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

21 July, 2026

Local Feasts: Saint Joan Of Arc. Virgin. Feast Day 30 May. White Vestments.




English: Joan of Arc enters Orléans.
Artist: Jean-Jacques Scherrer (1855-1916).
1887.
Source/Photographer: 
Collection: Musée des Beaux-Arts.
(Wikimedia Commons)


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

Saint Joan Of Arc. 
   Virgin. 
   Feast Day 30 May.

Local Feasts. 
   Feasts in some Religious Congregations and some places.

White Vestments.

Mass: Cantémus Dómino.


Joan, bride of Christ, Patron and Guardian of France (Magnificat) was raised up in a wonderful manner by God to defend The Faith and her Country (Collect).

Taught by Heavenly voices, and filled with the Light of Cross (Hymn), she was able, by her wisdom, to command the admiration of Princes and the great ones of this Earth, defeat foreign nations, and leave to posterity an eternal remembrance (Epistle).

Therefore, the Liturgy proclaims her “the honour of our people”. “Clothed with the armour of justice and her loins girt with truth” (Antiphon at Vespers), the “Maid” leaves, in obedience, her father and mother and becomes a soldier for Christ.


She rides fearlessly wherever the Archangel Michæl directs her (Hymn). In the midst of mortal dangers, she fears not, for the Lord Jesus is with her (Communion), and “fills her with His strength” (Alleluia), “nourishes her with his His Heavenly Bread, and grants her victory” (Postcommunion).

Surrounded by flames, she invokes the Holy Name of Jesus, and, embracing The Cross, she flies to Him like an innocent Dove (Hymn). She died in 1431.

Let us ask The Holy Ghost, Who makes Souls holy and courageous, to give us to drink in, as Saint Joan did in Holy Communion, that strength of Soul, of which she has given such bright examples.

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Castle Howard, Yorkshire, England.



Castle Howard,
Yorkshire, England.
Photo: 21 March 2008.
Source: Own work.
Author: Pwojdacz
(Wikimedia Commons)

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

The Castle Howard Web-Site can be found HERE

Castle Howard is a Stately Home in North Yorkshire, England, fifteen miles (twenty-four km) North of York. It is a private residence, the home of the Howard Family for more than 300 years.

Castle Howard is not a true Castle, but this term is also used for English Country Houses erected on the site of a former Military Castle.

It is familiar to television and film audiences as the fictional “Brideshead”, both in Granada Television’s 1981 adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited, and a two-hour 2008 remake for cinema. Today, it is part of the Treasure Houses of England group of heritage houses.


The Chapel,
Castle Howard.
Photo: 31 March 2014.
Source: Own work.
Author: Mdbeckwith
(Wikimedia Commons)


Castle Howard Railway Station.
Photo: 24 June 1988.
Source: From geograph.org.uk
Author: Ben Brooksbank
(Wikimedia Commons)

Castle Howard Railway Station was a minor Railway Station serving the Village of Welburn and the Stately Home at Castle Howard, in North Yorkshire, England.

On the York to Scarborough Line, it was opened on 5 July 1845 by the York and North Midland Railway. The architect was George Townsend Andrews.

It closed to passenger traffic on 22 September 1930, but continued to be staffed, until the 1950s, for small volumes of freight and parcels.

The Station was often used by the aristocracy, notably Queen Victoria when she visited Castle Howard with Prince Albert, as a guest of the Earl of Carlisle in August 1850. A road was built from the Station to the Stately Home. Parts of this road (and the associated columns) can still be seen to the North side of Whitwell-on-the-Hill. The Station is now a private residence.


Castle Howard
from across the Great Lake.
Photo: 30 July 2007.
Source: From geograph.org.uk
Author: John Nicholson.
(Wikimedia Commons)

Castle Howard was built between 1699 and 1712, to a design by Sir John Vanbrugh, for the 3rd Earl of Carlisle. The site was that of the ruined Henderskelfe Castle, which had come into the Howard family in 1566 through the marriage to Lord Dacre’s widow of Thomas, 4th Duke of Norfolk.

The House is surrounded by a large estate which, at the time of the 7th Earl of Carlisle, covered over 13,000 acres (5,300 ha) and included the villages of Welburn, Bulmer, Slingsby, Terrington and Coneysthorpe.

The estate was served by its own Railway Station, Castle Howard, from 1845 to the 1950s.


Castle Howard’s Central Dome, with 1962 recreation of Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini’s “The Fall of Phaëton” 
(original 1712, destroyed by fire).
Photo: 21 May 2011.
Author: Pauline Eccles
(Wikimedia Commons)

In 1952, the House was opened to the public by then owner, George Howard, Baron Howard of Henderskelfe. It is currently owned by his son, the Honourable Simon Howard, who grew up at the Castle.

