ambrosian Rites, today is the feast of the virgin and martyr St Thecla; in the Roman Rite, she is kept as a commemoration on the preceding day.

Image from Wikimedia Commons by Shesmax, CC BY-SA 3.0

Her story is told in a document known as the Acts of Paul and Thecla, generally dated to roughly 180 AD; the narration is often confused and disjointed, and I here give only a very basic summary of it. When St Paul went to Iconium (Acts 14, 1), he was received by a man named Onesiphorus, whose house (i.e. the community gathered in his house) is mentioned twice in II Timothy; in verse 3, 11, Paul also mentions “the persecutions and suffering such as I underwent at Antioch, Iconium and Lystra.” Inspired by his preaching particularly on the subject of virginity, one of the young women present, Thecla, determined not to marry the man to whom her parents had betrothed her, a nobleman called Thamyris. The latter, blaming Paul for his fiancée’s change of heart, hauled him before the city officials, who remanded the Apostle to prison. When Thecla visited Paul there, she was discovered by Thamyris, who then had them both brought before the governor of the city; Paul was scourged and expelled from Iconium, and Thecla condemned to be burnt alive.

As is so often the case, nature refused to cooperate with the persecutors of one of God’s Saints, and the fire was extinguished by a sudden rain. Thecla was then let go, and after finding Paul, accompanied him to Antioch, where she was assaulted by a powerful man named Alexander. For rebuffing his advances, she was twice condemned to the wild beasts, which on the first occasion refused to touch her; on the second, one of them, a lioness, defended her from the rest, and was herself killed in the process. The governor, impressed by this miracle, released her; she then went to find Paul again, catching up with him at Myra (later the see of St Nicholas). From there she returned to Iconium, and then went to Seleucia in Asia Minor, where she lived an ascetic life in a cave for 72 years.

The apse of the ruined church of St Thecla in Seleucia, built at the site of her cave by the Emperor Zeno ca. 475. (Image by Klaus-Peter Simon from Wikimedia Commons, GNU Free Documentation License.)

During her time at Seleucia, she made many converts to the Faith, and performed many miraculous healings, which raised the ire of the local pagan physicians. They therefore plotted to assault her, but she was protected from them when the rock wall of her cave opened up to receive her, and closed when she had passed into it. The story ends here, and seems to imply that this was the manner of her death. Her tomb at Seleucia became an important pilgrimage site, and was seen there in the 4th century by St Gregory of Nazianzus and the pilgrim Egeria among others.

This document has often been attributed, at least in its inspiration, to an heretical sect of the later 2nd-century called the Encratites (“the continent”, or more accurately, “the self-controlling”), who completely rejected the use of marriage. It is true that when he is preaching at the house of Onesiphorus, St Paul is represented delivering a set of Beatitudes partly of his own devising which lay strong emphasis on virginity: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt. 5, 8); blessed are they that have kept the flesh chaste, for they shall become a temple of God (1 Cor. 6, 18-19); blessed are they that control themselves, for God shall speak with them: … blessed are they that have wives as not having them, for they shall receive God for their portion (1 Cor. 7, 29) … blessed are the bodies of the virgins, for they shall be well pleasing to God, and shall not lose the reward of their chastity.” Shortly after this, Thecla’s mother, Theocleia, says to Thamyris, “(Paul) will overturn the city of the Iconians, and your Thecla too besides; for all the women and the young men go in beside him, being taught to fear God and to live in chastity.”

However, the Encratites taught that all sexual activity is intrinsically immoral, even within marriage, and that virginity or perfect continence is necessary for salvation. The “Beatitudes” given above do not say this, nor do they really stray from the words of Paul and Christ Himself in the canonical writings of the New Testament. In point of fact, the closest thing to the Encratite teaching within the story is not said by Paul or Thecla or the narrator, but rather by two characters called Demas and Hermogenes. These are described as “hypocrites” who are “jealous” of Paul, and attribute to him the belief that “(T)here is for you a resurrection in no other way, unless you remain chaste, and pollute not the flesh, but keep it chaste.” But of course, even these words can certainly be understood in a perfectly orthodox sense.

The Preaching of Ss Paul and Barnabas, by Giovanni Paolo Panini, 1744

At her second appearance in the arena with the wild beasts, Thecla baptizes herself by throwing herself into a ditch of water, saying “In the name of Jesus Christ I am baptized on my last day.” Later on, when she departs from Paul to return to Iconium, he says to her, “Go, and teach the word of God.” The first known reference to the Acts of Paul and Thecla is in the treatise On Baptism by Tertullian (cap. xvij in fine), who says that these episodes should not be used to justify women teaching and baptizing, since the document was forged by a priest in Asia Minor, who did this “out of love for Paul”, and having confessed to the forgery, was deposed from his office. St Jerome also refers to them as apocryphal, on the grounds that if they were not, St Luke would have included some mention of the episodes they narrate in the Acts (De viris illustr. 7); they are likewise rejected by a document of the 6th century known as the Gelasian Decree, which lists the books accepted and rejected by the Church.

