Notre Dame de Rouen. The façade of the Gothic Church in France. Photographer: Hippo1947. Licence: SHUTTERSTOCK.

Wednesday 29 February 2012

Lenten Station At St. Mary Major

Pictures taken from Wikipedia (the free encyclopaedia)

Text taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal for Wednesday of Ember Week in Lent

Station at St. Mary Major
Indulgence of 10 years and 10 Quarantines
Violet Vestments

Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major
Basilica Papale di Santa Maria Maggiore (Italian) 
Basilica Sanctae Mariae Maioris (Latin)

The Spring Ember Week coincides with the First Week of Lent. It was instituted for the purpose of consecrating to God the new Season, and by Fasting and Prayer to draw down heavenly graces on those who, on Saturday, are to receive the Sacrament of Holy Orders.

The Station on the Wednesday in Ember Week was always held at St. Mary Major, the greatest and most illustrious of the Roman Churches consecrated to the Blesssed Virgin.


Façade of St. Mary Major

Is it not fitting that on this very day, when the scrutinies for Ordination used to be made, the Liturgical gathering should be made in the Basilica consecrated to her, whom Proclus of Contstantinople hails as “the temple in which God became Priest” ?

The Gospel also alludes to Our Lady.

The two Lessons, the second of which is read as the Epistle, tell of Moses and Elias, who, before seeing the glory of the Lord, fasted forty days and forty nights. Called to take the place of the rebellious Jews, let us make ourselves worthy of the fruits of Penance, as did the men of Ninive, who listened to the voice of Jonas, and the Queen of Saba, who came from her distant country to learn the wisdom of Solomon (Gospel). We shall participate then in the resurrection of the Saviour, symbolised by the Prophet who, after remaining three days in the whale’s belly, was vomited out alive.

Let us pray to God that we may be strengthened in mind by the fruit of good works, while we mortify our bodies by abstinence (Collect).

Tuesday 28 February 2012

Lenten Liturgical Note

Text taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal

Lent comprises two parts, the first of which commences on Ash Wednesday, which is called in the Liturgy "the beginning of the Holy Forty Days", and ends on Passion Sunday.

The second part consists of the "Great Fortnight" known as Passiontide.

Reckoning four Sundays in Lent, together with Passion Sunday and Palm Sunday, we find thirty-six Fasting Days, to which have been added the four days immediately preceding the First Sunday, in order to reach the number forty, "which originated with the Law and the Prophets and was hallowed by Christ Himself. (Hymn at Matins. Moses, representing the Law, and Elias, the Prophets, only approached Almighty God on Sinai and Horeb (respectively) after purifying themselves by a Fast of forty days.)

The Mass for Ash Wednesday, although under a different name, existed already in the Gregorian Sacramentary.

Durham Cathedral

Each Mass in Lent has its own Station

The term "Station" has been borrowed from the Roman Army because the Christians, enrolled in the Army of Christ, were accustomed to meet at the same hours that the Roman soldiers changed guard at their "Stations".

This is the origin of the terms Terce, Sext and None given to the Divine Office said at the third, sixth and ninth hours. In Lent, Mass was celebrated after None, which was said about three o'clock. Vespers were then sung, after which the Fast was broken. From this, came the present custom in Churches where the Divine Office is sung, of saying Vespers before Lunch (before noon), during Lent. [This copy of The Saint Andrew Daily Missal is dated 1945.]

As a matter of history in the course of the year, the Pope used to celebrate Solemn Mass in one after another of the great Basilicas, the twenty-five Parish Churches of Rome, and in certain other Sanctuaries, surrounded by all his Clergy and by his people. This was called: "Making The Station". This name, which we still find in the Missal, reminds us that Rome is the centre of Christian worship and stands to us for a Liturgy more than 1,200 years old and formerly carried out with the greatest solemnity.

The twenty-five Parish Churches of Rome, which already existed in the 5th-Century, were called "Titles" (Tituli) and the Parish Priests of Rome who served them bore the name of "Cardinals" (incardinati), which means "attached to these Churches". It is for this reason, that in our time, each Cardinal, is still "Titular" of one of these Sanctuaries.

Rievaulx Abbey

Lent, when each day's Mass carries the Indulgences attached to its particular "Station", is one of the most ancient of the Liturgical Seasons and the most important in the whole year.

The Temporal Cycle, which is devoted to the contemplation of the Mysteries of Christ, is brought to bear daily upon the faithful, while at other Seasons it is more frequently the Feasts of Saints which are kept on the days of the week. And, since the whole Christian life is summed up in the imitation of Christ, this Season, when the Sanctoral Cycle is least in evidence, is particularly fruitful to our Souls. It is only because of their special importance, that the Church gave a place in the Lenten Liturgy, to the Feasts of the Annunciation (25 March) and of Saint Matthias (24 February).

If, as time went on, there were added to these, other Masses in honour of the Saints, it is, nonetheless, precisely in the spirit of this Season to choose by preference to say or hear the Mass of the Feria; for during Lent, the principal Mass of the Day, be it sung or said, ought to be of the Feria on Feasts of the Greater Double or any lesser rite.

