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

Sunday 7 April 2024

Low Sunday (Quasimodo Sunday) (Dominica-in-Albis). Station Is At The Basilica Of San Pancrazio (Saint Pancras). Octave Of Easter.



"Bring hither thy hand and put it into My Side,
and be not Faithless, but believing".
Artist: René de Cramer.
"Copyright Brunelmar/Ghent/Belgium".
Used with Permission.



English: Basilica of Saint Pancras.
Italiano: Chiesa di San Pancrazio, a Roma,
nel quartiere Gianicolense.
Photo: June 2009.
Source: Own work.
Author: Croberto68
(Wikimedia Commons)


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

Low Sunday
   (Octave of Easter).

Station at Saint Pancras’s.

Indulgence of 30 Years and 30 Quarantines.

Privileged Sunday of The First-Class.

Greater-Double.

White Vestments.

This Sunday is called Quasimodo Sunday, from the first words of the Introit, or Dominica-in-Albis (post Albas Depositas), from the fact that, on this day, the newly-Baptised had laid aside their White Vestments, or Pascha Clausum, because it finishes The Easter Octave, or, again, Low Sunday, perhaps in contrast to The Great Feast of the week before.

To teach those, who, in Baptism, have just been born to The Life of God, the generosity with which they ought to bear testimony to Christ, The Church leads them to the Basilica of The Martyr, Saint Pancras, who, when only twelve years old, offered to Christ the Testimony of his blood.


Entrance avenue.
Basilica of Saint Pancras.
Photo: January 2006.
Source: Own work.
Author: Lalupa
(Wikimedia Commons)


Christians must stand firm, resting on their Faith in Christ, The Risen Son of God. Saint John tells us that this is The Faith that overcomes the World, for it enables us to resist all efforts to make us fall (Epistle). Thus, it is important that it should have a firm foundation, which The Church gives us in today's Mass.

Saint John says, in the Epistle, that this Faith is founded upon The Witness of The Father, Who, at Our Lord's Baptism (with water), proclaimed Him His Son; of The Son, Who, on The Cross (by His Blood), showed Himself as The Son of God; and of The Holy Ghost, descending on The Apostles on The Day of Pentecost, according to Our Lord's promise, confirmed what Christ had said about His Resurrection and His Divinity; Dogmas, which The Church, guided by The Holy Ghost, never ceases to proclaim.


Basilica of Saint Pancras.
Photo: January 2006.
Source: Own work.
Author: Lalupa
(Wikimedia Commons)


Our Faith rests, also, on The Testimony of Angels, who announced Our Lord's Rising from The Dead (Offertory), but it is based, chiefly, on His appearances to His Apostles. Further, the Gospel shows us how Christ, appearing twice in The Cenacle, overcame the unbelief of Saint Thomas, praising those who, not having seen, should yet believe.

Let us believe in Jesus, Risen from The Dead, and, in the presence of The Blessed Sacrament, let us repeat Saint Thomas's cry of Faith and humility: "My Lord and my God."


Basilica of Saint Pancras.
Photo: August 2012.
Source: Own work.
Author: Luc
(Wikimedia Commons)


By our steadfast Faith, and our blameless conduct, let us bear witness to Our Lord Jesus Christ, before an indifferent World.

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

Mass: Quasi modo.
Creed: Is said.
Preface: For Easter (In hoc potissimum).
   When this Mass is repeated during the week, the Second and Third Collects, Secrets, and Postcommunions are those for Paschaltide.



English: Saint Pancras before the Emperor,
Church of Saint Pancras, Griesheim, Alsace, France.
Français: Alsace, Bas-Rhin, Griesheim-sur-Souffel, Eglise St Pancrace, Maître-autel (XIXe), tableau de St Pancrace (1855).
Date: 2012.
Source: Own work.
Author: Ralph Hammann
(Wikimedia Commons)


The following Text is from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia.

The Church of San Pancrazio (English: S. Pancras; Latin:
S. Pancratii) is a Roman Catholic ancient Basilica and Titular Church, Founded by Pope Symmachus in the 6th-Century A.D., in Rome. It stands in Via S. Pancrazio, beyond the Porta San Pancrazio that opens in a stretch of the Aurelian Wall on the Janiculum.

Among the previous Titulars are Pope Paul IV (15 January - 
24 September 1537) and Pope Clement VIII (18 December 1585 - 30 January 1592).

The Basilica of Saint Pancras was built by Pope Symmachus (498 A.D. - 514 A.D.), on the place where the body of the young Martyr, Saint Pancras of Rome, or Pancratius, had been buried. In the 17th-Century, it was given to the Discalced Carmelites, who completely remodelled it. The Church underwent further rebuilding in the 19th-Century, but it retains its plain brick facade of the Late-15th-Century, with the Arms of Pope Innocent VIII.

