Vespers and Procession of the Assumption in Paris

In February of 1638, the wife of King Louis XIII of France, Anne of Austria, was in the early months of her fifth pregnancy, after four stillbirths; this was in the twenty-third year of their marriage, the Queen then being thirty-seven years old. Hoping to obtain by the Virgin Mary’s intercession the safe birth of a royal heir, the king declared a vow of consecration to Her of his own person and family, and of France itself, promising to honor Her by a special procession every year on the feast of the Assumption. On September 5 of that year, the Queen gave birth to a son who was called Louis “Dieudonné - given by God”, the future Louis XIV, who would rule France for so long (1643-1715) that he was succeeded by his great-grandson. In the 19th-century editions of the Parisian Missal and Breviary, this event was even marked by a special feast on the Sunday within the Octave of the Assumption, called “The Commemoration of the Vow of the Most Christian King Louis XIII.”

The Vow of Louis XIII by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, an 1824; from the Cathedral of the Assumption in Montauban. (Public domain image from Wikipedia.)

In this video taken last week at the church of St Eugène in Paris, you can hear Second Vespers of the feast of the Assumption sung by our friends of the Schola Sainte-Cécile, followed by the procession. The Litany of Loreto is sung as the procession passes outside, then returns and makes it way to the Lady altar, where the choir sings Sub tuum praesidium, followed by a versicle and prayer; the celebrant then reads the text of the vow of King Louis. Psalm 19 is sung as the procession returns to the main sanctuary, followed by another versicle and the following prayer. “O God, governor and guardian of kings and kingdoms, Who will that Thy only-begotten Son our Lord should be subject upon the earth to the most holy Virgin Mother, that Thou might show us in Him an example of humility and obedience; bestow Thy merciful favor upon the vows of Thy servant the most Christian King Louis: so that those who consecrate themselves to the protection of the same Virgin by this devout promise, may obtain the rewards of perpetual tranquility in this life, and everlasting freedom in heaven.” The full program of the ceremony can be seen here in Latin and French; the text of the vow is available here in English.

The Mass of the Assumption

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.

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.)

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.

The Byzantine Fast of the Dormition

In addition to Great Lent, the Byzantine tradition has three other fasts connected with major feasts. The liturgical year begins on September 1st, so the first of these is the fast of the Nativity, which runs from November 15th to December 24th; this is almost exactly the same span as Advent in the Ambrosian and Mozarabic Rites. Another fast is kept from the Monday after the feast of All Saints (which is celebrated on the Sunday after Pentecost) to the feast of Ss Peter and Paul; because of the variable date of the former, this can run as long as 42 days, or as short as 8. The fast of the Dormition is kept from August 1-14, and is the strictest of the three, with no consumption of meat, dairy, fish, wine or oil; the last two may be taken on weekends, and fish on the feast of the Transfiguration. There are also a number of interesting liturgical features connected with this period.

An icon of the feast of the Procession of the Cross

The first day, August 1st, is a feast known as the “Procession of the Honorable and Life-Giving Cross”, which is celebrated jointly with one of the most ancient and universal Christian feasts, that of the Seven Maccabee Brothers. In Constantinople, on the evening of July 31st, the relics of the True Cross were brought from the imperial treasury to Hagia Sophia, and laid upon the main altar. Over the next two weeks, they were processed through the streets and venerated by the faithful; this was done also in part to ward off the various illnesses which frequently afflicted the city in the intense summer heat. This procession was last celebrated in 1452, the year before the fall of the city, but the memory of it is still preserved in the liturgical books. As on the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross and the Third Sunday of Lent, the rubrics prescribe that at the end of Orthros, an icon of the Cross be brought from the sanctuary to the nave, and solemnly venerated, after which the following hymn is sung.

Come ye faithful, let us adore the life-giving wood on which Christ, the King of glory, willingly stretched out His hands, and exalted us unto the ancient blessedness, whom once the enemy, having despoiled us by pleasure, banished from God. Come ye faithful, let us adore the wood by which we were made worthy to break the curses of the invisible foes. Come, all ye nations of the gentiles, let us honor the Lord’s Cross with hymns. Rejoice, o Cross, the perfect release of fallen Adam. In Thee our most faithful kings make their boast, as they mightily subject the Ishmaelite people by thy power. Greeting thee now with fear, we Christians glorify God, Who was nailed upon thee, saying ‘Lord, who wast nailed upon this, have mercy upon us, as Thou art good and love-mankind.’

The words “the Ishmaelite people” mean the Saracens, over whom the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Comnenus (1143-80) gained a major victory in 1158, and instituted the feast in commemoration thereof. The same day is also the anniversary of the Baptism of the Rus’, a crucial event for the Christianization of the Eastern Slavs, which took place in the year 988, in the reign of the king Saint Volodymyr. For this reason, it is the custom of some of the Slavic churches to bless water on August 1st, in the form known as the Lesser Blessing, to distinguish it from the Great Blessing held on Epiphany. In both forms, a hand-cross is passed through the water three times in the form of a cross; at the Lesser Blessing, the following troparion is sung. “O Lord, save Thy people, and bless Thine inheritance. Grant victories to the Orthodox Christians over their adversaries, and by virtue of Thy Cross, preserve Thy habitation!”