Trier Cathedral

Further, on Feasts of superior rite, i.e., of the First Class or Second Class, such as the Annunciation, Saint Joseph, and Saint Matthias, one Mass of the Feria is said, in addition to the Mass of the Day, in Cathedrals, Collegiate Churches, and Monasteries, in order not to interrupt the preparation for Easter.

Consequently, if we wish to make a good Lent, it is important that we should try to assist daily at that Mass, in which our Mother the Church dictates to us, the thoughts which should occupy our minds during this holy Season.

To show that the spirit of penance of the Septuagesima Season has become still more prominent, the Church not only suppresses the Gloria and the Alleluia, and puts her Priests in violet vestments throughout this Holy Forty Days, but she deprives the Deacon and Sub-Deacon of their Dalmatic and Tunicle, symbols of joy, and silences the organs in the Churches. Accompanying the Chant remains merely tolerated, and ceases after the Gloria on Maundy Thursday. Further, after the Postcommunions, is said a "Prayer Over The People", following the humble cry: "Bow down your heads before God."

Durham Cathedral

In former times, during this Season, the sittings of the Law Courts and all wars were suspended in the Christian commonwealth. It was also a "Closed Time" for marriages and still is in our days, in the sense that, at this time of the year, the Church does not allow the Solemn Blessing to be given to the bridal pair.

In the ages when faith was at its strongest, the Church exhorted married couples to practise continence throughout the whole period of this "Solemn Fast".

"Behold, now is the acceptable time: Behold, now is the day of salvation. Let us commend ourselves in much patience, in frequent fastings, by the armour of justice of the power of God. Let us exhibit ourselves as the ministers of God in much patience, in many fastings" (Response at Matins for the First Sunday of Lent).

Lenten Station At St. Anastasia's

Picture taken from Wikipedia (the free encyclopaedia)

Non-Italic Text taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal for Tuesday of the 
First Week in Lent
Italic Text taken from Wikipedia (the free encyclopaedia)

Station at St. Anastasia's
Indulgence of 10 years and 10 Quarantines
Violet Vestments
The station is at the old Church which, in the 4th-Century, was the only Parish in the centre of Rome and in its wealthy quarter. Built at the foot of the Palatine, this Church, which owes its name to the Chapel of the Resurrection (Anastasis) at Jerusalem, was also consecrated to Saint Anastasia.

Facade of San'Anastasia

Saint Anastasia was put to death under the Emperor Diocletian at Sirmium in Illyria (now Mitrowitz). Tradition seems to say that this "title", mentioned in a Synod in 499, recalls the house of this holy Martyr in Rome (?). It is more than likely, however, that it concerns but a simple identity of name between the Roman foundress of this Basilica and the titular Saint.

Lent is the time when "God is near to us and eager to forgive us if we put aside our evil thoughts and forsake the way of sin" (Epistle). To do so, we must cast sin out from our hearts, as Jesus cast out the sellers from the Temple (Gospel), and receive the teaching of Christ with the simplicity of children of God. Then He will be able to cure our Souls as He healed the lame and the blind who came nigh unto Him.

Casting out the vainglorious wisdom of the world, let us profit by the holy Season of Lent, so that, "chastening our bodies by mortification, our Souls may be filled with holy desires" (Collect).

Santa Anastasia is a Basilica Church in Rome.

Santa Anastasia was built in the late 3rd-Century - early 4th-Century, possibly by a Roman woman named Anastasia. The Church is listed under the titulus Anastasiae in the acts of the 499 Synod. Later, the Church was entitled to the martyr with the same name, Anastasia of Sirmium.

The Church was restored several times: Pope Damasus I (366-383), Pope Hilarius (461-468), Pope John VII (705-707), Pope Leo III (795-816), and Pope Gregory IV (827-844). The current Church dates back to the 17th-Century restoration commissioned by Pope Urban VII.

Traditionally, the Church is connected to the cult of St Jerome, who possibly celebrated Mass here. The saint is depicted over the altar, by Domenichino.

The current Cardinal Priest of the Titulus S. Anastasiae is Godfried Danneels. Past holders have included John Morton, an Archbishop of Canterbury.

Art and Architecture

The last restoration, after the restoration during the papacy of Sixtus IV, occurred in 1636, when the facade, with lower Doric and upper Ionic order, was reconstructed in 1636, after the cyclone of 1634. The nave recycles antique columns. The ceiling is frescoed with a martyrdom of the saints (1722) by Michelangelo Cerruti.

The Chapel to the right, has a painting of St. John the Baptist by Pier Francesco Mola. While the last Chapel on the right has a fresco of Scenes of the life of Saints Carlo Borromeo and Filippo Neri by Lazzaro Baldi. The right Transept has a painting of S. Toribio (1726) by Francesco Trevisani. The High Altar has a Nativity by Lazzaro Baldi and below the Altar is a statue of Saint Anastasia by Ercole Ferrata. It clearly shows the influence of Bernini's Beata Ludovica Albertoni. The left Transept has a Madonna of the Rosary by Baldi. The last Chapel to the left, by Domenichino depicts a St. Jerome. The other Chapel has a Ss.Giorgio e Publio by Etienne Parrocel.

Monday 27 February 2012

Lenten Station at Saint Peter ad Vincula (Saint Peter's Chains). Monday of the First Week in Lent.



