A 200-metre-long, sci-fi-esque, façade in Montpellier, France.
Curtain walls for interplanetary spacecraft. British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, the first woman to win the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize, in 2004, loves complexity, as is borne out by her outstanding creation in Montpellier, France, called ‘Pierres Vives’ (Living Stones).
This impressive ship of a building, measuring 200 metres long and twenty-five metres tall, and, with its sloping façades, resembling something out of a science fiction film, is designed to house the archives, a media library and offices, of “Hérault Sport” association for the Hérault Department (Region).
Saint Hyacinth was a 13th-Century Dominican Priest and Missionary.
In 1220, he accompanied his uncle, Ivo Konski, the Bishop of Cracow, to Rome. Here, they met with Saint Dominic.
At this time, Saint Hyacinth was one of the first to receive the Habit, from Saint Dominic, of the newly-established Order of Friars Preachers.
Because of his spirit for Prayer and his zeal for the salvation of Souls, he was sent to Preach and establish The Dominican Order in his native land, Poland.
Saint Hyacinth Founded communities at Sandomir, Cracow, and Plocko, on The River Vistula, in Moravia.
He extended his Missionary work through Prussia, Pomerania, and Lithuania; then, crossing the Baltic Sea, he Preached in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway.
It was these Apostolic travels that earned Hyacinth the title “The Apostle of The North”.
Saint Hyacinth Basilica, Chicago, Illinois, was built by architects Worthman and Steinbach. The Church Cornerstone was Blessed on 21 October 1917.
The Church Walls, Towers, and the completed edifice, were roofed in 1918. The Interior of the Church proceeded being built through 1920 – 1921.
The Church Interior was restored in 2000 by Conrad Schmitt Studios Inc. of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The following Text is from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia, unless stated otherwise.
This Article is taken from, and can be read in full at, SHARENATOR
Ice Cutters: These were men who cut the ice from frozen lakes. Once cut up, they would transfer their product to the ice delivery men. These ice cutters worked in extreme conditions. Most of them were happy when more people started using the refrigerator for keeping their food safe.
Rat-Catchers: Keeping the rat population under control
was practised in Europe to prevent the spread of
diseases to man, most notoriously The Black Plague,
and to prevent damage to food supplies.
Lamplighter: Was a person who would go around the City, at night, and light all the Lamps by hand. They usually held out a long Pole, with a Wick on the end, to light the Street Lamps.
Bowling Alley Pinsetter: Before Bowling Alleys
had machines to reset their Pins, there were people
who did it, called “Pinsetters”. It was typically a
Seattle, Washington State, United States of America.
(Wikimedia Commons)
Switchboard Operator: Up until three decades ago, Switchboard Operators were important players in the Telecommunications industry. They were needed to make Long Distance Calls and to manage Busy Circuits. But, with the advent of Digitised Telecommunications, Switchboard Operators had to find new jobs. These days, making Long Distance Calls can be done on your Mobile Phone.
Knocker-Upper: A Knocker-Upper's job was to rouse
sleeping people, so they could get to work on time.
The Knocker-Upper used a Truncheon, or short, heavy Stick,
to knock on the clients' doors, or a long, and light, Stick, often made of Bamboo, to reach windows on higher floors. At least one of them used a Pea-Shooter. In return, the Knocker-Upper would be paid a few Pence (Cents) a week. The Knocker-Upper would not leave a client's window until they were sure that
the client was awake.
“Time to get up !!!”.
Making sure that the Client gets up in time for work.
Text from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia, unless stated otherwise.
Hildegarde von Bingen (1098 – 17 September 1179), also known as Saint Hildegarde and The Sibyl of The Rhine, was a German BenedictineAbbess and Polymath, active as a writer, composer, philosopher, mystic, visionary, and as a medical writer and practitioner during the High Middle Ages.[1][2]
She is one of the best-known composers of Sacred Monophony, as well as the most recorded in modern history.[3]
There are more surviving chants by Hildegarde than by any other composer from the entire Middle Ages, and she is one of the few known composers to have written both the music and the words.[7]
Although the history of her formal Canonisation is complicated, Regional Calendars of the Roman Catholic Church have listed her as a Saint for Centuries.
