The Vesper Hymn of St John Cantius

Today is the feast of St John Cantius (1390-1473), a priest of the diocese of Krakow, Poland, who spent most of his life as a professor at the Krakow Academy, which is now known as the Jagiellonian University, and counts the astronomer Copernicus and Pope St John Paul II among its other illustrious alumni. The revised Butler’s Lives of the Saints recounts two beautiful traditions of the university long observed in the Saint’s honor. (vol. 4, p. 154) He was well known for his generous charities to the poor, and the story is told that once, on seeing a famished beggar pass by the dining hall, he brought the man all of his food; on returning to his seat, he found his plate miraculously filled up again. This was long commemorated by the custom of setting aside a meal for a poor man every day; at the beginning of dinner, the vice-president of the university would cry out in Latin, “A poor man is coming!”, to which the president would reply, “Jesus Christ is coming!”, and the man was then served. The other is that in the ceremonies at which degrees were conferred, the candidates were vested with the Saint’s doctoral gown.

The tomb of St John in the right transept of the church of St Anne in Krakow, the collegiate church of the Jagiellonian University. (Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons by Gryffindor.)

When St John was canonized in 1767, and his feast added to the general calendar, his Office was given three proper hymns: one which is said at both Vespers, another at Matins, and another at Lauds. Butler’s Lives states that he is the only simple Confessor whose Office has its own hymns in the Roman Breviary; this is both inexact and irrelevant. It is certainly true that the Roman Rite as observed in Rome itself was always very conservative in its use of hymns, and very few Saints of any class have their own proper hymns. But the feast of the Seven Founders of the Servite Order, who were all simple Confessors, have proper hymns for their collective feast on February 12th, and plenty of Confessors, both bishops and non-bishops, have proper hymns which are used in specific places or by certain religious orders. (See these articles on the hymns of St Augustine, Anthony the Abbot, and Bernard of Clairvaux.) The author of these hymns is unknown, but they were composed around the time of the canonization.

Here is a beautiful recording of the Vesper hymn by the choir of St John Cantius church in Chicago, made at the church of St Anne in Krakow where St John is buried. The English translation given below is by Mons. Hugh Henry, taken from the book The Hymns of the Breviary and Missal, by Dom Matthew Britt OSB. (Benzinger, 1922)

Gentis Polónae gloria, Cleríque splendor nóbilis, Decus Lycáei, et patriae Pater, Joannes ínclite.	O glory of the Polish race, O splendour of the priestly band, Whose lore did thy lyceum grace, John, father of the fatherland.
Legem superni Núminis Doces magester, et facis. Nil scire prodest: sédulo Legem nitámur éxsequi.	The law of the supernal will Thou teachest both in word and deed; Knowledge is naught—we must fulfill In works, not barren words, our creed!
Apostolórum límina Pedes viátor vísitas; Ad patriam, ad quam téndimus, Gressus viamque dírige.	On foot to apostolic Rome Thy pilgrim spirit joyful hied; Oh, to our everlasting home The path declare, the footstep guide!
Urbem petis Jerúsalem: Signáta sacro Sánguine Christi colis vestigia Rigasque fusis flétibus.	Again, in Sion’s holy street, Anew thou wet’st with tearful flood The pathway of the Saviour’s feet Erst wet with His redeeming blood.
Acerba Christi vúlnera, Haeréte nostris córdibus, Ut cogitémus cónsequi Redemptiónis pretium.	O sweet and bitter wounds of Christ, Deep in our hearts imprinted stay, That the blest fruit the sacrificed Redeemer gained, be ours for aye!
Te prona mundi máchina, Clemens, adoret, Trínitas, Et nos novi per gratiam Novum canámus cánticum.    Amen.	Then let the world obeisance due Perform, O God, to Thy high Will; And let our souls, by grace made new, Sing to Thee a new canticle!    Amen.

A Particularly Beautiful Altar Missal from 1863 (Part 2)

Following up on a post from Tuesday, here are some more photographs of a very beautiful altar missal which is owned by the church of St John Cantius in Chicago, Illinois. It was printed by the Pustet firm, based in Regensburg, Germany, in 1863, and is remarkable not only for the very large number of images, but the fact that they are in color. (I own a two-volume lectionary which was part of the same print run, and which has many of the same images, but all in black-and-white.) Several of these pictures appeared on his Substack Tradition and Sanity a few days ago; I thank him for letting us reproduce them here. (There are definitely enough of these to make more than one post.)

