Cistercian Chants for the Feast of St Bernard

In honor of the feast of St Bernard of Clairvaux, here are two sets of recordings of Cistercian chants made in the 1960s. The first one has the Salve Regina, the hymn Sanctorum meritis from Vespers of Several Martyrs (starting at 3:30), the hymn Jesu corona virginum from Vespers of a Holy Virgin (starting at 5:48), and the Magnificat, with the antiphon “Verbo caro factum est, alleluia, et habitavit in nobis, alleluia.” (starting at 7:28). You may note that the text of the two hymns differs slightly from the versions in the Roman Breviary, since the Cistercians, like the other religious orders, never adopted the revised versions of the hymns promulgated by Pope Urban VIII. These are followed by Terce of the Epiphany (minus the hymn). The second contains various chants for the Dead: the Libera me, Chorus Angelorum, and Clementissime Domine.

New Study Closely Compares Aquinas, Innocent III, and Albert on the Roman Canon

I am pleased to inform NLM readers about an important new publication from the EOS (Editions Sankt Ottilien): The Sacramental Signification in the Rite of the Holy Mass: The Synthesis of St. Thomas Aquinas in Comparison with Pope Innocent III and St. Albert the Great by Rev. Dominik Pascal Witkowski.

Dominik Pascal Witkowski (b. 1986) is a Roman Catholic priest of the Diocese of Chur, Switzerland. He studied History and Theology at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and pursued further studies in Humanities and Social Science at the University of Edinburgh. He completed his theological formation with a Baccalaureate, Licentiate, and Doctorate in Sacred Theology (STB, STL, STD) at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome.

This study offers a systematic and comparative account of three major medieval commentaries on the rite of the Holy Mass: St. Thomas Aquinas’ exposition in the Summa theologiæ, Pope Innocent III’s De sacro altaris mysterio, and the De mysterio missæ attributed to St. Albert the Great. At its centre stands the Roman Canon—the core of the Latin Mass tradition—whose enduring liturgical use prompted centuries of theological reflection.

Bridging perspectives of doctrine, sacraments, and liturgical exegesis, the dissertation addresses the long-standing tension between the spiritual and philological schools of interpretation. By retrieving the Thomistic doctrine of spiritual signification—grounded in sacred doctrine and operative in Scripture, sacraments, and liturgy—it proposes a theological resolution. This Thomistic ressourcement demonstrates that the spiritual sense is not a subjective imposition, but an objective content of the rites themselves—signifying the passion of Christ, the sanctification of the Church, and the final consummation of the mystical body. In doing so, it contributes to the renewal of liturgical theology and highlights Aquinas’s synthesis as a vital key for understanding the Holy Mass in the Western tradition.

Fr. Witkowski explained to me that his book develops and presents, in an objective and scholarly way, the theological relevance and the deep significance of three major medieval commentaries; it touches only remotely on the major controversies of the twentieth century. Yet, by demonstrating the antiquity and richness of the older rites (one cannot help but be struck by the remarkable identity between the 13th-century curial rite and the pre-1955 Roman Rite), Fr. Witkowski contributes something still more fundamental: a case for the intelligibility, coherence, and perfection of the tradition, based on uncontested primary sources. This is a work that strongly presents the authority, integrity, and spiritual wealth of the Roman Rite.

This classic, extensive, detailed, and systematic study of the Holy Mass is sure to be appreciated by all serious scholars and students of liturgy, for its numerous insights into the Church’s liturgical heritage, particularly the mighty anaphora that stands at the heart of nearly all Western rites and uses.

A PDF of the Table of Contents may be downloaded here.

An Exhibition of the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry

Our friend Fr Joseph Koczera SJ recently went to the Chateau de Chantilly in Chantilly, France, (about 27 miles north of Paris) to see one of the most important illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages, the Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry, a work that has only been shown publicly three times in the last two centuries. It is currently on display as part of a special exhibition marking the occasion of its comprehensive restoration. The manuscript was created between 1412 and 1416 by a team of three artists, the brothers Limboug (Paul, Jean and Herman) for Jean, the duke of Berry (1340-1416), third son of King Jean II of France, brother of Charles V, and one of the regents during the minority of his nephew Charles VI. Like many men of his position, the duke was a generous patron of the arts, and the exhibition also has several other items of interest, including a few of the other 300 manuscripts that once formed his collection. Many thanks to Fr Koczera for sharing these photos with us.

The manuscript is displayed open to these two images of the Crucifixion of Christ on the left, and His death on the right.

An illustration from the Très Riches Heures depicting the duke as he presides over a New Year’s banquet in one of his palaces.

The duke wears royal blue and a bearskin cap, and receives his guests as they are called forward by the bailiff holding a rod in his right hand, saying «Approche, approche», while tiny dogs eat from the table...

and a larger dog waits below it for scraps to fall.