In 2003, the grounds were excavated over three days by Channel 4’s “Time Team”, searching for evidence of a local village, lost to allow for the landscaping of the estate.


The South Frontage of Castle Howard.
Photo: 5 June 1991.
Source: From geograph.org.uk
Author: Richard Croft
(Wikimedia Commons)

The 3rd Earl of Carlisle first spoke to William Talman, a leading architect, but commissioned Vanbrugh, a fellow member of the Kit-Cat Club, to design the building. Castle Howard was that Gentleman-Dilettante’s first foray into architecture, but he was assisted by Nicholas Hawksmoor.

Vanbrugh’s design evolved into a Baroque structure with two symmetrical wings projecting to either side of a North-South axis. The crowning Central Dome was added to the design at a late stage, after building had begun.

Construction began at the East End, with the East Wing constructed from 1701–1703, the East End of the Garden Front from 1701–1706, the Central Block (including Dome) from 1703–1706, and the West End of the Garden Front from 1707–1709.

All are exuberantly decorated in Baroque Style, with coronets, cherubs, urns and cyphers, with Roman Doric pilasters on the North Front and Corinthian on the South Front. Many Interiors were decorated by Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini.


English: The Northern facade of Castle Howard
Deutsch: Der Nordseite von Castle Howard
Photo: 2 June 2010.
Source: Own work.
Author: chris
(Wikimedia Commons)

The Earl then turned his energies to the surrounding garden and grounds. Although the complete design is shown in the third volume of Colen Campbell’s Vitruvius Britannicus, published in 1725, the West Wing was not started when Vanbrugh died in 1726, despite his remonstration with the Earl.

The house remained incomplete on the death of the 3rd Earl in 1738, but construction finally started at the direction of the 4th Earl. However, Vanbrugh’s design was not completed: The West Wing was built in a contrasting Palladian Style to a design by the 3rd Earl’s son-in-law, Sir Thomas Robinson.

The new Wing remained incomplete, with no first floor or roof, at the death of the 4th Earl in 1758; although a roof had been added, the Interior remained undecorated by the death of Robinson in 1777. Rooms were completed, stage by stage, over the following decades, but the whole was not complete until 1811.


The Turquoise Drawing Room,
Castle Howard, Yorkshire, England.
Photo: 31 March 2014.
Source: Own work.
Author: Mdbeckwith
(Wikimedia Commons)

A part of the house was destroyed by a fire on 9 November 1940. The Dome, the Central Hall, the Dining Room, and the State Rooms on the East Side, were entirely destroyed.

Paintings depicting the Fall of Phaeton by Antonio Pellegrini were also damaged. In total, twenty pictures (including two Tintorettos and several valuable mirrors) were lost. The fire took the Malton and York Fire Brigades eight hours to bring under control.


Castle Howard,
Yorkshire.
Photo: 16 August 2010.
Source: Own work.
(Wikimedia Commons)

Some of the devastated rooms have been restored over the following decades. In 1960–1961, the Dome was rebuilt and, in the following couple of years, Pellegrini’s Fall of Phæton was recreated on the underside of the Dome.

Some were superficially restored for the 2008 filming, and now house an exhibition. The East Wing remains a shell, although it has been restored externally. Castle Howard is one of the largest Country Houses in England, with a total of 145 rooms.


The Great Hall,
Castle Howard.
Photo: 31 March 2014.
Source: Own work.
Author: Mdbeckwith
(Wikimedia Commons)

According to figures released by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions, nearly 220,000 people visited Castle Howard in 2010.

Castle Howard has extensive and diverse gardens. There is a large formal garden immediately behind the house. The house is prominently situated on a ridge and this was exploited to create an English landscape park, which opens out from the formal garden and merges with the park.

Two major garden buildings are set into this landscape: the Temple of the Four Winds at the end of the garden, and the Mausoleum in the park. There is also a lake on either side of the house. There is an arboretum, called Ray Wood, and the walled garden contains decorative rose and flower gardens.


Lady Georgiana’s Dressing Room,
Castle Howard.
Photo: 31 March 2014.
Source: Own work.
Author: Mdbeckwith
(Wikimedia Commons)

Further buildings, outside the preserved gardens, include the ruined Pyramid, currently undergoing restoration, an Obelisk and several Follies and Eye-Catchers, in the form of fortifications. A John Vanbrugh ornamental Pillar, known as the Quatre Faces (marked as “Four Faces” on Ordnance Survey Maps), stands in nearby Pretty Wood.