Despite this diffidence towards the written account of her life, the Church’s tradition has accepted devotion to Thecla as a Saint. In a letter to one of his spiritual daughters, Jerome himself writes that on her death she will be received in heaven by the Virgin Mary, by Miriam, the sister of Moses, and by Thecla, who “shall fly with joy to embrace you.” (Ep. 22, ad Eustochium, cap. 41) St Ambrose, in his treatise On the Virgins (lib. II, 3, 19) also pairs Thecla with the Mother of God: “Let, then, holy Mary instruct you in the discipline of life, and Thecla teach you how to be offered (i.e. how to die), for she, avoiding nuptial intercourse, and condemned through her (would-be) husband’s rage, changed even the disposition of wild beasts by their reverence for virginity.” In his 14th sermon on the Song of Songs, St Gregory of Nyssa comments on the words “His lips are as lilies, dropping a rich myrrh” (5, 13) as follows: “(Myrrh) is contempt for this corporeal life … such myrrh did Paul pour forth from his mouth, mixed with the pure lily of temperance, into the ears of a holy virgin. This was Thecla, who, having nobly received these drops within her soul, mortified the outer man, and extinguished every carnal thought and desire.” (PG 44, 1067-68) Many other references might be adduced to the point.

St Thecla and the Wild Beats; relief probably made in Egypt n the 5th century, now at the Nelson Atkins Museum in Kansas City. (Photo from Wikimedia Commons by R. Huggins, CC BY-SA 3.0)

There is no reason to be surprised at this. Modern scholars of hagiography have long recognized that there are many Saints whose written lives as they have come down to us are, either wholly or in part, not reliable historical documents, but who are nevertheless themselves indisputably real. In St Thecla’s case, we may rightly say that the Church simply recognized this about her a very long time ago.

In the traditional Roman prayers for the dying, known as the “Commendation of a soul (to God)”, the last invocation is “And as Thou didst deliver Thy most blessed Virgin and Martyr Thecla from three most cruel torments, so may Thou deign to deliver the soul of this Thy servant, and cause him to rejoice with Thee in the goods of heaven.” Prior to the Tridentine reform, however, this was the only mention of her in the Roman liturgical books; although her feast was celebrated or commemorated almost everywhere else in Europe, in Italy, it was kept only at Milan. She was added to the Roman calendar as a commemoration on the feast of Pope St Linus on September 23, in the first liturgical book to be published after the council of Trent, the breviary issued by Pope St Pius V in 1568, followed two years later by his missal.

As with certain other Saints (Catherine of Alexandria, Gregory the Wonderworker, Timothy), the inclusion of Thecla on the Tridentine calendar is part of the Catholic Church’s answer to the ideas of the Protestants. Despite their supposed emphasis on the teachings of St Paul (whom Luther made the lens by which to read the rest of the Bible), the churches of the Reformation in practice rejected his teaching on virginity and continence from the very start, abolishing the discipline of clerical celibacy, and every form of monasticism or canonical life. This abolition in turn left no formal place at all for women in their institutional life. The figure of Thecla, a personal disciple of St Paul, therefore stands as a witness to the value of virginity, the apostolic origins of the Church’s teaching about it, and the importance of women in consecrated life as both leaders and teachers.

The Duomo of Milan as it stands today is the result of a project which began in 1386, to replace the two cathedrals which had hitherto served the see of St Ambrose. The “winter church” as it is still called in Ambrosian liturgical books, was the smaller of the two, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and used from the Third Sunday of October, the feast of its Dedication, until Holy Saturday; it stood where the modern cathedral stands, but was much smaller. The larger “summer church”, which was demolished in 1543, stood on the opposite end of the modern Piazza del Duomo; in the Carolingian period, it was endowed with a relic of St Thecla’s skull, and her name was added to its dedication. She is therefore included in the list of Saints in the Nobis quoque of the Ambrosian Mass; within the new church, a large altar is dedicated to her at the end of the left nave.

The altar of St Thecla in the Duomo of Milan, by Luigi Bisi, 1872

In the Byzantine Rite, Thecla is called a “Great Martyr”, the title of those who suffered many different torments, and “Equal to the Apostles.” The texts of her Office refer to her over 20 times as the “first martyr” or “first to contend”, not, of course, to the despite of St Stephen, but as the first among women. For this reason, in the preparation rite of the Divine Liturgy, she is named first among the female martyrs. At Vespers of her feast, one of the hymns sung during the major incensation of the church reads, “O Lord, though Thy chaste First-Martyr was given over to the fire, yet she was not burned up within it, having received Thee as a dewfall, and among the many wild beasts, she remained unassailed, protected by Thy hand, who art the Savior of our souls.”

SingCon 2026 Gathers in Brampton, Ontario

We are very glad to share this report from the recently concluded SingCon musical conference, an annual gathering of cantors, choristers, choir directors, and anyone interested in the musical tradition of the Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church. 

Over 130 participants assembled to pray, glorify God, and experience their faith together through the liturgical worship and church singing traditions of the Byzantine Rite at the intercontinental sixth annual Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church Singing Conference, better known as SingCon.

This year’s gathering was held in Brampton, Ontario, from September 10-14, hosted by Saint Elias Church in Brampton, Ontario, thanks to the efforts of pastor Father Toma Hrywna and the gracious parishioners, with the blessing of Bishop Bryan of Toronto and Eastern Canada. Participants came from all over Canada and the USA, as well as the UK and Europe.

As in past years, the daily schedule for SingCon 2026 included a selection of liturgical worship services, such as Vespers, Matins, the Hours, Divine Liturgy, and Parastas, as well as rehearsals and workshops. The services on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday were presided by Bishop Bohdan of the Eparchy of Saint Josaphat in Parma – the “spiritual godfather” of SingCon. The recordings were made by Markian Radomsky’s W4Y Video Productions and are available on the SingCon YouTube channel.

