Two Recent Glagolitic Masses

Our thanks once again to our friend Danijel Uremović for his account of two Masses recently celebrated according to the Glagolitic Missal, one in Australia and one in the Czech Republic.

Following the positive reception of the Glagolitic High Mass held in Sydney for the feast of the Precious Blood earlier this year, it was only a matter of time before the Croatian Catholic community of Australia would organise its next celebration according to the “Vajs Missal”. Up to (at least) the end of the year, a series of monthly sung Glagolitic Masses will be offered, the first having been fittingly, for the feast of Saint Jerome, patron of Dalmatia and an important figure in the history of the Glagolitic tradition.

The Mass was celebrated, as before, by Fr. Mateusz Markiewicz IBP, and planned with the help of the newly founded Glagolitic Heritage Society (www.glagolitic.org). Unlike the previous celebration, which took up more conventionally Gregorian melodies for its ordinary and propers, the Mass for St Jerome enjoyed a mix of more typically “Glagolitic” propers, alongside an ordinary that echoed certain motifs of the better known (simple) Te Deum chant. While the early twentieth century printing of this ordinary gives no explanation of its origin, later editions describe it as a “Dalmatian chant”. However accurate this particular designation is, it does reflect an historical fact of Glagolitic chant, namely as an intersection of musical traditions. On the one hand, “Glagolitic” chant never enjoyed the same degree of organisation that its Latin counterpart did. Chants varied regionally and, in the case of propers, were often limited to a couple of repeated variants taken up in accordance with the solemnity of the day’s celebration. On the other hand, however, the state of the Glagolitic repertoire was not a result of distance from the Latin tradition. Indeed, much Glagolitic liturgical and paraliturgical music developed in imitation of Latin-language chants or as a play on them, so that the most recent Sydney celebration was quite in keeping with historical practice.

Interestingly, in both Slavonic and Latin Missals used around Jerome’s Dalmatian homeland, a proper Mass is given his feast. While his geographical origins lend him quite naturally to his Dalmatian patronage, the question of his association with the Glagolitic tradition is far more controversial. While the doctrina Methodiana once stood as a shorthand for questionable novelty, tracing the origins of the Glagolitic script and its associated liturgy back to Saint Jerome offered far greater legitimacy for later defenders of the western Slavonic heritage. Although there is certainly some element of a pia fraus in this story, there remains a legitimate sense in which Jerome in fact became the patron of the Glagolitic tradition.

Such are the happenings among the Croatian diaspora in Australia. However, only a couple days before the Sydney Mass, for the feast of St Wenceslaus, Fr Jakub Václav Zentner FSSP offered a Slavonic Mass at the chapel of Bl. Podiven in Stará Boleslav, Czechia. This celebration also ties up with the reception of his doctorate for his research on “Slavonic as a Liturgical Language of the Roman Rite”

Fr Zentner has studied and celebrated the Slavonic liturgy for many years, and his edition of the Glagolitic Order of Mass can be ordered online: https://fssp.cz/glagolsky-mesni-rad-podle-rimskeho-misalu-staroslovensky/. Though a story for another time, Czechia, unknown to many, enjoys its own part within the Glagolitic story, not least for producing the editor of the 1927 Rimski Misal, Josef Vajs.

With so much international interest in the Slavonic liturgy, both on Slavic soil and in the diaspora, it was a logical choice to finally begin organising both the written material and interested people in a more intentional and focused effort to preserve and promote the Glagolitic tradition. For this reason, the Glagolitic Heritage Society, mentioned above, was formed. Their work brings together experts across liturgical, linguistic, and musical disciplines to help make key resources more accessible. While the first half of the twentieth century saw promising renewal through the publication of important liturgical books, musical editions, and historical and philological studies, the fragmentary nature of these publications, alongside the inherent difficulties of the Slavonic language, and changing political and ecclesial climates, would see the greater part of these efforts put on hold. The Society’s goal is to begin slowly picking up where things left off. Though still in its early stages, those interested in supporting or following the work of the Society can subscribe to its newsletter here: www.glagolitic.org, and following its online presence on Instagram.

Photos from Sydney by Nikola Rimac

Photos from Stará Boleslav, Czech Republic by Lucie Horníková

(full gallery here)