The grounds of Castle Howard are also used as part of at least two charity running races during the year. There is also a separate 127 acre (514,000 m²) arboretum, called Kew at Castle Howard, which is close to the house and garden, but has separate entrance arrangements. Planting began in 1975, with the intention of creating one of the most important collections of specimen trees in the United Kingdom.

The landscape is more open than that of Ray Wood, and the planting remains immature. It is now a joint venture between Castle Howard and Kew Gardens and is managed by a charity called the Castle Howard Arboretum Trust, which was established in 1997. It was opened to the public for the first time in 1999. A new visitor centre opened in 2006.


The Crimson Dining Room,
Castle Howard.
Photo: 31 March 2014.
Source: Own work.
Author: Mdbeckwith
(Wikimedia Commons)

The house is Grade-I-Listed and there are many other Listed structures on the estate, several of which are on the Heritage at Risk Register.

In addition to its most famous appearance in film, as Brideshead, in both the 1981 television serial and 2008 film adaptations of Evelyn Waugh’s novel Brideshead Revisited, Castle Howard has been used as a backdrop for a number of other cinematic and television settings.

In recent years, the Castle has featured in the 1995 film The Buccaneers and Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties, released in 2006. In the past, it was notable in Peter Ustinov’s 1965 film “Lady L”, and as the exterior set for Lady Lyndon’s estate in Stanley Kubrick’s 1975 film “Barry Lyndon”. It has even featured as the Kremlin, in Galton and Simpson’s 1966 film “The Spy with a Cold Nose”.
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Saint Praxedes. Virgin. Feast Day 21 July. White Vestments.


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

Saint Praxedes.
   Virgin.
   Feast Day 21 July.

Simple.

White Vestments.


The Basilica of Santa Prassede
(Saint Praxedes), Rome.
Photo: 18 April 2015.
Source: Own work.
(Wikimedia Commons)

The Feast of Saint Pius I, on 11 July, recalled to our mind Saint Pudentiana and her sister, Saint Praxedes, who placed their house at the disposal of this Holy Pontiff. 

Saint Pudentiana’s Feast Day appears in the Cycle on 19 May, under the Reign of The Risen Lord, and Saint Praxedes’s Feast Day is today, under the Reign of The Holy Ghost.

On Tuesday of the Third Week in Lent, the Lenten Station is held at Rome in the Titular Church of Saint Pudentiana and on the Monday in Holy Week at the Titular Church of Saint Praxedes.


Pope Paschal I depicted in a mosaic in the Basilica of 
Santa Prassede, Rome. He is presenting a model of the 
Basilica to Christ, and wears a square Halo, which means 
he was alive at the time of the mosaic.
This File: 16 August 2005.
(Wikimedia Commons)

Saint Praxedes, a daughter of the Roman Senator, Pudens, Consecrated her Virginity to God (Epistle), and renounced her great wealth in favour of the Poor and of The Church. She thereby acquired the Treasure and precious Pearl of The Heavenly Kingdom (Gospel, Communion).

The Religious Ceremonies, which took place in her mansion, attracted the attention of the pagans. Many Christians were arrested there and led away to death.


English: The Apse.
Basilica of Santa Prassede, Rome.
Deutsch: Santa Prassede.
Rom; Triumphbogen und Apsis.
Photo: 13 May 2009.
Source: Own work.
Author: Welleschik
(Wikimedia Commons)

She died during Emperor Antonius's reign in the 2nd-Century A.D., after having besought God to deliver her from the sight of such woeful scenes. Her body was laid by that of her father and sister in the Cemetery of her grand-mother, Priscilla.

Let us Celebrate joyfully the Feast of the Blessed Virgin Praxedes, in order to obtain thereby feelings of loving devotion (Collect).

Mass: Loquébar.




THE SAINT ANDREW DAILY MISSAL




THE SAINT ANDREW DAILY MISSAL

Available (in U.K.) from

Available (in U.S.A.) from

Available (in Ireland) from



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Salisbury Cathedral (Cathedral Church Of The Blessed Virgin Mary) (Part Six).

 


Salisbury Cathedral.
Date: Circa 1825.
This File: 9 December 2014.
User: Tohma
(Wikimedia Commons)


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

It is recorded that in 1463 John Kegewyn was Organist of Salisbury Cathedral. Among the notable Organists of more recent times have been a number of composers and well-known performers including: Bertram Luard-Selby, Charles Frederick South, Walter Alcock, David Valentine Willcocks, Douglas Albert Guest, Christopher Dearnley, Richard Godfrey Seal, and the BBC presenter Simon Lole.

