The Life of St Stanislaus Depicted on a Chasuble

On the general calendar of the Roman Rite, today is the feast of St Stanislaus (1030-79), a priest of Krakow who was well-known as an excellent preacher, and elected bishop of that see in 1072. The king of Poland at the time, Bolesław II, was a talented and capable man, but indulged in many evil deeds; he kidnapped a noblewoman after whom he lusted, and stole property from the Church. For this, Stanislaus excommunicated him, forbidding services to be celebrated in the Wawel Cathedral whenever he was present, in return for which, the king murdered him while he was in the midst of celebrating Mass. He has often been compared to St Thomas Becket, who likewise resisted the importunities of the sovereign against the Church.

St Stanislaus depicted in a manuscript of the Lives of the Bishops of Kraków by Jan Długosz, the principal source for his life, made in the 1530s for Bp Piotr Tomicki, who is depicted venerating him in the company of King Sigismund I and other dignitaries of the church and state. The tiny figure at his feet is the man whom he raised from the dead, as explained below. The inscription in the red plaque on the left reads, “Vir inclite Stanislae vita, signis, passione, gregem tuam, pastor bone, fove benedictione, guberna protectione, sana salva sancta intercessione. – O Stanislaus, renowned for your life, miracles and passion! O good shepherd, support your flock with your blessing, govern it with your protection, heal and save it through your holy intercession!” This is the antiphon at the Magnificat for Second Vespers of his proper Office used in Poland. (Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.) 

It has to be noted that many details of the lives of both men are regarded as historically very uncertain, not least the day of the Stanislaus’ death. The Roman Martyrology places it on May 8th, which is still to this day his feast day in Poland, but he was assigned to today on the general calendar because the 8th was already taken by the Apparition of St Michael. Other sources place it on April 11th, the date to which he has been moved in the post-Conciliar Rite. In his memoire (p. 318 of the English edition), Abp Bugnini notes that in response to the proposed degradation of all the Polish Saints on the general calendar to optional memorials, the bishops of Poland requested that at least one remain obligatory, so that “at least once a year the entire Church might recall how much Poland has suffered for its fidelity to the gospel.” Stanislaus was chosen, but, adding injury to insult, his new date means that his feast will be omitted or reduced to a commemoration in 2 years out of 3.

The treasury of the Wawel cathedral preserves an extraordinary chasuble, made in 1503 for the 250th anniversary of Stanislaus’ canonization, a donation of the governor of Krakow, Piotr Kmita. The main events of the Saint’s life are depicted in very high relief and incredibly complex embroidered panels, mounted on wooden boards, and detailed with pearls, and tiny accessories (like the his in one of the scenes) made by goldsmiths. Our thanks to the administrators of the cathedral’s Facebook page for their kind permission to reproduce these detailed photographs of it. Below, we have some photos by our own Nicola de’ Grandi of some other things pertinent to the Saint.

Starting from the bottom, Piotr Kmita is depicted holding his coat of arms.

In the second panel, St Stanislaus buys a village from a knight named Piotr, who dies soon thereafter.

Stanislaus, having been accused of fraud in the transaction, which the king used to justify his theft of the village, raises Piotr from the dead to bear witness to the legitimacy of the sale; in the following panel, the Saint brings him before the king. (Note the incredibly realistic representation of the dead man in both panels.)

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Unused or Unseen Papal Vesture and Vestments

Editor’s note: While I was preparing Tuesday’s post about the canonization of Pope St Pius X, I went looking for an NLM post to link to explain one of the old Papal vestments, the “falda”, which is mentioned in the video included in that post. It turns out that an article which Shawn Tribe published over 10 years ago about Papal vestments has subsequently lost all of its pictures. (There is a not-fascinating technical reason for this, having to do with the way Blogger mounted pictures back then.) Fortunately, Shawn had them all archived, so I thought it would be a nice idea to fix the article and repost it.

Continuing our ongoing consideration of vestments and vesture in the Latin West, I thought it would be interesting to look at some unused elements of papal vesture.

Items in use presently (i.e. in 2008), even if only rarely (such as the camauro or papal cappello romano), will not be shown here.

The Fanon

A shoulder-cape worn by the pope alone, consisting of two pieces of white silk ornamented with narrow woven stripes of red and gold; the pieces are nearly circular in shape but somewhat unequal in size and the smaller is laid on and fastened to the larger one... The front part of the fanon is ornamented with a smallcross embroidered in gold...