On 7 October 2012, he named her a Doctor of The Church, in recognition of “her holiness of life and the originality of her teaching.”[8]
Hildegarde was born around 1098. Her parents were Mechtild of Merxheim-Nahet and Hildebert of Bermersheim, a family of the free lower nobility in the service of the Count Meginhard of Sponheim.[9]
Sickly from birth, Hildegarde is traditionally considered their youngest and tenth child,[10] although there are records of only seven older siblings.[11][12] In her “Vita” [Editor: “story of her life”], Hildegarde states that from a very young age she experienced visions.[13]
From early childhood, long before she undertook her public mission or even her Monastic Vows, Hildegarde’s Spiritual awareness was grounded in what she called the “Umbra Viventis Lucis”, “the reflection of the Living Light”. Her letter to Guibert of Gembloux, which she wrote at the age of seventy-seven, describes her experience of this light:
“From my early childhood, before my bones, nerves, and veins were fully strengthened, I have always seen this vision in my Soul, even to the present time when I am more than seventy years old.
“In this vision, my Soul, as God would have it, rises up high into the vault of Heaven and into the changing sky and spreads itself out among different peoples, although they are far away from me in distant lands and places.
“And because I see them this way in my Soul, I observe them in accord with the shifting of clouds and other created things. I do not hear them with my outward ears, nor do I perceive them by the thoughts of my own heart or by any combination of my five senses, but in my Soul, alone, while my outward eyes are open.
“So, I have never fallen prey to ecstasy in the visions, but I see them wide awake, day and night. And I am constantly fettered by sickness, and often in the grip of pain so intense that it threatens to kill me, but God has sustained me until now.
“The light which I see thus is not spatial, but it is far, far brighter than a cloud which carries the sun. I can measure neither height, nor length, nor breadth in it; and I call it “the reflection of the Living Light.”
“And, as the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars, appear in water, so writings, sermons, virtues, and certain human actions take form for me and gleam”.[14]
Perhaps, because of Hildegarde’s visions, or as a method of political positioning, or both, Hildegarde’s parents offered her as an Oblate to the Benedictine Monastery at Disibodenberg, which had been recently reformed in the Palatinate Forest.
The date of Hildegarde’s Enclosure at the Monastery is the subject of debate. Her “Vita” says she was eight years old when she was Professed with Jutta, who was the daughter of Count Stephan II of Sponheim and about six years older than Hildegarde.[15]
Today, the Catholic Parish and Pilgrimage Church of Saint Hildegarde, rebuilt between 1932 and 1935 after a fire, and incorporating earlier stylistic elements, stands on the foundations of the former Monastery Founded by
Hildegarde of Bingen in 1165.
The Church houses Hildegarde’s Shrine, with the
Relics of Saint Hildegarde von Bingen. Every year on
17 September, the Feast Day of Saint Hildegarde, large numbers of Pilgrims flock to Eibingen to participate in
the procession of Relics in honour of the Saint.
However, Jutta’s date of Enclosure is known to have been in 1112, when Hildegarde would have been fourteen.[16]
Their Vows were received by Bishop Otto of Bamberg on All Saints’ Day 1112. Some scholars speculate that Hildegarde was placed in the care of Jutta at the age of eight, and that the two of them were then Enclosed together six years later.[17]
The following Text is from “The Liturgical Year”. By: Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B. Volume 14. Time After Pentecost. Book V.
At Bingen, in the Diocese of Mayence (Mainz), Germany, Saint Hildegarde, Virgin. Let us salute the “Great Prophetess of The New Testament”.
What Saint Bernard’s influence over his contemporaries was in the first half of the 12th-Century, that in the second half of the 12th-Century was Hildegarde’s, when the humble Virgin became the oracle of Popes and Emperors, of Princes and Prelates.
Multitudes from far and near flocked to Mount Saint Rupert, where the doubts of ordinary life were solved, and the questions of doctors answered.
At length, by God’s command, Hildegarde went forth from her Monastery to administer to all alike, Monks, Clerics, and Laymen, the word of correction and salvation.