The calendar page for November, with the names of the Saints written in French, and the most important feasts noted in gold (All Saints and All Souls, Saints Martin, Clement, Catherine and Andrew). In many Books of Hours, especially the more elaborate ones, every day of the calendar has a Saint or feast noted, but though many of them were not celebrated liturgically.

The calendar pages are accompanied by a full page illustration of an agricultural labor appropriate to the month, and the sign of the zodiac that begins that month. This page also shows what the palace of the Louvre in Paris looked like at the beginning of the 15th century; the building owes its current appearance to the radical overhauls of the 16th and 17th centuries.

Continue Reading this Article. . .

An Update from the Palestrina500 Festival in Grand Rapids

We are very glad to share another update from the church of the Sacred Heart in Grand Rapids, Michigan, which is marking the 5th centenrary of the birth of Palestrina this year with a special series of musical events, one every month.

On Friday, June 27, the feast of Sacred Heart, Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Grand Rapids, Michigan welcomed the sacred music ensemble Floriani to sing a choral meditation and Mass for the parish’s year-long Palestrina500 festival.

Highlights from the choral meditation include:

• Dum Pater familias from the Codex Calixtinus (12th c.)
• Ave Maria by Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611)
• Bogoroditse Dyevo by Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943)
• The Magnificat quarti toni a 4 vocibus paribus by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-94)
• And two compositions by one of the members, Giorgio Navarini.

The Mass featured Palestrina’s Missa Aeterna Christi munera as well as two of his motets: one of his Salve Regina settings and his Gloriosi Principes Terrae. The celebrant was a newly ordained priest of the FSSP, Fr. Michael Caughey

On Wednesday, July 16, the feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Sacred Heart welcomed The London Oratory Schola Cantorum under the direction of NLM contributor, Charles Cole.

The choral meditation consisted of:

• Haec Dies by John Sheppard (1515-58)
• Salvator Mundi (1) by Thomas Tallis (1505-85)
• Ad Te Levavi by Robert White (c1538-74)
• O Sacrum Convivium by Francisco Guerrero (1528-99)
• Versa est in Luctum by Alonso Lobo (c1555-1617)
• Ascendens Christus by Victoria
• Jubilate Deo by Giovanni Gabrieli (c1553-1612)
• In Spiritu Humilitatis by Giovanni Croce
• Magnificat octavi toni by Luca Marenzio (c1553-1599)
• O Crux Ave Spes Unica by Giovanni Animuccia (c 1500-77)
• Super Flumina and Dum Complerentur by Palestrina

The Mass featured Palestrina’s Missa Tu es Petrus, as well as his Exultate Deo and Sicut Cervus.

The Most Reverend Salvatore Cordileone, Archbishop of San Francisco, celebrated a Pontifical High Mass from the faldstool, proceeding into the church to Palestrina’s Ecce sacerdos magnus. His Excellency delivered a fantastic homily on polyphony and its role in both forming and saving the world.

The Blessing of Flowers and Herbs on the Assumption

According to a fairly ancient tradition, which St John Damascene (among others) attests in the 8th century, when it came time for the Virgin Mary’s earthly life to end, all of the Apostles, then scattered over the earth to preach the Gospel, were miraculously brought to Jerusalem in an instant to be present for Her death. St Thomas, however, was late in arriving, as he had been late to witness the Lord’s Resurrection. When the Virgin had died, they laid Her body to rest in a tomb in the garden of Gethsemani, outside the city; three days later, when Thomas arrived in Jerusalem, he wished to venerate it. The Apostles went as a group to the tomb, but on opening it, discovered that Her body was no longer there, and a sweet odor came forth, confirming that (as Damascene writes) “Whom once it pleased to take the flesh from the Virgin Mary, and become a man, and be born (of Her)… and who after birth preserved Her virginity incorrupt, it also pleased, after Her passing, to honor Her immaculate body … by translating (it to Heaven) before the common and universal resurrection.”

The Oddi Altarpiece, by Raphael Sanzio, painted in 1502-3, when the artist was only 19 years old; now in the Painting Gallery of the Vatican Museums. Above, the Virgin is crowned by Christ, and surrounded by angels, four of whom are playing musical instruments; below, the Apostles are gathered around Her tomb, with some of them looking upwards and listening to the music. St Thomas is in the middle of the group, with his head tilted back, and has received from the Virgin Her belt; this relic is now, according to tradition, preserved in the cathedral of Prato, Italy. Her tomb is filled with flowers growing out of the stone; Raphael himself appears on the far right as one of the Apostles, wearing black and looking straight out at the viewer.

