A Handwritten 1908 Letter from St Pius X Quoting Two Gregorian Hymns

A reader who recently acquired from an antiquities dealer a handwritten letter from Pope St Pius X has kindly shared with us the image of the letter, a translation, and a look into the soul of Giuseppe Sarto, who so loved Gregorian chant that he quoted (relatively obscure) chants as authorities in making his argument.

The Letter

Note the elegance of penmanship. People like to say Pius X was a man of the people, a peasant, etc., and it’s true that he had holes in his shoes from walking back and forth to school. But, like any literate person before education tanked after the 1960s, he was taught excellent penmanship, grammar, and style. He was neither a country bumpkin nor a 21st-century public-school illiterate.

If you look closely on both the left and right sides, you can see fingerprints in what look to be the same color as the ink.  My assumption is that these belong to Pope Pius as the ink would have been dry by the time the recipient received the letter. One might be reminded of an anecdote about Pius X:

Noted for his humility and simplicity, he declared that he had not changed personally save for his white cassock. Aides consistently needed to remind him not to wipe his pen on the white cassock, as he had previously done on his black cassock which hid stains.

While it cannot be seen from the digital image, when the letter is help up the light, the paper stock on which it was written contains a large and detailed watermark of the Pope’s face. In the lower right, there’s a watermark of the company that made the paper. The owner of this letter had it framed with double-sided glass so that the watermark can be observed while it's in the frame.

The document came with the original envelope in which it was mailed in 1908. That envelope is now quite stained and decayed, with some of the staining bleeding through to the letter.

The Transcription

The Translation

“Dearest Monsignor and Venerable Brother,

Please inform the canons of the cathedral of Chiavari that I have read with the greatest pleasure the story of the miraculous image of the Crucified, which is venerated in that city. - I congratulate them and the good people of Chiavari on this source of grace that Providence has reserved for them – and I pray that it might ever increase devotion for the good of souls. However, I believe it would not only disfigure the miraculous image with a gold crown, but would also contradict the very will of our Holy Redeemer, which allowed human malice, certainly for the highest purposes, to crown Him with thorns.

No image speaks so powerfully to the love of the true faithful as that of the Holy Crucified, and no crown, however precious, can replace the one that encircles the most holy head, of which the Church sings: The crown reddened with the blood of Christ, thorns changed to roses, and overcoming the wreath with its rewards, becomes more fitting for triumphal processions. [1] Hail, Crown of glory, More beautiful than gems and gold, knowing the sorrows of Christ you will surpass the crowns of the stars. [2]

I am certain that, as in the hymn, Venerable Brother, so shall the dearest canons enter into this sublime and holy concept, and with all best wishes, I impart the Apostolic Blessing.

Given at the Vatican on the 26th of November, 1908

Pius PP. X

To Msgr. Fortunato Vinelli Bishop of Chiavari

Notes

[1] The first hymn is “Exite Sion Filiæ,” from Lauds of the feast of the Receiving of the Crown of Thorns. It was also used for Vespers and Matins on the Friday after Quinquagesima Sunday, dedicated to the Most Holy Crown of Thorns of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the Office of the Instruments of the Passion, or the Passion Offices.

[2] This line is from the hymn “Legis Figuris Pingitur” which comes from Lauds on the Friday after Quinquagesima Sunday, dedicated to the Most Holy Crown of Thorns of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Antiquity and Universality of Fore-Lent (Part 2)

We continue with part 2 of Henri de Villiers’ examination of the various forms and traditions of the pre-Lenten period. Click here to read part 1.

Quinquagesima Week, the fast of Heraclius, Cheesefare Week

In both East and West, the week immediately before Lent took on a penitential character very early, beginning at first with abstinence from meat. We must remember that the early Church followed a strictly vegetarian diet for all of Lent. For the week immediately preceding Lent (the Latin Quinquagesima, Tyrophagia in the Byzantine Rite), although meat is removed from the diet, milk products, eggs and other animal products may still be consumed.