Salisbury Cathedral Choir holds annual auditions for boys and girls, aged seven to nine years old, for scholarships to Salisbury Cathedral School, which is housed in the former Bishop’s Palace.

The Boys’ Choir and the Girls’ Choir (each sixteen strong) sing alternate daily Evensong and Sunday Matins and Eucharist Services throughout the school year.



Salisbury Cathedral.
The Great West Front.
Photo: 25 October 2017.
Source: Own work.
(Wikimedia Commons)

There are also many additional Services during the Christian year, particularly during Advent, Christmas, Holy Week, and Easter.

The Advent “From Darkness to Light” Services are the best known. Choristers come from across the Country and some are boarders.

Six Lay Vicars (adult men) comprise the rest of the Choir, singing tenor, alto and bass parts. 

In 1993, the Cathedral was the venue for the first broadcast of Choral Evensong (the long-running BBC Radio 3 programme) to be sung by a girls’ Cathedral Choir.[45]



Reredos at Salisbury Cathedral.
Ostensibly the work of C.E. Buckeridge.
Adoration of the Magi, formerly in the Lady Chapel.
Photo: 12 January 2019.
Source: Own work.
(Wikimedia Commons)

The Cathedral previously employed five Cathedral Constables (known as “Close Constables”), whose duties mainly concerned the maintenance of law and order in the Cathedral Close.

They were made redundant in 2010 as part of cost-cutting measures and replaced with “Traffic Managers”.[46]

The Constables were first appointed when the Cathedral became a “Liberty” in 1611 and survived until the introduction of Municipal Police Forces in 1835 with the Municipal Corporations Act.[47]



Rib Vault Ceiling above Clerestory windows, 
in Salisbury Cathedral.
Photo: 24 June 2008.
Source: Own work.
Author: Ukexpat
(Wikimedia Commons)

In 1800, they were given the power, along with the City Constables, to execute any Justices’ or Court Orders requiring the conveyance of prisoners to or from the County Jail (at Fisherton Anger, then outside the City of Salisbury) as if it were the City Jail (and, in so doing, they were made immune from any legal action for acting outside their respective jurisdictions).[48]

The right of the Cathedral, as a “Liberty”, to maintain a separate Police Force was conclusively terminated by the Local Government Act 1888.[49][50]

Between 1864 and 1953, there were records of Peregrine Falcons being present at the Cathedral. More Falcons arrived in 2013, and have been hatching every year since, with their nests on the Cathedral’s Tower.[51]



World War One Cross. This Cross was placed on the grave 
of a Soldier Killed-in-Action on The Western Front in 1917. 
It is now mounted on the wall by the Visitors Entrance at Salisbury Cathedral. The Plaque reads: “This Cross was 
placed over the grave of Colonel Frank A. Symons CMG DSO, Army Medical Service, who was Killed-in-Action at Athies, France, 30 April 1917. He was buried in Saint Nicholas Cemetery, Arras, France, 1 May 1917.
Photo: 25 April 2009.
Source: From geograph.org.uk
Author: william
(Wikimedia Commons)

THIS CONCLUDES THE ARTICLE ON 
SALISBURY CATHEDRAL.
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Westminster Abbey (Part Six).



English: Rose Window, Westminster Abbey.
Magyar: Westminster-apátság, az északi rózsaablak, Sir James Thornhill alkotása (az üvegmozaikokon 11 apostol figurájával) (London, Egyesült Királyság).
Photo: 8 May 2006.
Source: Transferred from hu.wikipedia to Commons.
(Wikimedia Commons)


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

Westminster School and Westminster Abbey Choir School are also in the precincts of the Abbey. The Choir School educates and trains the Choirboys, who sing for Services in the Abbey.[79]

Westminster Abbey is renowned for its Choral Tradition, and the repertoire of Anglican Church Music is heard in Daily Worship, particularly at the Service of Choral Evensong.[80][81]

The Organ was built by Harrison & Harrison in 1937, then with four Manuals and eighty-four Speaking Stops, and was used for the first time at the Coronation of King George VI.

Some pipework from the previous Hill Organ of 1848 was revoiced and incorporated in the new scheme. The two Organ Cases, designed and built in the Late-19th-Century by John Loughborough Pearson, were re-instated and coloured in 1959.[82]


Writ of King Edward the Confessor to Westminster Abbey, granting land at Perton, Staffordshire, England.
Date: Circa 1062 - 1066.
Author: Unknown.
(Wikimedia Commons)


In 1982 and 1987, Harrison & Harrison enlarged the Organ under the direction of the, then, Abbey Organist, Simon Preston, to include an additional Lower Choir Organ and a Bombarde Organ. The current instrument now has five Manuals and 109 Speaking Stops.

