From the Roman Breviary of 1529, the continuation of the sermon for the feast of All Saints.
The Last Judgment by Giotto, in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, 1306 |
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From the Roman Breviary of 1529, the continuation of the sermon for the feast of All Saints.
The Last Judgment by Giotto, in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, 1306 |
The Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer write in from their monastery on the Scottish island of Papa Stronsay to let us know that their 2025 liturgical calendar is now available for purchase. As always, it has a wealth of information, including the liturgical calendar of 1962, particular and local feasts that are of special note to their order, traditional days of abstinence, and the anniversaries of the births and deaths of many Saints. This year, they have also introduced the virtues for each month, a part of the traditional Redemptorist spirituality, going back to the very foundation of our Order. Their purpose is to make it easier for us to imitate the holy life of Our Blessed Redeemer, by concentrating on the practice of one virtue at a time. They calendar also has plenty of photos that give an overview of life in their various houses.
https://papastronsay.com/publications/DWFPress/product.php?ID=61
This is the second part of a guest article by Mr Thomas Neal on the chants of the ongoing feast of All Saints; the first part was published on Friday. Mr Neal is a teacher, musicologist, and church musician based in Oxford (UK), where inter alia he serves as the Director of Music at New College School. Our thanks to him once again for sharing with us the interesting results of his research.
The Alleluia verse is a quotation from the Gospel of St. Matthew 11, verse 28. More research is required to determine the sources of this melody. In my (admittedly brief) searches, the earliest chant manuscript I could find with this text is the 11th-century Cantatorium of the Use of St. Martial de Limoges; among the later sources are a 15th-century Graduale from Maastricht; but both transmit other melodies that are markedly different from that in the Liber usualis.
This text was set by composers such as Palestrina, Andrea Gabrieli, Jacobus de Kerle, Orlando di Lasso, and Jacob Regnart. But it is perhaps Felice Anerio’s glorious setting for double choir (Selectae cantiones octonis vocibus concinendae, 1614) that is best known today:From the Roman Breviary of 1529, the continuation of the sermon for the feast of All Saints.
The collected papers given at the Fourteenth Fota International Liturgical Conference, held in Cork, Ireland, in 2023, are now available for pre-order from Smenos Publications. The topic of the conference is the centrality of the concept of sacrifice in understanding the Eucharistic liturgy, and is treated from various Biblical, theological, liturgical and historical perspectives, ranging from how the Mass fulfils the sacrifices of the Old Testament, to aspects of Joseph Ratzinger’s theology of the Eucharist, to the reform of the offertory in the Mass, and to the effects of modern liturgical reform on ritual itself. These proceedings are an important contribution to the ongoing post-conciliar recovery of the Church’s perennial teaching on the sacrifice of the Mass, a teaching deeply rooted in both Scripture and tradition. The papers have been edited by our own Matthew Hazell, who is also one of the contributors.
From the Roman Breviary of 1529, the continuation of the sermon for the feast of All Saints.
The Nine Choirs of Angels. In the central circle are God the Father, Christ, and the Virgin Mary in prayer; in the band around them the Sanctus is written three time; in the broader band, six each of the Cherubim, Seraphim, and Thrones. In the middle, three each of the Dominations, Principalities, and Powers, with the beginning of the Gloria above them, repeated three times. At the bottom, three each of the Virtues, Archangels, and Angels, with the words “Salus Deo nostro qui sedet super tronum et Agno” (salvation to our God, who sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb - Apoc. 7, 10) above their heads, three times. (From the Breviari d’Amour by Matfré Ermengau of Béziers; British Library Yates Thompson 31, folio 40v.)
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Today we publish the second and concluding part of Dr. Paweł Milcarek’s study of the history of the psalter in the Roman divine office. Part 1 may be found here. —PAK
A commemorative medallion for the second session of Vatican II (source), at the end of which, the document on the liturgy was promulgated. |
Ut cursus Horarum, in art. 89 propositus, reapse observari possit, psalmi non amplius per unam hebdomadam, sed per longius temporis spatium distribuantur.
Opus recognitionis Psalterii, feliciter inchoatum, quamprimum perducatur ad finem, respectu habito latinitatis christianae, usus liturgici etiam in cantu, necnon totius traditionis latinae Ecclesiae.
[So that it may really be possible in practice to observe the course of the hours proposed in Art. 89, the psalms are no longer to be distributed throughout one week, but through some longer period of time.
The work of revising the psalter, already happily begun, is to be finished as soon as possible, and is to take into account the style of Christian Latin, the liturgical use of psalms, also when sung, and the entire tradition of the Latin Church.]