Five general rehearsals, led by Dr. Melita Mudri-Zubacz and Namisha Hlus-Greening, as well as four workshop streams, prepared the participants to learn the chants and melodies of the liturgical services that would be celebrated during SingCon. The workshops were dedicated to the basic melodies and Resurrectional tones for daily Divine Liturgy from the Anthology for beginner level participants; the samohlasen tones for Vespers, as well as the structure of Vespers and Matins for the intermediate attendees; and the special melodies of the podoben hymns and Irmologion and Kyivan chant canon melodies, as well as the history and theology of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, for the advanced group. A group for children was organized this year for the first time. They painted icons, prepared a play about the fourth-century discovery of the True Cross of Christ in Jerusalem by the Empress Helen, and had chant rehearsals to involve them in singing certain parts of the church services on their own.

A highlight of this year’s conference was the presence of Bishop Erik Varden OSCO of the Territorial Prelature of Trondheim, Norway. On Saturday evening, after Great Vespers, Bishop Erik delivered the public Keynote Lecture, entitled “‘He Who Sings Prays Twice’. How?” in which he lamented the loss of singing in contemporary society and providing examples from literature and the arts – including Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky’s pastoral letter from 1941 – to encourage renewal and revival in the world today.

The next evening, the assembly celebrated a Vigil on the eve of the Exaltation of the Cross, including the singing of “Lord, have mercy” hundreds of times during the elevation of the Cross by the bishop at the conclusion of Matins – a rite of the Byzantine tradition that hearkens back to the early fourth century.

The culmination of the conference was the celebration of the Hierarchal Divine Liturgy on the Feast of the Exaltation, presided over by Bishop Bohdan, during which Bishop Erik preached on the history and meaning of the feast of the Cross, comparing how the Byzantine and Latin Rites expound the mystery liturgically in different ways.

The intense schedule of church services, choir rehearsals, and workshops was matched by the exceptional hospitality and gourmet cooking of the parish, with many opportunities for fellowship and singing in the evenings. This year, the traditional Town Hall evening discussion was replaced by “Pints with the Prelate,” a Q&A session on a variety of topics with Bishop Erik, held on Sunday afternoon.

Thanks to the dedicated work of the SingCon OrgCom, the numerous parish and eparchial volunteers, as well as sponsorship from various generous benefactors, most notably from the Archpriest Roman Galadza Legacy Fund and the Eparchy of Saint Josaphat in Parma, SingCon was able to run smoothly and conference registration fees could be subsidized for participants, with numerous scholarships offered to students attending the gathering.

The location of SingCon 2027 will be announced in the coming months.

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Relics of St Padre Pio (Part 1)

Today is the feast day of St Pio of Pietrelcina, known to all the world simply as “Padre Pio”, who died on this date in 1968, and was canonized in 2002. Six years ago, I had the very good fortune to go on a pilgrimage which visited San Giovanni Rotondo, where he spent most of his life, and Pietrelcina, the place of his birth and earliest years as a priest. His fellow Capuchin friars knew, of course, that they had a Saint in their midst, and as a result, took great care to preserve as many relics of him as possible, and both places have an enormous number of them on display. Of course, they are all kept behind glass for preservation, which doesn’t make for the best photography. Here are some photos from San Giovanni Rotondo, which we visited first; others from Pietrelcina will be in a separate post.

His body, which since 2008 has been displayed for the veneration of the faithful in the crypt of the second church at San Giovanni Rotondo.

When Padre Pio arrived at San Giovanni in 1916, the Capuchin community numbered only about seven members, who lived in a small conventual building next to a small church dedicated to the Virign Mary. It was while praying in front of this crucifix in the choir of that church on Sept. 20, 1918, that his stigmata, which he had received earlier, became visible, and would remain so until shortly before he died almost exactly 50 years later. This was the church where he celebrated his Masses on most days.

The choir, in the traditionally very simple style of the Capuchins.

One of his habits.

The museum of San Giovanni dedicated to Padre Pio has preserved thousands of the letters which he received over the years of his priestly ministry.

His cell as it was at the time of his death.

Continue Reading this Article. . .

A Missal for the Use of Braga, 1558

Recently when visiting Milwaukee, I met a friend for coffee, who after we sat down pulled out from a box three marvelous treasures: a 1558 missal for the Use of Braga ; a 1616 Missale Romanum printed in Antwerp; and a liturgical Ordo from 1681, owned by a cardinal. Not usually a shutterbug, I could not resist taking some photos of these lovely liturgical books to share with NLM readers (in three separate posts).

I will offer simple commentary here. Those who wish to read more about the Use of Braga should visit this dedicated website and search on NLM for “Braga.” Enjoy the show-and-tell! (As always, click the photos to enlarge them.)

The frontispiece

The liturgical calendar for January

The liturgical calendar for September

A diagram for calculating the liturgical cycle

Introit for the First Sunday of Advent

Continue Reading this Article. . .

The Iconographic Style, #2: Images Not Made with Human Hands

Does an icon truly resemble our heavenly destiny, or only symbolize it — and what does Our Lady of Guadalupe tell us about the answer?

This is the second of two related articles on the iconographic tradition. In the first, I set out the history of the style, the modern myths surrounding it, and the theology that accounts for its visual language. Here I turn to a question that the tradition raises but cannot settle from within: does an icon actually resemble our heavenly destiny, or is it only a consistent system of symbols? The strongest evidence, I will argue, comes from the images said to be “not made by human hands”, and above all from that of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

As I described the various elements of the visual vocabulary of icons in the previous article, a question naturally arises: does what we see in these images correspond to what Christ and the saints actually appear to be in heaven? Or might it be an internally consistent system of visual symbolism that successfully communicates an idea of the eschaton without actually resembling our heavenly destiny? We cannot know that for certain until we arrive there.

