The Patronage Of The Blessed Virgin Mary. Dominican Feast Day.

Illustration: BREVIARIUM S.O.P.

Pope Honorius III approves 

The Rule of Saint Dominic (1216).

Illustration: BREVIARIUM S.O.P.

Seal of The Dominican Order.

Date: 3 August 2023.

Source: Own work based on: EscOrdendePredicadores2Wikipedia.png

Author: Original author unknown.

Vectorised by: ReneeWrites

(Wikimedia Commons)

The following Text is from BREVIARIUM S.O.P.

unless stated otherwise.

December 22:

The Patronage Of The Blessed Virgin Mary.

I truly enjoy this Feast Day. As a member of The Order, it brings me great joy to know that I am part of a family that is nearly 800 years old, and which has been endowed by Almighty God with so many holy men and women.

It is also a great joy to me that there is a specific date which serves as the birthday, so to speak, for The Order.

Traditionally, this Feast Day was Celebrated in November. Today, it is celebrated in May. But, for a brief period of time in the Early-20th-Century, it was Celebrated on 22 December, to coincide with the anniversary of the approval of The Order by Pope Honorius III in 1216. 

Personally, I like the 22 December date, and I think this is the perfect place for this Feast. Our Lady was, no doubt, instrumental in the Founding of this most favoured of her Religious Orders. 

The Collect Prayer even speaks to her role in the institution of The Order. For me, to Celebrate Our Lady’s Patronage over our Order and the anniversary of the Founding of The Order, all during the Holy Season of Advent, seems like a wonderful combination.

The following Text is from:

“Short Lives of the Dominican Saints”. (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, and Trübner & Co., Ltd., 1901).

The Festival kept throughout The Dominican Order on [the 2nd Sunday of November] is a family Feast, kept by the children of Saint Dominic in memory of, and in gratitude for, the countless benefits they have received through the virginal hands of Her whom their Constitutions call “our special Advocate and our most tender Mother and Patroness, who ever intercedes for us with God.” 

On that day they beg of Her, with renewed sentiments of confidence and gratitude, to continue to show herself a Mother to them, and to protect and deliver them in all their troubles and distresses, as she has ever done from the Foundation of The Order, even to our own day.

To Saint Dominic and his sons, she entrusted the Preaching of Her Rosary, the special birthright and heritage of The Order. 

“Salve Regina”.

Available on YouTube

HERE

She has often shown herself in vision to Her children, during the singing of the Salve Regina, prostrating at the feet of Her Divine Son, and pleading for The Order, so dear to Her heart.

“Salve Regina”.

Available on YouTube

HERE

When Pope Innocent IV published a Bull in 1244, by which the privileges of The Order were taken away and the Brethren left exposed to the unfriendly attacks of their opponents, they had recourse to The Blessed Virgin Mary as their only hope; and when, eleven years later, Pope Alexander IV revoked the Bull of his predecessor and restored all the ancient rights and privileges of The Order, these benefits were recognised to be directly the gift of God, through the intercession of The Blessed Virgin.

Of the favours bestowed by The Mother of God on the Saints of The Order, and of their filial love and devotion towards Her, it is impossible here to speak. She is their helper and consoler in life and their secure refuge at the hour of death. 

Hence, from the first Century of its existence, it has been the universal practice in The Order to sing Her Salve Regina round the deathbed of its members, so that the children of Saint Dominic may pass from this Vale of Tears, their hearts echoing the familiar Prayer whereby they have daily entreated The Mother of Mercy to show them, when this life’s exile is ended, the blessed fruit of her womb, Jesus.

Prayer

O God, you willed that under the special patronage of The Most Blessed Virgin Mary, The Order of Preachers should be instituted for salvation of Souls, and that it should be filled with Her unceasing favours, grant to your suppliants that, guarded by Her aid, whose Commemoration we Celebrate today, we may be brought to the heavenly glory. 

Through our Lord . . .

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

The Order of Preachers (Latin: Ordo Prædicatorum; abbreviated OP), also known as The Dominican Order, is a Roman Catholic Mendicant Order of Pontifical Right that was Founded in France by a Castilian Priest named Dominic de Guzmán.