(A recording made in September of 2021 at the Greek-Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Uzhhorod, Ukraine, on the patronal feast day.)

During the Dormition fast, the Greek tradition also prescribes the celebration of a service known as the Supplicatory Canon, or Paraklesis, modelled on the hour of Orthros; there are two forms of it, the Greater and Lesser, which are said on alternate days, beginning on the evening of August 1st. (In the Slavic tradition, these are shortened very considerably by the omission of most of the long series of hymns which is properly known as a “canon.”) Both of them are supplications to the Virgin Mary to intercede to Her Son on behalf of mankind; the lesser canon may also be sung at any point in the year, especially in times of suffering and difficulty. The following troparia, which are sung shortly after the beginning of the service, give the general theme; these are the same in both versions.

Let us sinners and lowly ones now fervently run to the Mother of God, and fall down in repentance, crying from the depths of our soul: o Lady, have mercy on us and help us; hasten, (for) we are lost in the multitude of our errors. Do not turn Thy servants away, for we have received Thee alone as our hope.
We, the unworthy, will never cease to speak, o Mother of God, of Thy mighty deeds, for if Thou didst not stand to intercede for us, who would have delivered us from such great? Who would have preserved us until now in our freedom? O Lady, we shall not depart from you, for you always save your servants from every sort of tribulation.

Towards the end, the following exapostilarion is sung, looking forward to the upcoming feast. The Virgin Mary addresses the Apostles, who, according to a very ancient tradition, were all present for Her dormition, and laid Her to rest in the same place where Her Son had once been laid.

O ye Apostles, gathered together here from the ends of the earth in the place of Gethesemane, take care of (or ‘bury’) my body; and do Thou, my Son and my God, receive my soul.

The Dormition of the Virgin, by Pietro Cavallini, 1296-1300; mosaic in apse of the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere, Rome.

Pictures of the Mater Ecclesiae Assumption Mass in Philadelphia

The Mater Ecclesiae chapel in Berlin, New Jersey, celebrated its 24th annual solemn Mass for the feast of the Assumption in the cathedral basilica of Ss Peter and Paul in Philadelphia. Our thanks once again to one of our favorite photographers, Mrs Allison Girone, for sharing her pictures of the Mass with us.  

Getting ready.

Tradition will always be for the young!

The Mass is accompanied not just by finely executed chant and polyphony, but also an orchestra, here conducted by Dr Timothy McDonnell.

Before the Mass begins, the major ministers go to the chapel next to the main sanctuary, which is dedicated to the Assumption; the large mosaic image over the altar is incensed, and a young woman placed a bouquet of flowers on it at the Virgin Mary’s feet.

Continue Reading this Article. . .

The Leaving-taking of the Dormition in the Byzantine Rite

The custom of extending the most important feasts to a period of eight days was inherited by the Church from the Old Testament, which prescribes that this be done for Passover, the feast of Tabernacles, and the dedication of the temple. In the Roman Rite, this extension is simply called an octave, and when it is done, always lasts for seven days after the main feast. This is the original and oldest standard, universally attested for the celebration of Easter.

A Greek icon of the Great Deesis (i.e. “supplication”, the Virgin and the Baptist to either side of Christ), with most of the Twelve Great Feasts painted on the doors, ca. 1540-49. (Image from Wikimedia Commons by Daderot, CC0 1.0. Universal.) 

In the Byzantine Rite, on the other hand, the length of such an extension varies from feast to feast, and the period is called the After-feast, while the final day is called the Leave-taking. Easter is ranked by itself above all other celebrations, and its Leave-taking is on the day before the Ascension; including Holy Saturday, this makes a total of forty days. Just beneath it in rank is a group called the Twelve Great Feasts, eight of Our Lord and four of Our Lady. Most of these have a Fore-feast, the equivalent of a vigil in the Roman Rite, but that of Christmas lasts for five days, and that of Epiphany for four. I list them here with their length of the respective After-feasts, including the day of the Leave-taking.

• Sept. 8 – the Birth of the Mother of God (4 days)
• Sept. 14 – the Exaltation of the Cross (7 days)
• Nov. 21 – the Presentation of the Mother of God in the Temple (4 days)
• Dec. 25 – the Nativity of the Lord (6 days)
• Jan. 6 – the Theophany (8 days)
• Feb. 2 – the Presentation of the Lord (7 days)
• Mar. 25 – the Annunciation (no Afterfeast)
• Palm Sunday (no Afterfeast)
• The Ascension (8 days)
• Pentecost (6 days)
• Aug. 6 – The Transfiguration (7 days)
• Aug. 15 – the Dormition of the Mother of God (8 days)

To these we must add the very ancient feast of Mid-Pentecost, which is not counted among the twelve, but which nevertheless has an After-feast of seven days. Therefore, only three among the twelve, the Exaltation of the Cross, the Presentation of the Lord, and the Transfiguration, plus Mid-Pentecost, conform to the Old Testament manner of celebrating an octave.

