Yesterday was the feast of St Agatha, the patron Saint of her native city of Catania in Sicily. Dr Kwasniewski is currently there with a pilgrimage group, and took these pictures of the procession with her relics on the eve of the feast. The local custom is to carry decorated candles during the procession, and with the classically southern Italian idea that if a thing is worth doing, it’s worth overdoing, some of these candles are absolutely enormous, weighing about a hundred pounds. There are also some very lovely photos of the very tall floats made by various confraternities and religious for the processions.
Peter wrote about attending this event, “I saw today in Catania one of the most extraordinary sights of my life: hundreds of thousands of Sicilians paying homage to their patroness St Agatha—in the carrying of hundred-pound (and more) enormous candles; in the offering of countless individual candles and bouquets of flowers; in waiting for hours for the Saint’s relics to pass by, borne on a gigantic silver reliquary float pulled by hundreds of devotees wearing white garments and medallions; in the elaborate carved representations of each historic guild; in shouting ‘Viva Sant’ Agatha!’," and fireworks—an ENTIRE CITY completely given over to a three-day ritual of devotion that has been repeated for centuries. NOTHING like this exists in the Anglo world. I have serious civilizational envy. My eyes welled with tears several times. How could one not be moved to the depth of one’s being?”Thursday, February 06, 2025
The Feast of St Agatha in Catania, Sicily
Gregory DiPippoWednesday, February 05, 2025
The Legend of St Agatha
Gregory DiPippoShe stretched out her hands to the Lord and said, “O Lord who made and created me, and have kept me from my infancy, … who took from me the love of the world, who have kept my body from pollution, who made me to overcome the executioner’s torments, iron, fire and chains, who gave me the virtue of patience in the midst of torments, I pray Thee to receive my spirit. For it is time, Lord, that Thou command me to leave this world, and come to Thy mercy. Saying this, she sent forth her blessed spirit. The Christian people, taking away her holy body, set it in a new sepulcher, after anointing it. And when she was being laid to rest, there came a young man dressed in silken garments, … and he entered the place where the holy virgin’s body was being laid, and set there a small marble plaque on which it was written, “A holy mind, willing, honor to God, and the liberation of the fatherland.” And he stood there until the sepulcher was diligently closed, and then departing was seen no more in all the province of Sicily; whence there is no doubt that he was and Angel of God.
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St Peter Heals St Agatha in Prison, by Giovanni Lanfranco, 1614 |
These words were set to music, and commonly sung as the antiphon for the Magnificat at First Vespers of the feast of St Agatha. This antiphon was removed from the Roman Breviary in the Tridentine reform, which also no long mentions the plaque or the angel in the Matins lessons; it was retained, however, by the Dominicans and Cistercians. The motive may have been that the story itself was thought to be unlikely, and it is certainly true that the acts of St Agatha are not considered to be historically reliable; or it may have been simply because it is a grammatical fragment.
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An antiphonary from the Franciscan convent of Fribourg, Switerland, 1488, with the antiphon “Mentem sanctam.” (source) |
An unexpected wonder took place in the contest of Agatha, the all-glorious Martyr of Christ our God, something to rival Moses; for he, in giving the Law to the people on the mountain, received the divinely-written Scriptures engraved upon a tablet, but here an Angel bore a plaque from heaven to the grave, on which was written, ‘A holy mind, acting of free will; honor from God; the liberation of the fatherland.’Vice versa, the composer of her Latin legend borrowed one of the most famous texts of the Byzantine Rite. The words cited above, “The Christian people, taking away her holy body, set it in a new sepulcher, after anointing it”, are a partial quotation of the troparion sung at the Shroud Vespers of Good Friday, the principle commemoration of the Lord’s Passion: “The noble Joseph, when he had taken Thy spotless body down from the Cross, and wrapped it in a shroud with sweet spices, and laid it in a new grave.”