According to one version of this legend, the other eleven Apostles believed in the Assumption because angelic music played in the air over the tomb on the day of the burial, and for three days after; St Thomas, arriving after the music had ceased, refused to believe them until the tomb was opened and the absence of the body confirmed. According to another version, Thomas already knew and believed in the Assumption before coming to Jerusalem, and brought the others to the tomb to show them that the Virgin’s body was gone, after which they heard all the music together. A further addition to the story says that flowers were growing out of the stone sarcophagus in which She had been laid, and were the source of the sweet odor coming out of the tomb, confirming the Apostles’ faith in Her Assumption.

A stained glass window from Siena Cathedral by Duccio di Buoninsegna, 1288. The central panels represent the death of the Virgin (below), the Assumption (middle) and Coronation (above.) The corners show the Four Evangelists, the middle panels on the left and right the patron Saints of the city.

In honor of this last part of the story, the Church instituted the custom of blessing wild herbs and flowers on the feast of the Assumption. The blessing originated in Germany, and is first attested in the 10th century; one version of it or another is found in a great many of the liturgical books which contain blessings of this sort. In the 1614 Roman Ritual of Pope Paul V, it consists of a psalm, a series of versicles and responses, three prayers, and the blessing, after which the flowers are sprinkled with holy water; the blessing is supposed to be done before the principal Mass of the day.

I here give the blessing in English translation; the Latin text is found in the Rituale among the blessings not reserved to bishops, shortly after the Sunday blessing of holy water and the Asperges. Various versions of the Rituale can be downloaded from Google Books; it also available on

https://www.sanctamissa.org/_files/ugd/c6f7dd_4ff0f5d827d24264a448bf986de11f7a.pdf

V. Our help is in the name of the Lord.
R. Who made heaven and earth.

Psalm 64 is said in full.

V. The Lord will give goodness.
R. And our earth shall yield her fruit. (Ps. 84)
V. Thou waterest the hills from Thy upper rooms.
R. The earth shall be filled with the fruit of Thy works.
V. Bringing forth grass for cattle.
R. And herbs for the service of men.
V. That Thou may bring bread out of the earth.
R. And that wine may cheer the heart of man.
V. That he may make the face cheerful with oil.
R. And that bread may strengthen man’s heart. (Ps. 103)
V. He sent his word, and healed them.
R. And delivered them from their destructions. (Ps. 106)

V. Lord, heed my prayer.
R. And let my cry be heard by you.
V. The Lord be with you.
R. And with thy spirit.

Let us pray. Almighty everlasting God, who by Thy word created from nothing the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things visible and invisible, and commanded the earth to bring forth plants and trees for the use of men and beasts, and each one to have fruit in itself according to its seed; and in Thy ineffable goodness granted not only that the plants might serve as the food of living creatures, but also that they might profit ailing bodies as medicine; with mind and word we humbly pray Thee that in Thy clemency Thou may bless + these herbs and fruits of various kinds, and pour upon them the grace of Thy renewed blessing, above the natural power which Thou gavest them; so that, when used by men and beasts in Thy name, they may become a defense against every disease and adversity. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy son etc. R. Amen.

Let us pray. O God, who through Moses, Thy servant, commanded the children of Israel to bear sheaves of new fruits to the priests to be blessed, and to take the fruits of the finest trees, and rejoice before Thee, the Lord their God; in Thy mercy be present to our supplications, and pour forth the abundance of Thy bless+ing upon us and upon these bundles of new fruits, new herbs, and upon the gathering of fruits which we bring before Thee with thanksgiving, and on this solemn feast we bless in Thy name. And grant that they may give to men, cattle, flocks, and beasts of burden a remedy against sickness, pestilence, sores, curses, spells, against the poison of serpents and bites of other venomous animals. And may they bring protection against the devil’s illusions, and devisings and cunning, wherever they or any portion of them are kept and carried, or otherwise used; so that, with the sheaves of good works, by the merits of the blessed Virgin Mary, the feast of whose Assumption we keep, we may merit to be taken up to that place whither She was assumed. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy son etc. R. Amen.

Let us pray. O God, who on this day raised up to the heights of heaven the rod of Jesse, the Mother of Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, so that by Her prayers and patronage Thou might communicate to our mortal nature the fruit of Her womb, the same Thy Son; we humbly implore Thee, that by His power, and by the glorious patronage of His Mother, with the help of these fruits of the earth, we may be guided through temporal welfare unto everlasting salvation. Through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy son etc. R. Amen.

And may the blessing of almighty God, the Father, the Son, + and Holy Spirit, come upon these creatures and remain always. R. Amen.