Most of these variations can be explained very easily. The After-feast of the Nativity of the Virgin is interrupted by another very ancient feast, the Dedication of the church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, which is also the Fore-feast of the Exaltation; that of the Presentation of the Virgin imitates it. The eighth day of Christmas is itself a feast, that of the Circumcision, which is also the day of St Basil the Great; the eighth day of Pentecost is the Byzantine feast of All Saints. The Annunciation has no After-feast since it always occurs in Lent or within the Easter octave; for Palm Sunday, an After-feast would extend into Holy Week.

An icon of the Dormition of the Virgin painted by El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos; 1541-1614), ca. 1565, venerated in a church titled to this feast on the Greek island of Syros, about 75 miles to the southeast of Athens. In 1983, the artist’s signature was discovered on the base of the candelabrum; it is believed to be one of the last works he executed while still living in his native place, the island of Crete, before moving to Venice in 1567.

The After-feast of the Dormition presents a particularly interesting case. August 15th was a feast of the Virgin before September 8th or November 21st were, although the first attestation of it as such does not explicitly call it the Dormition or Assumption. The length of its After-feast, 8 days, is that of the other two put together (four and four), indicating its place as the greatest of the Marian feasts. One may also note that it has the same length in toto as the Ascension, nine days, which reminds us not only of the essential similarity between the two feasts, but also of the nine choirs of Angels, since both feasts speak repeatedly of the Angels, and their wonder at seeing our human nature raised up to heaven.

“The Lord was taken up into the heavens, that He might send the Paraclete to the world; the heavens prepare His throne, the clouds His rising; the Angels wonder, seeing a man above them…” (the first hymn of Vespers of the Ascension).

“The Angels are astonished, seeing the Dormition of the Virgin, how She departs from earth on high.” (The refrain of the first Ode of the first Canon of the Dormition.)

The Byzantine Rite also has a formally designated beginning to its liturgical year on September 1st, known as the feast of the Indiction, a name which originated with an ancient Roman cycle of taxation. The first of the Twelve Great Feasts to occur after the Indiction, and the first to occur in history, is the Nativity of the Virgin Mary on September 8th; the last to occur before it, and the last to occur in history, is the Assumption. It seems very unlikely that this arrangement is merely coincidental.

The Indiction is also considered the day on which God began to create the world, a tradition to which its liturgical texts repeatedly refer. For example, the tropar at the Divine Liturgy reads as follows.

“Maker of all creation, Who settest times and seasons in Thy power, bless the crown of the year of Thy goodness, o Lord, keeping in peace Thy kings and Thy city, by the prayers of the Mother of God, and save us.”

Since the Indiction represents the beginning of creation, note that between it and the Birth of the Virgin there are seven day inclusive: the six days of creation, and the seventh on which God rested, as recounted at the beginning of Genesis. This is the creation which falls in Adam, and awaits redemption in the New Adam, a redemption which begins with the coming of His Mother into the world, the feast that is celebrated on September 8th.

After the Leave-taking of the Dormition on August 23rd, the remainder of the year is eight days, August 24-31. These days represent the creation after Christ restored it by rising on the day after the seventh, which is both the first day, the beginning a new creation, and the eighth. The Virgin Mary, the first person to be taken into the glory of heaven body and soul, is the first-fruits of the redemption of our fallen humanity, the redemption which will be perfected at the end of time in the rest of us.

Vespers and Procession of the Assumption in Paris

In February of 1638, the wife of King Louis XIII of France, Anne of Austria, was in the early months of her fifth pregnancy, after four stillbirths; this was in the twenty-third year of their marriage, the Queen then being thirty-seven years old. Hoping to obtain by the Virgin Mary’s intercession the safe birth of a royal heir, the king declared a vow of consecration to Her of his own person and family, and of France itself, promising to honor Her by a special procession every year on the feast of the Assumption. On September 5 of that year, the Queen gave birth to a son who was called Louis “Dieudonné - given by God”, the future Louis XIV, who would rule France for so long (1643-1715) that he was succeeded by his great-grandson. In the 19th-century editions of the Parisian Missal and Breviary, this event was even marked by a special feast on the Sunday within the Octave of the Assumption, called “The Commemoration of the Vow of the Most Christian King Louis XIII.”

The Vow of Louis XIII by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, an 1824; from the Cathedral of the Assumption in Montauban. (Public domain image from Wikipedia.)

In this video taken last week at the church of St Eugène in Paris, you can hear Second Vespers of the feast of the Assumption sung by our friends of the Schola Sainte-Cécile, followed by the procession. The Litany of Loreto is sung as the procession passes outside, then returns and makes it way to the Lady altar, where the choir sings Sub tuum praesidium, followed by a versicle and prayer; the celebrant then reads the text of the vow of King Louis. Psalm 19 is sung as the procession returns to the main sanctuary, followed by another versicle and the following prayer. “O God, governor and guardian of kings and kingdoms, Who will that Thy only-begotten Son our Lord should be subject upon the earth to the most holy Virgin Mother, that Thou might show us in Him an example of humility and obedience; bestow Thy merciful favor upon the vows of Thy servant the most Christian King Louis: so that those who consecrate themselves to the protection of the same Virgin by this devout promise, may obtain the rewards of perpetual tranquility in this life, and everlasting freedom in heaven.” The full program of the ceremony can be seen here in Latin and French; the text of the vow is available here in English.