The inscription may also be seen on many church bells, which were often rung to warn people of some impending danger. The blessing of a bell traditionally included a prayer which asked that
when its melody shall sound in the ears of the peoples, may the devotion of their faith increase; may all the snares of the enemy, the crash of hail-storms and hurricanes, the violence of tempests be driven far away; may the deadly thunder be weakened, may the winds become salubrious, and be kept in check; may the right hand of Thy strength lay low the powers of the air, so that hearing this bell they may tremble and flee before the standard of the holy cross of Thy Son…(Pontificale Romanum)
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The inscription of St Agatha on a bell in the Italian city of Laurino. |
When a year had passed, around the day of (Agatha’s) birth into heaven, a very great mountain near the city burst and belched forth a fire, which coming down from the mountain like a flood, and turning both stones and earth to liquid, was coming toward the city with a great rush. Then the multitude of pagans went down from the mountain and felling to her sepulcher, took the veil with which it was covered, a set it against the fire; and immediately on the day of the virgin’s birth, the fire stood and proceeded no further.This story appears in the Office of St Agatha in the antiphon of the Benedictus.
The multitude of pagans, fleeing to the to the virgin’s grave, and took her veil against the fire; that the Lord might prove that he delivered them from the dangers of the fire by the merits of the blessed Agatha, His Martyr.
St Agatha’s veil drives the fires of Mt Etna away from Catania, by Cesare Nebbia and Girolamo Muziano, 1580-83; from the Hall of the Maps in the Vatican Museums. |
A 13th-century reliquary of the Saint, crusted over with jewels that have been donated to her over the centuries. In her left hand she holds a plaque with the famous inscription on it.
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The Rhythms of Day and Night in the Rule of St. Benedict - Guest Article by a Monk
Peter KwasniewskiThe following article was given to NLM by a monk of the Order of St. Benedict who writes under the pen name Placidus. Any reader who would like to get in touch with him may write to placidus12986@gmail.com.
In St Benedict’s day, an hour was not counted by a division into 24 equal parts of the period from one solar noon to the next. Rather, one solar hour of the day was counted as one twelfth part of the period from sunrise to sunset, and a nocturnal hour was likewise one twelfth of the period between sunset and sunrise. At Montecassino, the total duration of the twelve daylight hours varies from about 15 conventional hours at the summer solstice to a bit more than 9 conventional hours at the winter solstice.
How one calculates an hour is somewhat arbitrary in the end, but the main principle is that it be based on some fixed law of motion, if, indeed, time is the numbering of motion according to an order of before and after. Whether one calculates time according to the daily motions of the sun, or the vibrations of a caesium atom, is a matter of taste and practicality. In a technocratic culture dependent upon world-wide commerce, communication, and travel, a system of time-keeping that admits of no variation anywhere in the world makes sense. But in an agrarian culture that is without such dependencies, as was that of rural Italy in the time of St. Benedict, the daily motion of the sun was the natural choice for tracking the day.
A Roman solar day near the summer solstice |
A Roman solar day near the winter solstice |
One of the reasons why St. Benedict calculates the hours according to the amount of daylight is because the liturgical day ends at sunset, and so the daily requirement of praying to God seven times a day (cf. Ps. 118, 164) was to be completed before then. Hence, for St. Benedict, a monk’s prayer was to be distributed according to evenly spaced solar hours between sunrise and sunset. Lauds, therefore, is generally prayed at first-light, such that it concludes near the moment of sunrise, Prime is one solar-hour after sunrise, Terce is around three later, Sext is at solar-noon, None is around nine solar-hours later, and Vespers occurs about an hour or so before sunset, whereas Compline is sung at sunset, during the twilight period, so as to close off the day. [1] All of these, St. Benedict says, must be sung while there is still some light in the sky.
However, Scripture also tells us to pray at night (Ps. 118, 62), and so St. Benedict prescribes that the office of Matins (or Vigils) be prayed after a full night’s sleep in winter (eight hours after sunset), and just before Lauds in Summer, since the time between sunset and sunrise for most of this season is not enough for a full night’s sleep. [2] To make up for these short nights, a siesta is added before None so that the monk still gets his total of eight hours of sleep each day.
In winter (October 1st to Easter), St. Benedict has his monks spend any available time between Matins and Terce and between None and Vespers doing lectio divina, the prayerful study and meditation on Sacred Scripture and the Church Fathers, or else the monks are to memorize those Psalms that have not yet been learned by heart. But the warmer and brighter hours between Terce and None during this season are spent outside doing manual labor. However, in summer (Easter to October 1st), the inverse occurs. The monk spends the hottest hours in the middle of the day between Terce and None inside the monastery doing his lectio divina, whereas he spends the cooler hours in the morning between Prime and Terce or in the evening between None and Vespers doing manual labor outside, or he spends it doing artisanal labor in one of the monastery’s workshops.