To better understand the origins of this week, we must also consider that Lent lasts for seven weeks in the East, and for six in the West. In the East, where there is no fast on either Saturday (except for Holy Saturday) or Sunday, this makes for a Lent of 36 fast-days. In the West, where the fast is kept also on Saturday, but never on Sunday, this gave the same number of days, following the Roman custom before the time of St Gregory the Great. To compensate for the missing days and to make the symbolic number of 40, the number of days of Christ’s fast in the desert, the Christians chose to anticipate the official beginning of Lent by a week. This was also done in consideration of the possible occurrence of feasts that displace the fast, principally the Annunciation.

The removal of meat from the diet in the week before Lent is attested early in the West. Quinquagesima Sunday is called in the ancient Latin books “Dominica ad carnes tollendas” or “levandas” (whence the term Carnival), indicating that one began to take away meat right after the Sunday, passing to the strict vegetarian diet only in the following week. The first week of Lent is then called “in capite jejunii – at the beginning of the fast.” Before the time of St Gregory, the Roman Lent began on the Monday after the First Sunday, the custom still followed by the Ambrosian and Mozarabic Rites. St Gregory set the fast to begin on the Wednesday of Quinquagesima, to make a complete period of 40 days. (To this very day, the Roman Rite retains the Office of Quinquagesima week even after Ash Wednesday, and the proper rubrics of Lent begin only with First Vespers of the First Sunday.)

The institution of Quinquagesima week is attributed by the Liber Pontificalis to the eighth Pope St Telesphorus (125 to 136–138). This attribution may be purely legendary, but since the notice of Telesphorus was written under Pope St Hormisdas (514-523), we can infer that this custom was already of immemorial use at the time, if it could plausibly be attributed to such an early predecessor. The so-called Leonine Sacramentary contains a Mass for Quinquagesima, the text of which seems to have been written in the reign of Pope Vigilius, ca. 538 A.D.

In the East, we can follow the same early indications of the establishment of Cheesefare Week (Tyrophagia). The pilgrim Egeria (Itinerarium 27, 1) reports that an eighth week of penance was kept at Jerusalem in the 4th century. Between the 5th and 6th centuries, the Georgian lectionaries, which are based on the Jerusalem liturgy of this period, bear witness to the existence of special readings for the two weeks before Lent.

In the 6th century, St Dorotheus of Gaza attests that the institution of a penitential week before Lent was already considered ancient in his time: “These are the Fathers who later agreed to add another week, both to train in advance and to urge on those who will give themselves over to the work of fasting, and to honor these fasts with the number of the Holy Forty Days which Our Lord Himself passed in fasting.” (Spiritual Works, 15, 159)

The custom of a week of ascetic practice before Lent, already attested before the 6th century (St Severus of Antioch counts it in his description of Lent), was sanctioned by official decision in the 7th century, in the reign of the Emperor Heraclius (610-41). The origin of his fast is uncertain. Most authors connect it with the events of the war which took place between the Byzantine Empire and the Persian Sassanid Empire from 602 to 628, during which the Jewish population of Palestine rebelled against the Christians and the power of Constantinople, and allied with the Persian troops. This led to the fall of Jerusalem to the Persians, the loss of the relics of the True Cross, and the massacre of 90,000 Christians. By the time Jerusalem was reconquered by the Byzantine armies, and Heraclius entered the city in triumph in 629, all the Christian churches, including the Holy Sepulcher, were in ruins. The Emperor ordered a massacre of the rebel Jewish forces, despite a previous promise of amnesty. In penance for this act of perjury, the Patriarch of Jerusalem instituted a week of fasting before the beginning of Great Lent.

This arrangement was at first supposed to last for only 70 years, but endures to this day with this name among the Copts of Egypt and Ethiopia. Alongside this more common explanation, another is generally neglected, namely, that Heraclius prescribed to his troops a week of abstinence from meat, and the reduction in the use of milk products, during the sixth year of his wars against the Persian, to implore God for victory. It is also possible that both explanations are true, and more than probable that they merely ratified a custom already widespread. In the following century, St John Damascene attests that Lent is preceded by a preparatory week. (cf. On the Holy Fast, 5).
The institution of a week of mitigated fasting before Great Lent, which was done very early in both East and West, has two virtues, one symbolic and the other practical. On the one hand, this week of semi-fasting was perceived as a way of fulfilling the sum of forty days; on the other, the transition to the strictly vegetarian diet was made easier by a gradual progression.