The Mass of the Assumption

The Gospel of the Assumption: A Medieval Allegory

Shortly after Pope Pius XII made the formal dogmatic definition of the Assumption in 1950, he promulgated a new Office and Mass for the feast. The Gospel of the new Mass, known from its Introit as Signum Magnum, is St Luke 1, 41-50, the words of Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, to the Virgin at the time of the Visitation, and the first part of the Magnificat. Before the promulgation of this new Mass, the Gospel had been for many centuries that of Mary and Martha, Luke 10, 38-42.

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

At that time, Jesus entered into a certain town, and a certain woman named Martha received Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sitting also at the Lord’s feet, heard his word. But Martha was busy about much serving; who stood and said, “Lord, hast thou no care that my sister hath left me alone to serve? speak to her therefore, that she help me.” And the Lord answering, said to her, “Martha, Martha, thou art full of care, and art troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary hath chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her.”

This Gospel was received, like the feast of the Assumption itself, from the Byzantine tradition, in which it is read on various feasts of the Blessed Virgin, with two verses from the following chapter appended to it, Luke 11, 27-28. In the traditional lectionary of the Roman Rite, these two verses are separated from the previous Gospel, and read on the Vigil of the Assumption.

And it came to pass, as He spoke these things, a certain woman from the crowd, lifting up her voice, said to Him, “Blessed is the womb that bore thee, and the paps that gave thee suck.” But He said, “Yea rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God, and keep it.”

The Church Fathers traditionally explained Mary and Martha as symbols of the contemplative and active life respectively, as is seen already in St Ambrose’s Exposition of the Gospel according to Luke, although he does not use the terms “active” and “contemplative”.

“One of them listened to the Word, the other was busy about serving, and stood and said, ‘Lord, hast thou no care etc.’ Therefore, the one applied herself more to attention, the other to the service of action: nevertheless, there was in both equally zeal for both forms of virtue. For indeed, if Martha did not hear the Word, she would not have undertaken her service, the doing of which indicates her intention; and Mary took such great grace (as she had) from the perfection of both virtues. (1.9)

Nor is Martha rebuked in her good ministry, but Mary is set before her, because she chose for herself the better part; for Jesus abounds in many things, and gives many things. Therefore, she is judged the wiser, because she perceived and chose what is first (or ‘most important’), as indeed the Apostles deemed it was not the best thing to leave the word of God and serve tables (Acts 6, 2). (7.86)”

Ss Ambrose and Augustine, by Fra Filippo Lippi, ca. 1437

This is stated even more clearly by St Augustine, in the homily which was traditionally read in the Office on the feast of the Assumption.

“In these two women are figured two lives, the present and the future, one full of labor, the other restful, one full of trouble, the other blessed, one in time, the other eternal. … Therefore, there remained in that house which received the Lord two lives (represented) in the two women; both innocent, both praiseworthy; one full of labor, the other at rest; neither sinful, neither idle… In that house, there were these two lives, and the fountain of life itself. In Martha was the image of the things that are present, in Mary of those that will be. What Martha was doing, there are we; what Mary was doing, this do we hope for; let us do the former well, that we may have the latter in full.” (Sermon 104, alias 27)

In the middle of the 9th century, Amalarius of Metz, in his treatise On the Offices of the Church, uses the terms “active” and “contemplative” life, although not specifically in reference to the feast of the Assumption, which he does not mention.

“Thus there are in our Church today two kinds of the elect who are baptized. One kind is in the active life, the other in the contemplative, and these two kinds are signified by Martha and her sister Mary. The better part was allotted to Mary by the Lord, but that of Martha was not reproved, for it is good.” (4.27)

By the middle of the 12th century, this tradition is fully well-established. In the Rationale Divinorum Officiorum, John Beleth explains that some Gospels are chosen as historical narrations of the events which the liturgy celebrates, such as that of the Epiphany, while others are chosen as allegories.

“According to an allegory (is) one such as that which is customarily read on the Assumption of the Blessed Mary, concerning Mary Magdalene and her sister Martha ... since in Mary is signified the contemplative life, and through Martha, who was serving (the Lord), the active life. By this Gospel it is taught that in the Blessed Virgin Mary was the perfection of both lives...” (29 de Evangelio)

Commenting on the feast itself, he writes: “That fact that a Gospel (of the allegorical sort) is read, indicates that both lives, the contemplative and the active, were in the Virgin Mary. For she was Magdalene, that is, the one who was taken up with the contemplative life. She was Martha, that is, the one who was wholly occupied with the active life ... For these words declare sufficiently that She was constantly taken up with the contemplative life, ‘But Mary kept all these words in her heart. (Luke 2, 52)’ ” (146 de Assumptione)

The Dormition and Assumption of the Virgin Mary, by Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci; from the Gradual of Santa Maria degli Angeli, ca. 1370, now in the British Library.

At the end of the same century, Sicard of Cremona adds an allegorical explanation of the “town” which the Gospel mentions as the place where Mary and Martha lived, since the Latin word for it, “castellum”, also means “a little castle.”

