The Marian Saturdays And The Devotion Of The First Five Saturdays. Plus, The Five Masses In Honour Of Our Lady, According To The Season.

Illustration: CATHOLICISM PURE AND SIMPLE

This 2017 Article is taken from, and can be read in full at,

CATHOLICISM PURE AND SIMPLE

4 February 2017 was the First Saturday of February 2017. It seemed a good time to remind ourselves of this Article about the Devotion of the First Five Saturdays and Communions of Reparation Against Offences And Blasphemies to the Immaculate Heart of Mary:

“I promise to assist at the hour of death, with the Graces necessary for Salvation, all those who, on the First Saturday of five consecutive months, shall Confess, receive Holy Communion, recite Five Decades of the Rosary, and keep me company for fifteen minutes while Meditating on the Mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me.”

It may come as some surprise that this Devotion of the First Five Saturdays, requested by Heaven, through Sister Lucia of Fatima, in 1925 at her Convent in Pontevedra, Spain, was not new; in fact, it is an ancient custom in The Church.

It fits precisely into the long Tradition of Catholic piety that, having devoted Fridays to the remembrance of the Passion of Jesus Christ and to honouring His Sacred Heart, found it very natural to devote Saturdays to His Most Holy Mother.

It is sometimes asked why Our Lady asked for Communions of Reparation on Five First Saturdays, instead of some other number.

On 29 May 1930, Our Blessed Lord explained to Sister Lucia, in another apparition to her, that it was because of five kinds of offences and blasphemies against The Immaculate Heart of Mary, namely:

Blasphemies against her Immaculate Conception;

Against her Perpetual Virginity;

Against The Divine and Spiritual Maternity of Mary;

Blasphemies involving the rejection and dishonouring of her images;

And the neglect of implanting, in the hearts of children, a knowledge and love of this Immaculate Mother.

“My Soul waits for The Lord more than watchmen for the morning” (Psalm 130:6).

It is also an age-old Tradition that Jesus appeared to Mary on the Saturday, the day after His death, whilst the World lay in hushed waiting for the Resurrection.

The great Theologians of the 12th- and 13th-Centuries, Saints Bernard, Thomas, and Bonaventure, explained the Dedication of Saturdays to Mary by pointing to the time of Christ’s Rest in the Grave. 

Everyone else had abandoned Christ; only Mary continued to believe, demonstrating her deep Faith by never doubting for a moment her Son’s Promise of Resurrection. This was her day !

THE FIVE MASSES IN HONOUR OF OUR LADY,

ACCORDING TO THE SEASON.

The following Text is from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal.

The use of Consecrating  the Saturday to Our Lady developed, not only in private, but also in Liturgical Devotion, during the 8th-Century A.D. to the 12th-Century. The reason for this choice, however, remains unknown.

There are Five Masses in Honour of Our Lady, according to the Season.

They are said as the Mass of the Day on Saturdays when there are no Feasts or Greater Ferias, and can also be said as Votive Masses on other occasions.

Mass: Roráte, Caeli.

Second Collect of The Feria of Advent.

Third Collect of The Holy Ghost.

Preface of The Blessed Virgin Mary. Et te in Veneratione.

God has sent us a Saviour (Epistle) and the Votive Mass of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, Proper to the Season of Christmastide, reminds us that it is by Mary that we have had the happiness of receiving the Author of Life (Collect).

The Gospel pictures her beside the Child in the Manger, and The Church declares her “Blessed, because she has borne in her womb the Son of The Eternal Father” (Communion), and truly worthy of all praise, because of her was born Christ Our Lord (Offertory).

The Collect and the Alleluia, in setting forth the Virginity of Mary, make manifest to us, as in all the Liturgy of Christmas, that Jesus has God for Father and that the Virgin, therefore, is, herself, the Mother of God.

Mass: Vultum Tuum.

Second Collect of The Holy Ghost.

Third Collect against The Persecutors of The Church or For The Pope.

Preface of The Blessed Virgin Mary. Et te in Veneratione.

At this Season, Consecrated to the great work of our Redemption, the Mass of The Blessed Virgin shows us Mary as Mother of Our Saviour.

She was pre-destined from All Eternity for the role of Co-Redemptress (Epistle), for, as Eve was the intermediary chosen by the Angel of Darkness to bring about the Fall of Adam, so, also, is Mary the intermediary to whom the Angel Gabriel (Tract) delivered the Message of Salvation from Heaven. She is also Blessed since she heard the Word of God and obeyed it (Gospel).

