Today is the Feast of St Cecilia, the patron saint of Music and Musicians. Here is a photograph taken this morning of the Shrine Of St Cecilia at the London Oratory. It is based on the Saint's tomb at Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, and can be found on the left hand side in St Wilfrid's Chapel (the Chapel at the far right hand end as you enter the Oratory). But today is also the Feast of Our Lady of La Vang who appeared in Vietnam in the 1700s. A reader in Vietnam has kindly sent in a link to the documentary below (in Vietnamese and French) which has some wonderful footage from the 1960s. He writes:
The first part of the documentary is about the arrival of the International Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fatima in 1965. In it one can see that altars in the less major cities of Vietnam are still Ad Orientem, while in the capital of Saigon, concelebration (on giant altars!!) and Versus Populum Masses are already taking place. One sees that priests still wear maniples etc.
The second part of the documentary is about the Marian Congress of 1961 at the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Vang. There are many clips of the Pontifical Masses in this documentary, and Archbishop Ngo Dinh Thuc is featured many times, conferring Confirmations and Consecrating the Minor Basilica. There are many interesting processions throughout both documentaries wherein traditions from the Colonial period are still observed.