It was approved by Pope Honorius III via the Papal Bull “Religiosam vitam” on 22 December 1216. Members of The Order, who are referred to as Dominicans, generally display the letters OP after their names, standing for “Ordinis Prædicatorum”, meaning “of The Order of Preachers”.

Membership in The Order includes Friars,[b] Nuns, Active Sisters, and Lay or Secular Dominicans (formerly known as Tertiaries).

More recently, there has been a growing number of Associates of the Religious Sisters, who are unrelated to the Tertiaries.

Quarant’Ore. Forty-Hours Adoration. Saint Dominic’s - The Rosary Shrine.

Illustration: 

SAINT DOMINIC’S. THE ROSARY SHRINE

Zephyrinus Contemplates New Choir Stalls For The Private Chapel In Zephyrinus Mansion. Readers Are Invited To State Their Preference. Perkins (Chauffeur) And Jeeves (Butler) Refuse To Do The Wax Polishing.

Ely Cathedral Choir Stalls.

Illustration: 

UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN - MADISON LIBRARIES

Rochester Cathedral Choir Stalls.

Text and Illustration: ROCHESTER CATHEDRAL

Charles Tracy studies the exceptional Early- 13th-Century Choir Stalls and associated timber furniture, with drawings and carpentry notes by Cecil Hewett. Featured in The Friends of Rochester Cathedral Annual Report for 1994-1995.

The survival of Choir-Stalls before the 14th-Century in Northern Europe is a great rarity. In Germany, there are some 12th-Century seats at Ratzeburg, near Lübeck. 

Such survivors from the Early-Gothic period, as there were 

by the 18th-Century in France, Belgium, and Germany, were either replaced with Baroque furniture, or succumbed to the depredations of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods. 

Some of the fine Early 13th-Century Choir Stalls from Lausanne Cathedral still huddle inappropriately and uncertainly in the South Nave Aisle. 

In France, one can only point to the Mid-13th-Century Choir Stalls in the small Abbey Church of Notra Dame de la Roche, Le Mensil Saint Denis, South of Paris. 

In England, a complete set of Choir Stalls of this period survive at Salisbury Cathedral, and three Oak Columns with Stiff-Leaf Foliage, possibly from an Early-Gothic set of Choir Stalls at Peterborough Abbey.

A complete set of Choir Stalls, albeit of almost entirely 18th-Century workmanship, and dating from as early as circa 1227, is found at Rochester Cathedral.

Lincoln Cathedral Choir Stalls.

Text and Illustration: FLICKR/AIDAN McRAE THOMSON

Lincoln Cathedral has a strong claim to being England’s finest Mediæval building, being one of the most ambitious and beautifully designed and adorned Cathedrals in Europe, a real masterpiece of Gothic architecture.

The Cathedral also boasts some of the finest Mediæval woodwork in the Country in its superb Choir Stalls, extensively carved with Canopies with Misericords (though, sadly, the latter are rarely on show).

Bristol Cathedral Choir Stalls.

Illustration: HEATHER ON HER TRAVELS

Photo: 13 March 2008.

Source: Own work.

Uploaded by: NotFromUtrecht

Author: Heather Cowper from Bristol, UK

(Wikimedia Commons)

The following Text is from Wikipedia.

The three rows of Choir Stalls are mostly from the Late-19th-Century, with Flamboyant traceried ends. There are also twenty-eight Misericords, dating from 1515 to 1526, installed by Robert Elyot, Abbot of Saint Augustine’s, with carvings largely based on Aesop's Fables.[62]

Salisbury Cathedral Choir Stalls.

Illustration: PINTEREST

Durham Cathedral Choir Stalls.

Text and Illustration: DURHAM CATHEDRAL

Bishop John Cosin commissioned the Choir Stalls 

lining the North and South Walls of the Quire (Choir) 

in the Mid-17th-Century.