“In the Mass is read the Gospel of Martha and Mary Magdalene, according to an allegory; for the blessed Virgin was the little castle, because She secured herself well against the devil. She was Martha, for there was none better in action; she was Mary, for there was none better in contemplation, of which it is said, ‘But Mary kept all these words in her heart.’ ” (Mitrale 9. 40)

William Durandus’ commentary on the liturgy, also called Rationale Divinorum Officiorum, stands in relation to the earlier commentaries as St Thomas’ Summa theologica does to earlier Summae, bringing together all of the threads of the tradition with great thoroughness and clarity. He writes thus on the traditional Gospel of the Assumption.

“The Gospel 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)

The Vigil of the Assumption

In the Roman Rite, the term “vigilia – vigil” traditionally means a penitential day of preparation for a major feast. The Mass of a Saint’s vigil is celebrated after None, as are the Masses of the ferias of Lent or the Ember Days, and in violet vestments; however, the deacon and subdeacon do not wear folded chasubles, as they do in Lent, but the dalmatic and tunicle. The Mass has neither the Gloria nor the Creed, the Alleluja is simply omitted before the Gospel, not replaced with a Tract, and Benedicamus Domino is said at the end in place of Ite, missa est.

Folio 102v of the Gellone Sacramentary, 780 AD; the Mass of the vigil of the Assumption begins with the decorative S just under the middle of the page. The prayers given here are different from those of the Gregorian Sacramentary which are described below. Above it is the Mass of St Eusebius, which is still kept as a commemoration on the vigil to this day. (Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des Manuscrits, Latin 12048)

The vigil of the Assumption is not attested in the most ancient liturgical books of the Roman Rite, most notably, the oldest form of the Gelasian Sacramentary, ca. 750 AD. It is found in the Gellone Sacramentary only 30 years later, and in all copies of the Gregorian Sacramentary. In the Roman Missal, the Gregorian chant parts are all taken from other Masses of the Virgin Mary. The Introit Vultum tuum is also sung on the Annunciation and at the Votive Mass of the Virgin in Christmastide, which indicates that the salvation of the human person in both body and soul, which God begins to effect in the Incarnation, and which He manifests to the world with His birth, is first perfected when His Mother is assumed into heaven body and soul.

The Epistle is taken from the twenty-fourth chapter of Sirach, in which Wisdom, understood in medieval tradition as a figure of the Virgin Mary, “praises her own self, and is honored in God, ... and among the blessed is blessed, etc.” The verses selected for the vigil are 23-31, the first of which may have been chosen in reference to the tradition that after the Assumption, flowers grew out of the stone floor of the tomb in which the Apostles had laid Her body to rest. “As the vine I have brought forth a pleasant odor: and my flowers are the fruit of honor and riches.” And likewise, the last verse, “They that explain me shall have life everlasting”, points to the Virgin as the first-fruits of mankind’s eternal redemption in Her Son.

The feast of the Assumption was adopted into the Roman Rite from the Byzantine towards the end of the 7th century, under Pope St Sergius I (687-701), who was of Syrian origins, but born and raised in Palermo, Sicily, then part of the Byzantine Empire. In the Byzantine Rite, two separate parts of St Luke’s Gospel are taken together as a single reading at the Divine Liturgy, chapter 10, 38-42, in which the Lord tells Martha that her sister Mary “hath chosen the better part”, and chapter 11, 27-28, in which a woman in the crowd says to Him, “Blessed is the womb that bore thee.” In the Wurzburg lectionary, the oldest of the Roman Rite, which is roughly contemporary with Pope Sergius, these readings are both given for the “birth (into heaven) of St Mary”, but as two separate entries; it may be that they were nevertheless read together as in the Greek tradition. However, the Roman Rite makes almost no use of these kinds of composite readings, and in the second oldest lectionary, that of Murbach, from roughly a century later, the second part has disappeared. Its association with the Assumption was then preserved by assigning it to the vigil.

The most interesting aspect of the Mass is the evolution of its prayers. The collect appears in the Gregorian Sacramentary (ca. 800 AD) in the same form it has in the Missal of St Pius V.

“Deus, qui virginálem aulam beátae Maríae, in qua habitáres, elígere dignátus es: da, quaesumus; ut, sua nos defensióne munítos, jucundos facias suae interesse festivitáti. – O God, Who deigned to choose for Thy dwelling the virginal womb (lit. ‘court’) of the blessed Mary, grant, we beseech Thee, that, protected by Her defense, we may with joy take part in her festival.”

In its original form, the Secret is very unusual in that it contains no petition.

“Magna est, Dómine, apud clementiam tuam Dei Genetrícis oratio: quam idcirco de praesenti saeculo transtulisti; ut pro peccátis nostris apud te fiduciáliter intercédat. – Great before Thy clemency, o Lord, is the prayer of the Mother of God, whom Thou didst transport from this present age for this reason, that She might confidently intercede with Thee for our sins.”