“Through My Lens”: A New Series on British EWTN with Fr Lawrence Lew

Our long-time contributor Fr Lawrence Lew, O.P., has another interesting project going on, in addition to his new book, which Peter wrote about last week. This is a series on British EWTN called “Through My Lens”, in which Father Lew shares his traveling experiences, and shows many of the wonderful photographs he takes of the places he visits. The first episode is about the Italian town of Orvieto, a place which is especially important for Dominicans. From 1261-4, St Thomas Aquinas lived and lectured in the Dominican house there, while Pope Urban IV and his court were sojourning in the city. This was the period when Thomas completed the Summa contra gentiles, and wrote the Catena Aurea, the Office and Mass of Corpus Christi, and the Contra errores graecorum. 

In 1447, another famous Dominican, the painter Fra Angelico (1395 ca. - 1455), was commissioned to decorate a large chapel attached to the cathedral of Orvieto, along with his assistant Benozzo Gozzoli. This commission was interrupted when the artists were called away to Rome by Pope Nicholas V, and the project was not finished until about 50 years later, but Angelico and Gozzoli did leave behind two completed sections of the ceiling vault. Here is one of them, of Christ in Majesty at the Last Judgment, photographed by Fr Lew. Fra Angelico was beatified by Pope St John Paul II in 1982; today is the anniversary of his death in 1455, and his feast day.

“The Masses of Holy Week & Tenebrae”: A Publication to Assist in Pre-55 Services

Those who are blessed with access to Holy Week in the Tridentine Rite, that is, the rite celebrated for a thousand years and more prior to Pius XII’s changes in the mid-1950s, may find helpful a resource published by Os Justi Press, The Masses of Holy Week & Tenebrae, which contains the liturgy (in Latin with English translation) for Palm Sunday, the Triduum Masses, and the Office of Tenebrae, including the complete Gregorian chants. Summary rubrics are indicated. No page turning is required. The book features many medieval illustrations as well.

Ideal for scholas, for personal study, or as a congregational worship aid, the book is handsomely printed with readable type and weighs in at nearly 500 pages. The cost is $19.95. Bulk discounts are available (and for multiple countries, not just the USA) by contacting the publisher. The book is also available through Amazon, including all of its international sites.

The cover is shown above. Below are some sample pages; more may be found here. 

N.B.: The paperback’s illustrations are printed in grayscale, not in color. The hardcover is in color. Please be aware that these volumes are printed “on demand” rather than offset-printed, and, as a result, the binding is not sewn but glued.

The Antiquity and Universality of Fore-Lent (Part 1)

This article by Henri de Villiers was originally published in French on the website of the Schola Sainte-Cécile in 2014. It will be reproduced here in my English translation in four parts, since it is fairly long, and definitely worth a careful read. In it, Henri examines the universal Christian tradition of the preparatory period before Lent in the various forms in which it is practiced by the Eastern and Western churches.

In all ancient Christian liturgies, one finds a period of preparation for the great fast of Lent, during which the faithful are informed of the arrival of this major season of the liturgical year, so that they can slowly begin the ascetical exercises that will accompany them until Easter. This preparatory period before Lent generally lasts for three weeks. In the Roman Rite, these three Sundays are called Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima, names which derive from a system used in antiquity, counting the periods of ten days within which each of these Sundays falls. They precede the first Sunday of Lent, which is called Quadragesima in Latin.

The churches of the Syriac and Coptic tradition have preserved an older state of things, comprising two shorter periods of fasting, the fast of the Ninevites, and the fast of Heraclius, which are probably the starting point for the presence of Fore-Lent in the other rites.

The reminder of human fragility, meditation on the last things, and consequently, prayer for the dead, are recurrent elements of this liturgical season.

Inexplicably, the modern rite of Paul VI suppressed Fore-Lent from its liturgical year, notwithstanding its antiquity and universality.