A 14th-Century Altarpiece of the Coronation of the Virgin

In 1370, the Florentine painter Jacopo di Cione (1325-99 ca.) and his frequent collaborator Niccolò di Pietro Gerini (1340 ca. - 1414) were commissioned to do an altarpiece for the church of San Pier Maggiore, the most prominent Benedictine women’s house in their native city. The main set of panels depicts the Coronation of the Virgin Mary, a popular subject for the churches of women religious, but this particular altarpiece was one of the largest commissioned in Florence in the 14th century, and included nine other panels on two stages above the main one, plus a predella. The original frame was lost long ago, and the sections of the predella dispersed to various museums; the large panels are at the National Gallery in London. (At least one proposed reconstruction seems to indicate that images of Saints decorated the frame, but I have not found any further information about this.)

The central panel of the main stage, and largest of the work as a whole, the Coronation of the Virgin. Jacopo and his collaborators represent the stylistic tradition now known as the International Gothic, which is very concerned with the richness of the decoration. This is evident here in the pattern painted into the white robes of Christ and the Virgin, in the blue background behind them, and the floral tracery on the Gothic structure above them; likewise in the robes of the two angels directly beneath them, and the fine detailing of their instruments. However, in many of the figures, one can see the influence of another Florentine, Giotto (1267 ca. - 1337), and his concern to create a sense of realistic space by varying colors within the robes, whether of people or angels, a concern which dominates Florentine art in the period of its greatest flourishing, the 15th century. This tendency is very notable in the other series of images, those of the life of Christ in the second stage, the Trinity and angels in the cuspids, and the life of St Peter in the predella.

To either side is shown a company of Saints kneeling in adoration, many of whom are identifiable by their attributes, while others are not. In this panel, the patron Saint of the church, St Peter, is most prominent in the front at the right, holding it in his hands, followed by St Bartholomew (holding a knife), St Stephen (with a rock on his head), St Francis, and St Mary Magdalene holding a pot of ointment, and wearing a very elaborately decorated robe. Above St Peter is St John the Evangelist, with a copy of the Apocalypse.

On the opposite side, we see in the front row Saints Paul, Matthew, Lawrence, Dominic and Catherine; above Paul, John the Baptist, and above Catherine, St Agnes; the cardinal within the group is St Jerome.

On the second tier, the Nativity of Christ. 

The Adoration of the Magi.

Continue Reading this Article. . .

New Chorister Program in Silicon Valley Offers Cathedral-Style Training for Ages 8-17

Join the Catholic Institute of Sacred Music’s Chorister Program

Are you looking for a positive, fun, and joyful environment for your student to pray, learn his or her Catholic faith, develop musical talents, meet great friends, and develop virtues such as patience and resiliency?

The Catholic Institute of Sacred Music Chorister Program is committed to inspiring young singers through a comprehensive program that emphasizes musical excellence and spiritual growth. Our mission is to cultivate a love for sacred music, guiding young voices to reach their full potential while instilling values of discipline, teamwork, and artistic expression. The program offers top-tier training while allowing students to remain engaged in their other parish or school choirs.

Click here to learn more and register.

Open to all students ages 8–17, the Chorister Program offers weekly training in:

• The Catholic faith
• Active participation in the sacred liturgy through singing the Church’s treasury of sacred music, including Gregorian chant, sacred polyphony, hymns, responses, etc.
• Rigorous vocal training and technique
• Music theory and aural skills
• Reading musical notation (modern notation for choral music and square notes for Gregorian chant)
• Rhythm and conducting
• Improvisation and composition
• Choral singing in the great cathedral tradition

Scholarships are available to ensure accessibility for all families.

Open to singers of all experience levels. The ability to match pitch is required and will be determined in an informal audition with a faculty member once the program begins. Students needing remediation to match pitch will receive short supplemental education. 

Rehearsals are on Tuesdays at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, CA, starting at 4:15 p.m. and concluding with the singing of Vespers alongside seminarians 6:00-6:15 p.m.

Led by seminarians, a parallel program is offered for parents/guardians to engage in spiritual formation, Eucharistic adoration, and fellowship while they wait for their Choristers.

The Chorister Program is more than a music education program—it’s a calling to glorify God through the beauty of sacred music, to form virtuous young Catholics, and to build a community of joy and faith. Whether you’re a parent seeking a transformative experience for your child or someone inspired to share this opportunity with others, we invite you to join us in this mission to uplift hearts and voices for the glory of God.

More information and registration available here. Registration deadline: Friday, August 29th. 

The Feast of St Roch

Among the Saints listed in the Roman Martyrology on August 16th is St Roch, one of the most popular Saints to invoke in times of plague. According to the supplement to the Golden Legend, he was born in 1295, the son of the governor of the French city of Montpellier. (Modern scholarship tends to place his birth in the middle of the 14th century.) On the death of his parents, he distributed the considerable patrimony which they left him to the poor, and became a full-time pilgrim.

St Roch Among the Victims of the Plague, and the Virgin Mary in Glory, by Jacopo Bassano, ca. 1575. The inclusion of the Virgin Mary above refers to the fact that Roch’s feast is celebrated the day after the Assumption.