Yearly solar horarium according to the Rule of St. Benedict, chs. 8, 41, 48 |
In any medieval monastery, study was easily done in summertime within the cool, stone interior of the monastery’s scriptorium or cloister-walk, but in wintertime, it was done by candlelight at the fireside of the calefactory. However, indoor artisanal work requires at least daylight coming through the workshop windows, and agrarian labor also requires bearable outdoor temperatures, determined by the passing of the sun. The day is arranged, then, to make the most efficient use of light and temperature.
The taking of meals also reflects this harmony with and dependence upon the sun and seasonal changes. In fall and winter (beginning on September 14t), when there is less manual work to do outside, the monk eats less, taking his one main meal after None, or after Vespers during Lent, but in summer (beginning at Easter), when the manual work is more intense, the monk eats his main meal after Sext and also takes supper after Vespers. However, in accord with his Italian heritage, St. Benedict makes no mention of breakfast in the early morning.
Now, if we compare the total amount of time given to each activity, mentioned above, we can see that the monk spends an average of 5½ hours a day in manual labor and 4 hours in study. These vary inversely so that there is more work in the summer, but more study in the winter. The monk also has the option of replacing his siesta in summer with more study, if he wishes.
Likewise, the monk spends from around 4 to 5 hours a day in liturgical prayer and about ¾ to 1¼ hours at meals. These are similarly related inversely so that the extra time during the monastic fast between September 14th and Easter, when only one meal is taken rather than two, is replaced by more time in liturgical prayer, i.e. at Matins. The monk also has the option here of adding more time for personal prayer in the chapel on his own, perhaps during the long period between Matins and Lauds in Winter. Hence, as the night hours increase, study and prayer increase, but when the daylight hours increase, work and bodily nourishment increase.
There are many things that we can learn from this contemplative rhythm of life that is built around this daily ebb and flow of light and warmth. The monk sees the rising of the sun each day as he comes out from Lauds, having just admonished all creation to divine praises: “Praise him sun and moon, praise him every star and light” (Ps. 148, 3; cf. Dan. 3, 56-88), and thus he is reminded by the dawn of God’s loving Providence over all things. In the hymn at Lauds the monk praises God for having created night and day:
Maker of all, eternal King / Who day and night about dost bring / Who weary mortals to relieve / Dost in their times the seasons give.The Creator of the day speaks to us through nature, both by the rising light of dawn as by the rooster’s crow, which both attest to the ordered celestial laws that govern the days, months, and years, as well as to the necessary submission of nature to those same laws. If the rooster is obedient to the rising light and announces on time its maker’s glory, all the more are we encouraged to do so. Hence, St. Benedict rouses his monks to wakefulness in the Rule, saying,
Now the shrill cock proclaims the day / And calls the sun’s awakening ray / The wandering pilgrim’s guiding light / That marks the watches night by night. . . .
O let us then like men arise / The cock rebukes the slumbering eye / Bestirs who still in sleep would lie / And shames who would their Lord deny. [3]
Let us then rise at length, since the Scripture arouseth us, saying: “It is now the hour for us to rise from sleep” (Rom. 13, 11); and having opened our eyes to the deifying light, let us hear with awestruck ears what the divine voice, crying out daily, doth admonish us, saying: “Today, if you shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts” (Ps. 94, 8) . . . “Run whilst you have the light of life, that the darkness of death overtake you not” (John 12, 35). [4]The urgency of his admonition is all the more apparent when the time one has for daily work is clearly marked by the unchanging laws of the sun. “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any one walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world” (John 11, 9). All that we have is today for our conversion; no man knows if the sun will rise for him again. “Night is coming when no man can work” (John 9, 4). The Scripture that is read each day at Lauds also warns us to cast off the night of our sins and to put on Christ.
