Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Photos of a Priestly Requiem

Just over a month ago, Fr Valentine Young, O.F.M., passed away at the age of 88; this coming Thursday would have been his 89th birthday. Fr Young was a great friend of the traditional Latin Mass in places ranging from Arizona and New Mexico to Kansas to Kentucky and Ohio. He was an accomplished Latinist and, for the past ten years or so, said the daily TLM at Old Saint Mary’s Church in Cincinnati, now the home of the new Cincinnati Oratory. On January 30th, the 7th day after his burial, the Oratorian Community celebrated a solemn Requiem for him in the traditional rite, accompanied by Victoria’s Missa pro defunctis a 4, plainchant, and motets by Guerrero and Palestrina. Just before the Absolution, in accordance with an old Francsican custom, the hymn “Ultima in mortis hora” was sung.

Deus, qui inter apostolicos sacerdotes famulum tuum Valentinum sacerdotali fecisti dignitate vigere: praesta quaesumus: ut eorum quoque perpetuo aggregetur consortio. Per Christum, Dominum nostrum. Amen.

God, who among the apostolic priests made Thy servant Valentine to flourish with priestly dignity: grant, we beseech Thee: that he may also be joined unto their perpetual society. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

The catafalque decorated with a priestly stole and a Franciscan cord, plus the crown of thorns used at the traditional Franciscan rite of formal profession.

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