After a Century of conflict and war, the Cathedral showed signs of damage. Most of the woodwork had been burned by Scottish Prisoners-of-War, trying to keep warm while imprisoned here in 1640.

In 1665, Cosin commissioned architect James Clement of Durham to design new Choir Stalls in a style that was unique to County Durham. 

The design included Gothic Canopies, likely to be inspired 

by the Neville Screen, nearby. The Columns that hold up 

the Canopies are slender and decorated at the top 

with Scroll shapes.

Some of the Stalls in the Quire (Choir) are reserved for senior members of the Cathedral Foundation and Latin inscriptions show where their seats are.

There are also Latin inscriptions along the base of the front rows, based on Psalm 150 and which link praising Godwith music: “Praise him for his mighty acts: Praise him according to his excellent greatness . . . Praise him with the timbrel and dance: Praise him with stringed instruments and organs”.

The seats in the back rows have carved Misericords or “Mercy Seats” beneath. These provide a seating ledge, used for a quick rest from standing during lengthy Services.

Underneath the Misericords are detailed carvings, often depicting Religious scenes and stories or mythical creatures.

The only Mediæval Misericord at Durham Cathedral 

dates from the 13th-Century, and shows the Eagle of 

Saint John the Evangelist.

Maulbronn Monastery, Germany.

Text and Illustrations: MAULBRONN MONASTERY

Maulbronn Monastery (Kloster Maulbronn) is one of Europe’s most complete and best preserved Mediæval monasteries. 

It combines a multitude of architectural styles, 

from Romanesque to Late-Gothic.

The Gothic Choir Stalls are directly behind the East Choir Screen, offering seating for ninety-two Monks. 

The Abbot’s Seat in the Sedilia.

Elaborate carvings adorn the Stalls, which originated in the Mid-15th-Century. The Stalls were disassembled and re-assembled during restorations in the 19th-Century.

The reliefs along the sides of the Choir Stalls warrant a closer look. The Master Carver responsible for this work is unknown. 

Perhaps he was one of the Wood Carvers associated with famous Ulm Sculptor, Hans Multscher. There is other Carved artwork to be discovered on the Stalls: Several students from the Evangelical Monastic School have carved their names here.

The Abbot was seated on the Sedilia in the Choir, flanked to the Right and Left by Deacons. This prominent Seat was considered part of the Choir Stalls and was reserved for the most important members of the Monastery. 

The Late-Gothic Seat is decorated with bands depicting numerous animals and mythical creatures. To either side are Coats-of-Arms belonging to the Monastery Founders and the Monastery, itself. The tall Side Panels are adorned with 

Fruit-Bearing Grapevines.

Choir Stalls, Basilica Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Venice.

Stalles de la basilique Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Venise.

Basilica Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari à Venise.

Photo: 19 August 2014.

Source: Own work.

Author: Jean-Pol GRANDMONT

(Wikimedia Commons)

17th-Century Choir Stalls, Pontigny Abbey, France.

Stalles dans l’abbatiale de Pontigny, France.

Photo: 14 April 2013.

Source: Own work.

Author: Michel FOUCHER

(Wikimedia Commons)

Illustration showing 14th-Century Choir Stalls 

at Andlau Abbey, Alsace, France.

Source: Dictionary of French Architecture from 11th to 

16th Century (1856) by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879).

This File: 13 January 2014.

User: Vieux têtard

(Wikimedia Commons)

Choir Stalls, Siena Cathedral, Italy.

Photo: 29 September 2016.

Source: Own work.

Author: José Luiz.

Attribution:

© José Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro /

CC BY-SA 4.0

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Last Sunday Of October. The Feast Day Of Our Lord Jesus Christ The King.

Illustration: FR. Z's BLOG

Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal.

The Last Sunday of October. 

Feast Day Of Our Lord Jesus Christ The King.

Double of The First Class.

White Vestments.

In his Encyclical of 11 December 1925, His Holiness Pope Pius XI denounced the great modern Heresy of Laicism.

Laicism refuses to recognise the Rights of God and His Christ over persons and peoples, and organises the lives of individuals, families, and of Society, itself, as though God did not exist.

