Thursday, August 21, 2008

Vespers (Usus Antiquior) from St. Stephen's Basilica, Budapest

With the celebration of Vespers this evening in Budapest, in the beautiful Basilica of St. Stephen, the Budapest liturgical conference hosted by the St. Augustine Liturgical Atelier was officially commenced.

Here are a few images of the Cathedral-Basilica itself, which is quite impressive and boasts the relic of the right hand of St. Stephen.





The Vespers themselves were celebrated at the throne by Cardinal Laszlo Paskai, the former Archbishop of Esztergom with the Apostolic Nuncio of Hungary in attendance. He wore a magnificant cope for the occasion. The schola was that of the Basilica itself, which sung both chant and polyphony to great acclaim. They were indeed quite excellent.

For those who have not experienced the opportunity to participate in chanted Vespers from the 1962 Breviarium Romanum, I must encourage you to do so. No matter how often I do it, I always come away from it enriched and uplifted.

Here are a few images from the Vespers service itself:













Vespers was followed by the first lecture delivered, which we shall speak more on soon.

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