However, the strongest argument for a genuine visual correspondence comes from the existence of icons “not made by human hands.” In the East, we have the Mandylion, whose legendary origin involves a cloth that received the image of Christ’s face through direct contact with him during his public ministry. In the West, the Veronica cloth serves as its parallel: a separate tradition holds that Saint Veronica offered her veil to wipe the sweat and blood from Jesus’ face as he carried the cross, miraculously imprinting his features upon it. Both relics are said to be acheiropoieta (images not made by human hands), and although their originals are now lost, numerous later icons and copies based on these prototypes survive. What is striking is how closely each corresponds to the same iconographic type. The name Veronica, incidentally, derives from the Latin vera icon, meaning “true image.”

Among these revealed images is another Western example: the famous Our Lady of Guadalupe. It contains details clearly derived from Aztec culture, others from traditional Christian culture, and some not normally associated with the Spanish Christian culture of the time. What is remarkable is how these disparate elements are combined to form a unified image that has retained its power of appeal across centuries. The image, given to St Juan Diego, a poor Aztec man in 16th-century Mexico, caused millions to convert. It persuaded both the Aztecs and the occupying Spaniards, and continues to draw devotion from Christians around the world.

The elements related to Aztec culture are as follows. Our Lady’s hairstyle, with the central parting, was the sign of a maiden and a virgin. The ribbon and bow around her waist signified pregnancy. The quatrefoil roses articulated in sepia lines on the pale brown-ochre shawl signified royalty. Aztecs looking at this image would have recognized the meaning of these features immediately.

But the image spoke to the Aztecs about more than their own culture, because it also contained elements drawn from traditional Christian iconography, elements that are universal, speaking to all people of Christ. These were noticed by the 16th-century Spaniards and have connected with Christians from all over the world ever since.

The blue shawl, for example, is a common color for Mary’s outer robe, said to denote royalty; Marian chapels have traditionally had their walls painted blue. The eight-pointed stars represent her connection with the ‘eighth day’ of Creation, her Son, Jesus Christ, who rose on the eighth day of the week. Stars are not the only heavenly bodies represented; the moon appears as well, in accordance with the description of the woman of the Apocalypse, who stands upon an upturned crescent moon.

Another feature of particular interest is the nimbus of light surrounding her whole person. The account of the woman in the Book of Revelation describes her as ‘clothed in the sun,’ and the golden nimbus might correspond to this. But I would suggest that its presence here indicates more specifically Christ’s presence within her womb: it is there not so much for the God-bearer as for God himself, whom she bears. This is the visual means of indicating that Our Lady is with child, the divine child, and it complements the Aztec symbolism of pregnancy, the bow and ribbon. Had this image not also spoken to the Spanish occupiers, no one would have taken St Juan Diego seriously.

Look closely at the gold field that surrounds her. This is not, as one might first suppose, a series of bright gold rays emanating from Our Lady. Rather, it is a series of dark rays on a gold background, the outer limits describing the mandorla shape, a smooth almond. This mandorla darkens as we move toward its center, exactly as the mandorla around Christ in the Transfiguration icon does. It is worth noting that some later copies of this icon get this detail wrong, inverting the shading direction. Here, for comparison, is one painted around 1700; note the inversion of the shading of the mandorla, compared with the original.

The Transfigured Christ, fresco by Aidan Hart, Lancaster, England, 21st century

All the constituent elements of the image – including aspects not described here, particular to time and place as well as universal in their appeal – are combined to create a composition of remarkable persuasive power. Their presence together creates a paradox: if the artist is not divine, then we have indeed a mortal artist of extraordinary gifts, one simultaneously conversant with Aztec culture, Scripture, and the traditional Christian iconographic tradition that was not then fashionable in 16th-century Spain. Someone with this particular profile would have been very difficult to find in Mexico in 1531.

Considering the style of the image: although it could never be mistaken for a Byzantine icon, it is nevertheless broadly in accordance with the iconographic prototype. This makes theological sense, since the iconographic style is the style of eschatological man, and Our Lady is portrayed in glory in heaven; it would be a most appropriate style for her apparition. In accordance with the iconographic tradition, there is no strong cast shadow; the image is defined predominantly by line rather than tone. If this were not a revealed image, our hypothetical artist would be not only a painter and a theologian of considerable insight, in addition to everything else already noted, but one who understood that the iconographic tradition was the most fitting for her representation, and who had sufficient mastery of its principles to apply them with legitimate modifications suited to the Spanish and Aztec context. His familiarity with the iconographic prototype in the case of the mandorla was, it seems, greater than that of at least some of his contemporaries, judging from the errors made in later copies.

If, on the other hand, we accept the tradition that this is an authentic icon not made by human hands, painted in a manner of speaking by the hand of God, then its remarkable degree of conformity to the iconographic tradition is itself evidence of how authentic and true a reflection of reality that tradition is. This, together with the other acheiropoieta, is among the strongest arguments for the authenticity of the iconographic style. The tradition was developed by faithful Christians in the first centuries of the Church, and we have every reason to believe they were divinely guided in that work.

Symbols of the Four Evangelists

In Jewish tradition, the vision which the Prophet Ezekiel has in the first chapter of his book is called by the Hebrew word “merkabah – a chariot”, even though this word does not occur in the text itself. The ancient rabbis placed the study and interpretation of this chapter, which is difficult to understand in any language, under a special restriction; St Jerome knew of this, as he writes in the prologue of his commentary on Ezekiel:

I shall undertake (a commentary on) the prophet Ezekiel, whose difficulty the Hebrew tradition proves. For among them, unless one has completed the age of priestly ministry, that is, his thirtieth year, he is not permitted to read the beginning of Genesis, nor the Song of Songs, nor the beginning or end of this book…

The Talmud therefore mentions that when one rabbi once offered to explain the passage to another, the latter replied “I am not old enough.”

