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

24 August, 2026

Cathedral And Metropolitan Church Of Saint Stephen And All Saints, Vienna, Austria. (Part Six).



English: 
Cathedral and Metropolitan Church of 
Saint Stephen and All Saints, Vienna, Austria.
Deutsch: 
Dom-und-Metropolitankirche zu 
Sankt Stephan und allen Heiligen, 
Wien, Österreich.
Photo: 8 October 2017.
Source: Own work.
This File is licensed under the 
(Wikimedia Commons)


Text from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia, unless stated otherwise.

Bells.

Composer Ludwig van Beethoven discovered the totality of his deafness when he saw birds flying out of the Bell Tower as a result of the Bells tolling, but he could not hear the Bells.

Saint Stephen’s Cathedral has twenty-two Bells in total. The largest is officially named Saint Mary, but usually called “Pummerin” (“Boomer”) and hangs in the North Tower. At 20,130 kilograms (44,380 lb), it is the largest Bell in Austria and the second-largest Swinging Bell in Europe after the 23,500 kilograms (51,800 lb) “Peter” in Cologne Cathedral. 


Originally cast in 1711 by Bell Founder Johann Achammer, from Cannons captured after the Ottoman Empire’s siege of Vienna in 1683, it was recast (partly from its original metal) in 1951 after crashing onto the floor when its wooden cradle burned during the 1945 fire.

The new Bell has a diameter of three metres (ten feet) and was a gift from the province of Upper Austria. It sounds on only a few special occasions each year, including the arrival of the New Year.


The Pulpit, Saint Stephen’s Cathedral, 
Vienna, Austria.
Photo: 31 July 2006.
Source: 
This File is licensed under the 
Author: Jmenard48
(Wikimedia Commons)

Also in this Tower are two (formerly three) older Bells that are no longer used: “Kleine Glocke” (“Small Bell”) (sixty-two kilograms (137 lb)) cast around 1280; “Speisglocke” (“Dinner Bell”) (240 kilograms (530 lb)) cast in 1746; and Zügenglocke (“Processions Bell”) (sixty-five kilograms (143 lb)) cast in 1830. However, “Kleine Glocke” was restored at the Grassmayr Foundry in Innsbruck in 2017 and rehung in the North Roman Tower.

A peal of eleven electrically-operated Bells, cast in 1960, hangs in the soaring South Tower. The largest of these Bells is Saint Stephan’s Bell, which is the second Bourdon Bell in the Cathedral.


Replacements for other ancient Bells also lost in the 1945 fire, they are used during Masses at the Cathedral: Four Bells are used for an ordinary Mass; the quantity increases to as many as ten Bells for a major Mass; and the eleventh and largest Bell is added when the Archbishop of Vienna is present.

Also in this Tower are the “Primglocke” (recast in 1772), which rings on the quarter-hour, and the “Uhrschälle” (cast in 1449), which rings on the hour.

Bells of Saint Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna:

1.    “Pummerin” / “Marienglocke”. “Boomer” / “Saint Mary”; 

2.    “Stephanusglocke”. “Saint Stephen”;

3.    “Leopoldsglocke”. “Saint Leopold”;

4.    “Christophorusglocke”. “Saint Christopher”;

5.    “Leonhardsglocke”. “Saint Leonard”;

6.    “Josefsglocke”. “Saint Joseph”;

7.    “Petrus-Canisius-Glocke”. “Saint Peter Canisius”;

8.    “Pius-X.-Glocke”. “Saint Pius X”;

9.    “Allerheiligenglocke”. “All Saints”;

10.    “Clemens-Maria-Hofbauer-Glocke”.
         “Saint Clement Maria Hofbauer”;

11.    “Erzengel-Michael-Glocke”. 
         “Saint Michael-the-Archangel”;

12.    “Tarzisiusglocke”. “Saint Tarsicius”.


The North Roman Tower contains six Bells, four of which were cast in 1772, that ring for Evening Prayers and toll for funerals. 