The Origins of Fore-Lent: The Fast of the Ninevites

“And the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying: ‘Arise, and go to Nineveh the great city: and preach in it the preaching that I bid thee. And Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord: now Nineveh was a great city of three days’ journey. And Jonah began to enter into the city one day’s journey: and he cried, and said, ‘Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed. And the men of Nineveh believed in God: and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least. And the word came to the king of Nineveh; and he rose up out of his throne, and cast away his robe from him, and was clothed with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published in Nineveh from the mouth of the king and of his princes, saying, ‘Let neither men nor beasts, oxen nor sheep, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water. And let men and beasts be covered with sackcloth, and cry to the Lord with all their strength, and let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the iniquity that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn, and forgive: and will turn away from his fierce anger, and we shall not perish?’ And God saw their works, that they were turned from their evil way: and God had mercy with regard to the evil which he had said that he would do to them, and he did it not.” (Jonah 3)

To commemorate the fast of the Ninevites, the churches of Syria instituted a fast which runs from Monday of the third week before the beginning of Lent (the Monday after the Roman Septuagesima). These days are called “Baʻūṯá d-Ninwáyé” in Syriac, which can be translated as the Rogation (or Supplication) of the Ninevites. It seems that this fast initially lasted the whole week, more precisely, from Monday to Friday, since fasting on Saturday and Sunday are unknown to the Orient. (However, abstinence without fast may continue through these days.) The fast of Nineveh was eventually reduced to three days: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, while Thursday became a “day of thanksgiving of the Ninevites” in the Assyro-Chaldean rite. Traditionally, the number of these three days of fasting is explained by the three days passed by Jonah in the whale. This fast of Nineveh, which is very strict, is still kept by the various Syriac churches of both the Eastern tradition (the Chaldean, Assyrian and Syro-Malabar churches) and of the Western (Syriac churches). Among the Assyro-Chaldeans, the book of Jonah is read at the Divine Liturgy of the third day. This fast remains very popular; some of the faithful drink and eat nothing at all for the three days. Alone among the churches of the Syriac tradition, the Maronite Church no longer has the fast of the Ninevites properly so-called, but has adopted the arrangement which we will discuss later on of the three weeks of preparation for Great Lent.

The Egyptian Coptic Church, and likewise the Ethiopian, received from the Syrian churches this custom of the Supplication of the Ninevites. In the Coptic liturgy, these three days of rogation in memory of the Fast of Nineveh, also called “the fast of Jonah”, strictly follow the liturgical uses of Lent: the Eucharistic liturgy is celebrated after Vespers, the hymns are sung in the Lenten tone, without cymbals, and the readings are taken from the lectionary of Lent. The fast of Nineveh was adopted by the Coptic Church under the 62nd Patriarch of Alexandria, Abraham (or Ephrem, 975-78), who was of Syrian origin. It is possible that it was adopted more anciently in Ethiopia; the first bishop of Axum, St Frumentius, was of Syrian origin, and the Church of Ethiopia was reorganized in the 6th century by a group of nine Syrian Saints, who contributed enormously to the evangelization of the Ethiopian countryside. The fast of Nineveh (Soma Nanawe) is very strict for them, and no one is dispensed from it.

To what period does the fast of the Ninevites belong among the Syrians? Certain things indicate that it was probably practiced very anciently. Saint Ephrem, deacon of Edessa, composed hymns for the fast of the Ninevites; it seems that it lasted a week in that period, and not three days as it does today. The Armenian church has a fast of Nineveh that lasts for five days, beginning on the same Monday as the Syrians, and ends on the following Friday, on which the appeal of Jonah to the Ninevites is mentioned. This is also a full week of fasting, since the Armenians also do not fast on Saturday or Sunday, a constant in the East. These days have a fast and strict abstinence like that of Lent, and Armenian writers claim that it was established by St Gregory the Illuminator at the time of the general conversion of the Armenians in 301. It is likely that St Gregory simply continued a custom already in use among the neighboring Syrian Christians. The institution of this fast, which seems to be ancient among the Assyro-Chaldeans, may then have passed (or been re-established) in the 6th century among their Syrian Jacobite cousins at the behest of St Maruthua, the Jacobite Catholicos of Tagrit, during a plague in the region of Nineveh. It is possible that its reduction to a fast of three days instead of a week also dates to this period.