Picture taken from Wikipedia (the free encyclopaedia)

Text taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal for Monday of the 
First Week in Lent

Indulgence of 10 years and 10 Quarantines
Violet Vestments


Church of St. Peter in Chains (Rome)

San Pietro in Vincoli (Italian) (St. Peter in Chains) is a Roman Catholic titular Church and Minor Basilica in Rome. It is also known as the home of Michelangelo's statue of Moses, part of the tomb of Pope Julius II. Two Popes were elected in this Church: Pope John II (533) and Pope Gregory VII (1073).

The Station is in one of the most ancient Roman Basilicas built by the Empress Eudocia, where the chains worn by the Prince of the Apostles, to whom Jesus confided His flock, are kept. In the 5th-Century, it was one of the twenty-five Parishes of Rome. 

The Epistle (of the day), alluding to the penitents about to be reconciled at Easter and to the Catechumens preparing for Baptism, says that the Lord is the Shepherd who comes to seek His lost sheep. And the Gospel tells of the separation that this Shepherd will make for ever between the sheep and the goats, or between the good, who repent and give themselves up to works of Charity, and the sinners (this Prophecy was spoken by Jesus to His Apostles on the Mount of Olives, on the evening of the Tuesday preceeding His death). 

Let us ask God to prepare us by “this Lenten Fast” (Collect) “to be loosened from the bonds of our sins” (the Prayer over the people) by virtue of the power of Peter, who was delivered from his chains.

Saturday 25 February 2012

Le Puy Manuscript

This Article (dated 1992) is from the "Atrium Musicologicum" Blog, to be found at http://musicologicus.blogspot.com/

"To find at last a book one has sought for so long! It is every book lover’s dream. To our great joy, a copy of the Prosolarium of Notre-Dame du Puy [a book of liturgical poetry] is now in our possession."

The enthusiasm with which, in 1885, Abbé Payard reported “his” discovery can well be understood. For he had in front of him a remarkable manuscript containing a Festal Office for New Year’s Day, in which older, Liturgical material had been augmented with mediaeval songs of outstanding artistic value. When the texts were published shortly afterwards, it became apparent that a special Office had been celebrated at the cathedral of Le Puy in the Massif Central, near the source of the Loire. Unfortunately, the manuscript itself then disappeared again.

Recently, not only has the manuscript unexpectedly reappeared, but a second book containing the same New Year’s Office has come to light. This second book also contains a large number of polyphonic pieces, both simple two-parts textures and four-part settings made in the sixteenth century by the clerks of Le Puy on the basis of older melodies. No other manuscript has been found which brings together such a range of older and newer material. It not only reflects the specific ritual celebrated in this cathedral, but also vividly illustrates the way Liturgy could evolve over hundreds of years, particularly its artistic, musical aspects, from the chants found in the oldest notated sources to pieces inspired by the new arts of poetry and song composition in the High Middle Ages, and finally the polyphonic writing of the Renaissance.

                                                 12th-Century Cloisters

It was the custom in the Middle Ages for each individual clerical rank to celebrate its own Feast on a specific day following Christmas: the pueri (boys) as the youngest would come first, followed by the Deacons and Sub-Deacons, and then the Priests. On their Feast, those concerned would embellish the Liturgy with as much ingenuity as possible, making additional processions and singing new compositions at the communal meal. In the 12th- and 13th-Centuries, special books were compiled for such celebrations, and it is to this tradition that the Festal Office for New Year’s Day at the cathedral of Le Puy belongs.

The basis for the Feast was the Liturgy, proper to the day, stretching from Vespers on the preceding day through the Night Offices to the end of Vespers on the Feast itself, almost without a break for more than twenty-four hours. As in monastic practice, the Clerks met in the Chancel of the cathedral everey three hours to sing Psalms, to pray, to read Lessons and recite their associated chants and, of course, to say Mass. They would also make Processions to the impressive frescoes and paintings in the vast Church and its surrounding buildings high over the town. The Feast Day ended with dancing by the pueri.

As with all High Festivals, Christmas was ‘re-celebrated’ eight days later, on New Year’s Day. Thus, the principal theme, of both the older and the newer texts in the Le Puy Manuscript, is the Christmas miracle, the coming of the King of Kings, entering into His dominion. And with the Redeemer was celebrated – especially in the Middle Ages – Mary, the mother of God. The Feast is thus full of the joy of Christmas, but also that of the New Year, which is greeted by the Clerks in a song addressed to the Cantor.

[...] a song transports us immediately into the characteristic sound world of the Le Puy Office. It is a sixteenth-century setting for four voices of a monophonic song notated c1100. We then follow the order of pieces in the first part of the Manuscript, with the entire Vespers Liturgy, followed by later stages of the Feast (1424). [...] (see end of Article)

In the book’s old monophonic chants for Vespers, the characteristic sounds of a Liturgical tradition stretching back far before the Middle Ages can be heard. Their texts are drawn mainly from the Psalter and other books of the Bible. Examples of choral psalmody sung antiphonally are the Psalm and the Magnificat both framed by antiphons. Other parts of the Vespers Office which belong to this early material are the Ambrosian hymn, and the closing prayer. To this basic structure are added a blessing by the Priest before the Reading and a response sung after it. A short Psalm verse is then inserted, and the Office concludes with poetically extended versions of the usual thanksgiving, Benedicamus Domino, and its response, Deo gratias.