The night is far gone, the day is at hand. Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day (Rom. 13, 12-13).Singing Lauds just before sunrise reminds us that Christ himself is coming: “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light” (Eph. 5, 14). Nearly every day the monk is reminded in song of this rising light, which he sees with his own eyes and knows in his own soul: the physical light that casts off the shadow of night, and the spiritual light that breaks through the darkness of sin. The rising light of day recalls to mind that we are given yet another chance to return to Christ: “Therefore, our days are lengthened to a truce for the amendment of the misdeeds of our present life.” [5]
Dusk on the mountain in November |
At Vespers, the monks recalls again the ordered harmony of the celestial motions:
O God, whose hand hath spread the sky / And all its shining hosts on high / And painting it with fiery light / Made it so beauteous and so bright.These ordered laws that govern the heavenly motions are continually proposed to the monk for contemplation: the circuit of the sun, the phases of the moon, the wheeling stars and wandering planets. All of these point in their constant change to something changeless and eternal: the Divine Will and Providence, unchanging in its firmness, but which governs all things with love and sweetness, bringing them to their preordained consummation. Meditating on this divine rule in the ordered changes of the seasons, the great St. Boethius declared shortly before his execution,
Thou, when the fourth day was begun / Didst frame the circle of the sun / And set the moon for ordered change / And planets for their wider range. [6]
Thou short the days dost make / When Winter from the trees the leaves doth take,Living by the rhythms of the sun, the monks of old were compelled to assent to its benign governance, and through submitting to its care, they were made to acknowledge the One who created it, and who is ever over all things, supreme.
Thou, when the fiery sun / Doth Summer cause, makest the nights swiftly run.
Thy might doth rule the year / As northern winds the leaves away do bear . . .
None from Thy laws are free, / Nor can forsake their place ordained by Thee.
Thou to that certain end / Governest all things. [7]
NOTES
[1] St. Benedict has Terce and None vary slightly according to the season, depending on the exigencies for outdoor manual labor and the time given to study or lectio divina.
[2] Lauds follows shortly after Matins from Easter to November. However, since Matins is longer from November until Easter by as much as ½ an hour due to lengthier readings, Lauds moves back to just before sunrise.
[3] From the hymn Ætérne rerum Cónditor, from Lauds on Sunday.
[4] Rule of St. Benedict, Prologue.
[5] Rule of St. Benedict, Prologue.
[6] From the hymn Cæli Deus sanctíssime, from Vespers on Wednesday. Cf. Gen. 1:14-19.
[7] St. Severinus Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy, 1.5.
Posted Wednesday, February 05, 2025
Labels: divine office, horarium, monastic life, Rule of St. Benedict, St. Benedict
Tuesday, February 04, 2025
Blessed Rabanus Maurus
Gregory DiPippoThe proper calendar for the Catholic dioceses of Germany marks February 4th as the feast of one of the most interesting figures of the Carolingian era, the Bl. Rabanus Maurus, who died on this day in the 856. (His first name is also written as Hrabanus or Rhabanus.)
A Recorded Version of My Recent Articles in Response to Dr Brant Pitre
Gregory DiPippoFor the benefit of those who might prefer to listen to such a thing all at one go, Dr Kwasniewski has made a recording of my recent articles in response to Dr Brant Pitre’s video about active participation in the liturgy. (Links below.) There are just a few small editorial changes to turn them into a single presentation, and a few comments at the beginning and end. We hope you find this useful.
Monday, February 03, 2025
Ave Regina Caelorum
Gregory DiPippoThere were also variations in the text of the Ave Regina Caelorum, which originally had a less regular rhyme; the more regular version currently used dates from the revision of the Breviary promulgated by Pope Clement VIII (1592-1605) in 1602. Prior to that, the Roman version read as follows:
Ave, Domina Angelorum,
Salve, radix et porta (or ‘Salve, radix sancta’)
Ex qua mundo lux est orta.
Gaude, gloriosa,
Super omnes speciosa;
Vale, valde decora
Et pro nobis semper Christum exora.
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From a Roman Breviary printed in Venice in 1582 |
and Tomás Luis de Victoria (ca. 1548-1611).
Here is the newer text, in a polyphonic setting with instruments by Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla, a Spanish composer born around 1590, who served as master of the chapel at the cathedral of Puebla, Mexico, from 1628 until his death in 1664.
Sunday, February 02, 2025
Liturgical Notes on the Purification of the Virgin Mary
Gregory DiPippoIn regard to Him that is born, the feast is called “Hypapante”, that is “the meeting” (in Greek), because in that solemnity Anna the prophetess and Simeon met the blessed Mary as She came into the temple to offer Her Son, Christ. … The Lord’s coming into the temple signifies His coming into the Church, and into the mind of each faithful soul, which is a spiritual temple. The Lord foretold this coming through the prophet Malachi, “Behold, I send my Angel before thy face etc.” (chap. 3, 1-4, the epistle of the feast.) Secondly, in regard to Her that gave birth, it is also called the feast of the Purification, because the Blessed Virgin, although She had no need of purification, and was not held liable to the law of purification, … wished nevertheless to fulfill the precept of the Law (in Leviticus 12, 1-8). – Rationale Divinorum Officiorum 7.7This precept states that 40 days after giving birth, a woman “shall bring to the door of the tabernacle of the testimony, a lamb of a year old for a holocaust, and a young pigeon or a turtle for sin, and shall deliver them to the priest, who shall offer them before the Lord.” For this reason, the Purification serves as the formal end of the Christmas season, being celebrated exactly forty days after it.