The hospices which were built near many major pilgrimage centers to receive the pilgrims also served as hospitals for the poor (hence the two versions of the same word, deriving from the Latin word for guest); in Roch’s time, plague was running rampant, and he encountered many sufferers in these places, as he traveled to Rome and through various cities of northern Italy. Many of these he healed simply by making the sign of the Cross over them, until he himself became infected. Not wishing to impose any further burden on the local hospital, he went out into the woods to die, but was miraculously brought food by a dog, until its master found him and took care of him. On recovering, he continued to cure many people of the plague.

When he returned to Montpellier, however, he was not recognized, and therefore arrested as a spy and imprisoned, remaining in captivity until his death five years later. When they came to take care of his body, he was recognized as the son of the city’s former governor from a cross-shaped birth-mark on his chest. A plaque was found next to the body with these words written on it: “I indicate that those who suffer from the plague, if they flee to Roch’s protection, will escape from that most cruel contagion.” A magnificent church was built, and his body laid to rest therein, where many miracles continued to happen at his intercession.

A statue of St Roch made in Normandy in the early 16th century. The richness of his clothing indicates his status as the son of a nobleman; his pilgrim’s hat is adorned with the keys of St Peter, indicating Rome as his destination; the dog which brought him food is traditionally shown at his side. Roch is also typically shown lifting up his garment to reveal a sore or injury on his leg from which he was miraculously healed. (Public domain image from the website of the Cloisters Museum in New York City, a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.)

Devotion to St Roch spread very rapidly over the course of the later 14th and early 15th century. Although his feast is rarely found on liturgical calendars, votive Masses in his honor are very commonly included among those dedicated to healer Saints. In the Missals of Sarum, Utrecht and elsewhere, his votive Mass is found in the illustrious company of those of Saints Sebastian, Genevieve, Erasmus, Christopher, Anthony the Abbot, and the Archangel Raphael. One common version even includes a proper Preface, something almost unheard of in the pre-Tridentine period; it refers, however, to God’s mercy in sparing the Ninivites, and asks for His merciful deliverance from the plague, but makes no mention of Roch. The somewhat clumsy collect reads as follows: “O God, who are glorious in the glory of the Saints, and to all those that flee unto their protection, grantest the salutary effect of their petition; by the intercession of Thy blessed Confessor Roch, grant to Thy people, who hold forth their devotion in his festivity, that they may be delivered from the sickness of that plague which he suffered in his body for the glory of Thy name, to which may they ever be devoted.”

The supplement to the Golden Legend also mentions that his body was stolen by the Venetians in 1475, and enshrined in a “most renowned” church they built dedicated to him, which still exists. The seat of a pious confraternity named for him is located close by, and is justifiably known as the “Sistine Chapel of Venice”, filled with paintings by the great Venetian master Tintoretto. As one of the busiest ports in Europe, in regular contact with the East, Venice was a city to which new plagues (or new strains of old ones) were continually arriving; over twenty outbreaks are recorded there between the mid-14th and mid-16th centuries. It may be that the Venetians acted from sheer desperation in stealing St Roch; on the other hand, pious thefts of this sort were a specialty of theirs, and over the years, they also managed to nick St Mark the Evangelist and St Athanasius from the Copts of Alexandria, St Lucy from the city of Syracuse, and one of St Peter’s chairs from Antioch.

The altar of the church of San Rocco in Venice; the relics are in the urn with plaque on it in the middle. (Public domain image from Wikipedia by Didier Descouens.)

Durandus on the Assumption

The following excerpts are taken from William Durandus’ commentary on the feast of the Assumption. (Rationale Divinorum Officiorum, 7, 24, 3-10.) The reader should note that the Epistle and Gospel to which he refers were changed when Pope Pius XII promulgated a new Mass after making the dogmatic definition of the Assumption in 1950.

The Assumption of the Virgin Mary, 1485-1500 ca., by the anonymous Netherlandish painter known as the Master of the Saint Lucy Legend. Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons. (Click link to see in very high resolution.)

On this feast… (texts of the liturgy are) sung also from the book of Canticles (i.e. the Song of Songs), … which is about love, because while (the Virgin Mary) abided in the flesh, she had greater love than any other creature living in the flesh, except for Christ. And therefore, because of the exceeding charity which She had on earth, She merited to rise above the angels, for to live in the flesh apart from the flesh is not an earthly life but a heavenly one.

This feast is suitable for the summer, for charity rises by the heat of fire. Again, the readings and chants come from the song of love, because the Blessed Virgin is a figure of the Church. For just as She is mother, virgin and spouse, so also the Church, the mother of Saints, has both the name of virginity and of a spouse; the virginity, I mean, of mind and faith, which is greater than the virginity of the flesh; and of a spouse, because she is the bride of Christ, whence the Apostle says “For I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.” …

The first responsory of Matins of the Assumption, a loose paraphrase of several parts of the Song of Songs, with the verse from chapter 3, 6; polyphonic setting by Tomás Luis de Victoria.