The Vision of Ezekiel, by Raphael, 1518

The Christian tradition that the four animals which Ezekiel sees in the midst of the “chariot” are prophetic symbols of the four Evangelists is first recorded in the writings of St Irenaeus of Lyon towards the end of the second century. The order in which he explains them, however, is different from that which is now commonly received. In his treatise “Against the Heresies” (3.11.8), he is concerned to prove that there are only four Gospels which authentically witness to the life of Christ, as opposed to the many Gospels of the Gnostics whom he seeks to refute; and moreover, that these four were prophesied in the Old Testament. He therefore explains the four-faced cherubim which Ezekiel sees in his tenth chapter by the words of Psalm 79, “Thou that sittest upon the Cherubim, be made manifest.” “…the Word, the maker of all, He that sitteth upon the cherubim, and contains all things, He who was manifested to men, has given us the Gospel under four aspects, but bound together by one Spirit.”

He then takes the lion as the symbol of St John, representing the power of the Word in the creation and ruling of the world; the ox, an animal of priestly sacrifice, as the symbol of Luke, who begins his Gospel with the priest Zachariah; the man as the symbol of St Matthew, who begins with Christ’s human genealogy; and the eagle as the symbol of Mark, who begins “with the prophetical spirit coming down from on high to men, saying, ‘The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as it is written in Esaias the prophet,’ … and on this account he made a compendious and cursory narrative, for such is the prophetical character.”

St Augustine accepted this symbolic explanation of these animals, but proposes what he calls “a more reasonable application of the figures” than that made by St Irenaeus and others, without critiquing anyone by name. In his book On the Harmony of the Gospels (1.6.9), he refers the lion, the king of the beasts, to Matthew, who speaks about Christ’s royal descent from King David, and tells us that the Magi called Him “the King of the Jews.” The man is referred to Mark, “who handles the things which the man Christ did”, and the ox to Luke for the same reason as Irenaeus. Since the first three animals “have their course upon this earth, (i.e., they walk and do not fly) … in like manner, those three evangelists occupy themselves chiefly with the things which Christ did in the flesh … Whereas John … soars like an eagle above the clouds of human infirmity, and gazes upon the light of the unchangeable truth (i.e. the divinity of Christ) with those keenest and steadiest eyes of the heart.” This last part refers to a common belief in the ancient world that eagles could look directly at the sun.

Folio 27v of the Books of Kells, ca. 800, showing the Symbols of the Four Evangelists.

It is to St Jerome that we owe the formation of this tradition as we now hold it, in which the man, lion, ox and eagle, are the symbols respectively of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. In the prologue of his commentary on the Gospel of St Matthew, he writes that

The book of Ezekiel also proves that these four Gospels were foretold long before, in which the first vision is formed thus: “And in the midst thereof the likeness of four living creatures: and the countenance thereof, the face of a man, and the face of a lion, and the face of an ox, and the face of an eagle.” The first face of the man signifies Matthew, who began to write as of a man, “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” The second is Mark, in which the voice of a lion roaring in the desert is heard, “A voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.” The third is that of the ox, who prefigures the Evangelist Luke, who took his beginning from the priest Zachariah. The fourth is the Evangelist John, who taking the wings of an eagle, and hastening to higher matters, treats of the Word of God.

This order is repeated exactly, and for the same reasons, by St Gregory the Great at the beginning of his fourth homily on Ezekiel. Jerome then confirms the prophetic meaning of the vision by reference to the appearance of the same four animals in the fourth chapter of the Apocalypse, that “are full of eyes, and rested not day and night, saying: ‘Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was, and who is, and who is to come.’ ” The animals in the chariot in Ezekiel 1, and the cherubim in chapter ten are both described as “full of eyes.” He goes to make the same point first made by Irenaeus: “By all these things, it is clearly shown that only the four Gospels ought to be received, and all the ditties of the apocrypha ought to be sung by the heretics, who are dead, rather than by the living men of the Church.”

Detail of the St John Altarpiece by Hans Memling, 1474-79, showing the vision of St John in Apocalypse 4.

Part of Ezekiel’s vision, 1, 10-14, is read as the Epistle at the Masses of Ss Matthew and Mark, but not those of Ss Luke or John. (It has been removed from the lectionary of the post-Conciliar rite.) In the Tridentine Breviary, Ezekiel, 1, 1-12 is read at Matins of Ss Matthew, Mark and Luke, and the whole of Apocalypse 4 is read on the Octave of St John. This is the limit of the liturgical use of these passages on the feasts of the Evangelists. In its habitual conservatism, the Roman Breviary has proper readings for the Evangelists at Matins, but uses the common office of Apostles for everything else; St John has a mostly proper Office, but the other three do not. None of the proper musical texts (antiphons, hymns, responsories) of St John’s office or the common of Apostles cites either of these passages.

There does exist, however, a more complete proper office of the Evangelists, which is found in the Breviaries of the Dominican, Carmelite and Premonstratensian Orders, and most medieval Uses. It has nine responsories, all of which quote the visions of Ezekiel, although these were not received by the Dominicans. It also includes these three major antiphons, for the Magnificat of both Vespers and for the Benedictus at Lauds, which refer explicitly to the tradition of the four animals as symbols of the Evangelists.