In 2006, the Console of the Organ was refurbished by Harrison & Harrison, and space was prepared for two additional 16ft Stops on the Lower Choir Organ and the Bombarde Organ.[82]

The current Organist and Master of the Choristers, James O’Donnell, has been in Post since 2000.[83]


Entrance to the Chapter House, Westminster Abbey.
Photo: 27 September 2006.
(Wikimedia Commons)


The Bells at the Abbey were overhauled in 1971. The Ring is now made up of ten Bells, hung for Change Ringing, cast in 1971 by The Whitechapel Bell Foundry, tuned to the notes F#, E, D, C#, B, A, G, F#, E and D.

The Tenor Bell, in D (588.5 Hz), has a weight of thirty cwt,
1 qtr, 15 lb (3403 lb or 1544 kg).[84]

In addition, there are two Service Bells, cast by Robert Mot, in 1585 and 1598, respectively, a Sanctus Bell, cast in 1738 by Richard Phelps and Thomas Lester, and two unused Bells – one Bell cast about 1320, by the successor to R. de Wymbish, and a second Bell, cast in 1742, by Thomas Lester.[84]



“O, Magnum Mysterium”.
Sung by the nearby Catholic Westminster Cathedral Choir.
Available on YouTube


The two Service Bells and the 1320 Bell, along with a fourth, small, Silver, “Dish Bell”, kept in the Refectory, have been noted as being of historical importance by The Church Buildings Council of The Church of England.[85]

The Chapter House was built concurrently with the East parts of the Abbey under King Henry III, between 1245 and 1253.[86] It was restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1872. The Entrance is approached from the East Cloister Walk and includes a Double Doorway with a large Tympanum, above.[86]

Inner and Outer Vestibules lead to the Octagonal Chapter House. It is built in a Geometrical Gothic Style with an Octagonal Crypt, below. A Pier of eight Shafts carries the Vaulted Ceiling.


Coat-of-Arms, Westminster Abbey.
Blazon:
Azure, a Cross Patonce between · five Martlets Or; and on a Chief Or a Pale Quarterly of France Modern and England between two Roses Gules Barbed and Seeded Proper.
Date: 16 September 2021.
Source: Own work.
Artist: Fenn-O-maniC
(Wikimedia Commons)


To the sides, are Blind Arcading, remains of 14th-Century Paintings and numerous Stone Benches, above which are innovatory large Four-Light, Quatre-Foiled, Windows.[86] These are virtually contemporary with The Sainte-Chapelle, Paris.[86]

The Chapter House has an original Mid-13th-Century tiled Pavement. A Door, made with wood from a single tree grown in Hainault Forest, within the Vestibule, dates from around 1050 and is one of the oldest in Britain.[87][88]

The Exterior includes Flying Buttresses, added in the 14th-Century, and a leaded Tent-Lantern Roof on an iron frame, designed by Scott.


The Coronation of Queen Victoria, 
Westminster Abbey.
Date: 1839.
Artist: John Martin (1789–1854).
Collection: Tate Britain.
Source/Photographer: [1]
(Wikimedia Commons)


The Chapter House was originally used in the 13th-Century by Benedictine Monks for daily meetings. It later became a meeting place of The King’s Great Council and The Commons, predecessors of Parliament.[89]

The Pyx Chamber formed the Undercroft of the Monks’ Dormitory. It dates to the Late-11th-Century and was used as a Monastic and Royal Treasury.

The Outer Walls and Circular Piers are of 11th-Century date, several of the Capitals were enriched in the 12th-Century, and the Stone Altar added in the 13th-Century.


The Coronation of King George IV, 
Westminster Abbey.
Date: 19 July 1821.
Artist: James Stephanoff (1786–1874).
(Wikimedia Commons)


The term “Pyx” refers to the Boxwood Chest in which coins were held and presented to a Jury during the Trial of the Pyx, in which newly-minted coins were presented to ensure they conformed to the required standards.[90]

The Chapter House and Pyx Chamber at Westminster Abbey are in the guardianship of English Heritage, but under the care and management of The Dean and Chapter of Westminster.[89]


The Westminster Abbey Museum was located in the 11th-Century Vaulted Undercroft beneath the former Monks’ Dormitory in Westminster Abbey. This was one of the oldest areas of the Abbey, dating back almost to the Foundation of the Church by Edward the Confessor in 1065.

This space had been used as a Museum since 1908[91], but was closed to the public in June 2018, when it was replaced as a Museum by The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries, high up in the Abbey Triforium.[53]

The Westminster Abbey Web-Site can be accessed HERE

This concludes the Article on Westminster Abbey.
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