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The Presentation in the Temple, by Pieter Jozef Verhaghen, 1767; Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent, Belgium |
The liturgy also formally marks the Purification as the end of the whole cycle of celebrations that form the first part of the Church’s year. On the first Sunday of Advent, the Postcommunion begins with the words, “May we receive (suscipiamus) Thy mercy, Lord, in the midst of Thy temple”, while the Introit of the Purification, citing Psalm 47 more exactly, begins with the verb in the indicative: “We have received (suscepimus), o God, Thy mercy, in the midst of Thy temple.” This change indicates that what we asked for and awaited in Advent has been fully received in the Birth of Christ.
It should also be noted that the earliest possible date for Ash Wednesday is February 4th. (This has not occurred since 1818, and will not occur again until 2285.) The Christmas cycle, including the preparatory season of Advent, will therefore always be separated from the Easter cycle, including the preparatory season of Lent, by an interval of at least one day.
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A 14th century miniature of the Presentation in the Menologion of Demetrios I Palaiologos, despot of Thessalonike. |
The traditional Roman Mass of the Purification refers to the Virgin only where She is mentioned in the Gospel, and almost parenthetically in the Postcommunion. Likewise, the rites that precede the Mass refer to Her once in the first prayer for the blessing of candles, again, almost parenthetically, and twice in the processional antiphons. The double character of the feast noted by Sicard and Durandus is more clearly expressed in the Office, many parts of which are taken from the common for feasts of the Virgin. However, even here, the invitatory, lessons and responsories of Matins, and the Lauds antiphons, (also used at the following Hours), all refer to the Meeting of Christ with Simeon.
According to the Liber Pontificalis, Pope St Sergius I (687-701) established a procession from the church of St Adrian in the Roman Forum to Saint Mary Major, to be held on the Annunciation, the Dormition and Nativity of the Virgin, and the “feast of St Simeon”. Born in Sicily, but of Syrian origin, this Pope was certainly familiar from his youth with the liturgies of both the Byzantine and Latin tradition. There is good evidence that a procession with candles was associated with the feast from an early date, as Butler’s Lives also notes, but it died out entirely in the East; where it is done today in a few Eastern churches, it is a fairly recent Latinization. There is no mention of candles in the Liber Pontificalis’ words about Pope Sergius, nor in the early Roman liturgical books; the first reference to a blessing of candles on February 2nd is found in the late 10th century.
the blessing of palms. Five prayers are said over the candles, after which they are sprinkled with holy water and incensed, and then distributed, as the canticle of Simeon Nunc dimittis is sung with the antiphon after every verse, “A light to the revelation of the gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.” After a second antiphon and a brief collect comes a procession, accompanied by the singing of two long antiphons. The first of these is borrowed from the Byzantine Liturgy; the second is from the day’s Gospel.
Aña Simeon had received an answer from the Holy Ghost, that he would not see death, before he had seen the Anointed of the Lord; and when they were bringing the Child into the temple, he received Him in his arms, and blessed God, saying, “Now dost thou dismiss thy servant, O Lord, in peace. V. When His parents were bringing Jesus, to do according to the custom of the Law for Him, he took Him in his arms.
As the procession enters the church, one of the responsories of Matins is sung; note the clever way the repetition of the verse completes the doxology at the end.
R. They offered for Him unto the Lord a pair of turtle-doves, or two young pigeons * As it is written in the law of the Lord. V. And after the days of Mary’s purification were fulfilled, according to the law of Moses, they brought Him to Jerusalem, to present Him to the Lord. As it is written. Glory be. As it is written.
The historical Roman tradition was to use violet vestments for the procession, and white for the Mass which follows on returning to the church. Lit candles are held by the clergy and faithful (as much as may be practically allowed) during the procession, at the singing of the Gospel, and from the Canon to communion.