                                                     Cathedral's West Door

The Le Puy Vespers were enhanced by the addition of other chants: A solemn introduction taken from the main Night Office of Matins; verses from a hymn composed by the 6th-Century poet, Venantius Fortunatus,  for New Year’s Day; the song addressed to the Cantor already mentioned, composed c1100; and a response to the Reading in the form of a series of skilful hexameters, written in the 11th-Century by Bishop Fulbert of Chartres. 

The monophonic chants exhibit considerable variety, both in the alternation of participants – Priest, Readers, Cantor, Soloists and Choir – and, particularly, in musical, texture: the delivery of text on a single pitch, then more ornamental recitation patterns – formulas specific to the beginning, middle and end of a phrase – and finally actual melodies. Further variety is provided by the different possibilities of polyphonic sound, and especially the contrast between monophonic and polyphonic textures within single pieces. Along with full four-part textures created by adding chords to pre-existing melodies, we find two-part textures in which the second voice is added in accordance with long-standing simple oral techniques. In the final piece a melisma is sung over a held pitch, a procedure which hardly needed to be notated.

In the following parts of the Office, this sound world becomes even more diverse. After a request for blessing adressed to the Bishop, followed by the blessing itself, a processional chant (conductus) takes us from the Chancel to the Chapter House. There, after another blessing, the Reading is given as a farsumen, a technique widely practised in the time of the great Cathedrals, whereby text is alternately read and sung. This piece, composed in the late 11th-Century, is based on the Prologue to the Gospel of St. John. Then, singing another conductus, the Clerks move on to the meal in the Refectory, where another ceremony takes place, with a Reading and farsumen. The "Toast" is followed by Psalm 50 with its antiphon. On the way back into the Church through the Cloister, the Choir divides: at this point a four-part Kyrie is sung, a setting probably composed in the Late Middle Ages. Once back in the Chancel, the Clerks sing more polyphonic acclamations, a versicle and a further Prayer, ending with a final Benedicamus.

It is in this part of the Manuscript that the new songs with which the Liturgy had been elaborated since the turn of the 12th-Century are most prominent. This strophic art is the Liturgical counterpart of early-European "Courtly Song", an art in which verse, rhyme and musical structures are organised in an astonishing variety of patterns, and in which every text has its own specific melody. It is here that the origins of European song in the full sense of the word lie. This new type of song could be heard in the Church, above all as conductus, or in the place of the Benedicamus, or, at the Cathedral of Le Puy, as farsumen.

Le Puy has possessed a revered image of the Virgin Mary since its earliest days, but unfortunately all that survives today is a replica from the late 18th-Century. The original statue was a Black Virgin statue from c.1000 A.D. This was venerated by pilgrims for eight centuries until its violent destruction by Revolutionaries on June 9, 1794, when the wooden image was publicly burned on the Place du Martouret. As the statue burned away, a secret door in its back was revealed, the door opened, and a roll of parchment fell out. Tragically, no attempt was made to read the parchment before it was consumed by the flames. The replica statue is carried in procession on Feast Days, just as the original was throughout the Middle Ages.

[...] concludes with three of the most beautiful compositions in this part of the Manuscript: two polyphonic pieces of the 16th-Century, in full and clear harmonies, and between them a conductus, itself an example of one of the most elaborate forms used in monophonic song in the High Middle Ages. Here, a strophic pattern is linked with the older structure of the Sequence, based on repetition. This led to the creation of very long and intricately-woven melodic designs, and is one of the most impressive aspects of 12th-Century song. With the development of new forms of musical expression and structures, this special art was lost. The conductus heard here survives only in the Le Puy sources, and its style shows that the Office itself originated in the period when this song art was in full flower.The Cathedral of Le Puy lay on one of the great mediaeval pilgrim routes leading to Santiago de Compostela, but after the Middle Ages the town was somewhat remote from historical events taking place in the outside world. The Cathedral building itself, constantly modified , with its frescoes dating from the 11th- to the 13th-Century, presents a parallel to the pattern of continuous Liturgical expansion reflected in this Festal Office. Yet the different kinds of music in this Office – the old Liturgical chants, the new mediaeval songs, pieces in which a second voice is added following simple oral techniques, and finally the characteristic polyphony of the Late Middle Ages – go together, perhaps even more successfully than the Cathedral’s architectural elements, to make up a fascinating, unified whole.
Wulf Artl
(1992)
Translation by Susan Rankin

Lenten Station At St. John Lateran

Taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal for the First Sunday of Lent

Indulgence of 10 years and 10 Quarantines
Semi-Double
Privilege of the First Class
Violet Vestments


Papal Archbasilica of St. John Lateran
Archibasilica Sanctissimi Salvatoris et Sanctorum Iohannes Baptistae et Evangelistae in Laterano. Omnium urbis et orbis ecclesiarum mater et caput


Originally, the forty days of Lent were counted from this Sunday. The Liturgical gathering of the "Station" takes place today, as it has since the Fourth Century, at St. John Lateran, which is the patriarchal basilica of the Bishops of Rome. At its first consecration, it was dedicated to "St. Saviour", a name which calls to mind the Redemption accomplished by Our Blessed Lord.