Those two statements – concerning the change of distribution of Psalms and the revision of the text – further defined the frame of reference for the reform of the breviary Psalter.
NOTES
[1] Officium divinum ex decreto Ss. Oecumenici Concilii Vatricani II instauratum auctoritate Pauli Pp. VI promulgatum: Liturgia horarum iuxta ritum romanum
[2] Cf. SC, 89.
[3] Cf. SC, 91: „psalmi non amplius per unam hebdomadam, sed per longius temporis spatium distribuantur”.
[4] Cf. Institutio generalis de Liturgia Horarum (IGLH), 126.
[5] Cf. Bugnini, 1990, p. 499.
[6] Cf. IGLH, 131: „Tres vero psalmi 57, 82 et 108, in quibus præponderat indoles imprecatoria, omittuntur in Psalterio currente. Item aliqui versus nonnullorum psalmorum prætermissi sunt… Quorum textuum omissio fit ob quandam difficultatem psychologicam, etsi psalmi ipsi imprecatorii in pietate Novi Testamenti occurrunt, exempli gratia Ap 6, 10, nulloque modo intendunt ad maledicendum inducere”.
[7] Cf. IGLH, 111.
[8] Cf. IGLH, 109.
[9] In relation to the Psalmody of the Roman rite of the 5th and the 6th centuries, I refer here to the works by Joseph Pascher, as cited in: Robert F. Taft SJ, Liturgy of the hours in East and West, Collegeville 1993, p. 136.
[10] However, so called additional psalmody is almost completely consistent with so called Gradual Psalms.
From the Roman Breviary of 1529, the continuation of the sermon for the feast of All Saints.
Virgo inter Virgines, by Gerard David, ca. 1509; Musée des Beaux Arts de Rouen. From left to right: St Dorothy with a basket of roses and the painter behind her; St Catherine of Alexandria, with her wheel worked into her crown as a decoration; St Agnes, with a lamb, and her foster-sister St Emerentiana behind her; St Fausta with a saw, (the instrument of her martyrdom); St Apollonia with the tongs used to pull out her teeth; St Godelina with the scarf her husband used to have her strangled; St Cecilia beside an organ; St Barbara, with her tower worked into her hat as a decoration; Cornelia Cnoop, the painter’s wife; St Lucy holding her eyes. (A high resolution image with close-up is available here on the museum’s website.)
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In Ireland, today is the feast of St Malachy, one of the great ecclesiastical reformers of the 12th century. He served for a time as Primate of Ireland in the very ancient See of Armagh, established by St Patrick himself, but later resigned that office, and ended his life as bishop of Down. The revised Butler’s Lives of the Saints sums up his career by likening him to St Theodore of Canterbury, who lived half a millennium before him, and gave a permanent form to the organization of the Church in England. His feast is also kept by various congregations of canons regular, since the reform movement of which he was such an important figure was very much concerned with restoring discipline to the lives of such congregations, and cathedral canons as well. He was a close personal friend of St Bernard, and actually died in his arms after a brief illness while visiting Clairvaux Abbey, on All Souls’ Day of 1148. Bernard was so convinced of Malachy’s sanctity that when celebrating his funeral, he sang the Post-Communion prayer of a Confessor Bishop instead of that of the Requiem Mass; he later wrote his biography, and for these reasons, the Cistercians also have Malachy on their calendar. Bernard’s judgment was formally confirmed by Pope Clement III in 1190; Ireland had, of course, a great many Saints before then, but Malachy was the very first to be formally recognized as such by a Pope.
A statue of St Malachy on the outside of Armagh Cathedral. (Image from Wikimedia Commons by Andreas F. Borchert, CC BY-SA 4.0) |
The Papal coat-of-arms of Pope Leo XIII |
From the Roman Breviary of 1529, the continuation of the sermon for the feast of All Saints.
The Holy Trinity, from a French book of Hours ca. 1415. (Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.) |
We are very grateful to Mr Thomas Neal for sharing with us this excellent article on the chants of today’s feast. Mr Neal is a teacher, musicologist, and church musician based in Oxford (UK). He read music to postgraduate level at Clare College, University of Cambridge, where he was the John Stewart of Rannoch Scholar in Sacred Music. His research focuses on the sources of sacred music in sixteenth-century Rome, with a particular focus on the life and works of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. Thomas has over fifteen years of experience directing music for the traditional Latin liturgy, in addition to conducting numerous choirs and period instrument ensembles in repertoire from Josquin to Haydn. Since 2018 he has been the Director of Music at New College School, Oxford; he lives in Oxford with his wife, Catherine, and their three children.