They are Working Bells of the Cathedral and their names usually recall their original uses: 

“Feuerin” (“Fire Alarm”), but now used as a call to Evening Prayers, cast in 1879; 

“Kantnerin”, calling the Cantors (Musicians) to Mass;


“Feringerin”, used for High Mass on Sundays;

“Bieringerin” (“Beer Ringer”), for last call at Taverns; 

“Poor Souls”, the Funeral Bell;

“Churpötsch”, donated by the local Curia in honour of the Maria Pötsch icon in the Cathedral;

“Kleine Glocke”, cast in 1280 and is the oldest Bell in the Cathedral;

The 1945 fire destroyed the Bells that hung in the South Roman Tower.[7]

During The Middle Ages, major Cities had their own set of measures and the public availability of these standards allowed visiting Merchants to comply with local regulations.



English: Official Viennese Linen “ell” and Drapery “ell” 
length standards embedded in the Cathedral wall.
Deutsch: Elle (Wiener Tuchelle, 776 mm, und 
Leinenelle, 896 mm) sowie runde Gebrauchsspuren 
eines Gitters am Stephansdom, Wien, Österreich.
Photo: 17 June 2018.
Source: Own work.
Attribution:
(Wikimedia Commons)

PART SEVEN FOLLOWS.
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Saint Bartholomew. Apostle. Martyr. Feast Day 24 August. Red Vestments.



Saint Bartholomew.
Artist: René de Cramer.
“Copyright Brunelmar/Ghent/Belgium”.
Used with Permission.



English: Saint Bartholomew the Apostle.
By: Pierre Le Gros the Younger.
Nave of the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, Rome.
Français: Saint Barthélemy par Pierre Le Gros le Jeune.
Photo: 7 September 2006.
Source: Own work.
Author: Jastrow
(Wikimedia Commons)


Text from “The Liturgical Year”.
   By: Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.
   Volume 14.
   Time After Pentecost.
   Book V.

A witness of The Son of God, one of the Princes who announced His Glory to the Nations, lights up this day with his Apostolic flame.

While his brethren of the Sacred College followed the human race into all the lands whither the migration of Nations had led it, Bartholomew appeared as the herald of the Lord at the very starting point, the mountains of Armenia, whence the sons of Noe spread over the Earth.



Ruins of the Saint Bartholomew Monastery at 
the alleged site of the Apostle’s Martyrdom in Armenia.
Date: Circa 1913.
Source: 
Bachmann, Walter (1913) “Kirchen und moscheen 
in Armenien und Kurdistan”, Leipzig: J.C. Hinrichs.
Author: Bachmann, Walter.
(Wikimedia Commons)

There had the figurative Ark rested; humanity, everywhere else a wanderer, was there seated in stillness, remembering the Dove with its Olive Branch, and awaiting the consummation of the alliance signified by the rainbow which had there for the first time glittered in the clouds.

Behold, Blessed tidings awake in those valleys the echoes of ancient Traditions: Tidings of Peace, making the universal deluge of sin subside before the Wood of Salvation.

The serenity announced by the Dove of old, was now far outdone. Love was to take the place of punishment. The ambassador of Heaven showed God to the sons of Adam, as the most beautiful of their own brethren.


The noble heights whence formerly flowed the rivers of Paradise, were about to see the renewal of the covenant annulled in Eden, and the celebration, amid the joy of Heaven and Earth, of the Divine Nuptials so long expected, the union of the Word with regenerated humanity.

Personally, what was this Apostle whose Ministry borrowed such solemnity from the scene of his Apostolic labours ?

Under the name or surname of Bartholomew, [Editor: Son of Tholmaï] the only mark of recognition given him by the first three Gospels, are we to see, as many have thought, that Nathaniel, whose presentation to Jesus by Philip forms so sweet a scene in Saint John’s Gospel ?


A man full of uprightness, innocence, and simplicity, who was worthy to have had the Dove for his precursor, and for whom the Man-God had choice graces and caresses from the very beginning.