Immediately after His baptism, Our Lord began to prepare for His public life by a fast of forty days in the mountainous desert which stretches between Jericho and the mountains of Judea. [Tradition tells us that Our Lord took shelter in the grotto on the highest peak of all, known as Mount of the Quarantine.] It was there that He was tempted by Satan, who wished to discover whether the son of Mary was in reality the Son of God (Gospel of the Mass of the day).

As in the case of Adam, Satan addresses his first attack to the senses.Our Lord is hungry and the tempter suggests to Him that He should turn stones into bread. In the same way, he tries, during these forty days, to make us give up on our fasting and mortification. This is the concupiscence of the flesh.

The devil had promised our first parent that he should be as God. Now, he takes Our Lord to the pinnacle of the Temple and tries to induce Him to let Himself be carried by the angels through the air, amidst the applause of the crowds below. Satan tempts us by pride, which is opposed to the spirit of prayer and meditation on God's word. This is the pride of life.

Finally, just as he had promised Adam a knowledge which, like that of God Himself, should enable him to know all things, so Satan assures Jesus that he will make Him ruler over all created things if He will fall at his feet and worship him. In the same way, the devil seeks to attach us to temporal goods, when we ought, by alms and works of charity, to be doing good to our neighbour. This is the concupiscence of the eyes, or avarice.

Since the sword of the Spirit is the word of God, Our Lord made use of the 90th Psalm against Satan, and this is the theme of the whole Mass and is found again and again in the Office of The Day. "His truth shall cover thee with a shield," says the Psalmist. This Psalm is, therefore, the ideal Psalm for Lent as a special time of warfare against the devil.

Again, the eleventh verse, "He hath given His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways," recurs in Vespers like a refrain during the whole season. We find the entire Psalm in the Tract, which reminds us of the old custom of singing Psalms during certain parts of the Mass.

Some of its verses make up the Introit, with its verse, the Gradual, the Communion and the Offertory, which last was formerly composed, in today's Mass, of three verses instead of one, following the order of the threefold temptation as recorded in the Gospel.

Side by side with this Psalm, the Epistle, certainly dating from the time of Saint Leo, sounds one of the characteristic notes of Lent. There, Saint Paul borrows a text of Isaias: "In an accepted time have I heard thee, and in the day of salvation have I helped thee." "Behold," says the Apostle, "now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation" (Epistle and First Nocturn).

On this, Saint Leo comments: "Although there is no season of the year which is not rich in divine gifts and in which we, by God's grace, do not find immediate access to His mercy; nevertheless, at this time when the return of the day on which we are redeemed summons us to fulfil all the duties of Christian piety, the Souls of Christians must be stirred with more zeal for spiritual progress, and possessed of a very great confidence in almighty God.

In this manner, with pure Souls and bodies, shall we celebrate this mystery of the Lord's Passion, sublime beyond all others. True, we ought always to be in the divine presence, just as much as on the Easter Feast. But, because this spiritual vigour is the possession of only a few, while, on the other hand, the weakness of the flesh leads to any very severe observance being relaxed,  and on the other, the varied occupations of this life share and divide our interest, it necessarily happens that the dust of the world soils the hearts, even of Religious themselves.

This divine institution has been planned with great profit to our salvation, in a manner that the exercises of these forty days may help us to regain the purity of our Souls, making up, in a way, for the faults of the rest of the year, by fasting and pious deeds.

However, we must be careful to give no-one the least cause of complaint or scandal, so that our general behaviour may not be inconsistent with our fasting and penance. For it is useless to reduce the nourishment of the body unless the Soul departs from sin" (Second Nocturn).

In this "acceptable time" and in these "days of salvation", let us purify ourselves with the Church (Collect), "in fastings

Every Parish Priest celebrates Mass for the people of his Parish.

Virtual Reconstruction of Cluny Abbey.



Virtual reconstruction of Cluny Abbey.
Music by Emmanuel Bonnardot "Venite a Laudare".
Available on YouTube at

Cluny Abbey


Coat of Arms of Cluny Abbey: 
"Gules, two keys in saltire, the wards upwards and outwards, or. Overall, a sword in pale, argent".

Text is from Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia.

Cluny Abbey (or Cluni, or Clugny, French pronunciation: [klyˈni]) is a Benedictine monastery in Cluny, Saône-et-Loire, France. It was built in the Romanesque style, with three churches built in succession from the 10th to the early 12th centuries.

Cluny was founded by William I, Duke of Aquitaine in 910. He nominated Berno as the first Abbot of Cluny, subject only to Pope Sergius III. The Abbey was notable for its stricter adherence to the Rule of St. Benedict and the place where the Benedictine Order was formed, whereby Cluny became acknowledged as the leader of western monasticism. The establishment of the Benedictine order was a keystone to the stability of European society that was achieved in the 11th century. In 1790 during the French Revolution, the abbey was sacked and mostly destroyed. Only a small part of the original remains.

Dating around 1334, the abbots of Cluny had a townhouse in Paris known as the Hôtel de Cluny, what is now a public museum since 1833. Apart from the name, it no longer possesses anything originally connected with Cluny.