The first part of Mass of the Vigil of the Assumption in the Echternach Sacramentary, 895 AD, with the alteration of the verb “est” to “sit”, as noted below. Note that another scribe, still perhaps worried that the prayer was still not sufficently petitionary, added the words “pro nobis – for us.” (Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des manuscrits, Latin 9433)

Already by the end of the ninth century, this prayer appears in the Echternach Sacramentary with a very slight emendation; the first verb is changed to the subjunctive, which makes it a petition: “Magna sit… – May the prayer of the Mother of God be great… ” This was evidently still deemed too unlike a typical Secret, and was later emended again to the more conventional form it has in the Tridentine Missal, “Munera nostra … commendet oratio - May the prayer of the Mother of God commend our offerings… ”

It is a well-known fact that although the Church has officially defined the fact of the Virgin Mary’s bodily Assumption, it has never formally pronounced on the question of whether She died first or not. However, the weight of tradition, going back to the very earliest Eastern sources, is very much of the opinion that She did die first. This is explicitly stated in many prayers used on the feast of the Assumption in the West, including the Post-Communion of the vigil in its original form.

“Concéde, miséricors Deus, fragilitáti nostrae praesidium: ut, qui sanctae Dei Genetrícis requiem celebrámus; intercessiónis ejus auxilio, a nostris iniquitátibus resurgámus. – Grant, o merciful God, Thy protection for our frailty, that we who celebrate the repose of the holy Mother of God, may rise again from our iniquities with the help of Her intercession.”

In the context of the Roman Rite, in which the liturgy for the dead repeatedly uses the words “Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine”, this should certainly be read as an allusion to the belief that the Virgin Mary did in fact die before the Assumption. It also looks forward to the traditional Epistle of the feast itself, Sirach 24, 11-20 (minus verse 14), which begins with the words “In all things I sought rest (requiem), and I shall abide in the inheritance of the Lord.” The editors of the Tridentine Missal, however, decided to take a more neutral stance on a point thitherto undefined, and therefore changed “requiem celebrámus” to “festivitátem praevenímus – look forward to Her festivity.”

The Assumption of the Virgin, ca. 1665, by Juan Martín Cabezalero (1633-73).

A Sermon on the Assumption, by Fr Robert Pasley

Our thanks to Fr Robert Pasley, rector of Mater Ecclesiae church in Berlin, New Jersey, and chaplain of the Church Music Association of America, for sharing with us this sermon, which he delivered last week on the Assumption, at the Mass which his church organizes for the feast every year at the cathedral of Ss Peter and Paul in Philadelphia. Our thanks also to one of our favorite photographers, Allison Girone, who sent in these pictures of the Mass, taken by herself, Regina Jelski and Collette Jemming.

A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.

Venerating the image of the Assumption in the chapel to the side of the main sanctuary before the Mass begins.

Today we celebrate the glorious Assumption of Our Lady into heaven. She who was immaculately conceived, who remained ever sinless, does not suffer the ravages of death which are the result of Original Sin, but is taken body and soul into heaven by the power and love of her Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. As the Alleluia verse proclaims, “Mary has been assumed into heaven: the angelic host rejoices. Alleluia!”

Our Lady’s Assumption into heaven is the beginning of her heavenly intercession for us and her constant assistance. She watches over the Church – she watches over you and me – until all is brought to completion in Christ. Throughout the ages Our Lady has sent us heavenly messages. So many shrines exist because of her miraculous help. We think of her shrine in Poland – Our Lady of Czestochowa. We cherish the gift given to us by Our Lady of Mt Carmel – the Holy Scapular. We remember her apparition in Mexico and the thousands of conversions that took place because of Our Lady of Guadalupe. We rejoice in her gift of the Holy Rosary given to Saint Dominic and to us.~~~~ In the modern era she has appeared at La Salette, in Paris to Saint Catherine Laboure, in Lourdes to Saint Bernadette, and at Fatima.

I would like to take a few moments to reflect upon her appearances at La Salette and Fatima.

La Salette is a stunning place in the French Alps which was the scene of an apparition of Our Lady to two very simple cattle herders, Melanie Mathieu, aged 14, and Maximin Giraud, aged 11. It took place on Saturday afternoon September 19, 1846.

While they were keeping watch of the cattle, the children saw a large circle of brilliant light, vibrant and outshining the sun. The light was intensified and dazzling. They were stricken with fear. She said to them, “Come to me my children, do not be afraid. I am here to tell you something of the greatest importance.” She continued, “If my people will not obey, I shall be compelled to loose my Son’s arm. It is so heavy, so pressing, that I can no longer restrain it. How long have I suffered for you! …I entreat Him without ceasing. I beg you to:

Keep Holy the Sabbath and always attend Mass.
Cease blaspheming God by your horrible swearing.
Pray every day.”

Our Lady’s message at La Salette was a call to obedience, reverence, prayer, repentance and placing God at the center of our lives. Her message was an indictment of man’s disobedience to God, of man’s forgetfulness of God. It shed a clear light on society’s drift away from faith and decent living, to worldliness and a disdain for all that is sacred.

And this was 1846.

Seventy one years later, on May 13, 1917, Our Lady appeared at Fatima. The world was in the midst of the horrors of World War I. The evil of communism was about to be unleashed. Millions of people were about to die horrific deaths.

We all know the story of Francisco, Jacinta and Lucia. While tending sheep Our Lady appeared to them in the Cova da Iria. She gave them very strong warnings about what would happen if men did not repent. Of the many messages they received I would like to summarize just a few: Offer yourselves to God in order to accept all the sufferings He wishes to send you in reparation for sin and the conversion of sinners. My children always say the Rosary.

