Back in 2014, we shared notice of an e-book about the famous Enrico Cardinal Dante, who served as papal master of ceremonies from 1947 until his death in 1967. The book was originally put together by a Polish scholar, and contained a large number of original documents concerning Dante’s career, and photographs of many of the ceremonies he organized. Today I received notice that the book is no longer available in its original form, but that the material it contained is being made available through the Polish website Caeremoniale Romanum, at the following URL:
Images reproduced courtesy of Caeremoniale Romanum: two rare color photographs of a papal Mass celebrated by Pope St John XXIII, with Dante as the master of ceremonies.
Mons. Dante (far left) at his episcopal consecration, with Pope John
I’ve come across a discussion circulating on Brazilian liturgical Instagram pages dismissing a particular gesture—hands joined with fingers extended and touching, instead of folded—as something invented, lacking any historical grounding.
I’ve seen photos, like those of Cardinal Dante using this posture, and I’m convinced it’s rooted in liturgical tradition, not just modern preference. However, I’ve struggled to find solid written sources or rubrical references that explicitly mention or explain this gesture.
Do readers happen to know of any official rubrics, commentaries, or scholarly works that support the legitimacy or origin of this specific form of joined hands? My best guess is that it’s a kind of “courtly” gesture, not something formally documented, but passed down organically through tradition. But I would like to be proved incorrect!
UPDATE: A resourceful seminarian reader, whose comment on Stercky I shared below after the article, sent me two interesting old images in which one can see the old-style surplice that would have required holding hands together to keep it aloft:
Today is the anniversary of the death in 1961 of Domenico Cardinal Tardini, the Vatican Secretary of State under Pope St John XXIII. Born in Rome in 1888, and ordained a priest in 1912, he served in the Curia under Pope Pius XI as a close collaborator of the Cardinal Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli, a role in which he continued when the latter was elected Pope in 1939. In 1952, he was made Pro-Secretary of State for (Extraordinary) Foreign Affairs. Shortly after Pius XII’s death in 1958, John XXIII made him Secretary of State, and raised him to the cardinalate; he was ordained a bishop at the end of the year.
From the always-interesting YouTube channel of British Pathé, here is some archival footage, without soundtrack, of the funeral ceremonies held in St Peter’s Basilica, a Mass coram Summo Pontifice, followed by the Absolution at the catafalque celebrated by the Pope himself.
A few points of interest: throughout the ceremony, the Pope is accompanied by Alfredo Cardinal Ottaviani, whom he had appointed Secretary of the Holy Office, and walking in front of the Pope at the beginning is his Master of Ceremonies, the famous Mons. Enrico Dante. The ceremony is held not at the main altar, but in the right (north) transept, dedicated to Ss Processus and Martinian; starting at 1:44, we see the three chapels of the transept covered over with black drapes, and the central one decorated with a large plain cross. At 2:25, we briefly see the Elevation of the Host during the Mass, which is celebrated at a temporary (but very beautiful) altar set up in front of the drape. The Absolution begins at 2:34; notice how Mons. Dante gestures to people to stand up as he leads the Pope to his place at the foot of the catafalque.
YouTube’s suggestion algorithm also recommended to my attention this footage (once again, archival material without soundtrack), taken in January of 1962, of meetings held in the Apostolic Palace in those strangely perfervid years between the calling of the most recent ecumenical council and its actual beginning.
At 0:21, we see a fresco of St Raymond of Penyafort, the Patron Saint of canon lawyers, presenting his collection of Decretals, the great canon law book of the Middle Ages, to Pope Gregory IX, ca. 1232. At 0:56, we see a group of bishops and cardinals, including Card. Ottaviani and Mons. Dante once again, and at 1:26, Marcel Lefebvre, then newly appointed as Archbishop of Tulle in France; he would serve in this office for less then seventh months, resigning it to take up the role of Superior General of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit. At 1:33, we see Giovanni Cardinal Montini, the Archbishop of Milan and future Pope Paul VI, and then Eugène Cardinal Tisserant, dean of the College of Cardinals, and retired Secretary of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches. The rest of the footage is of a meeting at which Card. Tisserant presides.
I am very happy to be able to share with our readers news of the publication of a new e-book about Enrico Cardinal Dante, just released by Mr. Bartłomiej Krzych, a seminarian with the Community of St Gregory the Great; the book is available for free consultation and download here: http://enricodante.blogspot.com/p/czytaj-online.html. The bulk of the original text is in Polish, but it also contains a number of documents in Latin and Italian, such as the diploma by which Msgr. Dante was appointed to the College of Pontifical Ceremonieres by Pope St Pius X in 1914, and that by which he was made the Prefect of Pontifical Ceremonies in 1947 under Pius XII. By permission of the current Master of Ceremonies, Msgr Guido Marini, and under the copyright of the Office for Pontifical Celebrations, Mr Krzych was also able to include in the book a good number of unique and interesting photographs, including several of Msgr. Dante’s episcopal consecration in the Lateran Basilica at the hands of St John XXIII, on September 21, 1962. There are also over thirty photos of the episcopal consecration of Gabriel Coussa, which was celebrated by Pope John in the Byzantine Rite in the Sistine Chapel on April 16, 1961, Good Shepherd Sunday of that year in the Roman Rite. (Bishop Coussa was shortly thereafter appointed Pro-Secretary of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches; the following year he was made a Cardinal, and Secretary of the same Congregation, but died only four months later.) The book also contains a complete reproduction of the booklet of the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom used at this ceremony, with the Greek original on one side and a Latin translation on the facing pages. Our deepest thanks to Mr. Krzych for his research, and for letting us know about this publication.
Monsignor Dante (far left) at his episcopal consecration, with Pope St John XXIII
The high altar of St John in the Lateran.
Pope St John XXIII celebrating the episcopal consecration of Bishop Gabriel Coussa. The photographs make it clear that, unlike the normal Papal Mass in the Roman Rite, the Pope wears the tiara throughout the ceremony, as the equivalent of the crown normally used by bishops in the Byzantine Rite. He is also wearing a sakkos, the normal vestment of a Byzantine bishop when celebrating the Divine Liturgy, but with the phanon and pallium over it.
A wide view of the Sistine Chapel as it was set up for this ceremony. Even in black-and-white, one can see the sorry condition of the Last Judgment of Michangelo, and of the paintings on the side walls by Perugino and Botticelli, before the great restoration done between 1984 and 1999.
The Cherubic Hymn, and the prayer which is said while it is sung. The Greek rubric says that the prayer is said by the archpriest and the priest, while the Latin says it is said “by the Supreme Pontiff and the concelebrants”. This would seem to indicate that the Pope said his parts of the Divine Liturgy in Latin.
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