In 910, William I, Duke of Aquitaine "the Pious", and Count of Auvergne, founded the Benedictine abbey of Cluny on a modest scale, as the mother house of the Congregation of Cluny. In donating his hunting preserve in the forests of Burgundy, William released the Cluny abbey from all future obligation to him and his family other than prayer. Contemporary patrons normally retained a proprietary interest and expected to install their kinsmen as abbots. William appears to have made this arrangement with Berno, the first abbot, to free the new monastery from such secular entanglements and initiate the Cluniac Reforms. The abbots of Cluny were statesmen on the international stage and the monastery of Cluny was considered the grandest, most prestigious and best-endowed monastic institution in Europe. The height of Cluniac influence was from the second half of the 10th century through the early 12th. The first female members were admitted to the order during the eleventh century.


The monastery of Cluny differed in three ways from other Benedictine houses and confederations:
  • organizational structure;
  • prohibition on holding land by feudal service; and
  • execution of the liturgy as its main form of work.
While most Benedictine monasteries remained autonomous and associated with each other only informally, Cluny created a large, federated order in which the administrators of subsidiary houses served as deputies of the abbot of Cluny and answered to him. The Cluniac houses, being directly under the supervision of the abbot of Cluny, the autocrat of the Order, were styled priories, not abbeys. The priors, or chiefs of priories, met at Cluny once a year to deal with administrative issues and to make reports. Many other Benedictine houses, even those of earlier formation, came to regard Cluny as their guide. When in 1016 Pope Benedict VIII decreed that the privileges of Cluny be extended to subordinate houses, there was further incentive for Benedictine communities to insinuate themselves in the Cluniac order.

Partly due to the order's opulence, the Cluniac nunneries were not seen as being particularly cost-effective.
The order did not have interest in founding many new houses for women.

The customs of Cluny represented a shift from the earlier ideal of a Benedictine monastery as an agriculturally self-sufficient unit. This was similar to the contemporary villa of the more Romanized parts of Europe and the manor of the more feudal parts, in which each member did physical labor as well as offering prayer. In 817 St Benedict of Aniane, the "second Benedict", developed monastic constitutions at the urging of Louis the Pious to govern all the Carolingian monasteries. He acknowledged that the Black Monks no longer supported themselves by physical labor. Cluny's agreement to offer perpetual prayer (laus perennis (literally "perpetual praise") meant that it had increased a specialization in roles.

As perhaps the wealthiest monastic house of the Western world, Cluny hired managers and workers to do the labor of monks in other orders. The monks devoted themselves to almost constant prayer, thus elevating their position into a profession. Despite the monastic ideal of a frugal life, the abbey in Cluny commissioned candelabras of solid silver and gold chalices made with precious gems for use at the abbey Masses. Instead of being limited to the traditional fare of broth and porridge, the monks ate very well, enjoying roasted chickens (a luxury in France then) and wines from their vineyards and cheeses made by their employees. The monks wore the finest linen habits and silk vestments at Mass. Artifacts exemplifying the wealth of Cluny Abbey are today on display at the Musée de Cluny in Paris.

All of the English and Scottish Cluniac houses which were larger than cells were known as priories, symbolising their subordination to Cluny. Cluny's influence spread into the British Isles in the eleventh century, first at Lewes, and then elsewhere. The head of their order was the Abbot at Cluny. All English and Scottish Cluniacs were bound to cross to France to Cluny to consult or be consulted unless the Abbot chose to come to Britain, which he did five times in the 13th century, and only twice in the 14th.

At Cluny, the central activity was the liturgy; it was extensive and beautifully presented in inspiring surroundings, reflecting the new personally-felt wave of piety of the 11th century. Monastic intercession was believed indispensable to achieving a state of grace, and lay rulers competed to be remembered in Cluny's endless prayers; this inspired the endowments in land and benefices that made other arts possible.

The fast-growing community at Cluny required buildings on a large scale. The examples at Cluny profoundly affected architectural practice in Western Europe from the tenth through the twelfth centuries. The three successive churches are conventionally called Cluny I, II and III. In building the third and final church at Cluny, the monastery constructed what was the largest building in Europe before the 16th century, when St. Peter's in Rome was rebuilt. The construction of Cluny II, ca. 955-981, begun after the destructive Hungarian raids of 953, led the tendency for Burgundian churches to be stone-vaulted.
                     Cluny III, reconstruction.
The building campaign was financed by the annual census established by Ferdinand I of León, ruler of a united León-Castile, some time between 1053 and 1065. (Alfonso VI re-established it in 1077, and confirmed it in 1090.) Ferdinand fixed the sum at 1,000 golden aurei, an amount which Alfonso VI doubled in 1090. This was the biggest annuity that the Order ever received from king or layman, and it was never surpassed. Henry I of England's annual grant from 1131 of 100 marks of silver, not gold, seemed little by comparison. The Alfonsine census enabled Abbot Hugh (who died in 1109) to undertake construction of the huge third abbey church. When payments in the Islamic gold coin later lapsed, the Cluniac order suffered a financial crisis that crippled them during the abbacies of Pons of Melgueil (1109 – 1125) and Peter the Venerable (1122 – 1156). The Spanish wealth donated to Cluny publicized the rise of the Spanish Christians, and drew central Spain for the first time into the larger European orbit.