The Spirit indeed breatheth where He will [Saint John iii. 8]. To the massy [Editor: Massive. Gargantuan] pillars that support His Royal Palace, God preferred the poor little feather floating in the air, and blown about, at His pleasure, hither and thither in the light [Hildegarde. Epist. ad Eugenium Pontificem].
In spite of labours, sicknesses, and trials, the holy Abbess lived to the advanced age of eighty-two, “in the shadow of the living light”.
Her precious Relics are now at Eibingen Abbey, Germany. The writings handed down to us from the pen of this illiterate Virgin, are a series of sublime visions, embracing the whole range of contemporary science, physical and theological, from the creation of the World to its final consummation.
May Hildegarde von Bingen deign to send us an interpreter of her works, and an historian of her life, such as they merit !
PRAYER.
O, God, Who didst adorn Thy Blessed Virgin, Hildegarde, with Heavenly gifts; grant, we beseech Thee, that walking in her footsteps, and according to her teachings, we may deserve to pass from the darkness of this World into thy lovely light.
Through Our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who lives
and reigns with Thee in the union of The Holy Ghost,
Two years before his death, Saint Francis retired to Mount Alverno, Italy, where he began a Fast of Forty Days in honour of Saint Michael The Archangel. And lo ! In the midst of his Meditations, he saw a figure, like a Seraphim, with six wings dazzling and burning, whose feet and hands were nailed to a Cross.
Aware that suffering is incompatible with the immortality of a Seraphic Spirit, he understood this to mean that he would become more like Jesus and bear his Cross after Him (Gospel), not by physical Martyrdom, but by a Mystical kindling of Divine Love.
English: Basilica of Saint Francis, Assisi, Italy.
And, in order that this Crucified Love might become an example to us all, five wounds, resembling those of Jesus on The Cross, appeared on his feet, hands, and side. From his side, blood flowed abundantly.
The facts were so fully authenticated, later, that Pope Benedict XI ordered them to be Commemorated every year, and Pope Paul V, to kindle in The Faithful The Love of Jesus Crucified, extended The Feast to the whole Church.
One of the largest collections of Late-Mediæval or Early-Renaissance music in England is the Eton Choirbook, containing copies of Late-15th-Century music for the use of the Choir of Eton College, where the Manuscript remains.
This book contains remarkable examples of English polyphony at its most florid and elaborate, unchallenged in the complexity or length of its lines until the brief re-flowering of The Use of Sarum under Queen Mary, from 1553 to 1558.
The Eton Choirbook contains a Passion setting, nine
settings of The Magnificat, and fifty-four other pieces,
the majority of which are Marian Antiphons, one such
example being this setting of the Salve Regina, by
John Sutton, his only extant work. [1]
Little is known about Sutton, although he was a
Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1476, and was
a Fellow of Eton College in 1477, perhaps until 1479.
The “Cantus Firmus” for this composition is the “Libera Nos”, an Antiphon which was recited daily by students at many educational institutions, including Magdalen and Eton. [2] [3]
Other works are based on this same Plainchant, such as
the settings of “Libera Nos” by John Sheppard, also in 7-Parts. Sutton’s 7-Part “Salve” fits in to a Canon of lavishly-scored works in the Eton Choirbook, with works such as
Robert Wylkynson’s 9-Part “Salve” and 13-Part “Jesus
autem transiens”/“Credo in Deum à 13” existing in
the same Manuscript. [1]
About the Service: The Use of Sarum was the predominant Liturgy used in the South of Late-Mediæval England. It traces its history back to the Norman Conquest, and is very similar to various Northern French Uses.
King Henry VIII suppressed the other English Uses, and Sarum briefly became the only English Use, until 1549 when Henry’s heir, Edward VI, replaced it wholesale with a series of increasingly Reformed Prayer Books.
Sarum enjoyed a short-lived resurgence under Queen Mary I until Queen Elizabeth I suppressed it again in favour
of the Prayer Book.
Many aspects of this reconstruction will be familiar to fans of Choral Evensong: The “Magnificat”, “Nunc Dimittis”, and Anthem, at Book of Common Prayer Evensong, being drawn from Vespers, Compline, and the “Salve”, respectively.
This Service reconstructs a Service from around the middle of Henry VIII’s reign; the earliest composer is John Sutton, who flourished around the Late- 15th-Century.