Saint Bartholomew.
Date: Circa 1611.
Collection: Museo del Prado.
Source/Photographer:
(Wikimedia Commons)

Be this as it may, the lot which fell to our Saint among the twelve, points to the special confidence of the Divine Heart; the heroism of the terrible Martyrdom which sealed his Apostolate reveals his fidelity; the dignity preserved by the Nation he grafted on Christ, in all the Countries where it has been transplanted, witnesses to the excellence of the sap first infused into its Branches.

When, two Centuries and a half later, Gregory the Illuminator so successfully cultivated the soil of Armenia, he did but quicken the seed sown by the Apostle, which the trials never wanting to that generous land had retarded for a time, but could not stifle.


How strangely sad, that evil men, nurtured in the turmoil of endless invasions, should have been able to rouse and perpetuate a mistrust of Rome among a Race whom wars and tortures and dispersion could not tear from the love of Christ Our Saviour !

Yet, Thanks be to God !, the movement towards return, more than once begun and then abandoned, seems now to be steadily advancing; the chosen sons of this illustrious Nation are labouring perseveringly for so desirable a union, by dispelling the prejudices of her people; by revealing to our lands the treasures of her literature so truly Christian, and the magnificenses of her Liturgy; and above all by Praying and devoting themselves to the Monastic state under the standard of the Father of Western Monks. [Editor: Mekhitarists; Armenian Monks of Saint Benedict.]

Together with these holders of the true National Tradition, let us Pray to Bartholomew their Apostle; to the Disciple Thaddeus (one of the “seventy-two”), who also shared in the first evangelisation; to Ripsima, the heroic Virgin, who from the Roman territory led her thirty-five companions to the conquest of a new land; and to all the Martyrs whose blood cemented the building upon the only foundation set by Our Lord.


We learn from Eusebius and from Saint Jerome, that before going to Armenia, his final destination, Saint Bartholomew evangelised the Indies, where Pantænus a Century later found a copy of Saint Matthew’s Gospel in Hebrew characters, left there by him.

Saint Denis records a profound saying of the Glorious Apostle, which he thus quotes and comments: “The Blessed Bartholomew says of theology, that it is at once abundant and succinct; of the Gospel, that it is vast in extent and at the same time concise; thus excellently giving us to understand that the Beneficent Cause of all beings reveals or manifests Himself by many words or by few, or even without any words at all, as being beyond and above all language or thought.

For He is above all by His superior essence.


Saint Bartholomew: Ora Pro Nobis.
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Absurd Victorian Occupations.


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Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Florence.



Courtyard,
Palazzo Medici-Riccardi,
Florence.
This File: 14 May 2023.
(Wikimedia Commons)

Palazzo Medici Riccardi is a historic building in the centre of Florence , located in Via Cavour 3. The first Palace owned by the Medici family in Florence, where people such as Cosimo the Elder and Lorenzo the Magnificent lived, it was sold to the Riccardi family in 1659, who enlarged it and lived there for about 150 years.


Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, Florence.
Photo: 27 September 2021.
Source: Own work.
This File is licensed under the 
(Wikimedia Commons)

After various vicissitudes, it became the seat of the Prefecture and the Metropolitan Council.


Photo: 2 September 2007.
Source: Own work.
Attribution: I, Sailko
Author: sailko
(Wikimedia Commons)

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Saint Bartholomew. Apostle. Whose Feast Day Is, Today, 24 August. Red Vestments.


Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
unless otherwise stated.

Saint Bartholomew.
   Apostle.
   Feast Day 24 August.

Double of The Second-Class.

Red Vestments.


Saint Bartholomew.
Artist: René de Cramer.
"Copyright Brunelmar/Ghent/Belgium".
Used with Permission.



English: Saint Bartholomew the Apostle.
By: Pierre Le Gros the Younger.
Nave of the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, Rome.
Français: Saint Barthélemy par Pierre Le Gros le Jeune.
Photo: 7 September 2006.
Source: Own work.
Author: Jastrow
(Wikimedia Commons)

Bartholomew, or, the son of Tholomy, is, according to common opinion, the Disciple whom Saint Philip brought to Our Lord , under the name of Nathanael, and whom The Master praised on account of his innocence and the simplicity of his heart.