The Reading of Genesis in Septuagesima

The children of Israel served the king of Babylon for seventy years, and afterwards, were set free and returned to Jerusalem. Likewise, we ourselves must serve all of this life, either for our faults and their punishment, or at least in hardship. For this reason, the Church, being set, as it were, in the captivity of Babylon, that is, in this world, and wishing penance to be done, so that She may someday be set free and come to the heavenly Jerusalem, keeps Septagesima (i.e. the “70th”). Therefore, She begins to read the five books of Moses, since the usefulness of penance is set out in them step by step as follows.

The first book, namely Genesis, instructs us in the first stages of penance, namely, in faith and fear, which are the essence of penance, since penance is conceived through them. It instructs us in the Faith in the same way as the Creed does, for what is said there, “of things visible and invisible”, is also said here: “In the beginning God created heaven and earth,” which is to say, the empyreal heaven, and the things which are in it, which are invisible, and the earth, that is, all these visible things. Just as in the Creed the persons of the Father and the Son are mentioned, so also in Genesis “In the beginning” (that is, in the Son,) God (that is, the Father,) created heaven and earth. Afterwards, the person of the Holy Spirit is named, when it says “And the spirit of the Lord was borne over the waters”, that is, the Holy Spirit, who created and rules over all things.

The Genesis Dome of the Basilica of St Mark in Venice; mosaic by unknown artist, 1215-35.

It also instructs us in the faith of the Incarnation and Passion, so that we might believe that Christ suffered in so far as he is a man, and not in so far as he is God; this is expressed through Isaac, who was not sacrificed, but rather a ram (took his place). Again it instructs us to believe that Christ was given by grace, and not for the sake of our merits, as Isaac (was given to Abraham by grace.) It also instructs us in the faith of the Resurrection and the Ascension and the sending of the Holy Spirit through the figure of Joseph, who after being sold was exalted in Egypt, distributing wheat through all of that land, just as Christ, after being sold, was exalted unto the world, and distributes the wheat of the word of God throughout the world through his preachers. …

Also, in the figure of Adam, it instills fear, lest through the vice of gluttony or through inobedience we be cast out of the spiritual Paradise, as he was cast out of the earthly Paradise. In the figure of Cain, it instructs us to guard against murder; in the cities which were completely destroyed, to stay away from the vice of Sodom; and in the flood, to abstain from every vice; and again, in the figure of Esau, to abstain from the vice of gluttony, since he was rejected he ate the red beans (i.e., the food which Jacob sold him for his birthrights). Furthermore, because in Septagesima we remember the misery which we incur because of the sins of our parents, we read the book of Genesis, which treats of the expulsion of the first parents from Paradise, … To signify how great our wretchedness is, first we read and sing (in the responsories) about the dignity of man, namely, that he was made in the image and likeness of God, that he was set in Paradise, that a companion was made for him, and that he could not die, nor suffer any other penalty, except that it came from his own fault.

The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden, by Thomas Cole, 1828

Now the introit of the Mass is “The groans of death have surrounded me” in which the Church confesses that it is in suffering and afflictions because of Sin … But, lest this mourning beget sloth or sadness within us, which lead to (spiritual) death, in the verse it speaks of consolation: “I will love Thee, o Lord, my strength.” … And notice that these words (of the Introit) are also the voice of the Church of the early days, weeping enable the first martyr, whose blood cries out to the Lord from the earth, which opened up its mouth and received it from the hand of Cain, his brother. For this reason, the station is at (the tomb of) St Lawrence, whose precious death by a new and unheard-of kind of suffering cried out to heaven, and was heard in all the world; wherefore also the authority of the Roman church was declared above all others in the martyrs. (William Durandus, Rationale Divinorum Officiorum, 6, 25, 1-4)

The Dismissal of the Alleluia

This evening, the eve of Septuagesima, the Roman Rite begins its preparation for Lent by laying the “Alleluia” aside until the vigil of Easter. In the Breviary of St Pius V, which derives from the later medieval customs of the Papal court, this is done with characteristic simplicity; “alleluia” is added twice to the “Benedicamus Domino” and “Deo gratias” at the end of Vespers, and then dropped. Many medieval Uses did this more elaborately, by adding “alleluia” to all the antiphons, or replacing them with one or more of the Paschal antiphons that consist of solely the word “alleluia.” As we have written about many times, it was a common custom to make a parchment or plaque with the word “Alleluia” written on it, and at the end of Vespers, carry it in procession out of the church and bury it in the churchyard or cemetery, to be dug up and brought back on the evening of Holy Saturday or Easter morning. Of course, since this custom is not a formal part of the liturgy, it could be done in various ways.