These are predominantly taken from the Proper of the Saints, and most of the images are illuminated letters at the beginning of the Introits. They are arranged here in liturgical order, except for the first, which is that of today’s feast of the Assumption. 

The introduction to the proper of the Saints. 

St Andrew the Apostle, November 30

St Thomas the Apostle, December 21

Pope St Marcellus I, January 16

Ss Marius, Martha, Audifax and Abbacum, a group of martyrs celebrated on January 19.

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A Particularly Beautiful Altar Missal from 1863 (Part 1)

Peter recently had the opportunity to see and photograph an especially fine altar missal which is owned by the church of St John Cantius in Chicago. It was printed by the Pustet firm, based in Regensburg, Germany, in 1863, and is remarkable not only for the very large number of images, but the fact that they are in color. (I own a two-volume lectionary which was part of the same print run, and which has many of the same images, but all in black-and-white.) Most of these pictures appeared on his substack Tradition and Sanity a few days ago; I thank him for letting us reproduce them here. (There are definitely enough of these to make more than one post.)

The original binding is very well preserved; the metal knobs in the corners are called bosses, and help to prevent wear and tear on the leather cover.

First title page

Second title page

The order of incensing the oblata...

and the altar.

The beginning of the Temporal cycle, the first Sunday of Advent.

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Following the Roman Station Churches in Chicago

The Canons Regular of St John Cantius, based in Chicago, Illinois, have a well-deserved reputation for cultivating excellence in the liturgy, and we have gladly featured them many times here on NLM. They were recently kind enough to share with us some information about their way of keeping the Roman tradition of the Lenten station churches, more than 4,800 miles away from the Eternal City.

The stational shrine set up for the First Monday of Lent, at the basilica of St Peter’s Chains.  

At the parishes which they staff, a shrine is set up on a side altar during Lent. Each day, and a sign posted in it with the name of the stational church for that day, along with either a relic of church’s titular Saint, or a piece of the church itself. At the conventual Mass each day, and at each sung Mass on Sundays, the clergy and servers process to the stational shrine and reverence the relic with incense, before the deacon sings Procedamus in pace; the procession then goes to the high altar as an abbreviated Litany of the Saints is sung, in imitation of the ancient stational processions. While it’s not quite the same as joining the stational liturgies in Rome, this brief ritual each day of Lent, along with preaching which incorporates the stational churches and their connection to the daily liturgies of Lent, the Canons Regular are reviving this ancient custom on the local level, giving a sense of the universality of the Church, and the Romanitas of the liturgy.

The station shrine in the church of St Peter in Volo, Illinois, also staffed by the CRSJC, set up for the Second Sunday of Lent, station at Santa Maria in Domnica.

Back in Chicago, the basilica of St Mark on Monday of the Third Week, with a statue of the Evangelist.

Laetare Sunday, a jeweled Cross for the basilica of the Holy Cross, nicknamed “in Jerusalem”.

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Marian Music Program Premieres at St John Cantius in Chicago, August 12th

On Saturday, August 12, at 7:30pm, the critically-acclaimed vocal ensemble His Majesty’s Men (website, Facebook) will once again perform at the historic and beautiful St. John Cantius Church in downtown Chicago.

Their program, “The Flower of Beauty”, will feature two newly-commissioned works on Marian themes composed by two traditionalist Catholics: a setting of the Ave Maris Stella by HMM’s composer-in-residence Mark Nowakowski, and a setting of the Stabat Mater by Peter Kwasniewski. Both composers will be present at this concert.

Also featured will be several motets by the brilliant composer William Byrd, who died in 1623, and could be said to be the greatest English composer before Henry Purcell. Marian themes continue in “Ave Maris Stella” by the 15th-century French composer Guillaume Dufay. There will also be several audience favorites, notably “A Cloud Enveloped Them” by Chad McCoy, which made a huge impact last year. And we will once again present the 13th-century “Seacht nDolás na Maighdine Múire”, the seven sorrows of the Virgin Mary, sung in Irish Gaelige in Chris Crilly’s beautiful arrangement.

There will be a reception after the concert in the Cafe San Giovanni. The musicians and the composers Dr. Nowakowski and Dr. Kwasniewski are greatly looking forward to meeting attendees.

Tickets available here: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/6036326

To read more about the group and its mission, read this interview at the National Catholic Register: Evangelists for the Beauty of Sacred Music.