Ad Magn. Aña Ecce ego Joannes vidi ostium apertum in caelo; et ecce sedes posita erat in eo, et in medio sedis et in circuitu ejus quattuor animalia plena oculis ante et retro: et dabant gloriam et honorem et benedictionem sedenti super thronum, viventi in saecula saeculorum.
At the Magnificat of First Vespers Behold, I, John, saw a door was opened in heaven, and behold there was a throne set in heaven, and in the midst of the throne, and round about it were four living creatures, full of eyes before and behind; and they gave glory, and honor, and blessing to him that sitteth on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever.

Ad Bened. Aña In medio et in circuitu sedis Dei quattuor animalia senas alas habentia, oculis undique plena, non cessant nocte ac die dicere: Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus Dominus Deus omnipotens, qui erat et qui est, et qui venturus est.
At the Benedictus In the midst and round about the throne of God, four living creatures, having wings, full of eyes on all sides, rest not day and night, saying: Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was, and who is, and who is to come.

Ad Magn. Aña Tua sunt haec, Christe, opera, qui sanctos tuos ita glorificas, ut etiam dignitatis gratiam in eis futuram praeire miraculis facias: tu insignes Evangelii praedicatores animalium caelestium admirabili figura praesignasti: his namque caeleste munus collatum gloriosis indiciis es dignatus ostendere: hinc laus, hinc gloria tibi resonet in saecula.
At the Magnificat of Second Vespers These are Thy works, o Christ, who so glorify Thy Saints, that Thou also cause the grace of dignity that will be in them to be first preceded by miracles. Thou marked beforehand the wondrous preachers of the Gospel by the marvelous figure of the heavenly animals; for by these glorious signs, Thou deigned to show the heavenly gift given to them; hence let praise, hence glory resound to Thee forever.

Dr. Kwasniewski’s Midwest Lecture Tour, Sept. 30 - Oct. 4

I am pleased to announce here at NLM my upcoming Midwest Lecture Tour (taking Midwest in a rather broad sense). Click on the images to see the details.

September 30 • Burr Ridge, Illinois (Chicago area): “Why Divine Woship Needs the Power of Non-Verbal Language”

October 1 • Ambridge, Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh area): “Exploring the Common Riches of the Byzantine Rite and the Roman Rite”

October 2 • Catholic Identity Conference (Pittsburgh)*: “The Traditional Latin Mass: What Truly Unites All the Clans”

(To register for the CIC, visit this link.)

October 4 • Carmel, Indiana (Indianapolis area)*: “Not Peacenik and Bambi-Lover, but Mystic of the Mass and Defender of the Eucharist: Discovering the True St. Francis of Assisi” (N.B. This will be the 800th anniversary of the death of the great saint!)

(To register for this event, which includes dinner, go to this link.)

Each event will feature a talk followed by a Q&A and booksigning.

All details are found on the attached posters. Looking forward to meeting old friends and new.

(*CIC and Carmel events require registration; the other two are free & open to the public.)

Durandus on the Book of Judith

As the book of Judith is read, we sing of how victory was given by the hand of a woman, and by this, the Church exhorts us to holiness, that is, to continence, by the example of Judith. For just as she killed Holofernes, a name which means, “he who weakens the fatted calf,” so does the Church advise us to kill Holofernes, that is, the devil, who weakens and kills the lustful in this world; and this will be done through holiness, by cutting off his head. For the head of the devil is lustfulness, because it is, as it were, the first way he begins to tempt men. Therefore does the Lord say, “Let your loins be girded” (Luke 12, 35), that is, gird yourselves against the first vice, according to that which is said in Exodus concerning the eating of the Paschal lamb (12, 11), “Ye shall gird your loins.” But in another sense, pride is the beginning of every sin. (Rationale Divinorum Officiorum, VI, 128, 1)

Judith Beheading Holofernes, 1612-13, by the Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1654)

Our friend Durandus is here working on an exegetical tradition by which the general Holofernes in his drunkenness symbolizes the various ways in which the carnal vices weaken the spirit, and is therefore defeated by Judith, the virtuous widow who “fasted all the days of her life, apart from sabbaths and new moons and the feasts of the house of Israel.” This is the common tradition of the Fathers, as exemplified by the readings from St Ambrose’s book “On Elijah and fasting” which follow the opening of the book in the breviary: “For (Judith), girt with fasting, went forth into the camps of the foreigners; (Holofernes) lay buried with wine, such that he could not even feel the blow of the wound (that killed him). Therefore, the fasting of a single woman laid low countless armies of the Assyrians.”

Durandus also alludes briefly to a later development by which Holofernes and the king whose ambition he serves, Nebuchadnezzar, become principally symbols of pride, and hence of the devil. This is exemplified in the first Latin commentary on the book of Judith, written by the Blessed Rabanus Maurus in the first half of the 9th century. “Why is it that Nebuchadnezzar, filled with wrath, and lifted up by the pride of arrogance, promises that he will avenge himself upon those who resist him, and boasts that he wishes to subject all the earth to his rule, if not that the devil, stirred up by his own pride, promises to himself the rule of all the world, and strives with all his might to draw men away from the due worship (of God), and make them share in his wickedness?” Judith therefore represents the contrary virtue of humility: “...the divine power, through the humility and simplicity of its faithful, overcomes the throng of the enemy, beats it down and scatters it; for the beauty and brightness of all the virtues, which shone forth in the speech of this Judith, and likewise in her works, was the cause of the greatest ruin to the enemies.”