The fanon is like an amice; it is, however, put on not under but above the alb. The pope wears it only when celebrating a solemn pontifical Mass, that is, only when all the pontifical vestments are used. The manner of putting on the fanon recalls the method of assuming the amice... After the deacon has vested the pope with the usual amice, alb, the cingulum and sub-cinctorium, and the pectoral cross, he draws on, by means of the opening, the fanon and then turns the half of the upper piece towards the back over the pope’s head. He now vests the pope with the stole, tunicle, dalmatic, and chasuble, then turns down that part of the fanon which had been placed over the head of the pope, draws the front half of the upper piece above the tunicle, dalmatic, and chasuble, and finally arranges the whole upper piece of the fanon so that it covers the shoulders of the pope like a collar.

The fanon is mentioned in the oldest known Roman Ordinal, consequently its use in the eighth century can be proved. It was then called anabolagium (anagolagium), yet it was not at that period a vestment reserved for the use of the pope. This limitation of its use did not appear until the other ecclesiastics at Rome began to put the vestment on under the alb instead of over it, that is, when it became customary among the clergy to use the fanon as an ordinary amice. This happened, apparently in imitation of the usage outside of Rome, between the tenth and twelfth centuries; however, the exact date cannot be given. But it is certain that as early as the end of the twelfth century the fanon was worn solely by the pope, as is evident from the express statement of Innocent III (1198-1216). The vestment was then called an orale; the name of fanon, from the late Latin fano, derived from pannus, (penos), cloth, woven fabric, was not used until a subsequent age. Even as early as the eighth century the pope wore the fanon only at solemn high Mass...

(The Catholic Encyclopedia)

The Falda
The falda was a long alb-like garment that formed a kind of train typical of certain types of earlier dress for both men and women. It is worn under the alb.

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Milanese Requiem Set for the Holy Sepulchre

For the jubilee year of 1600, Milan sent the Holy Sepulchre a complete set for solemn Requiem masses, including two folded chasubles. Made of very deep indigo cut velvet, silk, silver-gilt thread, and gold braid, in the spaces between the acanthus pattern are the fourteen symbols of the Passion, sometimes called the Arma Christi (Christ’s arms, in the sense of weaponry). The Jerusalem Cross is featured throughout. (From the holdings of the Terra Sancta Museum: https://www.terrasanctamuseum.org.  Thanks to the Liturgical Arts Journal for permission to share these photos with our readers.)

Sacred Vestments from Hungary

Our Ambrosian correspondent Nicola de’ Grandi visited Hungary this summer, and photographed a good number of vestments in a variety of museums: the treasury of the Cathedral of Esztergom, the National Museum of Hungary, and the Museum of Decorative Arts, the latter both in Budapest. The embroidery and decorations on some of these are remarkably thick and heavy-looking, in a way I don’t think I have ever seen elsewhere; hopefully, they were put out by the sacristans for feasts occurring in winter!

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Precious Blood Chasuble

We are always on the lookout for talented new vestment makers who have a love for the sacred liturgy. The chasuble shown here was made by Adam Bławat of the Polish vestment company Benedicamus. A keen medievalist, he specialises in the re-creation of historical vestments using textiles based on historical designs. Thanks to a benefaction, I commissioned this red chasuble, and the design was suggested by Adam who worked closely in consultation with me.

The inspiration for this chasuble was a German brass memorial from 1340, shown here. The original is clearly a conical vestment. However, out of consideration that the chasuble will be worn by different priests in our Dominican community, I decided that a conical vestment would be too awkward. Adam came up with a good solution. The cut of the chasuble is quite unique, like a full Gothic which mimics the folds and fullness of the conical form without encumbering the hands too much.

The historical brocade that was chosen matches very closely the brass memorial. The textile, fashioned from woven silk, is a replica of the brocade of the chasuble of Pope Boniface VIII (d.1303). The double-headed eagle on the design of this textile indicates that it was probably a cloth of imperial Byzantine origin; the gryphon is a symbol of the two natures of Christ; the birds, which echo a design on my ordination chasuble, is a symbol of souls in heaven, or perched on the Tree of Life.

The chasuble was originally intended to be used on the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, but the delivery took longer than anticipated. Hence it was used for the first time in a Dominican rite Mass on the feast of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus (1 July).

The orphrey of the chasuble is studded with coral flowers, and I discovered subsequently that the Native Americans regard coral as a symbol of blood. How very providential! The pearls, also on the orphrey, are a symbol of divine truth or wisdom and, indeed, of the Kingdom of heaven. The vestment set is complemented with an apparelled amice.