The Alleluia processed to a side altar of the Oratory of Ss Gregory and Augustine in St Louis, Missouri, where it was “buried” under the altar-cloth. Photo by Kiera Petrick.

The following hymn about the dismissal of the Alleluja, which was written in the 10th century, appears in a fair number of medieval manuscripts, but it was not, apparently, widely used as a formal part of the liturgy. I imagine it must have been used rather to accompany the procession. (If anyone has any more detailed information about its liturgical use or lack thereof, please be so kind as to leave a comment. The English version is by the Anglican cleric John Mason Neale, one of the great translators of hymns who did such valuable work in the 19th century.)

Alleluia, dulce carmen Vox perennis gaudii Alleluia, laus suavis Est choris caelestibus, Quod canunt Dei manentes In domo per saecula.	O Alleluia, song of gladness, Voice of joy that cannot die; Alleluia is the anthem ever dear to choirs on high; In the house of God abiding thus they sing eternally.
Alleluia, laeta mater Cóncinis, Jerúsalem, Allelúia, vox tuórum Civium gaudentium: Exsules nos flere cogunt Babylónis flúmina.	Alleluia thou resoundest, True Jerusalem and free; Alleluia, joyful mother, All thy children sing with thee; But by Babylon’s sad waters mourning exiles now are we.
Alleluia, non merémur Nunc perenne psállere, Allelúia nos reátus Cogit interímere; Tempus instat quo peracta Lugeámus crímina.	Alleluia we deserve not here to chant forevermore; Alleluia our transgressions make us for a while give o’er; For the holy time is coming bidding us our sins deplore.
Unde laudando precámur Te, beáta Trínitas, Ut tuum nobis vidére Pascha des in æthere Quo tibi læte canámus Allelúia pérpetim. Amen.	Therefore in our hymns we pray Thee, grant us, blessèd Trinity, At the last to keep Thine Easter in our home beyond the sky; There to Thee forever singing Allelúia joyfully. Amen.

The reference to the rivers of Babylon is of course taken from the seventy years exile of the Israelites after the fall of Jerusalem and destruction of the temple in 587 B.C. The Byzantine Rite contains a similar reference in the Sundays of the Triodion, its equivalent of the Roman Forelent. On the higher feasts and many Sundays, Psalms 134 and 135 are sung together as the “Polyeleos - the Great Mercy”, since the first is sung with the refrain “Alleluia”, and the second with the refrain “Alleluia, alleluia, for His mercy endureth forever, alleluja.” On the three Sundays before Lent, Psalm 136, “By the rivers of Babylon”, is added to the group. The following is a recording of the All-Night Vigil in the catholicon (principle church) of the famous Golden-Domed Monastery of St Michael in Kyiv, Ukraine, celebrated last year on the last Sunday before Lent. The Polyeleos begins at 1:29:00, with a selection of verses from Psalms 134 and 135; Psalm 136 begins at 1:32:20.

A concert performance of the Psalm in Greek, in a setting by the composer Hourmouzios Chartophylax (1770-1840).

Marienberg Abbey in Northern Italy

Last month, we shared four posts of Nicola’s pictures of the abbey of St John in Val Müstair, in the Swiss canton of Graubünden. About nine miles away, but on the Italian side of the border, stands the abbey of Marienburg (Mary’s mountain). It was originally founded in 1096 by a local noble family called von Tarasp, in a town on the other side of the mountain, but then moved to its current location in the mid-12th century. (The monastic community was the one which originally populated St John in Müstair, and was then replaced there by a women’s community.) It has the interesting distinction of being the highest abbey in Europe, at about 4400 feet above sea level. The complex burned down completely in 1418, so very little is preserved of its earlier history; it was damaged by another fire in 1656, just a few years after it had been given a major Baroque renovation. The church is an interesting combination of white and exuberant color, a take on the Baroque typical of the German-speaking world.