The Cluny library was one of the richest and most important in France and Europe. It was a storehouse of numerous very valuable manuscripts. During the religious conflicts of 1562, the Huguenots sacked the abbey, destroying or dispersing many of the manuscripts. Of those that were left, some were burned in 1790 by a rioting mob related to the excesses of the French Revolution. Others still were stored away in the Cluny town hall.

The French Government worked to relocate such treasures, including those that ended up in private hands. They are now held by the Bibliothèque nationale de France at Paris. The British Museum holds some sixty or so charters originating from Cluny.

The Consecration of Cluny III by Pope Urban II, 12th century (Bibliothèque Nationale de France).
In the fragmented and localized Europe of the 10th and 11th centuries, the Cluniac network extended its reforming influence far. Free of lay and episcopal interference, responsible only to the papacy, which was in a state of weakness and disorder with rival popes supported by competing nobles, Cluniac spirit was felt revitalizing the Norman church, reorganizing the royal French monastery at Fleury and inspiring St Dunstan in England. There were no official English Cluniac priories until that of Lewes in Sussex, founded by the Anglo-Norman earl William de Warenne c 1077. The best-preserved Cluniac houses in England are Castle Acre Priory, Norfolk, and Much Wenlock Priory, Shropshire. It is thought that there were only three Cluniac nunneries in England, one of them being Delapré Abbey at Northampton.

Until the reign of Henry VI, all Cluniac houses in England were French, governed by French priors and directly controlled from Cluny. Henry's act of raising the English priories to independent abbeys was a political gesture, a mark of England's nascent national consciousness.

The early Cluniac establishments had offered refuges from a disordered world but by the late 11th century, Cluniac piety permeated society. This is the period that achieved the final Christianization of the heartland of Europe.


Pope Callixtus II was elected at the papal election, 1119, at Cluny.
Well-born and educated Cluniac priors worked eagerly with local royal and aristocratic patrons of their houses, filled responsible positions in their chanceries and were appointed to bishoprics. Cluny spread the custom of veneration of the king as patron and support of the Church, and in turn the conduct of 11th-century kings, and their spiritual outlook, appeared to undergo a change. In England, Edward the Confessor was later canonized. In Germany, the penetration of Cluniac ideals was effected in concert with Henry III of the Salian dynasty, who had married a daughter of the duke of Aquitaine. Henry was infused with a sense of his sacramental role as a delegate of Christ in the temporal sphere. He had a spiritual and intellectual grounding for his leadership of the German church, which culminated in the pontificate of his kinsman, Pope Leo IX. The new pious outlook of lay leaders enabled the enforcement of the Truce of God movement to curb aristocratic violence.

Within his order, the Abbot of Cluny was free to assign any monk to any house; he created a fluid structure around a central authority that was to become a feature of the royal chanceries of England and of France, and of the bureaucracy of the great independent dukes, such as that of Burgundy. Cluny's highly centralized hierarchy was a training ground for Catholic prelates: four monks of Cluny became popes: Gregory VII, Urban II, Paschal II and Urban V.

An orderly succession of able and educated abbots, drawn from the highest aristocratic circles, led Cluny, and three were canonized: Saints Odo of Cluny, the second abbot (died 942); Hugh of Cluny, the sixth abbot (died 1109); and Odilo, the fifth abbot (died 1049). Odilo continued to reform other monasteries, but as Abbot of Cluny, he also exercised tighter control of the order's far-flung priories.


Cluny and the Gregorian reforms

A plan of the Abbey
Cluny was not known for its severity or asceticism, but the abbots of Cluny supported the revival of the papacy and the reforms of Pope Gregory VII. The Cluniac establishment found itself closely identified with the Papacy. In the early 12th century, the order lost momentum under poor government. It was subsequently revitalized under Abbot Peter the Venerable (died 1156), who brought lax priories back into line and returned to stricter discipline. Cluny reached its apogee of power and influence under Peter, as its monks became bishops, legates, and cardinals throughout France and the Holy Roman Empire. But by the time Peter died, newer and more austere orders such as the Cistercians were generating the next wave of ecclesiastical reform.

Outside monastic structures, the rise of English and French nationalism created a climate unfavourable to the existence of monasteries autocratically ruled by a head residing in Burgundy. The Papal Schism of 1378 to 1409 further divided loyalties: France recognizing a pope at Avignon and England one at Rome, interfered with the relations between Cluny and its dependent houses. Under the strain, some English houses, such as Lenton Priory, Nottingham, were naturalized (Lenton in 1392) and no longer regarded as alien priories, weakening the Cluniac structure.

By the time of the French Revolution, the monks were so thoroughly identified with the Ancien Régime that the order was suppressed in France in 1790 and the monastery at Cluny almost totally demolished in 1810. Later, it was sold and used as a quarry until 1823. Today, little more than one of the original eight towers remains of the whole monastery.

Modern excavations of the Abbey began in 1927 under the direction of Kenneth John Conant, American architectural historian of Harvard University, and continued (although not continuously) until 1950.

Decline and destruction of the buildings.