Judith Presents the Head of Holofernes, ca. 1660, by the Italian painter Mattia Preti (1613-99)

The Hymn of the Ember Saturday Masses

At all four of the Ember Saturday Masses, the fifth Old Testament reading is the same, taken from the third chapter of Daniel, in which the three young men, Ananiah, Azariah and Misael, are thrown into a furnace as punishment for refusing to worship the statue of the Babylonian Emperor. This is the single most frequently represented Biblical story in pre-Constantinian Christian art, since it reflects exactly the situation of the Christians in the Roman Empire, who were persecuted for refusing to worship the statue of the Roman Emperor. (Already in the New Testament, Babylon, the persecutor of the Jews, is twice taken as a symbol of Rome, the persecutor of the Christians: in 1 Peter 5, 13, and six times in the Apocalypse.) The universal custom of singing the canticle which the children sing in the furnace, the Benedicite, as part of the Divine Office, also attests to its great significance for the ancient Church.

Detail of a Christian sarcophagus of the Constantinian period (ca. 305-335), known as the Sarcophagus of Adelphia, discovered in the church of St John in Syracuse, Sicily, in 1872. On the far left, the Emperor Nebuchadnezzar points to a bust of himself set on a column, the gesture by which he commands the three children to worship it. Even though the Biblical text states quite unmistakably that the Emperor made an enormous “statue”, in early Christian art, it is usually represented as a bust on a column, since that it what the Romans used. (On the right side are represented the Miracle at Cana and one of the three Magi.Image from Wikimedia Commons by Davide Mauro; CC BY-SA 4.0)

The reading consists of only five verses, Daniel 3, 47-51, which are presented in a slightly different order from that of the Biblical text, as noted below; the words in italics are paraphrased from verse 46. (We may note in passing that no historical Christian lectionary presents all of its readings according to the strict letter of the Bible itself.)

Lectio Daniélis Prophétae. In diébus illis: 49 Angelus Dómini descendit cum Azaría et sociis ejus in fornácem: et excussit flammam ignis de fornáce, 50a et fecit medium fornácis quasi ventum roris flantem. 47 Flamma autem effundebátur super fornácem cúbitis quadraginta novem: 48 et erúpit, et incendit, quos répperit juxta fornácem de Chaldáeis, ministros regis, qui eam incendébant. 50b Et non tétigit eos omníno ignis, neque contristávit, nec quidquam molestiae íntulit. 51 Tunc hi tres quasi ex uno ore laudábant, e glorificábant, et benedicébant Deum in fornáce, dicentes:

A reading of the Prophet Daniel. In those days, 49 the angel of the Lord went down with Azarias and his companions into the furnace: and he drove the flame of the fire out of the furnace, 50a And made the midst of the furnace like the blowing of a wind bringing dew. 47 And the flame mounted up above the furnace nine and forty cubits: 48 and it broke forth, and burnt such of the Chaldeans as it found near the furnace, the ministers of the king who were heating it. 50b And the fire touched them not at all, nor troubled them, nor did them any harm. 51 Then these three as with one mouth praised, and glorified, and blessed God in the furnace, saying:

It ends abruptly (and should always be chanted without the notes that indicate the conclusion) to segue into the following hymn, the only case where a reading is followed by a hymn instead of a gradual, tract, or alleluia. The text is closer to that of the Septuagint version, and the Old Latin version which depended upon it, rather than the Vulgate. The words “and praiseworthy and glorious unto the ages” are very cleverly incorporated into the doxology.

Benedictus es, Dómine, Deus patrum nostrórum. Et laudábilis et gloriósus in sáecula.	Blessed art Thou, o Lord, God of our fathers, And praiseworthy and glorious unto the ages.
Et benedictum nomen glo- riae tuae, quod est sanctum. Et laudábile et gloriósum in sáecula.	And blessed is the name of Thy glory, which is holy, And praiseworthy and glorious unto the ages.
Benedictus es in templo sancto gloriae tuae. Et laudábilis et gloriósus in sáecula.	Blessed art Thou in the holy temple of Thy glory, And praiseworthy and glorious unto the ages.
Benedictus es super thronum sanctum regni tui. Et laudábilis et gloriósus in sáecula.	Blessed art Thou upon the holy throne of Thy kingdom, And praiseworthy and glorious unto the ages.
Benedictus es super sceptrum divinitátis tuae. Et laudábilis et gloriósus in sáecula.	Blessed art Thou upon the scepter of Thy divinity, And praiseworthy and glorious unto the ages.
Benedictus es, qui sedes super Chérubim, íntuens abyssos. Et laudábilis et gloriósus in sáecula.	Blessed art Thou who sittest upon the Cherubim, looking upon the depths, And praiseworthy and glorious unto the ages.
Benedictus es, qui ámbulas su- per pennas ventórum et super undas maris. Et laudábilis et gloriósus in sáecula.	Blessed art Thou who walkest upon the wings of the winds, and upon the waves of the sea, And praiseworthy and glorious unto the ages.
Benedícant te omnes Angeli et Sancti tui. Et laudent te et gloríficent in sáecula.	Let all Thy Angels and Saints bless Thee, And praise Thee, and glorfy Thee unto the ages.
Benedícant te caeli, terra, mare, et omnia quae in eis sunt. Et laudent te et gloríficent in sáecula.	Let the heavens, the earth, the sea and all things that are in them bless Thee, And praise Thee, and glorify Thee unto the ages.
Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spirítui Sancto. Et laudábili et glorióso in sáecula.	Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, And praiseworthy and glorious unto the ages.
Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in sáecula saecu- lórum. Amen. Et laudábili et glorióso in sáecula.	As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. And praiseworthy and glorious unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Benedictus es, Dómine, Deus patrum nostrórum. Et laudábilis et gloriósus in sáecula.	Blessed art Thou, o Lord, God of our fathers, and praiseworthy and glorious unto the ages.