The origins of the feast of All Saints have traditionally been traced to the most ancient custom of marking the anniversary of a martyr’s death. By the fourth century, adjacent dioceses would commemorate the feasts of each other’s martyr-saints, divide and transfer their relics, and coordinate common feasts. However, the persecutions under Diocletian (r.284-305) created so many martyrs that commemorations began to be grouped together. Eventually, a common day for all saints was appointed: the first trace of this feast is at Antioch, when it was observed on the Sunday after Pentecost. Reference to this or a similar feast appears in the writings of St. Ephrem the Syrian (d.373) and St. John Chrystostom (c.347-407).
In an article published here in 2017, Gregory DiPippo proposed an attractive theory that the feast of All Saints on 1 November has its origins in the iconoclast heresies of the eighth and ninth centuries. [1] Pope St. Gregory II (r.715-31) was quick to condemn the perpetrators of the iconoclasm that broke out in 726, and publicly reprimanded emperor Leo III for his role the destruction. His immediate successor, Pope St. Gregory III (r.731-41), convoked a synod at Rome on 1 November 731, during which he decreed the excommunication of all who committed iconoclasm against images of Our Lord, the Mother of God, the Apostles and all the saints. He dedicated a chapel in Old St. Peter’s basilica to All Saints and designated 1 November as its feast day. Recent research has demonstrated that this chapel was situated in front of the martyrium of St. Peter, on the south side of the nave and within the pars virorum. One of the texts inscribed in stone at the time of Gregory III can be seen in the crypt of the new basilica, left of the tomb of Emperor Otto II. The pope planned for a Mass to be offered in the chapel daily, commemorating not only the saints in the calendar or whose relics were kept in the chapel, but for all saints, including those known only to God. [2]A cross-section drawing of the old basilica of St Peter as it was at the end of the 15th century. |
From the Roman Breviary of 1529, the beginning of the sermon for the feast of All Saints.
Mass celebrated in the Pantheon on May 13, 2009, the fourteenth centenary of the building's dedication as a Christian church. Photo courtesy of John Sonnen.
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We call the “leftover” Sundays at the end of the Time after Pentecost reconfigured rather than resumed, because they are not identical to the Sundays after Epiphany, but have been altered both by a different set of Mass propers, (Graduale/Alleluia, Offertory verse, and Communion verse) and by context.
Deus, qui nos in tantis perículis constitútos, pro humána scis fragilitáte non posse subsístere: da nobis salútem mentis et córporis; ut ea quæ pro peccátis nostris pátimur, te adjuvante vincámus. Per Dóminum.Which I translate as:
O God, who knowest us to be placed in dangers so great that, on account of human frailty, we cannot withstand them; grant to us health of mind and body: that those things which we suffer on account of our sins we may conquer with Thy help. Through Our Lord.In the prelude (the protasis), we are surrounded by dangers that we are incapable of withstanding because of our frailty or fragility. “Of all the things that breathe and move upon it,” Odysseus laments in the Odyssey, “Earth nurtures nothing feebler than man.” [1] “Man’s days are as grass, as the flower of the field so shall he flourish,” chants the psalmist. “For the spirit shall pass in him, and he shall not be: and he shall know his place no more” (Ps. 102, 15-16). “Man is nothing but a reed, the feeblest thing in nature.” Pascal adds. “…It is not necessary for the whole universe to arm itself in order to crush him; a vapor, a drop of water, is enough to kill him.” [2]
Concéde, quǽsumus, omnípotens Deus: ut hujus sacrifícii munus oblatum, fragilitátem nostram ab omni malo purget semper, et múniat. Per Dóminum nostrum.Which I translate as:
Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty God, that the oblation of this sacrifice may ever purify and protect our frailty from all evil. Through Our Lord.Finally, in the Postcommunion we pray:
Múnera tua nos, Deus, a dilectiónibus terrénis expédiant: et cæléstibus semper instáurent aliméntis. Per Dóminum.Which I translate as:
May Thy gifts, O God, set us free us from earthly delights, and ever restore us with heavenly nourishments. Through Our Lord.Munus (gift, offering) connects us to the Secret, and the prayer for restoration (instaurare) connects us to the Collect. We need to be restored in order to be strengthened, and the means of our restoration is the heavenly nourishment of the Eucharist.
In those days, behold I, John, saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb standing as it were slain, having seven horns and seven eyes: which are the seven Spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat on the throne. And when he had opened the book, the four living creatures, and the four and twenty ancients fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.
The representation of this scene in an illustrated manuscript of the Commentary on the Apocalypse by Beatus of Liébana. The Lamb is represented on a medallion on Christ’s chest and another on top of his staff, although they are barely visible as such. (Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.) |