Last Saturday, 23 January 2010, H.E. Msgr. Braulio Rodríguez Plaza, Archbishop of Toledo and Primate of Spain, celebrated Mass in the Mozarabic Rite in his Cathedral on the Feast of
St. Ildephonsus, Patron of the city and diocese of Toledo. This is the second occasion on which the Archbishop of Toledo celebrates in this Rite, the other being the Feast of the Expectation of Our Lady (Expectación del Parto de la Santísima Virgen) on December 18th (one week before Christmas). This feast, instituted by the 10th Council of Toledo in 656, rather than the Annunciation, is one of the most solemn feasts of the Mozarabic Rite (it is also observed, but with less solemnity, in the Roman Rite in Spain). It is also called Our Lady of the O (Nuestra Señora de la O), because on its First Vespers (Decemebr 17th) the O Antiphons of the week before the Vigil of Christmas begin. The NLM reported on Archbishop Rodríguez's Mass in the Mozarabic Rite on this occasion last year (
link). Here are some images of the Mass for the Feast of St. Ildephonsus last Saturday.
Mass at the high altar:
Procession to the Chapel of the Descension, where the Blessed Virgin gave a chasuble to St. Ildephonsus as a reward for defending her perpetual virginity:
In the Chapel, the Archbishop presented the cathedral's relic of St. Ildephonsus for the veneration of the faithful (his body is buried at Zamora):
The presentation of the chasuble to St. Ildephonsus is a popular theme of Spanish religious art. Here is one famous example by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo:
Sources:
Ecclesia Digital,
Flashes de la Iglesia; h/t:
Una Voce Málaga