Small onion domes are very common in the Sud-Tyrol region of Italy, especially on the tops of bell-towers.

The main door of the abbey church; the statue over it survives from the very early 15th century.

Continue Reading this Article. . .

Mutual Enrichment

Your translation’s divine,

Your preaching melodious;

Won’t you be

My Cyril and Methodius?

This Valentine’s Day joke is here reproduced by the kind permission of the author, Fr Dominic Holtz, of the Order of Friars Preachers. Facetus et sagax, docendi semper ac jocandi capax!

The Magnanimous Contrite Heart

Lost in Translation #120

As we saw last week, the Offertory prayer In spiritu humilitatis contains the verse “In the spirit of humility and with a contrite heart may we be accepted by Thee.” (Dan. 3, 39) A contrite heart is a recurring theme in the Sacred Scriptures, but the terms to describe it are not always the same. In the Old Testament, the most common noun is indeed “heart,” the Hebrew lêḇ. [1] There are, however, exceptions. Even though Isaiah uses lêḇ on one occasion (61, 1), he seems to prefer “spirit” or ruah (57, 15; 65, 14; 66, 2). And with the choice of adjective, there is even less consistency; contrition is signified in the Hebrew Bible by a number of different words that mean either “broken” or “crushed.”

The Prayer of Azariah and the Canticle of the Three Youths, (Dan. 3, 24-90) are a Deuterocanonical addition to the Fiery Furnace episode in the Book of Daniel, and thus our only manuscripts of it are in Greek. Daniel 3, 39 in the Septuagint is:

ἐν ψυχῇ συντετριμμένῃ και πνεύματι τεταπεινωμένῳ προσδεχθείημεν

Which I translate as:

In a contrite soul and a humbled spirit may we be welcomed.

Regarding “contrite soul:” psyche is the Greek for soul, and the verb syntribō means to fracture or crush; its Latin equivalent is contero, from which “contrite” is derived. As for “humbled spirit,” pneuma is the Greek for spirit and the verb tapeinoō means to humble or bring low. The Vulgate translation is:

in animo contrito et spiritu humilitatis suscipiamur.

Which the Douay Rheims translates as:

in a contrite heart and humble spirit let us be accepted.

Animus is a fine choice for psyche, for animus can mean “soul.” And “heart” is a fine choice for animus, since animus can also mean “heart” or “character.”

The concept of a contrite soul as a good thing would have struck the ancient philosophers as odd at best. Instead of having a contrite soul (contritus animus), Aristotle commended having a great soul (magnus animus), and he described the magnanimous or great-souled man as the man who thinks he deserves great things and is correct. [2] I have always found this definition mildly amusing, for it implies that all of us think that we deserve great things; the magnanimous man is the one who just happens to be right.

But feeling entitled to great things hardly sounds like a recipe for contrition. Indeed, it is only by reconfiguring this sense of entitlement or worth that Christian authors were able to reconcile magnanimity and humility. “Magnanimity makes a man deem himself worthy of great things,” Aquinas writes, but only “in consideration of the gifts he holds from God.” [3] When man (rightly) credits his greatness to God, the focus shifts from self-congratulation—which is actually rather petty and stagnating—to the more dynamic and admirable pursuit of great things. With this new understanding in mind, Aquinas can go on to argue that humility and magnanimity are not only compatible but that they are twin virtues: humility is the well-ordered pursuit of excellence, while magnanimity is the well-ordered urging on of the soul to pursue excellence and not fall into despair. [4]

Contrition fits within this framework, for it can be understood as a sense of regret for misusing the gifts of God while not abandoning the desire for greatness. Humility requires that we hold on both to regret and to the pursuit of excellence. For regret uncoupled from the desire for greatness is despair; and the desire for greatness uncoupled from regret is pride and delusion, since as sinners we all have something to regret. “It is one thing to rise up to God,” Saint Augustine preached, “and another to rise up against Him.” The paradox in Christianity is that we rise up to God (Supreme Greatness) by lowering ourselves. “He who prostrates himself before Him is lifted up,” Augustine continues. “He who rises up against Him is prostrated.” [5]

And with respect to the Offertory prayers, we may say that all of this is implied in the In spiritu humilitatis and enacted in the rubrics. For when the priest prays the In spiritu humilitatis he is prostrate or bowed down, and when he is finished, the first thing he does is to stand erect and look upward, from which come all great things.