Below the Church, there are huge Catacombs, the Catacombe di S. Pancrazio, or di Ottavilla. The entrance is next to the small Museo di S. Pancrazio, with fragments of sculpture and pagan and Early-Christian inscriptions.



Illustration: AD MAIORAM DEI GLORIAM


3 comments:


  1. It is appropriate that the Lenten journey of the stational churches ends today, “Dominica in Albis”, “Low Sunday,” at the shrine of the martyr San Pancrazio---a beautiful quiet basilica situated in a true park-like setting (see again Zephyrinus’ photo showing the tree-lined approach), the larger grounds of which are the Villa Doria Pamphilj, the largest public park in Rome. It is located on the slopes of the majestic Janiculum hill overlooking Trastevere, Rome, and the Vatican itself. (The Janiculum makes a memorable musical appearance as the third sketch in the imaginative tone poem of Ottorino Respighi, “The Pines of Rome:” A sole nightingale --- "Il canto dell'Usignolo" ---dreamily serenades the sleeping city in the moonlight from a perch high up on the hills’ pines.)

    For the Roman pilgrim, the basilica is about a 2 km. walk out the Via S. Pancrazio from the Piazza di Santa Maria Trastevere, but it is a sloping uphill walk and might be a challenge for some Roman visitors. If coming from Santa Maria Maggiore (4.5 km) or San Giovanni in Laterano (5.5 km), it is best to take a taxi. This basilica is however only a 1 km walk from the nearby famous Tempietto de; Bramante, a shrine erected over the site of S. Peter’s execution on the side of the Gianiculum, which is considered a perfect articulation of Baroque architectural harmony.

    The “newborn” Christian neophytes are given the example of the 14-year-old martyr who came to Rome from Phrygia with his Christian uncle, and who was then beheaded for his ardent profession of his Faith during the Diocletian persecution (304 AD). Buried outside the old city Aurelian walls, S. Pancras was placed in this tomb, now under this basilica likely in the vast Christian catacombs. The basilica itself, as Zephyrinus mentions, was erected around the 5th-6th C. , but little of that early church remains. That church, along with S. Agnese Fuori Le Mure, were built as funeral basilicas by P . Honorius (papal reign 625-638 AD), who wished to encourage devotion to the Christian martyrs.
    (cont. part 1 of 2) - Note by Dante Peregrinus

    ReplyDelete
  2. (cont., part 2 of 2, The Basilica of San Pancrazio in Gianicolo)

    This has been the basilica of the Discalced Carmelites, as mentioned above by Zephyrinus, who were given the church shortly after the death of S. Teresa of Avila (d. 1582) in 1593 when they were juridically erected as a separate order by P. Nicholas V.

    The basilica suffered greatly over the centuries, but nothing worse than it being in the line of fire between the Republican forces of the Freemason Giuseppe Garibaldi during the April, 1849 siege of Rome, and the French army ordered by Napoleon III to restore the papal monarchy (P. Pius IX had been forced to flee to Gaeta in Naples in late November 1848). There is dispute over which side severely damaged the basilica, but since Garibaldi was defending Rome and using the church as a strongpoint to try to stop the French advancing through the nearby Porta San Pancrazio, it seems highly like that Garibaldi’s forces firing on the French from the church occasioned the cannonade it suffered in the conflict. As a result, what we see today of the basilica is mostly a late 19th C early/ 20th C restoration. However, now as a parish church, many Roman visitors say how they appreciate the quiet and prayerful atmosphere of the basilica, far off the beaten path of the most heavily visited Roman tourist sites.

    Although in his text on Low Sunday, Dom Gaspar Lefebvre, OSB, does not directly mention the historic and liturgical connection to S. Pancras, it seems obvious from the Introit:

    Quasi modo géniti infántes, allelúia: rationábiles, sine dolo lac concupíscite (1 Peter 2:2)
    “As newborn babes, alleluia, desire the rational milk without guile...”

    As we wistfully end this six week journey with the Christian catechumens through the stational churches of Lent and Easter Week, a journey which Zephyrinus has so stunningly detailed, we take to heart the courage of little S. Pancras, who according to pious tradition, resolutely professed his Faith. May we do the same. --Note by Dante Peregrinus

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A wonderful and outstanding summation of both this particular Basilica and our journey through Lenten Stational Churches and Holy Week.

      A big Thank You to Dante Peregrinus for the most welcome, erudite, and illustrative, Comments supplied to this Blog during this time.

      We look forward to a recommencement of such illuminating contributions on our next Lenten journey (Deo Volente).

      Delete

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