On the Ember Saturday of Pentecost, the reading is the same, but the hymn is replaced with an Alleluia, which is then repeated the following day on the feast of the Holy Trinity. “Alleluia. Benedictus es, Dómine, Deus patrum nostrórum. Et laudábilis et gloriósus in sáecula.”

An Old Documentary about Chartres Cathedral

Here’s another win for the YouTube suggestion algorithm, which showed up after the post which I made on September 10th that included a recent documentary about the cathedral of Chartres: namely, a documentary about the cathedral of Chartres from 63 years ago. The approach is, of course, quite different from that of the modern documentary, but very respectful even where it assumes some of the nostra of the modern age about its own progress and achievements.

This film was made as part of an educational series by the Encyclopedia Britannica, of the kind that used to be shown quite often in schools. The on-sight narrator who appears in the town of Chartres in the first minutes, John Canaday, worked for 1959 until 1976 as an art critic for the New York Times, and shall live in blessed memory for beginning his career there by writing that Abstract Expressionism as an artistic movement allows for “exceptional tolerance for incompetence and deception.”

The Priest’s First Prayer before Holy Communion

Lost in Translation #169

After the Kiss of Peace, the priest prepares for his Holy Communion with two prayers in the Orations style. Both are “shoots that grew from the still living roots of the abandoned Gallican liturgy,” in Jungmann’s colorful formulation. (vol. 2, 344) The first prayer may be found in the ninth-century Sacramentary of Amiens. It is:

Domine Jesu Christe, Fili Dei vivi, qui ex voluntate Patris, cooperante Spiritu Sancto, per mortem tuam mundum vivificasti: líbera me per hoc sacrosanctum Corpus et Sanguinem tuum ab omnibus iniquitatibus meis et universis malis: et fac me tuis semper inhaerere mandatis, et a te numquam separari permittas: Qui cum eodem Deo Patre et Spiritu Sancto vivis et regnas, Deus, in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

Which I translate as:

O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, Who, according to the will of the Father, with the cooperation of the Holy Spirit, has given life to the world by Thy death; deliver me by this, Thy sacrosanct Body and Blood, from all my iniquities and from all evils; and make me always cleave to Thy commandments, and permit me never to be separated from Thee, Who live and reign with the same God the Father and the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever. Amen.

To quote Nicholas Gihr, “This prayer [is] as solid and comprehensive as it is brief and simple.” (p. 726) The opening address to the Son of God is a marvelous compendium of New Testament theology. Jesus is, as St. Peter confesses, “the Son of the living God,” (Matt. 16, 19) who does the will of His Father (Luke 22, 42), and He does so with the help of the Holy Spirit. Cooperante Spiritu Sancto is a faint echo of a verse about Jesus after He ascended into Heaven:

But [the Apostles] going forth preached everywhere: the Lord working withal (Domino cooperante) and confirming the word with signs that followed. (Mark 16, 20)

Cooperante Spiritu Sancto is an ablative absolute, which in this case involves a present active participle in the ablative case. In English it is common to translate an ablative absolute with a noun, as I do here with “cooperation of the Holy Spirit.” The original Latin, however, is livelier since it leaves open the possibility that the Holy Spirit’s cooperation with the Father and the Son is ongoing. I am not fond of the 2011 ICEL translation “and the work of the Holy Spirit” because it loses this sense of collaboration between all three Divine Persons.

The petition of the prayer is threefold:

First, deliver me from all my iniquities and all evils. The use of libera ties the prayer back to the final petition of the Lord’s Prayer and the Embolism, which is why I believe that it should be translated as “deliver me” rather than ICEL’s “free me.” And the prayer seeks deliverance from all my iniquities as well as all evils in general, that is, the evil persons, things, and events outside of me. It is a comprehensive request.

And the prayer asks for deliverance through Christ’s sacrosanct Body and Blood. Sacrosanctus refers to something that is both sacred (sacer) and holy (sanctus), and the Eucharist is one of the few things that fits within this Venn diagram: as the really present living Christ, the Eucharist is eminently holy; and it also extremely sacred, that is, set apart for divine use and handled with great reverence. And yet Anglophone translators have developed a bad habit of picking only one of these attributes and then putting it into the superlative (which is absent from the Latin). ICEL and several preconciliar hand Missals have “your most holy Body and Blood” while other preconciliar Missals have “your most sacred Body and Blood.” Referring to Christ’s Body and Blood as sacrosanct, incidentally, also occurs in the prayer Supplies te rogamus.

Second and third, the priest asks to cleave (inhaerere) to Christ’s commandments and never to be separated from Him. There is a pleasing contrast between cleaving/clinging/sticking and separating. The diction may be an echo of Joshua 22, 5:

Love the Lord your God, and walk in all his ways, and keep all his commandments, and cleave to him (adhaereatisque ei), and serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.

And there is something almost spiritually romantic about the image of cleaving, thanks to Genesis 2, 24:

Wherefore a man shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they shall be two in one flesh.

Robert Bowyer (1758-1834), Creation of Eve

The Vulgate uses adhaerere here and elsewhere to translate the Hebrew dabaq or “cleave.” Technically, inhaerere is stronger (“ad-here” is to stick to while “in-here” is to stick into), but they tend to be used interchangeably. In a way, the priest is asking for the same thing to happen to him as is about to happen to Christ. Just as the Eucharist is about to stick to the priest’s flesh (as we will learn from a later prayer) and become one with it, so too does the priest ask to be utterly absorbed into Christ’s commandments and become one with them and with Him. It is a striking statement of self-surrender and communion.

These nuances, in my opinion, are lost in the 2011 ICEL translation:

keep me always faithful to your commandments,

and never let me be parted from you.