Starting from the 12th century, Cluny had serious financial problems, caused mainly by the construction of the third abbey. Charity given to the poor increased the expenditure. The influence of the abbey weakened gradually as other religious orders rose (Cistercians in the 12th, then Mendicants in the 13th century). Bad management of the grounds and unwillingness of the subsidiary companies to pay the annual taxable quota helped to lessen Cluny's revenue. Cluny raised loans and ended up being involved in debt to its creditors, who were merchants of Cluny or Jews of Mâcon.[1] The conflicts with the priories multiplied and the authority of the pope became heavier. To the 14th century, the pope frequently named the abbots. The crises of the end of the Middle Ages and the wars of religion in the 16th century weakened the abbey a little more. The monks lived in luxury and there were not more than about 60 monks in the middle of the 15th century.[2] With the Concordat of Bologna in 1516 overseen by Antoine Duprat, the king gained the power to appoint the abbot of Cluny.

The years following the French Revolution were fatal to all the monastic buildings and its church. In 1793, its archives were burned and the church was delivered to plundering. The abbey estate was sold in 1798 for 2,140,000 francs. Until 1813, the abbey was used as a stone quarry to build houses in the town.

Today, there remain only the buildings built under the Old Mode as well as a small portion of Cluny III. Only the southern transept and its bell-tower still exist. The remaining structure represents less than 10% of the floor area of Cluny III, which was the largest church of Christendom, until the construction of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, five centuries later.

In 1928, the site was excavated and recognized by the American archaeologist Kenneth J. Conant with the backing of the Medieval Academy of America.

The hermeneutic of continuity: Sodality Votive Mass of the Five Holy Wounds

The hermeneutic of continuity: Sodality Votive Mass of the Five Holy Wounds

                                             

A perfect exercise for Lent, I suggest.
See you at Our Lady of The Rosary, Blackfen, on Friday, 16 March 2012, 1915hrs, for Stations of The Cross, the Sodality Votive Mass of the Five Holy Wounds, and a Presentation Talk from Fr Finigan.

Lenten Station at the Church of St. Tryphon's, for Saturday, after Ash Wednesday.

Taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal for Saturday after Ash Wednesday

Indulgence of 10 years and 10 Quarantines

Violet Vestments

                                                                   San'Agostino, Rome

The Station at Rome was at St. Tryphon's, who died a Martyr in the East. This Church having been destroyed, the Station was removed, under Pope Clement VIII, to a neighbouring Church, that of St. Augustine.

Saturday is the day of rest, which symbolises the eternal Sabbath (Epistle of the Mass of the day). To reach it, we must, during Lent, struggle by "solemn fast" (Collect of the Mass) and by works of charity (Epistle) against our passions, of which the rough sea and the contrary winds, spoken of in the Gospel, are a figure.

In this hard struggle, Jesus will come to our aid (Postcommunion), as He did to the Apostles and "heal our bodies and our Souls by fasting." (Collect), as He healed all the sick in the country of Genesareth.

Lenten Station at the Church of The Holy Martyrs, John and Paul


Taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal for Friday after Ash Wednesday

Indulgence of 10 years and 10 Quarantines

Violet Vestments


The Station at Rome was on Mount Coelius, in the residence that the Christian Senator, Pammachius, in the Fifth Century transformed into a Parish Church, which bears the title of SS John and Paul (Feast Day 26 June). Six frescoes of that period represent the captivity and death of these two Romans, “who in the same faith and the same martyrdom were truly united as brethren”.

Near this Church is a hospice for pilgrims (Xenodochium Valerii). Pammachius, in other directions, spent his whole fortune upon the poor. The Gospel of this Mass and the Postcommunion also speak of Charity.

The Epistle and the Gospel declare that the external works of Penance, such as Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving, which should be practised during Lent, have no value in the sight of God unless they are accompanied by the spirit of internal sacrifice. This spirit shows itself in works of mercy done out of consideration for our neighbour, without distinction of friend or enemy and with the sole intention of pleasing God. Let us ask for the spirit of sacrifice and mercy.

Friday 24 February 2012

Lenten Station At St. George's

Taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal for Thursday after Ash Wednesday.

                                                                    San Giorgio, Rome

This Station is, since the time of Gregory II (Seventh Century), at St. George's in Velabro. This Church is in the district called the Velabrum or Velum aureum, on account of a relic kept in a golden veil.. St. George's is one of the twenty-five parishes of Rome in the Fifth Century, where, under the High Altar, is kept the head of this Christian warrior, a victim of the Persecution of the Emperor Diocletian, and called by the Greeks "the great Martyr".

The Liturgy of today inculcates in us the spirit of prayer, which forms part of the Forty Days' penance. It was by prayer that Ezechias obtained a prolongation of his life (Epistle of today) and the Centurion, the healing of his servant (Gospel), and it is by prayer that we shall obtain from God the strength to mortify ourselves in order that we may gain the pardon of our sins, and with it the healing of our Souls and life eternal.

The Gospel in former times reminded the Catechumens that, through Baptism, they were about to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Remember that, if sin offends God and draws upon us the scourge of His righteous anger, penance, on the contrary, appeases Him and procures for us the effects of His mercy (Collects).
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...