R. Vidi speciósam sicut columbam, ascendentem désuper rivos aquárum, cujus inaestimábilis odor erat nimis in vestimentis ejus; * Et sicut dies verni circúmdabant eam flores rosárum et lilia convallium. V. Quae est ista quae ascendit per desertum sicut vírgula fumi ex aromátibus myrrhae et thuris? Et sicut dies verni...

R. I saw one fair like a dove, going up above the rivers of waters, and a perfume beyond price hung heavy in her garments. * And like the days of spring, there surrounded her the flowers of roses and the lilies of the valleys. V. Who is this that cometh up from the desert like a pillar of smoke from the perfumes of myrrh and frankincense? R. And like the days of spring...

At the Mass of the day is read the Epistle, “in all things I saw rest” (Sirach 24, 11-13 and 15-20), for in all things She sought eternal life, and therefore She has it. There follows, “and he that created me rested in my tabernacle,” that is, in my womb. And because the Lord rested in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, therefore he gave her his own tabernacle, that is, heaven. Just as she made for him a great throne, for which reason she herself says, “My soul doth magnify the Lord,” and “King Solomon made a great throne of ivory” (3 Kings 10), so also the Lord made for her a great throne in heaven when he exalted her above the angels.

The Gospel (Luke 10, 38-42) is read about Martha and Mary, which at first sight appears to have no relevance, and yet it is indeed relevant, according to an allegory. For Jesus entered into a certain ‘small castle’, that is, into the Virgin Mary, who is called a castle since She is terrible to demons, and armed Herself well against the devil and against vices. But She is called ‘a small castle’ in the diminutive (castellum) because of her humility, and because of Her unique condition, since ‘neither before nor henceforth hath there been or shall be another such as Her.’ (quoting the 2nd antiphon of Lauds on Christmas day.) And Martha, that is, the active life, received Him. For She most diligently reared Her Child, and brought him into Egypt, and showed her goodness in the active life, by going to Elizabeth, and serving her, and just as She was (like) Martha in the active life, so also she was (like) Mary Magdalene in the contemplative life. Whence in another Gospel is read, “Mary kept all these words in her heart.” (Luke 2, 50)

Now these two sisters signify the active life and the contemplative life, which were clearly in the Blessed Virgin Mary, and through them she exaltedly, honorably, and with great delight, received Christ in Herself.” (7.24)

Christ in the House of Mary and Martha, by Henryk Semiradzki, 1886

Now this should be noted, that there are four Gospels of the Virgin Mary. One is “The Angel (of the Lord) was sent” (Luke 1, 26-38), which should be said only in Advent and on the Annunciation. The other three can be sung whenever a special Mass is said of her from the commons, as it were, which are “A certain woman lifting up her voice” (Luke 11, 27-28), another, “Mary went into the mountains” (Luke 1, 39-45) and another, “There stood by the Cross.” (John 19, 25-27.)

Note also that this feast has a fast (i.e. a vigil) and an octave, which no other feast of hers has, for this feast is greater than all of the others which are celebrated for her. Likewise, in regard to any Saint, the feast of his passing is greater than any of his other feasts, because he passes from misery to life, except for John the Baptist. … (In Durandus’ time, the other Marian octaves, those of the Immaculate Conception and Nativity, did not yet exist.)

There is a legend that when a certain priest, knowing perhaps no other Mass, celebrated the Mass of the Virgin every day, the bishop suspended him from his office, but the Virgin for this reason gravely threatened the bishop, and therefore he relaxed this suspension. (This story was extremely popular in the Middle Ages, and is told of many different bishops, including St Thomas of Canterbury.)

The Communicantes

Lost in Translation #136

After the Memento, Domine, the priest prays the Communicantes:

Communicantes, et memoriam venerantes, in primis gloriósae semper Vírginis Maríae, Genitrícis Dei et Dómini nostri Jesu Christi: sed et beáti Joseph, ejusdem Vírginis Sponsi, et beatórum Apostolórum ac Mártyrum tuórum, Petri et Pauli, Andréae, Jacóbi, Joannis, Thomae, Jacóbi, Philippi, Bartholomaei, Matthaei, Simónis, et Thaddaei: Lini, Cleti, Clementis, Xysti, Cornelii, Cypriáni, Laurentii, Chrysógoni, Joannis et Pauli, Cosmae et Damiáni: et omnium Sanctórum tuórum; quorum méritis precibusque concédas, ut in ómnibus protectiónis tuae muniámur auxilio. Per eundem Christum Dóminum nostrum. Amen.

Which the 2011 ICEL edition translates as:

In communion with those whose memory we venerate, especially the glorious ever-Virgin Mary, Mother of our God and Lord, Jesus Christ, and blessed Joseph, her Spouse, your blessed Apostles and Martyrs, Peter and Paul, Andrew, (James, John, Thomas, James, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Simon and Jude; Linus, Cletus, Clement, Sixtus, Cornelius, Cyprian, Lawrence, Chrysogonus, John and Paul, Cosmas and Damian) and all your Saints; we ask that through their merits and prayers, in all things we may be defended by your protecting help. (Through Christ our Lord. Amen.) [1]

And which I translate as:

Communicating with, and venerating in the first place the memory of the glorious ever Virgin Mary, Mother of God and of Our Lord Jesus Christ; but also of blessed Joseph, spouse of the same Virgin: and likewise of Thy blessed Apostles and Martyrs Peter and Paul, Andrew, James, John, Thomas, James, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Simon, and Thaddeus: Linus, Cletus, Clement, Sixtus, Cornelius, Cyprian, Lawrence, Chrysogonus, John and Paul, Cosmas and Damian, and of all Thy Saints, through whose merits and prayers, grant that we may in all things be defended by the help of Thy protection. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

ICEL’s translation of communicantes as “In communion with” captures the essence of the sentiment better than my literal rendering of “communicating,” for it is fellowship with the Saints and not a mere exchange of words that is being signified. As Fr. Nicholas Gihr writes:

The word Communicantes… denotes that we are children of the Church, subjects of the kingdom of Christ, members of the great family of God, in a word, that we belong “to the Communion of Saints.” [2]

On the other hand, “communicating” has the one advantage of reminding us that we speak to the Saints as our heavenly friends and sometimes they speak back.

Not surprisingly for a prayer built upon the command “Do this in memory of Me,” memory is a prominent theme throughout the Canon. In the previous sentence (the Memento), the priest asked God to remember him and the rest of the Church (Militant); here, he mentions that we remember and venerate all the Saints (the Church Triumphant). The Sacrifice of the Mass makes present not only the Lamb that was slain but the many voices round about His throne. (see Rev. 5, 11-12)

Of these many voices, the priest singles out twenty-six by name: The Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph, twelve Apostles, and twelve Martyrs. Just as only the bones of martyrs may be placed in the altar stone, so too are only the names of martyrs mentioned in the Canon, for as St. Augustine puts it, they are the imitators of the Lord’s Passion. [3] John the Apostle is considered a “martyr by will” even though he is thought to have died of natural causes because an attempt was made on His life when the Emperor ordered him to be placed in a vat of boiling oil, only to emerge fresher than ever; the Blessed Virgin is considered the Queen of Martyrs and to have suffered a martyrdom through her compassion, when she watched her Son die; and St. Joseph, spiritually united to his spouse, shared in her earlier martyrdom (the first three of her Seven Sorrows).

Here, Mary is called Genitrix Dei, the Latin equivalent of the Greek Theotokos or God-bearer, the title given to her at the Council of Ephesus in 431. A genitrix is literally a begettress, but it is reasonable to translate Genitrix Dei as “Mother of God.” (Less defensible is ICEL’s “Mother of our God,” which blurs the Ephesian title.) She is also called glorious because she is one of the very few Saints enjoying her glorified body now in Heaven, as we celebrate today on this feast of her Assumption. And she is honored “in the first place” (imprimis) ahead of all other Saints because her unique holiness and role in salvation history accord to her not just dulia (veneration) but hyperdulia (hyper veneration, so to speak).

Instead of using “and” to continue the list of Saints, the Canon uses the somewhat curious construction “but also” (sed et), as if to say, “But let us not forget…” Sed et occurs four times in the Canon: here, at the Hanc Igitur, and twice in the Unde et Memores. Outside the Canon, the only other time it is used in the Mass is at the Suscipe Sancte Pater during the Offertory.

The two pairings of Apostles and Martyrs makes twenty-four, the number of the Elders mentioned in Revelation 4,4. Starting with St. Thomas, the Apostles are organized according to their feast days in Rome. [4] Then follows a list of five popes (Linus through Cornelius), one bishop (Cyprian), one deacon (Lawrence), and five laymen (Chrysogonus, the brothers John and Paul, and the physician brothers Cosmas and Damian). Cornelius is the only pope out of chronological sequence so that he can be named alongside his friend Cyprian, the bishop of Carthage who joined him in the fight against Novatian, and who shares a feast day with him on September 16.

Sts. Cornelius and Cyprian of Carthage

The list of Saints in the Communicantes is one of two instances in the Canon of enumerative rhetoric (a device as old as Homer), the other being the list in the Nobis quoque peccatoribus. The best explanation, in my opinion, of these two different lists is offered by Fr. Neil Roy, who sees in them a literary adaptation of an early iconic tradition called the “deesis,” a triptych of sorts that places Christ in the middle, His Mother on one side, and John the Baptist on the other. [5] The first set of Saints in the Canon stresses the hierarchical nature of the Church. It begins with the Queen of Martyrs and organizes the rest according to descending ecclesiastical status. The second set of Saints stresses the charismatic nature of the Church. It begins with St. John the Baptist, who never held an ecclesiastical position but certainly had a charism as the prophet of the Most High, and it continues with seven male and seven female martyrs, most of whom lacked an important position in the Church. Whereas the first group emphasis the Church’s structure, the second group is more about the breath of the Spirit, which is prophetic and eschatological. Whereas the first group of saints are judges, the second group are advocates of mercy.

Deesis, Hagia Sophia

Notes

[1] 2011 Roman Missal, p. 636.

[2] Gihr, Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, p. 606.

[3] “And the communion of the Lord’s Body was celebrated where the martyrs had been immolated and crowned in the likeness of His Passion.” (Conf. 6.2.2.)

[4] Barthe, Forest of Symbols, p. 109.

[5] See Rev. Neil J. Roy, “The Roman Canon: deëis in euchological form,” in Benedict XVI and the Sacred Liturgy, eds. Neil J. Roy and Janet E. Rutherford (Four Courts Press, 2008), 181-199.

Music for First Vespers of the Assumption

In the Roman Rite, there are traditionally only three hymns generally used on feasts of the Virgin Mary. These are Ave, Maris Stella, which is sung at Vespers, Quem terra at Matins, and O gloriosa Domina at Lauds; the second and third of these were originally two parts of the same hymn, divided for liturgical use. Among the many other hymns composed in the Middle Ages in honor of the Virgin, a standout is O quam glorifica, an anonymous composition of the ninth century, possibly earlier, which was adopted by several churches for use on the Assumption. At Sarum, it was sung at First Vespers of the feast, while the Parisian Use placed it at Matins, and from these extended it to the Little Office of the Virgin. It was incorporated into the Latin version of the Liturgy of the Hours, although it was not assigned to the Assumption, but to Lauds of Our Lady’s Queenship on August 22, which is now the de facto octave of the Assumption. This is a piece whose complex Latin meter makes for a rather odd word order, and a prime example of a work to which translation perhaps does more than a little injustice. It is here sung by the Trappist monks of Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky, in a recording from 1958; the Cistercian tradition also places it at first Vespers of the feast.

O quam glorifica luce coruscas, Stirpis Davidicae regia proles! Sublimis residens, Virgo Maria, Supra caeligenas aetheris omnes.	O with how glorious light thou shinest, royal offspring of David’s race! dwelling on high, O Virgin Mary, Above all the regions of heaven.
Tu cum virgineo mater honore, Caelorum Domino pectoris aulam Sacris visceribus casta parasti; Natus hinc Deus est corpore Christus.	Thou, chaste mother with virginal honor, prepared in thy holy womb a dwelling place for the Lord of heaven; hence God, Christ, was born in a body.
Quem cunctus venerans orbis adorat, Cui nunc rite genuflectitur omne; A quo te, petimus, subveniente, Abjectis tenebris, gaudia lucis.	Whom all the word adores in veneration, before whom every knee rightfully bends, From whom we ask, as thou comest to help, the joys of light, and the casting away of darkness.
Hoc largire Pater luminis omnis, Natum per proprium, Flamine sacro, Qui tecum nitida vivit in aethra Regnans, ac moderans saecula cuncta. Amen.	Grant this, Father of all light, Through thine own Son, by the Holy Spirit, who with liveth in the bright heaven, ruling and governing all the ages. Amen.

The Sarum and Dominican Uses also have a special Magnificat antiphon for First Vespers of the Assumption, much longer than those typically found in the Roman Use.

Aña Ascendit Christus super caelos, et praeparavit suae castissimae Matri immortalitatis locum: et haec est illa praeclara festivitas, omnium Sanctorum festivitatibus incomparabilis, in qua gloriosa et felix, mirantibus caelestis curiae ordinibus, ad aethereum pervenit thalamum: quo pia sui memorum immemor nequaquam exsistat. – Christ ascended above the heavens, and prepared for His most chaste Mother the place of immortality; and this is the splendid festivity, beyond comparison with the feasts of all the Saints, in which She in glory and rejoicing, as the orders of the heavely courts beheld in wonder, came to the heavenly bridal chamber; that She in her benevolence may ever be mindful of those that remember her.

The classic Vespers hymn of the Virgin, Ave Maris Stella, in Gregorian chant...

and in Palestrina’s splendid polyphonic setting.