Performers:
Richard Childress, countertenor
Matthew Dean, tenor
Joe Labozetta, baritone
Nathaniel Adams, baritone
Ian Prichard, bass

The Vesper Hymn of St John Cantius

Today is the feast of St John Cantius (1390-1473), a priest of the diocese of Krakow, Poland, who spent most of his life as a professor at the Krakow Academy, which is now known as the Jagiellonian University, and counts the astronomer Copernicus and Pope St John Paul II among its other illustrious alumni. The revised Butler’s Lives of the Saints recounts two beautiful traditions of the university long observed in the Saint’s honor. (vol. 4, p. 154) He was well known for his generous charities to the poor, and the story is told that once, on seeing a famished beggar pass by the dining hall, he brought the man all of his food; on returning to his seat, he found his plate miraculously filled up again. This was long commemorated by the custom of setting aside a meal for a poor man every day; at the beginning of dinner, the vice-president of the university would cry out in Latin, “A poor man is coming!”, to which the president would reply, “Jesus Christ is coming!”, and the man was then served. The other is that in the ceremonies at which degrees were conferred, the candidates were vested with the Saint’s doctoral gown.

The tomb of St John in the right transept of the church of St Anne in Krakow, the collegiate church of the Jagiellonian University. (Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons by Gryffindor.)

When St John was canonized in 1767, and his feast added to the general calendar, his Office was given three proper hymns: one which is said at both Vespers, another at Matins, and another at Lauds. Butler’s Lives states that he is the only simple Confessor whose Office has its own hymns in the Roman Breviary; this is both inexact and irrelevant. It is certainly true that the Roman Rite as observed in Rome itself was always very conservative in its use of hymns, and very few Saints of any class have their own proper hymns. But the feast of the Seven Founders of the Servite Order, who were all simple Confessors, have proper hymns for their collective feast on February 12th, and plenty of Confessors, both bishops and non-bishops, have proper hymns which are used in specific places or by certain religious orders. (See these articles on the hymns of St Augustine, Anthony the Abbot, and Bernard of Clairvaux.) The author of these hymns is unknown, but they were composed around the time of the canonization.

Here is a beautiful recording of the Vesper hymn by the choir of St John Cantius church in Chicago, made at the church of St Anne in Krakow where St John is buried. The English translation given below is by Mons. Hugh Henry, taken from the book The Hymns of the Breviary and Missal, by Dom Matthew Britt OSB. (Benzinger, 1922)

Gentis Polónae gloria, Cleríque splendor nóbilis, Decus Lycáei, et patriae Pater, Joannes ínclite.	O glory of the Polish race, O splendour of the priestly band, Whose lore did thy lyceum grace, John, father of the fatherland.
Legem superni Núminis Doces magester, et facis. Nil scire prodest: sédulo Legem nitámur éxsequi.	The law of the supernal will Thou teachest both in word and deed; Knowledge is naught—we must fulfill In works, not barren words, our creed!
Apostolórum límina Pedes viátor vísitas; Ad patriam, ad quam téndimus, Gressus viamque dírige.	On foot to apostolic Rome Thy pilgrim spirit joyful hied; Oh, to our everlasting home The path declare, the footstep guide!
Urbem petis Jerúsalem: Signáta sacro Sánguine Christi colis vestigia Rigasque fusis flétibus.	Again, in Sion’s holy street, Anew thou wet’st with tearful flood The pathway of the Saviour’s feet Erst wet with His redeeming blood.
Acerba Christi vúlnera, Haeréte nostris córdibus, Ut cogitémus cónsequi Redemptiónis pretium.	O sweet and bitter wounds of Christ, Deep in our hearts imprinted stay, That the blest fruit the sacrificed Redeemer gained, be ours for aye!
Te prona mundi máchina, Clemens, adoret, Trínitas, Et nos novi per gratiam Novum canámus cánticum.    Amen.	Then let the world obeisance due Perform, O God, to Thy high Will; And let our souls, by grace made new, Sing to Thee a new canticle!    Amen.

A First Mass at St John Cantius in Chicago

This past Saturday, Nathan Ford, a member of the Canons Regular of St John Cantius in Chicago, was ordained to the priesthood, and on the next day, celebrated his first solemn Mass. The deacon of the Mass, Br. Joseph Brom, was ordained to the diaconate the previous Saturday; the superior of the Canons, Fr Joshua Caswell, served as the assistant priest, and H.E. Excellency Bishop Joseph Perry, Auxiliary of Chicago, attended in choir. Congratulations to Fr Ford and Br Brom, to their families and their religious community – ad multos annos! We also thank a member of the parish, Mr Basil Damukatis, for share these pictures of the Mass with us, a nice series of views taken from the church’s gallery.

At the Gospel

The intonation of the Creed.