[Philip met Nathanael and said to him: “The one of whom Moses has written in The Law, and whom The Prophets have announced, we have found: It is Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph”.

And Nathanael said to him: “Can anything good come from Nazareth” ? Philip said to him: “Come and see”.

Jesus saw Nathanael coming towards him and said of him: “That is a true Israelite, in whom there is no guile”.

Nathanael said to Him: “Whence knowest Thou me ?” Jesus answered: “Before Philip called thee, when thou wast under the Fig Tree, I saw thee”.

Nathanael replied: “Rabbi. Thou art The Son of God. Thou art The King of Israel”.

John i, 45-49.]


The site of the Apostle’s Martyrdom.
Date: Pre-1913.
Source: Bachmann, Walter (1913).
“Kirchen und moscheen in Armenien und Kurdistan”,
Leipzig: J.C. Hinrichs, pp. 119-123
Author: Bachmann, Walter.
(Wikimedia Commons)

For the Gospel of Saint John, never mentioning Saint Bartholomew among the Apostles, says that Philip and Nathanael came together to Jesus, and that he was among the Disciples to whom the Saviour appeared after the Resurrection on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.

The other Gospels never use the name of Nathanael, but, after Philip, they always mention Bartholomew.

Born at Cana, in Galilee, he was placed by Jesus among The Twelve (Gospel) and he was a witness of the principal actions of Jesus upon the Earth. “The first gift vouchsafed to The Church by The Holy Ghost,” says Saint Paul, “is the Grace of The Apostleship” (Epistle).


English: Church of Saint Bartholomew, Gyöngyös, Hungary.
Français: Eglise baroque Szent Bertalan de Gyöngyös.
Magyar: Szent Bertalan nagytemplom.
Română: Biserica barocă Szent Bertalan /
Sfântul Bartolomeu din Gyöngyös.
Photo: February 2008.
Source: Own work.
Author: Venusz
(Wikimedia Commons)


He Preached The Faith in Arabia Felix: According to certain Traditions, he was flayed alive. He is thus represented in the beautiful White Marble statue, by Cibo, in Milan Cathedral.

His Relics are Venerated at Rome, in the Church of Saint Bartholomew, on an island formed by the River Tiber. His name is mentioned in the Canon of the Mass among the Apostles.

Let us joyfully Celebrate the Feast of Saint Bartholomew, who, in Heaven, Praises God, among the Glorious Choir of the Apostles (Alleluia), and let us ask God to grant to His Church to love what he believed and to Preach what he himself taught (Collect).

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

First Vespers (23 August): The Common of Apostles.
Commemoration: Saint Philip Benizi.
Antiphon: Hic vir.
Versicle: Justum.

Mass: Mihi autem.
Creed.
Preface: Of the Apostles.

Second Vespers: The Common of Apostles.
Commemoration: Saint Louis.
Antiphon at the Magnificat: Similábo.
Versicle: Amávit.

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23 August, 2026

When Modernism Infiltrates Insidiously: Bring Back The Sacred; And Pray The Holy Rosary.



Illustration: IGNATIUS HIS CONCLAVE


The Descent Of The Modernists.
Illustration: RORATE CAELI

The following Text is from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
unless stated otherwise.

The Sedia Gestatoria (Chair for Carrying) was a Ceremonial Throne on which Popes were carried on shoulders until 1978, and later replaced with the Popemobile.

It consists of a richly-adorned, silk-covered armchair, fastened on a Suppedaneum, on each side of which are two gilded rings; through these rings pass the long rods with which twelve footmen (Palafrenieri), in red uniforms, carry the Throne on their shoulders. On prior occasions, as in the case of Pope Stephen III, Popes were carried on the shoulders of men.

The Sedia Gestatoria is an elaborate variation on the Sedan Chair. Two large fans (Flabella), made of white Ostrich feathers — a relic of the ancient Liturgical use of the Flabellum, mentioned in the Constitutiones Apostolicae — were carried at either side of the Sedia Gestatoria.


Pope Pius XII on the Sedia Gestatoria.
Date: Unknown.
This File: 26 February 2008.
User: Melesse
(Wikimedia Commons)


The Sedia Gestatoria of Pope Pius VII (1800 - 1823). 
Exhibition of Thrones in Galerie des Glaces of 
Château de Versailles, France. 
La Sedia Gestatoria (Chaise à porteurs) du Pape Pie VII 
(1800 - 1823). Bois sculpté et doré, velours de soie 
cramoisi sur âme de bois, passementerie en fils d’or, bronze doré. Exposition "le Trône en Majesté", Château de Versailles.
La sedia gestatoria di Papa Pio VII.
Photo: 20 March 2011.
Source: Own work.
Author: Jebulon.
(Wikimedia Commons)






Zephyrinus commends the following Article to Readers.

The Article, dated 8 February 2013, from RORATE CAELI, 
can be read in full HERE


by Fr. Giovanni Cavalcoli, O.P.


The following Text is from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia,
unless stated otherwise.

Pope Saint Pius X’s Papacy featured vigorous condemnation of what he termed “Modernists” and “Relativists”.

Pope Leo XIII had sought to revive the inheritance of Thomas Aquinas’s “the marriage of Reason and Revelation”, as a response to Secular “Enlightenment”.

Under the Pontificate of Pope Saint Pius X, Neo-Thomism became the blueprint for an approach to Theology. 

Pius X’s Papacy featured vigorous condemnation of what he termed “Modernists” and “Relativists”, whom he regarded as dangers to The Catholic Faith (see, for example, his Oath Against Modernism).


This is perhaps the most controversial aspect of his Papacy. He also encouraged the formation and efforts of Sodalitium Pianum (or League of Pius V), an Anti-Modernist network of informants, which was seen negatively by many people due to its accusations of heresy against people on the flimsiest evidence.

This campaign against Modernism was run by Umberto Benigni in the Department of Extraordinary Affairs in the Secretariat of State, distributing Anti-Modernist propaganda and gathering information on “culprits”. 

Benigni had his own secret code — Pope Pius X was known as “Mama”.


Pope Saint Pius X. Official portrait taken 
shortly after his Enthronement in August 1903.
Papst Pius X. Offizielles Porträt, 
aufgenommen kurz nach Inthronisation (August 1903).
El papa Pío X. Retrato oficial, hecho pocos días después 
de su entronización como papa el 9 de agosto de 1903.
Le pape Pie X. Portrait officiel du 14 août 1903, 
après son inthronisation.
Photo: 14 August 1903.
Source: Web.
Author: Giuseppe Felici (1839-1923).
(Wikimedia Commons)


Pope Saint Pius X’s attitude toward the Modernists was uncompromising. 

Speaking of those who counselled compassion to the “culprits”, he said: “They want them to be treated with oil, soap and caresses. But they should be beaten with fists. In a duel, you don’t count or measure the blows, you strike as you can.”

The Modernist movement was linked especially with certain Catholic French scholars, such as Louis Duchesne, who questioned the belief that God acts in a direct way in the affairs of Humanity, and Alfred Loisy, who denied that some parts of Scripture were literally, rather than perhaps metaphorically, true.


Signature of Pope Saint Pius X.
Date: 1906.
Author: Pope Pius X.
Created in Vector format by Scewing
(Wikimedia Commons)

In contradiction to Thomas Aquinas, they argued that there was an unbridgeable gap between natural and supernatural knowledge. 

Its unwanted effects, from the Traditional viewpoint, were Relativism and Scepticism. 

Modernism and Relativism, in terms of their presence in The Church, were Theological trends that tried to assimilate modern philosophers, like Kant, as well as Rationalism into Catholic Theology.

Modernists argued that beliefs of The Church have evolved throughout its history and continue to evolve. 

Anti-Modernists viewed these notions as contrary to the Dogmas and Traditions of The Catholic Church.


“Habemus Papam”.
Cardinal Luigi Macchi announces the 
Election of Cardinal Sarto as the new Pope.
As Proto-Deacon since 1899, Cardinal Macchi announced 
the Election of Cardinal Giuseppe Sarto at the end of the Conclave of 1903 and Crowned him on 9 August 1903.
Photo: 9 August 1903.
Source: Originally from hu.wikipedia; 
description page is/was here.
Author: Unknown, original 
uploader was User:Czinitz at hu.wikipedia.
(Wikimedia Commons)

In a Decree, entitled “Lamentabili Sane Exitu” (“A Lamentable Departure Indeed”), issued 3 July 1907, Pope Saint Pius X formally condemned sixty-five Modernist or Relativist propositions concerning the Nature of The Church, Revelation, Biblical Exegesis, the Sacraments, and the Divinity of Christ.

This was followed by the Encyclical “Pascendi Dominici Gregis” (“Feeding The Lord’s Flock”), which characterised Modernism as the “Synthesis of all Heresies.” 

Following these, Pope Saint Pius X ordered that all Clerics take the “Sacrorum Antistitum”, an Oath against Modernism. 

Pope Pius X’s aggressive stance against Modernism caused some disruption within The Church. 

Although only about forty Clerics refused to take the Oath, Catholic scholarship with Modernistic tendencies was substantially discouraged. 

Theologians who wished to pursue lines of inquiry in line with Secularism, Modernism, or Relativism, had to stop, or face conflict with the Papacy, and possibly even Excommunication.

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A Glimpse Of London In The 1930s.



A Glimpse of London in the 1930s.
Available on YouTube
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Saint Philip Benizi. Confessor. General Superior Of The Servites. Feast Day 23 August. White Vestments.



Saint Philip Benizi.
Illustration: LIVES OF THE SAINTS


Text from “The Liturgical Year”.
   By: Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.
   Volume 14.
   Time After Pentecost.
   Book V.

Our Lady is now reigning in Heaven. Her triumph over death cost her no labour; and yet it was through suffering that she, like Jesus, entered into her glory.

We, too, cannot attain eternal happiness otherwise than did the Son and the Mother.

Let us keep in mind the sweet joys we have been tasting during the past week; but let us not forget that our own journey to Heaven is not yet completed.


“Why stand ye looking up into Heaven ?” said the Angels to the Disciples on Ascension Day, in the name of the Lord Who had gone up in a cloud; for the Disciples, who had for an instant beheld the threshold of Heaven, could not resign themselves to turn their eyes once more down to this valley of exile.

Mary, in her turn, sends us a message today from the bright land whither we are to follow her, and where we shall surround her after having in the sorrows of exile merited to form her Court: Without distracting us from her, the Apostle of her dolours, Philip Benizi, reminds us of our true condition of strangers and Pilgrims upon Earth.

Combats without, fears within: Such for the most part was Philip’s life, as it was also the history of his native City of Florence; of Italy, too, and indeed of the whole Christian World, in the 13th-Century.


At the time of his birth, the City of Flowers [Editor: Florence] seemed a new Eden for the blossoms of Sanctity that flourished there; nevertheless, it was a prey to bloody factions, to the assaults of heresy, and to the extremity of every misery.

Never is Hell so near us as when Heaven manifests itself with greatest intensity; this was clearly seen in that age, when the serpent’s head came in closest contact with the heel of the woman.

The old enemy, by creating new sects, had shaken the Faith in the very centre of the Provinces surrounding the Eternal City.


While, in the East, Islam was driving back the last Crusaders, in the West, the Papacy was struggling with the Holy Roman Empire, which Emperor Frederick III had made as a fief of Satan.

Throughout Christendom, social union was undone, Faith had grown weak, and love cold; but the old enemy was soon to discover the power of the reaction Heaven was preparing for the relief of the aged World.

Then it was that Our Lady presented to her angered Son, Dominic, and Francis, that, by uniting science with self-abnegation, they migh counterbalance the ignorance and luxury of the World; then, too, Philip Benizi, the Servite of The Mother of God, received from her the Mission of Preaching through Italy, France, and Germany, the unspeakable sufferings whereby she became the Co-Redemptress of the human race.
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