One of the contributors to our station churches series this year, Fr Joseph Koczera, SJ, has kindly shared with his photographs of a few of the altars of repose in Roman churches; not a large number, because he spent most of the evening of Holy Thursday at the church of the Pontifical Russian College, for the Matins of the Twelve Gospels, one of the longest and most beautiful ceremonies in the Byzantine Rite.
Here we see the church of the Russicum, as it usually called, on one of the first days of Holy Week.
An icon of the Man of Sorrows is set up in the middle of the church, of the type known as the Bridegroom, from the opening words of the troparion of Matins: Behold the Bridegroom cometh in the midst of the night, and blessed is the servant whom He shall find watching; and again, unworthy is he whom He shall find heedless. Take care, therefore, oh my soul, lest thou be borne down with sleep, lest thou be given up to death, and be shut out of the kingdom; but rouse thyself, crying, Holy, Holy, Holy are Thou O God. Through the Mother of God, have mercy on us!
On the evening of Holy Thursday, this large cross is set in the middle of the church, and a Gospel book placed in front of it. At the Matins of Good Friday, which is very often anticipated to this evening, Twelve Gospel accounts of the Passion are added to the usual order of the service.
Although churches of the Byzantine Rite do not make an altar of the repose, the church remains open until midnight, as do the Roman Rite churches.
In the eleven years we have run this series, we have had a number of interruptions, when, for one reason or another, our Roman pilgrim friends were unable to make it to the stational churches. So this year we lost the second half of the second week of Lent, and the beginning of the third, to Agnese having a serious cold, work commitments, and the ever-popular Roman public transport strike. (Maybe two strikes... who can tell?) Things should be back on track now to the end of Passion week, so it’s time to do some catching up. We also have some videos from Jacob Stein’s YouTube channel Crux Stationalis, and a some photos from our newest Roman pilgrim, Fr Joseph Koczera SJ. Our thanks to them all for sharing with us these testimonies of the Faith in the Eternal City!
Monday of the Second Week of Lent – St Clement
This basilica is famously built on top of two earlier levels; the 12th-century church sits on top of a church of the 4th century, which in turn sits on top of two ancient Roman buildings, one of the later 1st and another of the mid-2nd century. (All three of these levels are accessible to the public.) The procession begins in the ruins of the ancient basilica (1st picture), makes its way upstairs and through the large portico, before entering the main church for the Mass. Also notice in the 6th photo the custom of strewing greenery on the floors of churches during the station Masses; nobody seems to really know where this comes from or why it is done.
Agnese has a real knack for catching photos of the station processions from one side of the portico or cloister as they make their way through the opposite side.
The church’s liturgical choir, and the three ambos which form part of it, date to a mid-6th century restoration of the old basilica; they were removed from the ruins of it and set in place in the new basilica when it was built at the beginning of the 12th century.
For how shall we be able to know, I and thy people, that we have found grace in thy sight, unless thou walk with us, that we may be glorified by all people that dwell upon the earth? And the Lord said to Moses: This word also, which thou hast spoken, will I do: for thou hast found grace before me, and thee I have known by name. And he said: shew me thy glory. He answered: I will shew thee all good, and I will proclaim in the name of the Lord before thee: and I will have mercy on whom I will, and I will be merciful to whom it shall please me. And again he said: Thou canst not see my face: for man shall not see me and live. (Exodus 33, 16-20 - from the first prophecy of Great Friday Vespers in the Byzantine Rite.)
The table of the burial shroud of Christ at the Russian College in Rome after Vespers.
Archimandrite Robert Taft SJ, who is well-known as one of the most important modern scholars of the Byzantine Liturgy inter multa alia, passed away yesterday at the age of 86, at the Jesuit Order’s home for retired priests in Weston, Massachusetts. He taught for many years at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome as Professor of Oriental Liturgy, producing hundreds of scholarly works; among his best known are the book The Liturgy of the Hours in East and West, and The Great Entrance, a study of that part of the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom.
Fr Taft was ordained to the priesthood in the Byzantine Slavonic Rite in 1963, and for decades, regularly celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the church of the Pontifical Russian College, generally known as the Russicum. Here is a beautiful video of the Liturgy at the Russicum on Pentecost Sunday, 2009, in which he was the principal celebrant. The choir is conducted by his confrère Fr Ludwig Pichler, upon whose extraordinary work is built the magnificent choral tradition of the Russicum. (Fr Pichler passed away in May of last year at the age of 101.)