Therefore this chasuble points to the Blood of Christ the God-Man, that was shed for our salvation – a divine truth that is like a priceless pearl for which we should give our all (cf. yesterday’s Gospel, from Matthew 13:45-46).

The Chinese Chasuble of Dom Pierre-Célestin Lou Tseng-Tsiang, OSB

Almost seven years ago, on April 21, 2010, I published an article here, Liturgical Arts Quarterly 1935: “Christian Art in the Far East.” This article presented some fine examples of liturgical inculturation -- something that I often explored here on NLM, particularly as so many things manifest in the name of “inculturation” in our time seem so often misguided and misplaced; it is worthwhile remembering, however, that it hasn’t always been this way, nor must it be.

One of the pieces that was shown in this article was a Gothic Revival chasuble that employed Chinese themed motifs:

This particular chasuble belonged to Dom Pierre-Célestin Lou Tseng-Tsiang, OSB (1871-1949) and is now in the possession of St Andrew’s Abbey in Bruges, Belgium. Dom Lou is shown here wearing it:

Now black and white photos of vestments, in my experience, can do one of two things: they can either make the vestments look better than they really appear in person, or they can do the exact opposite and not show forth just how spectacular they are. (The reason for this is the same in both instances: the lack of colour doesn’t adequately provide a view into all the textures, textile qualities and colour harmonies or disharmonies).

The case of Dom Lou’s chasuble is clearly an instance of the latter, for the modern colour image shows forth the full exquisiteness of this chasuble in its every detail, from the beauty of its colours and materials to the richness of its embroideries and their corresponding textures. Take a look:

As you can see, this is an absolutely exquisite piece of craftsmanship. Putting aside the themes for a moment, the silks, the bead work, the embroideries, the colours, they all combine into a splendid harmony. Added to that are the splendid Chinese motifs that make this a truly stunning and unique piece of liturgical art and, in my estimation at least, an example of one of the very best manifestations of liturgical inculturation.

Photo Credit: Photos of the chasuble by Cyril J. Law with kind permission of the Abbot of St. Andrew's Abbey, Bruges. Cyril also provided us with historical photos of Dom Lou. Thanks to him.

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Beautiful Vestments in the Cleveland Museum of Art

Thanks to our friend Jordan Hainsey for sending us these photos of an exhibition of vestments currently going on (until September 24) at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The title of the exhibition, “Opulent Fashion in the Church” leaves something to be desired; it sounds more like a show about the clothes people wore to church, nor is it really about “fashion”, since any of these things could of course still be used to this day, centuries after their creation. The items, predominantly of the 17th and 18 centuries, were donated in 1916 by Jeptha Wade, an industrialist and philanthropist who one of the founders of Western Union, and who also donated the property on which the CMA stands, as well as the large public park next to it.

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More Liturgical Treasures from Northern Italy

From the Diocesan Museum of the city of Vicenza come these photos of a magnificent cope and reliquary. The cope is traditionally said to have been a gift of St Louis IX, King of France (1214-70) to the Dominican Blessed Bartholomew of Breganza, who was bishop of Vicenza from 1256 until his death in 1271, and whom St Louis had met in the East during his ill-fated crusade. Our Ambrosian correspondent Nicola de’ Grandi, who took the photos, informs me that the embroidered silk is actually Sicilian-Arabic, and the cope was more likely given by the Emperor Frederic II. It is nicknamed “The Parrot Cope” from the pattern in the embroidery, a motif associated with royalty because of (inter alia) a well-known medieval legend that Julius Caesar had owned a parrot that was been trained to greet him with the words “Ave, Caesar! - Hail, Caesar!”

The relic, however, certainly came from St Louis, one of the Thorns from the Lord’s Crown, which was brought to Paris from Constantinople in the 13th century, and housed in the famous Sainte Chapelle. The reliquary shown here was made in Vicenza in the 14th century, but in several different stages. (For those who read Italian, a detailed description of the relic and reliquary, along with a wealth of information about their history, is available here.)

The rhymed inscription around the Thorn reads “O quam felix punctio, quam beata spina, de qua fluit unctio, mundi medicina. - O how happy the wounding (lit. ‘puncturing’), how blessed the thorn, from which flowed forth anointing, the healing of the world.”

St Louis presents the Thorn to Bl. Bartholomew

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Historical Vestments: 13th Century Opus Anglicanum Mitre

Mitre from the Abbey of Seligenthal, Bavaria, 12th century Byzantine silk with 13th century English embroidery (opus Anglicanum), showing the martyrium of St. Thomas a Becket: