ZEPHYRINUS.

03 November, 2026

Feast Of The Holy Relics.

Text and Illustrations:

SOCIETY OF ST. BEDE — LITURGICAL RESOURCES

The Web-Site of the

SOCIETY OF ST. BEDE — LITURGICAL RESOURCES

can be found

HERE

FEAST OF THE HOLY RELICS.

This Feast is Celebrated in various places on 3 November; it was formerly Celebrated on the Sunday within the Octave of All Saints.

In the Monastic Breviary, it is Celebrated on 30 October.

In The Saint Andrew Daily Missal, this Feast is Celebrated on

5 November under the Title of “Feasts Of The Holy Relics Preserved In The Churches Of The Diocese”. Red Vestments.

Zephyrinus will be publishing a Post on this subject on Thursday, 5 November 2026.

From “The Liturgical Year”.

By: Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.

MASS OF THE HOLY RELICS.

As the Feast of The Holy Relics is in many places Celebrated on the Sunday within the Octave of All Saints, we here give the Mass and Vespers most commonly used.

The Liturgical formulæ are, however, not less variable than the date of the Feast.

The Introit, borrowed from Psalm Thirty-Three, tells us of God’s solicitude for His own, in death as in life.

Whatever may become of the Just under trial and persecution, their bones shall be gathered together again on The Last Day at the voice of The Son of Man.

VESPERS OF THE HOLY RELICS

This Feast usually uses the Hymns for Martyrs, but Proper Hymns are used in some places,

In some Churches, the Hymn for this Feast is the following, composed by Claud Santeüil, who must not be confounded with John Baptist Santeüil of Saint Victor.

The compositions of the former are superior to those of his brother, in unction and simplicity, as well as by their orthodoxy.

O vos unanimes Christiadum chori,

Vespers and Matins Hymn.

Salvete, magni Præsules,

Lauds Hymn (Coming soon).

Saint Thomas Aquinas Speaks On Praying For The Dead.

Solemn High Mass Of Requiem On All Souls’ Day. 2 November 2024. Saint John Cantius Church, Chicago.

Solemn High Mass of Requiem.
All Souls’ Day.
2 November 2024.
Saint John Cantius Church, Chicago.
Available on YouTube
HERE

“Someone You Loved”. Sung By: Lewis Capaldi.

“Someone You Loved”.
Sung By: Lewis Capaldi.
Available on YouTube
HERE

Saint Hubert Of Liège. Bishop. Confessor. Feast Day 3 November. White Vestments.

Saint Hubert of Liège.
Stained-Glass Window,
Saint Patrick’s Basilica, Ottawa, Canada.
Made By: Mayer Co., Munich. 1898.
Photo: July 2011.
Source: Own work.
File licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-
Share Alike 3.0 Unported licence.
Author: Wojciech Dittwald.
(Wikimedia Commons)

Text from “The Liturgical Year”.
By: Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.
Volume 15.
Time After Pentecost.
Book Six.

Rome, wishing to admit as few interruptions as possible into the present great Octave, gives but a brief notice of Saint Hubert in the Martyrology.

It is fitting that we should imitate her reserve. Were we, however, to omit all mention of him, Christian huntsmen, so faithful in proclaiming their glorious Patron, would not forgive us.

It is right, also, to satisfy popular piety, and the gratitude of numberless clients saved from hydrophobia and led to the feet of the Saint by a Tradition of a thousand years’ standing.

A few words suffice to recount his life.

Saint Hubert Abbey (French: Abbaye de Saint-Hubert), officially the Abbey of Saint Peter in the Ardennes (Abbaye de Saint-Pierre en Ardennes), was a Benedictine Monastery Founded in the Ardennes in 687 A.D., and suppressed in 1797.
The former Abbey Church is now a Minor Basilica
in the Diocese of Namur, Belgium.
Photo: 21 April 2005.
Source: Own work.
Licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-
Share Alike 3.0 Unported licence.
Author: Jean-Pol GRANDMONT
(Wikimedia Commons)

After the mysterious Stag had revealed Christ to him, he became, from a hunter of wild animals, a hunter of Souls; and merited to be called the Apostle of the Ardennes, whose forests had often echoed to the baying of his hounds.

He became the disciple and successor of Saint Lambert; and transferring from Maestricht both the Relics of the holy Martyr-Bishop and the Episcopal See, he raised Liège from an obscure village to a great Town.

His Blessed death took place on 30 May 727 A.D. And, on

3 November 743 A.D., his precious remains were taken up for the first time, which led to the Celebration of his Feast on this day.

In the following Century, the Abbey of Andain (Andage) was put in possession of the Sacred deposit, and took from him the name of Saint Hubert, as did likewise the Town which sprang up around and soon became a centre for pilgrimages.

Two Orders of Knighthood were established in honour of Saint Hubert; the first perished with the fall of the Bourbons, its last Chiefs; the other still exists, and the Kings of Bavaria are its Grand-Masters [Editor: Abbot Guéranger was writing in the Late-19th-Century].

The Seven Sacraments Altarpiece. By: Rogier van der Weyden (1399 – 1464).

The Seven Sacraments Altarpiece.

By Rogier van der Weyden (1399 – 1464).
Illustration: MEDIEVAL CHURCH ART

This Article, by vitrearum, is taken from, and can be read in full at, MEDIEVAL CHURCH ART

The Seven Sacraments Altarpiece, by Rogier van der Weyden, is now in The Royal Museum of Fine Arts, in Antwerp, Belgium. It was painted between 1445 and 1450, when van der Weyden was in Brussels, and is generally held to have been commissioned for a Church in Poligny, in the Jura Département, Eastern France.

It is a Fixed-Wing Triptych, with a complex scene that continues across the three divisions of The Altarpiece. The central focus of the iconography is a large Crucifixion scene, with attendant figures set up in the centre of The Nave of a Late-Gothic Flemish Church. It’s a large Church, with double Side Aisles and an Apsidal East End with an Ambulatory. The Seven Sacraments are shown being acted out in the Church, primarily in the Side Aisles.

In this Article, I’m not going to look in any depth at The Sacraments as a whole, as I’m interested in focusing here on only one of them: The Mass [Editor: The Holy Eucharist]. In this complex image, there are three separate depictions of The Mass, all going on concurrently.

I’m interested in thinking through what these depictions of The Mass might reveal to us about the use of space, the purpose of divisions within a Church building, and how 15th-Century Lay People encountered the Liturgical Action and experienced The Mass.

A Mass is taking place at an Altar up against
the Chancel Screen. The Priest is assisted by a
Layman with an Elevation Torch.
Illustration: MEDIEVAL CHURCH ART

[Editor: The reference, above, to “an Elevation Torch” [or, Candle] can be explained by the following Text from Wikipedia.

Elevation Candle.

Until 1960, The Tridentine Form of The Roman Missal laid down that, at the Epistle side of the Altar, a Candle should be placed, that was to be lit at the Elevation.[18] In practice, except in Monasteries and on special occasions, this had fallen out of use long before Pope Saint John XXIII replaced the Section on the General Rubrics of The Roman Missal with his Code of Rubrics,[19][20][21], which no longer mentioned this custom.

The Candle was called the Elevation Candle, the Consecration Candle, or, the Sanctus Candle.[22]

The purpose for lighting a Candle or Torch, at this point, was to enable people in ill-lit Churches to see The Host as it was raised, the same reason that led to placing behind the Altar a Dark Hanging to offer a distinct contrast to the White Host.[23][24][25] ]

Mediæval Miniatures often show the Elevation of The Host with the Altar Server lifting the Priest's Chasuble to help secure the maximum elevation by taking some of the weight of the Vestment, while, at the same time, holding aloft a long rod, topped with a Lighted Candle, to about the same height as the raised Host.[26][27][28]

Behind the central Crucifixion, we can see that there is a division between The Nave and The Chancel of this large Flemish Church in the form of a Chancel Screen. The Screen, in part a barrier, physically and visually reveals and hides action going on behind it, but it is primarily presented here as a backdrop against which The Celebration of The Mass takes place.

In a recess in The Screen is an Altar, presumably Dedicated to The Virgin Mary, as there is a Reredos above it with her image. A Priest is Celebrating The Mass here, and he has come to the most Solemn moment of it, the Elevation of The Host.

We might think of the Late-Mediaeval Mass as a little-understood Ceremonial taking place apart from the people in a Clerical-ised, screened off zone. This Celebration of The Mass is in The Nave, the people’s space, and in proximity to them – the Sacred Species is shown here Confected among the hurly-burly of this busy place; God Incarnate comes Sacramentally into the midst of His people.

A Layman, in a Grey Doublet, stands some distance from
the Screen Altar, witnessing the Elevation of The Host.
Illustration: MEDIEVAL CHURCH ART

The Laity are not kept at a distance in this tableau, but play an integral part in this offering of The Mass. As the Priest elevates The Host, a Layman, in fine clothing, a Purple Doublet and Red Hose, holds an Elevation Torch, and he lifts the base of the Priest’s Chasuble. There is no fear here of any proximity to The Divine. Standing between two Pillars, is a man in a Grey, his hand on the knife at his belt, with his hat on the other, he focuses his attention on The Host; today, he has seen his Maker.

If we move to the Left-Hand Panel of the painting, to a depiction of a Side Aisle of this great Church, we see a Chapel at the end of the Aisle, screened off. There is an Altar, here, surrounded by "Riddels".

[Editor: Images and documentary mentions of early examples often have Curtains, called Tetravela, hung between the Columns; these Altar-Curtains were used to cover and then reveal the view of the Altar by the Congregation at points during Services — exactly which points varied, and is often unclear.

A Mass is taking place in a Chancel Side Chapel,

beyond a Parclose Screen.
Lay people are gathered within the space.
Illustration: MEDIEVAL CHURCH ART

Altar-Curtains survived the decline of the Ciborium in both East and West, and, in English, are often called "Riddels" (from French "Rideau", a word once also used for ordinary domestic Curtains). A few Churches have "Riddle Posts" or "Riddel Posts" around the Altar, which supported the Curtain-Rails, and perhaps a Cloth, stretched above.

Such an arrangement, open above, can be seen in Folio 199v of The Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry. Late-Mediæval examples in Northern Europe were often topped by Angels, and the Posts, but not the Curtains, were revived in some new, or refitted, Anglo-Catholic Churches by Ninian Comper and others around 1900.

In earlier periods, the Curtains were closed at the most Solemn part of The Mass, a practice that continues to the present day in the Coptic and Armenian Churches. A comparison to the Biblical Veil of The Temple was intended. The small domed structures, usually with Red Curtains, that are often shown near the writing Saint in early Evangelist portraits, especially in The East, represent a Ciborium, as do the structures surrounding many Manuscript portraits of Mediæval Rulers.

A single Curtain, hung usually on a wall behind an Altar, is called a Dossal.]

The Deacon singing the Gospel at a Lectern in the Chancel.

Illustration: MEDIEVAL CHURCH ART

There is an Altarpiece, a Wooden Tabernacle with an image of the Saints. A Priest, in a Blue Chasuble, turns to the people, perhaps he’s turned to say "Orate fratres et sorores", to ask his brothers and sisters to Pray for him, as he begins The Canon of The Mass and begins to offer The Sacrifice on their behalf.

It’s important to note that those who are witnessing this Mass taking place are within the screened off Chapel. There is a group of men and women, just within the Screen, to The Left, and there is another figure, on The Right of the entrance, who appears to be busy with his Primer.

Just below the Altar Step, is a figure dressed in a Green Doublet, with a Purple Liripipe over his shoulder. Here, The Screen of this Chapel acts, not as a barrier to keep The Laity at a distance from The Holy, but as an enclosure in which men and women, seeking Christ’s presence, are welcome. The Screen exists only to mark the particularity of this Liturgical Space.

Then, there is The Third Celebration of The Mass depicted in this painting, but we only get a glimpse of it. In The Choir Screen, there are two Gates, and these give us a restricted view beyond to The Chancel of the Church. Our restricted view gives us enough visual information to be able to determine that Solemn Celebration, a High Mass, is underway, there.

We see, through The Left Gate, the Deacon of The Mass in his Dalmatic, where he appears to be reading The Liturgical Gospel from an Eagle Lectern. This Lectern is placed just where you would expect it, below the Footpace of the Altar, and we can see the edge of the Altar enclosed with Riddel Posts, with figures of Angels on the top and with a Green Frontal. A Missal is open on a Lectern on the Altar. We can see no more of the Altar and cannot see the Priest and the other Ministers.

A couple stand in a Chancel Aisle,

viewing The Mass taking place in the Chancel.

Illustration: MEDIEVAL CHURCH ART

There is a further visual clue that shows that a Mass is underway in the Chancel. Through The Right-Hand Gate of the Choir Screen, we can see the Arcade, that divides the Chancel from an Ambulatory, and there are no Screens to create a division between these spaces.

Beyond, standing in the Ambulatory, are two figures. The first is a man in a Blue Doublet, who appears to be looking across the Chancel to where the Deacon is reading the Gospel. His wife stands beside him, dressed in a Purple and Black Gown, she is reading and concentrating on her Primer, in its White Chemise covering.

These people are standing at a reverential distance from the action in the Chancel, but they are not shut out; without Screens under the Arcade they will have had an uninterrupted view of the action, an action that is hidden from our eyes by the Choir Screen.

The Liturgical action in the Chancel is clearly more complex than in the other two Masses, and the distance of those Lay people is probably explained, not by a desire to keep away from The Holy, but through a need to allow the complex Liturgical action to take place unhindered.

One thing to notice about these three depictions of The Mass, in Rogier van der Weyden’s painting, is that they are at different stages in the Celebration. Those stages in the Liturgical action are more or less evenly spaced out, and The Elevations of The Host would have been staggered.

The Celebration at The High Altar has only got as far as the Gospel; that in the Side Chapel has got as far as the beginning of The Canon of The Mass, and the most prominent Celebration, in The Nave, has reached the moment of Liturgical climax; The Elevation of The Host.

Late-Mediæval Churches were busy places, where complex Liturgical action took place concurrently, and, if this painting's observation is any evidence, that action took place in close proximity to the people.

The Braque Triptych.

Artist: Rogier van der Weyden
Current location: Louvre Museum, Paris, France.
Source/Photographer: http://www.google.ie/imgres?
(Wikimedia Commons)

The following Text is from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia.

Rogier van der Weyden, or Roger de la Pasture (1399 or 1400 – 18 June 1464), was an Early-Netherlandish Painter, whose surviving works consist mainly of Religious Triptychs, Altarpieces and commissioned Single and Diptych portraits.

He was highly successful and internationally famous in his lifetime; his paintings were exported – or taken – to Italy and Spain, and he received commissions from, amongst others, Philip the Good, Netherlandish nobility, and foreign Princes.

By the latter half of the 15th-Century, he had eclipsed Jan van Eyck in popularity. However, his fame lasted only until the 17th-Century, and, largely due to changing taste, he was almost totally forgotten by the Mid-18th-Century.

His reputation was slowly rebuilt during the following 200 years; today, he is known, with Robert Campin and van Eyck, as the third (by birth date) of the three great Early-Flemish Artists (Vlaamse Primitieven or “Flemish Primitives”), and widely as the most influential Northern Painter of the 15th-Century.

Within The Octave Of All Saints’ Day. 3 November. 5 November. 6 November. 7 November. White Vestments.

“The Church Triumphant”.

“The Church Militant”.

“The Church Suffering”.

Illustration: UNA VOCE OF ORANGE COUNTY

who reproduce Text and Illustrations from

The Saint Andrew Daily Missal, 1952 Edition,

with the kind permission of

SAINT BONAVENTURE PUBLICATIONS

Artist: René de Cramer.

“Copyright Brunelmar/Ghent/Belgium”.

Used with Permission.

Within The Octave Of All Saints’ Day.

Saint Hubert. Stained-Glass Window,
Saint Patrick’s Basilica, Ottawa, Canada.
By:
Mayer and Company, Munich, Germany.
1898.
Photo: July 2011.
Source: Own work.
Author:
Workshop of Franz Borgias Mayer
(1848–1926).
Photo: Wojciech Dittwald.
(Wikimedia Commons)

Within The Octave Of All Saints’ Day.

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

Mass: As on The Day of The Feast.
Creed: Is said.

Loaves are Blessed on this day (3 November) in honour of Saint Hubert, whose Feast Day is Solemnised in certain Countries on 3 November.

The Church asks God to preserve those, who eat of this bread, from the bite of mad dogs, from The Plague, and other diseases.

In a Second Prayer, The Church makes a similar request for the animals to whom the bread is given.

Within The Octave Of All Saints’ Day.

The following Text is from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia.

Hubertus or Hubert (circa 656 A.D. – 30 May 727 A.D.) was

a Christian Saint who became the first Bishop of Liège in

708 A.D.[1] He is the Patron Saint of Hunters, Mathematicians, Opticians, Metalworkers.

Known as the “Apostle of the Ardennes”, he was called upon, until the Early-20th-Century, to cure rabies through the use of the Traditional Saint Hubert’s Key.[2]

02 November, 2026

“Our Lady Of A Good Death”. By: Fr. Stephen Morrison O.Præm. “A Day With Mary”.

“Our Lady Of A Good Death”.
By: Fr. Stephen Morrison O.Præm.
“A Day With Mary”.
Available on YouTube
HERE

The Web-Site of
“A Day With Mary” can be found
HERE

Prayer For The Dead.

“Tædet Animam Meam”. Requiem Aeternam. Officium Defunctorum. Tomás Luis De Victoria (1548 - 1611). Composed For The Funeral Of The Mother Of Two Emperors.

Text from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia,

unless otherwise stated.

“Tædet Animam Meam” are the opening words in Chapter 10 of The Book of Job. Job laments his afflictions and begs God to be delivered from them.

“Tædet Animam Meam”
and ”Requiem Aeternam”.
Tomás Luis De Victoria
(1548 - 1611).
Available on YouTube
HERE

“Officium Defunctorum” is a musical setting of the Office Of The Dead, composed by the Spanish Renaissance Composer, Tomás Luis de Victoria, in 1603. It includes settings of the movements of The Requiem Mass, accounting for about twenty-six minutes of the forty-two minute Composition, and the Work is sometimes referred to as “Victoria’s Requiem”.

“Officium Defunctorum” was composed for the funeral of the Dowager Empress Maria, sister of Philip II of Spain, daughter of Charles V, wife of Maximilian II, and mother of two Emperors; it was dedicated to Princess Margaret for “the obsequies of your most revered mother”.

The Empress Maria died on 26 February 1603, and the great obsequies were performed on 22 April 1603 and 23 April 1603. Victoria was employed as Personal Chaplain to the Empress Maria from 1586 to the time of her death.

Victoria published eleven volumes of his music during his lifetime, representing the majority of his compositional output. “Officium Defunctorum”, the only work to be published by itself, was the eleventh volume and the last work that Victoria published.

The date of publication, 1605, is often included with the title to differentiate the “Officium Defunctorum” from Victoria’s other setting of The Requiem Mass (in 1583, Victoria Composed and Published a Book of Masses (Reprinted in 1592), including a “Missa Pro Defunctis” for Four-Part Choir).

“Requiem Officium Defunctorum”.
Sung by: The Tallis Scholars.
Musical Director: Peter Phillips.
Composer: Tomás Luis De Victoria (1548-1611).
Available on YouTube
HERE

“Officium Defunctorum” is scored for Six-Part SSATTB Chorus. It includes an entire Office of The Dead: In addition to a Requiem Mass, Victoria sets an Extra-Liturgical Funeral Motet, a Lesson that belongs to Matins (scored for only SATB and not always included in concert performances), and the Ceremony of Absolution, which follows The Mass.

Polyphonic sections are separated by unaccompanied “Chant Incipits”, that Victoria printed himself. The Soprano II usually carries the “Cantus Firmus”, though “it very often disappears into the surrounding part-writing, since the Chant does not move as slowly as most “Cantus Firmus” parts and the polyphony does not generally move very fast.”

The sections of the Work are as follows:

“Tædet Animam Meam”.

Second Lesson of Matins (Job 10:1-7);

Missa Pro Defunctis (Mass for The Dead).

With the Council of Trent, the Liturgy of The Requiem Mass was Standardised. Victoria sets all of The Requiem Mass sections, except the Dies Irae (Sequence).

“Versa Est In Luctum Cithara Mea”

(Funeral Motet);

The Absolution;

Responsory;

“Libera Me”;