Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Annual Catholic Martyrs of Oxford at Blackfriars

The blog of the English Dominican Studentate, Godzdogz, have news and photos up from the annual Oxford Martyrs' Mass which commemorates the Catholic martyrs of Oxford -- as the name implies.

From their blog:

For the past few years, the Latin Mass Society has organised a High Mass and Procession in memory of those Oxford men who gave their lives for the Catholic faith during the English Reformation and Recusancy period. Last year, Bishop William Kenney CP blessed a plaque at the end of Holywell Street to commemorate their sacrifice, and the liturgies took place in Blackfriars for the first time.

This year saw another first, as the Prior of Blackfriars, fr Simon Gaine OP celebrated the High Mass in the Extraordinary Form on 24 October 2009. He was assisted by fr Richard Conrad OP as deacon, and fr Lawrence Lew OP as sub-deacon. Once again, the team of servers was drawn from the Dominican studentate.

[...]

During the Mass, the choir, which included students from Blackfriars Hall, sang music by William Byrd, who was himself a recusant Catholic. His 4-part Mass was sung in clandestine Masses during the times of the martyrs we were commemorating, and the words of the motet, 'Ne irascaris Domine', which was also sung during the Mass, had a particular poignancy for recusant Catholics in Elizabethan England:

"Be not angry, O Lord,
and remember our iniquity no more.
Behold, we are all your people.

Your holy city has become a wilderness.
Zion has become a wilderness,
Jerusalem has been made desolate."

To read the entire story see: Oxford Martyrs' Mass at Blackfriars

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