Notes

[1] See Ps. 33, 19 [34, 18]; 50, 19 [51, 17]; 68, 21 [69, 20]; 146, 3 [147, 3]; Jer. 23, 9.

[2] See Nicomachean Ethics IV.3.

[3] Summa Theologiae II-II.129.3.ad 4.

[4] ST II-II.161.1.resp. and ad 3.

[5] Sermon 351, 1.

Video and Pictures of an Anglican Sarum Liturgy in London

On Saturday, February 1st, the Oxford-based early music group Antiquum Documentum sang a celebration of Candlemas according to the Use of Sarum at the Anglican church of Great St Bartholomew in London. The church’s YouTube channel has posted a video of the complete ceremony; our thanks to Antiquum Documentum for sharing these pictures with us as well. We have previously shared a video which they made of Vespers and Compline in the Sarum Rite for the feast of St Cecilia.

The beginning of the liturgy; as in many medieval uses, the blessing of the candles and the procession are done white (or gold) vestments, rather than in violet as in the Roman Use.

The chant is led by four ministers in cope, called the “rectors chori - the rulers of the choir”; this custom or something like it was also observed in many other medieval uses of the Roman Rite.

The blessing of candles at the Lady Altar.

The procession.

Continue Reading this Article. . .

More Pictures of the Feast of St Agatha in Catania

Last week, we shared Peter’s pictures of the celebrations of the feast of St Agatha in her native city of Catania in Sicily. Another friend of ours, Dom Jakobus, a canon regular of Herzogenburg Abbey in Austria, was also there, and graciously agreed to share his pictures with us. Those of the Saint’s reliquary and the procession of it through the city in the first part were taken on the eve of the feast, February 4th.

The reliquary in the sanctuary of the cathedral...

with an honor guard.

The faithful touching pieces of cloth to the reliquary, which then become a relic by contact. (This is a very ancient custom, already attested at the tombs of the Apostles in Rome in the earliest years of the Constantinian peace.)

The reliquary is carried through the city. 

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Entering Heaven on Earth with the Photography of Fr Lawrence Lew OP

One of our best Catholic photographers, Fr. Lawrence Lew, OP, whose work has very often been shared at NLM over the years, has given us a new book that will be of great interest to all readers here:

Entering Heaven on Earth: The Signs, Symbols, and Saints of Catholic Churches 

It’s a stupendous coffee-table encyclopedia comprising just what the subtitle of the book tells us. Fr. Lew himself is responsible for all the gorgeous photos as well as the crystal-clear, just-the-right-length, theologically profound commentary, fully worthy of a member of the Order of Preachers.

In Part I, Fr. Lew takes us through sacred architecture, the form of the Church, color and ornamentation, altar and tabernacle.

In Part II, he looks at living creatures and nonliving creatures as symbols.

In Part III, the way the Bible is depicted in sacred art, with the rosary mysteries, the Old Testament scenes and typology, depictions of God, angels, the Last Judgment, and the sacraments.

In Part IV, he takes us through artistic depictions and symbols of the saints: Our Lady, apostles, evangelists, and all the other categories, with their halos, habits, flora, fauna, objects, body parts, and instruments.

As I paged through the book I could not believe how thorough it is — there’s probably not a single thing you’ll ever see in a Catholic church, no matter how lavish its use of signs and symbols, that is not explained here!

One thing I especially appreciate is that Fr. Lew’s commentary is deeply traditional but also quite delicate — there’s no hammering. He simply takes things for granted, such as the communion rail, or black as a proper color for Requiems. He’s a “gentle traditionalist,” to use Roger Buck’s phrase.

Some photos of the book:

The book is available from the publisher, from Amazon, and doubtless from other online shops too. This book is a good way to evangelize with beauty and tradition.