She then revealed to them a vision of Hell – The children looked but the earth was no longer there. They were gazing into a veritable ocean of fire. Even the earth seemed to vanish. They saw huge numbers of devils and lost souls in a vast and fiery ocean. The devils resembled grotesque and hideous animals. They filled the air with despairing shrieks. The lost souls were tumbling about in the flames and screaming with terror. She told them, ‘You have seen a vision of Hell where the souls of sinners go’

Her message continued, ‘To save sinners God wishes to establish in the world the devotion to my Immaculate Heart. I ask that Russia be consecrated to my Immaculate Heart. I ask you to make communions of reparation on each first Saturday.’

She ended by saying, ‘In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph.’

On October 13, 1917 the Miracle of the sun took place. A year later one of the worst flu epidemics in the history of the world began to spread. Vladimir Lenin started a violent communist revolution in Russia. By the 1930’s Adolph Hitler would enter the scene and World War II exploded. Mao se Tung began the deadly Communist revolution in China. The nuclear bomb was invented, the conflicts in Korea and Vietnam followed. Terrorism and instability became a constant part of society. Atheism, apostasy, sacrilege, heresy, and communism have continued to spread. And the Church, which is horribly weakened, faces challenges from within and without.

After all of this, the world continues to tumble far away from God and does not heed Our Lady’s message.

I conclude where the Mass began: Signum magnum apparuit in caelo: mulier amicta sole, et luna sub pedibus ejus, et in capite ejus corona stellarum duodecim. A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.

This sign, described in chapter 12 of the Book of Apocalypse, is the beginning of the final confrontation between God and Satan. Three figures will be involved: the Woman with her offspring, the Dragon – Satan, and St. Michael the Archangel.

The mysterious figure of the woman has been interpreted ever since the time of the Fathers of the Church as referring to the ancient people of Israel, the Catholic Church and the Blessed Virgin Mary. The text supports all of these interpretations. Yet, the Sacred Liturgy has clearly connected the Assumption of Our Lady, the Woman clothed with the sun, and the end battle with the Dragon – Satan and his human ambassador the Anti-Christ.

From the moment of her glorious Assumption, the Blessed Virgin Mary has watched over us, Her Son’s mystical Body. She has miraculously healed people throughout the ages. She has appeared many times to her children and in the last 170 years she has given very stern warnings for the world to repent.

The war of rebellion against God certainly seems to have intensified in unimaginable ways. The story continues in Apocalypse 12, 13-17,

“And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman, who brought forth the man child: And there were given to the woman two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the desert unto her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time,…... And the serpent cast out of his mouth after the woman, water as it were a river; that he might cause her to be carried away by the river. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the river, which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was angry against the woman: and went to make war with the rest of her seed, who keep the commandments of God, and bear testimony to Jesus Christ.”

Wage war on the rest of her seed, who keep the commandments and bear testimony to Jesus Christ!

We, who offer sacrifice in this Cathedral Basilica on this feast of Our Lady’s victory are on the front lines of this raging war. We should not be surprised, however, or give in to fear, or be filled with dread, or strike out in an un-Christ like way.

No, we must prove even more that we are faithful children of the Lord who will employ every spiritual weapon at our disposal.

– We will obey the commandments more fervently.
– We will bear testimony to Our Lord, especially in public.
– We will never cease to hand down to our children the great treasures of Tradition we have received.
– We will attend Mass every Sunday and pray at all times, especially the Holy Rosary.
– We will constantly repent, go to confession and grow in holiness.
– We will rejoice in the Truth and never fear proclaiming it from the housetops.
– And we will fight fearlessly against Satan and his vicious lies and those who propagate those lies.

The Lady, clothed with the brilliance of the sun, with the moon under her feet, and the diadem of 12 stars around her head, is the Lady Assumed into heaven who loves us dearly. She never ceases to help and protect us.

Remember her words at Fatima - MY IMMACULATE HEART WILL TRIUMPH!

Yes, of course, tradition will always be for the young!

Continue Reading this Article. . .

Palestrina’s Canticle of Canticles

Before the Tridentine reform, very few feasts had Scriptural readings in the first nocturn of the Divine Office. On the feasts of the Saints, it was typical for readings of their lives to supply all the Matins lessons, while on those of Our Lord and Our Lady, the first two nocturns were usually a sermon about the feast, and those of the third a homily on the Gospel read at Mass. There were, however, certain exceptions to this, such as Christmas and Epiphany, which always had the same readings from Isaiah that they do today. Among the feasts of the Virgin Mary, only that of her Nativity had Scriptural readings; these were taken from the Song of Songs, or Canticle of Canticles, as it was traditionally known in the Latin West, from its title in the Vulgate, “Canticum Canticorum.”

Two pages of a breviary according to the Use of Prague, printed in 1502, with the Office of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary; the Canticle of Canticles is read in both the first and second nocturns. In many Bibles of this period, the Canticle also had notes added to the text to indicate who is speaking: “The voice of Christ, (speaking) to the Church”, “the Church (speaking) about its tribulations” etc. These were then often incorporated into breviaries, as seen here. (Click image to enlarge.) 