This Laicism ruins Society, because, in place of love of God and one’s neighbour, it substitutes pride and egoism. It begets jealousy between individuals, hatred between Classes, and rivalry between Nations.

The World denies Christ because it ignores His Royal Prerogatives. It must be instructed on this subject. Now, “a yearly Feast can attain this end, more effectively than the weightiest documents issued by Ecclesiastical authority”.

The Holy Father [Editor: Pope Pius XI] has instituted this new Feast to be a public, social, and official, declaration of the Royal Rights of Jesus, as God The Creator, as The Word Incarnate, and as Redeemer.

This Feast makes these Rights to be known and recognised, in a way most suitable to Man and to Society by the sublimest acts of Religion — particularly by the Divine Holy Mass.

In fact, the end of the Holy Sacrifice is the acknowledgement of God’s complete dominion over us, and our complete dependence on Him.

And this act is accomplished, not only on Calvary, but also through the Royal Priesthood of Jesus, which never ceases in His Kingdom, which is Heaven.

The great reality of Christianity is not a corpse hanging from a Cross, but the Risen Christ reigning in all the glory of His triumph in the midst of His elect, who are His conquest (Epistle).

And that is why The Mass begins with the finest vision of the Apocalypse, where The Lamb of God is acclaimed by Angels and Saints (Introit).

The Holy Father [Editor: Pope Pius XI] has expressed his wish that this Feast should be Celebrated towards the end of the Liturgical Year, on the last Sunday of October, as the consummation of all the Mysteries by which Jesus has established His Royal Powers and nearly on the eve of The Feast of All Saints, where He already realises them in part in being “the King of Kings and the Crown of All Saints” (Invitatory at Matins); until He shall be the Crown of all those on Earth whom He saves, especially by The Mass.

It is, indeed, principally by The Eucharist, which is both a Sacrifice and a Sacrament, that Christ, now in glory, assures the results of the victorious sacrifice of Calvary, by taking possession of Souls through the application of the merits of His Passion (Secret) and thereby unites them as members to their Head.

The end of the Eucharist, says the Catechism of the Council of Trent, is “to form one sole mystic body of all the Faithful” and so to draw them in the cult which Christ, King-Adorer, as Priest and Victim, rendered in a bloody manner on The Cross and now renders, in an unbloody manner, on the Stone Altar of our Churches and on the Golden Altar in Heaven, to Christ, King-Adored, as Son of God, and to His Father, to Whom He offers these Souls (Preface).

Saint Simon And Saint Jude. Apostles. Feast Day, Today, 28 October.

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

Saint Simon and Saint Jude.
   Apostles.
   Feast Day 28 October.

Double of The Second-Class.

Red Vestments.

Saint Simon and Saint Jude.

Illustration: UNA VOCE OF ORANGE COUNTY

Artist: René de Cramer.

“Copyright Brunelmar/Ghent/Belgium”.

Used with Permission.

Jude, or Thaddeus, had asked The Master, at The Last Supper, why He manifested Himself to The Apostles and not to the World. Jesus answered that He only manifested Himself to Souls who show Him their fidelity by observing His Commandments.

While Simon announced the Gospel to the peoples of The East, Jude wrote his catholic Epistle, which is still read in The West, and "which", declares Origen, "contains strong Doctrine in a few lines".

In the first part, he foretells the condemnation of heretics; he compares them to clouds without water, to Autumn trees without fruit, and to wandering stars, for whom profound darkness is apportioned for all Eternity. Like the rebel Angels, they shall burn for ever in avenging flames.

In the second part, he exhorts The Faithful not to be deceived by the seducers, but to remain firm in their Faith in God and Christ. ["My well-beloved, rising like an edifice on the Foundation of your Holy Faith and Praying by The Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God."

The Archangel Saint Michael, Saint Jude again declares, was established by The Most High as Guardian of The Tomb of Moses. Having, on this occasion, to fight with Satan, probably to hinder him taking possession of the Prophet's body, out of respect for his Angelical dignity, he left to God to condemn him Himself, saying: "May The Lord rebuke him."

