Thanks once again to our Ambrosian correspondent Nicola de’ Grandi, this time for finding these wonderful photos of some processions held in Milan in the 1920s. The first set is of procession with the relics of St Aloysius Gonzaga, which took place on February 13, 1927, going from the church of St Fidelis to the Duomo. The Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Eugenio Tosi (predecessor of the Blessed Schuster), and the entire chapter of the cathedral participated.
The archbishop’s mace-bearer, wearing a traditional costume from the days when Milan was a territory of the Spanish crown, and pages carrying the biretta and cape of the cardinal.
Card. Eugenio Tosi, flanked by Monsignors Buttafava and Balbiani, canons of the cathedral chapter; the clerics to either side carry their birrettas and capes.
The relics of St Aloysius, carried under a baldachin of the classic form used by the Ambrosian church.
Fr Giovanni Bargiggia, first provost of the parish of Santa Maria del Rosario in Milan, who was made bishop of Caltagirone in Sicily a few months later (which must have been quite the culture-shock...)
The procession passes in front of Santa Maria della Consolazione, which is now the home of the traditional Ambrosian Rite in the center of Milan.
The banner of the city, carried by four firemen, and accompanied by the city’s valets.
Members of the cathedral chapter, preceded by their processional cross.
A bishop, not the cardinal.
The remaining photos are of a procession held on May 7, 1922, as part of a Eucharistic Congress.
On Via San Giovanni sul Muro
The procession arrives in Piazza Sant’Ambrogio.
Benediction