Beginning of the Offertory

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Canons of St John Cantius Relaunch Sancta Missa Website

Our thanks once again to the Canons Regular of St John Cantius in Chicago for sharing the following information with us about the relaunching of the SanctaMissa website.

“In the wake on the unexpected task of live streaming their Masses, the Canons Regular of St John Cantius have taken the opportunity to revamp and reorganize their website about the Extraordinary Form, https://www.sanctamissa.org/, which was first launched in 2007. The site offers a wide range of information, including video tutorials, lists of important documents, FAQs, and Gregorian Chant resources, all of which can help anyone, both the clergy and the laity, in learning more about the Extraordinary Form of the Mass.

Since 2007, following Pope Benedict XVI’s motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, the CRSJC have been hard at work in educating priests, deacons, seminarians, servers, and the laity in the Extraordinary Form of the Mass. Using the 1962 Missale Romanum, the Canons have come to be known for their beautiful and reverent celebrations of the Extraordinary Form, and have taught over 1,500 through their Sancta Missa Workshops, and countless more through the online tutorials. Following on the new design of the site, more tutorial videos and resources will be added in the coming weeks. In conjunction with this re-launch, the Canons are offering onsite training in the Extraordinary Form for priests and seminarians this summer and fall; there are three workshops planned, August 24 to 28, September 21 to 25, and November 9 to 13.”

Blessing of a Restored Cross at St John Cantius in Chicago

Last Sunday, May 3rd, the day traditionally celebrated as the Finding of the Cross, the Canons Regular of St John Cantius blessed the newly restored and regilded cross which stands on the center pediment of the façade of the church, over 100 feet above the street. The cross stands 6 feet high and has endured decades of theChicago climate with its extreme temperatures and high winds. In just a few days, artists and engineers worked to remove the cross and restored it to its former beauty and luster; new layers of gold leaf were added and the cross now shines forth over Chicago’s River West neighborhood, even being visible from the nearby Kennedy Expressway.

The blessing was done after the regular 12:30 Sunday Solemn Mass.

Workmen removing the cross from the façade.

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Burying the Alleluja 2020 (Part 3)

We have received a few more sets of pictures of the burials of the Alleluja. The first comes from the Canons of St John Cantius in Chicago, who have for some years done this with a large placard with the word written on it in gold letters, which they carry in solemn procession to the Lady Chapel, and “bury” under the altar cloth. (Some other churches have imitated this custom of theirs, including one of the churches featured in part two.)

At the Church of the Resurrection in Lansing, Michigan, the Alleluja was carried outside the church after Lauds and buried on the grounds of the parish school, with a black cope to boot!

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Concert to Support Notre-Dame de Paris at St John Cantius in Chicago, June 8th

Tomorrow, the church of St John Cantius in Chicago, Illinois, will host a free concert celebrating the spiritual and significance of Notre-Dame de Paris. The program will feature a combined choir of over 100 voices from choruses around Chicago; the famed Messe Solennelle, Op.16, by Louis Vierne will be sung accompanied by the historic Casavant Frères pipe organ and other French works composed in Paris at Notre Dame. Donations will be received, and the funds will be used to help restore Notre Dame. See the full program here at the church’s website.

First Masses at St John Cantius in Chicago

On Saturday, May 18th, two members of the Canons Regular of St John Cantius, Matthew Schuster and David Yallaly, were among the eight men ordained to the priesthood at the Cathedral of the Holy Name in Chicago by H.E. Blase Card. Cupich. The following day, they both celebrated their first Masses at the church of St John Cantius, Fr Schuster in the Ordinary Form, and the Fr Yallaly in the Extraordinary Form. We thank the Canons for sharing these photos with us, and offer our heartiest congratulations to the newly ordained priests, to their families and friends, and to their religious community. Ad multos annos!

Fr Schuster

Tradition is for the young!

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Holy Week and Easter at St John Cantius in Chicago

As a special follow up to this year’s Holy Week and Easter photopost series, here are photos of all five parts from St John Cantius in Chicago. As our readers know well, the Canons Regular of this church celebrate the Ordinary Form in a truly examplary manner, with beautiful sacred music and an ars celebrandi truly worthy of the sacred rites. On Easter Sunday morning, the community welcomed His Excellency Joseph Perry, Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago, for the celebration of a Pontifical High Mass. We always receive more photos than we have space for, and the selection of images for these posts involves making a lot of painful choices, but it was especially difficult to narrow these down to just 50 - our thanks to the Canons Regular for sharing them with us!

Holy Thursday

The Mandatum

Tradition is for the young!

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