Fr Ludwig Pichler, S.J., one of the 20th century’s greatest figures in the field of sacred music, passed away earlier this morning in the infirmary of the Jesuit home for retired priests in Rome, at the age of 101. Born in Bosnia on July 5th, 1915, ordained a priest at the church of Sant’Ignazio on July 21st, 1945, Fr Pichler directed the choir of the Russian College in Rome for 61 years, from 1948 until his retirement in 2009. The magnificently beautiful choral tradition of the Russicum, as it is usually called, is built upon his extraordinary work, a lifetime dedicated to promoting the finest of Russian and Slavic liturgical music.
The funeral Divine Liturgy will be held tomorrow at the church of the Russian College, Sant’Antonio all’Esquilino, via Carlo Alberto 2, at 11:30 a.m. Вѣчнаѧ памѧть!
PLEASE NOTE: The time of the Liturgy has been changed to 11:30.
Here is a recording of the hymn “It is truly right to bless Thee, o Mother of God” (Ἄξιον ἐστίν: Достóйно éсть) and the Canticle of Simeon (the “Nunc dimittis”) sung by the choir of the Russian College according to Fr Pichler’s arrangements. This was made on November 4, 2015, at a conference held in his honor shortly after his 100th birthday.
The first three photographs here were taken by our friend Agnese at the FSSP’s Roman Parish, Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini. (I was not able to visit as many churches as I did last year.)
Singing of the Gospel at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper
Post-Communio
The Sacrament Chapel of St John in the Lateran on Holy Thursday morning.
The Sacrament Chapel of Santa Maria Maggiore before the Mass of the Lord’s Supper begins.
The high altar prepared for Mass
Matins of the Twelve Gospels at the Russicum
The Sacrament Chapel of Santa Maria Maggiore shortly before closing at midnight.
San Martino ai Monti
San Clemente (morning of Good Friday)
San Clemente - Veils for Passiontide are making a notable comeback in Rome.
The Sacrament Chapel of St John in the Lateran (Good Friday morning); Lauds are being sung by the canons of the Basilica.
The F.S.S.P. parish in Rome, Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini, has announced the following schedule for the principal services of Holy Week. On the days not listed below, the normal schedule applies, with daily Masses at 7:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Any readers who may be in Rome should know that the Passions of St. Matthew on Palm Sunday, and of Saint John on Good Friday, are sung with the “turba”, the parts that represent the crowd, in the polyphonic settings of Victoria, a major highlight of two very impressive ceremonies; Trinità dei Pellegrini also makes one of the most beautiful altars for the Blessed Sacrament in the whole city.
April 13, Palm Sunday: 9:00 a.m. Low Mass
10:30 a.m. Blessing of Palms, Procession and Pontifical Mass, celebrated by His Excellency François Bacqué, titular Archbishop of Gradisca and Apostolic Nuncio. (Please note that this is a half-hour in advance of the usual Sunday High Mass.)
5:30 p.m. Vespers and Benediction
6:30 p.m. Low Mass
April 16, Spy Wednesday: 8:30 p.m. Tenebræ
April 17, Holy Thursday: 6:30 p.m. Mass of the Lord’s Supper
8:30 p.m. Tenebræ (after the Mass)
April 18, Good Friday: 3 p.m. Stations of the Cross, and Veneration of the Relic of the Cross
6:30 p.m. Commemoration of the Passion and Death of our Lord Jesus Christ
8:30 p.m. Tenebræ (after the Good Friday liturgy)
April 19, Holy Saturday: 10: 30 p.m. Easter Vigil.
April 20, Easter Sunday: 9:00 a.m. Low Mass
11:00 a.m. Solemn High Mass
5:30 p.m. Vespers and Benediction
6:30 p.m. Low Mass
If you are visiting Rome in this period, keep in mind that Easter Monday is a legal holiday, as is April 25th, which is the Friday of the Easter Octave this year. Low Sunday will see the canonization of the Blessed Popes John XXIII and John Paul II; expect significant crowds!
The Pontifical Russian College has the following schedule. The choir of the Russicum is joined for Holy Week and Easter Sunday each year by a choir from Switzerland, the “Romanos der Melode Chor”; the music is among the finest to be heard in the Eternal City.
April 12, Saturday of Lazarus the Just: 7 a.m. Divine Liturgy
6:00 p.m. Night Vigil (celebrated every Saturday while the college is in session, from roughly mid-October to June.)