On the Assumption and through its octave, the readings of the first two nocturns were taken from a sermon known from its opening words as “Cogitis me.” This purports to be a letter of St Jerome, written to his great friend Paula and her daughter Eustochium (who are both also Saints), in which he expounds his belief in the Assumption of the Virgin, and exhorts them to imitate Her as a model of consecrated life. In reality, it was written by St Paschasius Radbertus, a monk of the ninth century, when “forgeries” of this sort were not looked upon as frauds or acts of deception. Patristic scholar Jaroslav Pelikan notes that Paschasius “under the name of Saint Jerome made a far more substantial contribution to the history of Marian spirituality and devotion than any of the genuine works of Jerome, or for that matter than (his own) other principal work … on the subject of the Blessed Virgin Mary.” (“The Odyssey of Dionysian Spirituality”, Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works, Paulist Press, 1987.)

In the early 16th century, however, Erasmus had shown that “Cogitis me” was certainly not by St Jerome, although he did not know who the true author was. It was therefore removed from St Pius V’s breviary and replaced by writings of other Church Fathers. (Ironically, the readings from St Athanasius assigned to the feast in the first edition were also later determined to be not actually his, and were removed from the second edition published by Clement VIII in 1602.)

The upper half of a polyptych of the Assumption, with Ss Paul and Jerome, Catherine of Alexandria and Clare of Assisi, 1529-30, by Alessandro Bonvicino (1492/5 - 1554), known as “Moretto da Brescia.”

The Tridentine breviary also conformed all Matins of nine readings to the arrangement previously found only on major Sundays and a handful of feasts, with Scripture readings in the first nocturn. The Canticle of Canticles, previously assigned to the Virgin’s Nativity and its octave, was then transferred to the Assumption. (On the Nativity itself, they were retained for the feast and the octave day, but not the days between.) The working notes of the editors of this breviary have never been discovered, so we are often left to guess what motivated their changes. They may have thought it was better to emphasize the solemnity of the older and greater of the two feasts by giving it proper readings for every day. But this may also have been done because the readings of the Divine Office in August are, by a very ancient custom, given over to the Sapiential books. The Canticle is always treated as one of these, since it has the same putative author as the others, King Solomon; this is why when they are read at Mass, they all have the same title, “A reading from the book of Wisdom.”

The readings are arranged as follows:

August 15	chapter 1 (1-16)
August 16	chapter 2 (1-17)
August 18	chapter 4, 1-4 and 7-15
August 19	chapter 5, 8-12 chapter 6, 1-5 and 8-12
August 21	chapter 7 (1-13) chapter 8, 1-4
August 22	chapter 8, 5-14

Two days within the octave have no such readings: August 17th, the octave of St Lawrence, and the 20th, the feast of St Bernard. (The readings of the 16th, 19th and 21st were later removed as other Saints were added to the calendar on those days.)

Palestrina presents his first book of Masses to Pope Julius III; part of the frontispiece of the book itself, which was published in 1554. Julius (whose scandal-ridden papacy was a profound embarrassment to the rising reform movement within the Church; his papal name has never been used again), had been bishop of the very ancient suburbicarian see of Palestrina, about 24 miles to the east of Rome. It was he who called the great musician from his position as organist in the cathedral of his native town to work in the choir of St Peter’s basilica. (Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.)

In 1584, when this custom was still less than 20 years old, the great Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525 ca. – 1594) published a collection of 29 motets of texts from the Canticle. There seems to be no information available about their intended use, and particularly, whether they were deliberately conceived to be sung during Mass. Two of the wise men whom I consult on such matters had never heard anything on the subject. I therefore make bold to offer here an observation about them, and no more than that; if anyone who knows more chances to read this, I would be very interested to hear what you have to say, so please leave a comment in the combox, or send me an email at the address on the left sidebar. If it’s interesting enough, I might even make a post about it.

Of these 29 motets, the texts of all but one, the 18th, coincide with the readings for the Assumption and its octave, although they do not include all the verses that are in the breviary. (There are none from chapter 8, so the octave day is not included.) But more interestingly, the same verses that are omitted from the breviary are also not used by Palestrina. The motets taken from chapters 4 and 5 begin at the same verses as readings on August 18 and 19, and those from chapter 6 omit the same verses (8-9) which are omitted in the breviary. The two chapters which get the most thorough treatment, the first (motets 1-8) and second (motets 11-17), are also the ones used on other feast days of the Virgin, the former on Her Nativity, and the latter on the Visitation.

These motets are also quite short, averaging about 2 minutes and 45 seconds each. This would make them very appropriate for the sweltering Roman summer when these feasts are celebrated, a time of year in which we may reasonably guess that people would not want the liturgy to be excessively prolonged by lengthy musical pieces.

Palestrina came to Rome in 1551, and worked there for 43 years, at St Peter’s Basilica, St Mary Major and St John in the Lateran. Given the circles in which he moved, it seems quite possible that he knew the clerics who edited the Tridentine breviary. Taken all together, these things seem to make for at least the possibility that he deliberately selected his texts out of the breviary, and intended them to be used during the Masses of Our Lady’s major feasts in the summer.

Here is a very nice recording of the whole set by the Hilliard Ensemble.