The Church puts these very words on the lips of the Priests in The Prayers of Pope Leo XIII, which are said after Low Mass at the foot of the Altar. (Editor: The Leonine Prayers.)]

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

English: 

Church of Saint Simon and Saint Jude (Thaddeus),

Rudno, Poland

Polski: Koścół z XIII wieku.

Date: 24 March 2006 (original upload date).

Source: Transferred from pl.wikipedia to Commons.

Author: The boss at Polish Wikipedia

(Wikimedia Commons)

The following Text is from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia.

According to Tradition, Saint Jude suffered Martyrdom, about 65 A.D., in Beirut, in the Roman Province of Syria, together with the Apostle, Simon the Zealot, with whom he is usually connected. The axe that he is often shown holding in pictures symbolises the way in which he was killed.

Their Acts and Martyrdom were recorded in an Acts of Simon and Jude, that was among the collection of passions and legends traditionally associated with the legendary Abdias, Bishop of Babylon, and said to have been translated into Latin by his disciple, Tropaeus Africanus, according to the Golden Legend account of the Saints.

Sometime after his death, Saint Jude's body was brought from Beirut to Rome and placed in a Crypt in Saint Peter's Basilica, which was visited by many devotees. Now, his bones are in the Left Transept of Saint Peter's Basilica, under the main Altar of Saint Joseph, in one tomb with the remains of the Apostle Simon the Zealot.

Saint Thaddeus (Jude), Saint Sandukht,

and other Christians in Sanatruk's prison.

This File: 14 December 2009.

User: 517design

Source: Armenian History in Italian Art -

Հայոց Պատմության Էջեր.

Author: Fusaro (19th-Century).

(Wikipedia)

Hereford Cathedral (Cathedral Of Saint Mary The Virgin And Saint Ethelbert The King). (Part Two).

The Choir, Hereford Cathedral.

Photo: 9 July 2014.

Source: Own work.

Attribution: Photo by DAVID ILIFF.

Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.

Author: Diliff

(Wikimedia Commons)

Text from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia,

unless otherwise stated.

Hereford Cathedral remained in a state of ruin until Robert of Lorraine was Consecrated as the Diocese's Bishop in 1079 and undertook its reconstruction. His work was carried on, or, more probably, re-done by Reynelm , who was the next but one Bishop and who re-organised the College of Secular Canons attached to the Cathedral.

Reynelm died in 1115 and it was only under his third successor, Robert de Betun , who was Bishop from 1131 to 1148, that the Church was brought to completion.

Of this Norman Church, the surviving parts are the Nave Arcade, the Choir, up to the Spring of the Clerestory , the Choir Aisle, the South Transept and the Crossing Arches.

Hereford Cathedral.

Available on YouTube

HERE

Scarcely fifty years after its completion, William de Vere , who occupied the See from 1186 to 1199, altered the East End by constructing a Retro-Choir , or Processional Path, and a Lady Chapel .

[Editor: In Church Architecture , a Retro-Quire (also spelled Retro-Choir), or Back-Choir, [1] is the space behind The High Altar in a Church or Cathedral, which sometimes separates it from the end Chapel . It may contain seats for the Church Choir . [2] ]

The Lady Chapel, Hereford Cathedral.

Photo: 9 July 2014.

Source: Own work.

Attribution: Photo by DAVID ILIFF.

License: CC BY-SA 3.0.

Author:  Diliff

(Wikimedia Commons)

Between the years 1226 and 1246, The Lady Chapel was rebuilt in the Early English Style—with a Crypt beneath. Around the middle of the 13th-Century, the Clerestory, and probably the Vaulting of the Choir, were rebuilt, having been damaged by the settling of the Central Tower.

Under Peter of Aigueblanche (Bishop 1240–1268), one of King Henry III 's foreign favourites, the rebuilding of the North Transept was begun, being completed later in the same Century by Swinfield, who also built the Aisles of the Nave and the East Transept.

PART THREE FOLLOWS.