April 13, Palm Sunday: 10 a.m. Divine Liturgy (the regular Sunday schedule)
April 14-16, Holy Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday: 6 p.m. Vespers of the Presanctified Gifts.
April 17, Holy Thursday: 6 p.m. Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great and Vespers.
8:30 p.m. Matins of the Twelve Gospels.
April 18, Good Friday: 2:00 p.m. Vespers of the Holy Shroud
6:00 p.m. Canon of the Crucifixion of the Lord and the Lamentation of the Mother of God.
Last year’s table of the “Epitaphios”, as it is called in Greek, “Plashchanitsa” in Slavonic.
April 19, Holy Saturday: 10 a.m. Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great and Vespers
10:00 p.m. Reading of the Acts of the Apostles
11:00 p.m. Matins of the Paschal Canon (followed immediately by the Divine Liturgy)
April 20, Easter Sunday: Midnight, Divine Liturgy celebrated by His Excellency Cyril Vasyl,Secretary of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches.
6:00 p.m. Vespers with the reading of the Resurrection Gospel (note that there is no Divine Liturgy at 10 a.m.)
Every year on or around the feast of the Epiphany, news outlets around the world run photographs like this one
of Byzantine Rite Christians diving into icy pools, lakes and rivers in mid-winter. These waters are blessed on the feast of the Theophany, the commemoration of the Baptism of Christ in the Jordan, and as part of the blessing, the priests will often throw a Cross into them; the faithful may then dive in after it to get it back, as seen above. It is popularly believed, at least according to the news reports, that the one who gets it will enjoy good health for the coming year. (Those in colder climes, including basically all of the Slavs, are definitely going to need all the help they can get after taking that bath!)
The Tiber river has probably not frozen since the last Ice Age, but is in any case entirely too dirty to swim in. The Eritrean Orthodox community of Rome was, however, able to take the Blessing of the Waters out into the piazza in front of their church, where the clergy enthusiastically flung large buckets of the blessed water all over the congregation, (fortunately, it was a very mild day in Rome) ...
accompanied, as always, by equally enthusiastic drumming and dancing, unique among historical Christian liturgies to the tradition of the Ethiopian Church and those derived from it (Eritrean and Somali).
The Pontifical Russian College, or “Russicum”, as it is generally known, follows the Gregorian Calendar, but many of its students follow the Julian Calendar at home.
The iconostasis of the Russicum’s main sanctuary, with the star of the Nativity hung over the Royal Doors.
The church of the Russicum is dedicated to St Anthony the Abbot, whose feast day just passed on January 17th. For many decades, it has been the college’s tradition to have a “Christmas tree festival”, (Pождественская Ёлка) on or close to the patronal feast; this year it coincided with Julian Epiphany. Everyone was pleased to welcome back to the college Fr Ludwig Pichler, S.J., who directed the choir from 1948 until his retirement in 2009.
The festival begins every year with a brief moleben in honor of the Nativity, a liturgical service based on Matins, but very much briefer, especially by Byzantine standards; the officiant here is the rector of the church, Fr. Germano Marani, S.J.
The moleben is followed by various choirs singing Russian folk songs or pieces from the liturgical repertoire. This year we also had some pieces of poetry by one of the students at the college; in previous years, we have also had some great concert piano-playing. Among the choirs participating this year were Pусская Душа (Russkaya Dusha - ‘Russian Soul’, as in anima, not as in Otis Redding.)
and the Sisters of the Little Flower of Bethany, a congregation founded in India in 1921. Four members of the congregation do the housekeeping and cooking at the Russicum.
The final choir was that of the college itself, conducted by the rector, Fr. Anton Lozuk, S.J., who is also Fr Pichler’s worthy successor as director of the choir.
To all our readers who follow the Julian Calendar, we wish you a most blessed feast of the Theophany!
For how shall we be able to know, I and thy people, that we have found grace in thy sight, unless thou walk with us, that we may be glorified by all people that dwell upon the earth? And the Lord said to Moses: This word also, which thou hast spoken, will I do: for thou hast found grace before me, and thee I have known by name. And he said: shew me thy glory. He answered: I will shew thee all good, and I will proclaim in the name of the Lord before thee: and I will have mercy on whom I will, and I will be merciful to whom it shall please me. And again he said: Thou canst not see my face: for man shall not see me and live. (Exodus 33, 16-20 - from the first prophecy of Great Friday Vespers)
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