All Saints and All Souls 2021 Photopost (Part 3)

Our final photopost for All Saints and All Souls of this year begins with something very interesting from a church which has and deserves a world-wide reputation for celebrating the traditional rite particularly well, Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini, the FSSP church in Rome. For the feast of All Saints, all of the churches relics were displayed on the various altars.

On the high altar, the reliquaries in the upper rank are (from left to right) St Augustine, St Gregory the Great, St Pius V, and St Charles Borromeo; these were made for the celebration of St Charles’s canonization in 1610. The busts on the lower rank are a Saint from the catacombs whose name I forget, and St Philip Neri, the founder of the church’s confraternity, set between statues of the Apostles John, Peter, Paul and Matthew.

Relics of various Saints, mostly martyrs, on the altar of the right transept, which is dedicated to the Apostle St Matthew.

Images from the sacristy on the altar of the right transept: left, St Giovanni Battista de’ Rossi, who lived at the church in the mid-18th century, and was a member of its confraternity; center, the archangel Raphael, patron of medicine and healing, since the confraternity ran a pilgrim hospice which was also used to care for the sick; and right, St Benedict Joseph Labré.

On the evening of November 1st, before 2nd Vespers of All Saints, each reliquary was displayed to the faithful by the parish priest, as one of his confreres read out the names of the Saints whose relics are contained within them. 

Relics of the Holy Cross are never supposed to be displayed alongside those of the Saints, and so this one was brought out last of all, accompanied by candles and with an ombellino carried over it. 

The parish priest blesses the people with the relic of the Cross.

Vespers

The singing of the chapter.

Incensation of the high altar during the Magnificat.

For many years, the church has maintained the custom of incensing each of the side altars during Vespers of All Saints, after the main altar. This may actually be done on any major feast, for preference, during a very long polyphonic Magnificat, or while the organ is played. One may also sing the antiphon of the Magnificat several times between the verses; the Gloria Patri is sung only when the incensations are finished.

The altar of St Gregory the Great

The altar of St Charles, who is shown in the altarpiece with the Virgin and Child, and Ss Philip Neri, Dominic and Francis, a beautiful expression of how the Counter-Reformation built on and purified the inheritance which is received from the medieval church.

This altar at the back of the church is set up particularly (though not exclusively) for Requiem Masses, with black candlesticks, and an image of Our Lady of Sorrows; the altar piece is a large carved wooden cross.  

The final oration

Shrine Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament – Raritan, New Jersey,

Tradition will always be for the young!

Old St Patrick Oratory – Kansas City, Missouri (ICRSP)

Celebration of the order’s titular feast.

Act of consecration to the Sacred Heart and Procession

Nossa Senhora do Carmo and Nossa Senhora das Mercês e Misericórdia – Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Holy Innocents – New York City

Photos by Arrys Ortañez; Forty Hours celebrated in preparation for the feast of Christ the King, beginning with a Votive Mass of the Blessed Sacrament.

At the end of the Mass, before the Ablutions, the Blessed Sacrament is exposed on the altar; after which the Mass is celebrated coram Sanctissimo; here the priest says “Dominus vobiscum”, taking care not to turn his back to the Sacrament.

After the Mass, the Sacrament is incensed as at normal exposition...

followed by a procession.

It is then set upon the altar for the Forty Hours.

On Saturday the 30th, a Solemn Votive Mass for Peace was celebrated at a side altar.

On the feast itself, another procession is held before the solemn Mass on the feast of Christ the King.

Immaculate Heart of Mary Oratory – San José, California (ICRSP)

Eucharist Procession on the order’s titular feast.

All Souls’ Day