The Lupercalia are mentioned repeatedly by other Church Fathers, and even at the end of the fifth century, Pope St Gelasius I felt the need to combat some vestiges of its celebration. A race though the city that formed part of the festival was still being run, and the Pope sarcastically suggests in a letter to a Roman senator who defended the practice that the runners should return to the more ancient practice, and go naked. Bede’s idea becomes more tempting as an explanation for the procession’s origins when one considers that the Lupercalia were celebrated from February 13th to the 15th, coinciding with the Purification’s original Eastern date; and further, that the name of the Christian feast that begins the ancient Roman month of purification was changed to “the Purification” in Rome.
For all this, however, it is extremely unlikely that any vestiges of the pagan rite remained in the time of Pope Sergius, who instituted the procession almost two centuries after Gelasius, and not for the Purification alone, but for all the Marian feasts. Rome had suffered in the meantime a significant depopulation during the plagues and wars of the sixth century, which dealt a massive blow to the city’s ancient customs and institutions. Furthermore, there is no reason to believe that the feast was ever kept in the West on any date other than February 2nd.
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The Presentation of Christ in the Temple, mosaic by Jacopo Torriti, 1296, Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome |
Posted Sunday, February 02, 2025
Labels: Blessed Virgin Mary, Byzantine Liturgy, Candlemas, feasts, Liturgical History
Saturday, February 01, 2025
Lecture by Thomas Neal on February 7 in Faringdon, England
Gregory DiPippoThis coming Friday, February 7th, the church of Blessed Hugh of Faringdon in Faringdon, England, will host a lecture by our friend Thomas Neal, titled “The History and Future of Gregorian Chant in the Roman Liturgy.” The first part of this lecture will outline the history of Western liturgical chant from the Jewish temple worship of the Old Testament, through to the early church and the manuscripts of the 9th and 10th centuries. In the second part, Mr Neal will offer reflections on the nature and purpose of liturgical chant, and suggest reasons why it has always been considered the highest form of liturgical music. At the end of the lecture, there will be an opportunity for Q&A. The lecture will begin at 7:45pm; the church is located on Marlborough Street.
Thomas Neal is a teacher, musicologist, and church musician based in Oxford (UK). He read music to postgraduate level at Clare College, University of Cambridge, where he was the John Stewart of Rannoch Scholar in Sacred Music. His research focuses on the sources of sacred music in sixteenth-century Rome, with a particular focus on the life and works of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. Thomas has over fifteen years of experience directing music for the traditional Latin liturgy, in addition to conducting numerous choirs and period instrument ensembles in repertoire from Josquin to Haydn. Since 2018 he has been the Director of Music at New College School, Oxford.Friday, January 31, 2025
Gothic and Baroque Sculptures in a Swiss Abbey
Gregory DiPippoFollowing up on three recent posts from earlier this month, this is the final set of Nicola’s photos of the abbey of St John in Müstair, Switzerland. The first part showed frescos from the Carolingian era, the second those of the Romanesque period, and the third, various Romanesque sculptures. I have titled this post Gothic and Baroque Sculptures for the sake of simplicity, but they are mixed in with some other things, including the abbess’ crook and pectoral cross, and some pictures of the nuns’ living quarters.
A wooden altar of Our Lady of the Rosary, with small panels of the fifteen mysteries arranged around the central image of the Virgin and Child, as Mary hands a rosary and a scapular to the faithful beneath Her.An Important New Online Resources: Dom Lentini’s Te Decet Hymnus
Gregory DiPippoMy colleague Matthew Hazell has uploaded to archive.org a scan of an important resource for the study of the reform of the Divine Office, Dom Anselmo Lentini’s book Te decet hymnus: L’innario della “Liturgia Horarum”. Dom Lentini (1901-89), a monk of the abbey of Montecassino, was the head of the coetus (subcommittee) that reformed the Office hymns, and this book is the official account of their work.
The bulk of the book is taken up with the hymns themselves, with information on the author and date of each one, if known, or if not, an estimate at least of the period in which it was composed. In the cases where hymns are excerpts from longer ones, it indicates which strophes of the original text are used. (This is not by any means an innovation of the reform.) It also indicates where relevant, some of the other which breviaries had the hymn in their repertoire, i.e. Dominican, Premonstratensian etc. Prior to the internet age, the tools for researching other medieval breviaries were very limited, and so this information is certainly useful, but far from comprehensive. There are also many bibliographical references to scholarly collections of hymnography in which the original texts have been collected, such as the Analecta hymnica.