Mass: Salve, Sancta Parens.

Second Collect of The Holy Ghost.

Third Collect against The Persecutors of The Church or For The Pope.

Preface of The Blessed Virgin Mary. Et te in Festivitáte.

Mary is Mother of the Risen Lord, Who reigns for ever in Heaven and on Earth (Introit), she has helped to restore Peace between our Souls and God (Alleluia). 

Therefore, the Liturgy proclaims her “happy and Blessed above all women, because she carried in her womb the Son of The Eternal Father” (Alleluia, Offertory, Communion).

Mary is also the Queen of The Church, Founded by the Risen Christ. “Her power is established in Jerusalem and her abode is in the fullness of the Saints” (Epistle).

At the Foot of the Cross, Jesus said to Saint John, who personified all Christians: “Behold thy Mother” (Gospel), and Mary “always and everywhere” protects our Souls through her patronage (Postcommunion).

Mass: Salve, Sancta Parens.

Second Collect of The Holy Ghost.

Third Collect against The Persecutors of The Church or For The Pope.

Preface of The Blessed Virgin Mary. Et te in Veneratione.

Mass: Salve, Sancta Parens.

Second Collect of The Holy Ghost.

Third Collect against The Persecutors of The Church or For The Pope.

Preface of The Blessed Virgin Mary. Et te in Festivitáte.

Pope Saint Pius V (1504 - 1572). Confessor. Whose Feast Day Is, Today, 5 May. White Vestments.

 

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

Saint Pius V.
   Pope and Confessor.
   Feast Day 5 May.

Double.

White Vestments.

English: Pope Saint Pius V.

Deutsch: Porträt des Papst Pius V

Artist: El Greco (1541–1614).

Date: Circa 1600 - 1610.

Current location: Private collection, Paris.

Source: The Yorck Project:

10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei.

DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202.

Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH.

Permission: [1]

(Wikimedia Commons)

Pius, born at Bosco, in Lombardy, Italy, entered at the age of fourteen into The Order of Preachers (The Dominicans).

As Bishop, Cardinal and Pope (Introit, Epistle, Communion), he put to profit the talents entrusted to him by God (Gospel).

His Pontificate, although short, was one of the most glorious of the 16th-Century. Protestantism had proclaimed the Reformation and Islam threatened the West. 

To remedy the ills, under which Christendom groaned, Pope Saint Pius V enforced obedience to the Decrees of the Council of Trent, published a new edition of the Missal and Breviary, and obtained, by the Prayers he asked for, the glorious victory won by the Christian forces at Lepanto in 1571.

He instituted, on that occasion, the Feast of Our Lady of Victories, which became, later on, the Feast of the Most Holy Rosary.

He died on 5 May 1572, reciting the Hymn of Paschaltide.

Mass: Státuit.

The following Text is from Wikipedia.

Pope Saint Pius V (17 January 1504 – 1 May 1572), born Antonio Ghislieri (from 1518 called Michele Ghislieri, O.P.), was Pope from 8 January 1566 to his death in 1572.

He is Venerated as a Saint of the Roman Catholic Church. He is chiefly notable for his role in the Council of Trent, the Counter-Reformation, and the standardisation of the Roman Rite within the Latin Church.

Pope Saint Pius V declared Thomas Aquinas a Doctor of The Church and patronised prominent Sacred Music composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.

As a Cardinal, Ghislieri gained a reputation for putting Orthodoxy before personalities, prosecuting eight French Bishops for heresy. He also stood firm against nepotism, rebuking his predecessor, Pope Pius IV, to his face, when he wanted to make a thirteen-year-old member of his family a Cardinal and subsidise a nephew from the Papal Treasury.

In affairs of State, Pius V excommunicated Queen Elizabeth I of England for schism and persecution of English Catholics during her reign.

He also arranged the formation of the Holy League, an alliance of Catholic States. Although outnumbered, the Holy League famously defeated the Ottoman Empire, which had threatened to over-run Europe, at the Battle of Lepanto. 

His Holiness, Pope Saint Pius V, attributed the victory to the intercession of The Blessed Virgin Mary and instituted the Feast of Our Lady of Victories.

“A Day With Mary”. Saint Bede’s Church, Clapham. Saturday, 9 May 2026.

The Web-Site of

“A Day With Mary” can be found

HERE

The Metropolitan & City Catholic Police Guild Banner Is Blessed At Corpus Christi Church, Maiden Lane, London.

The Processional Banner of The Catholic Police Guild.

This Banner was Blessed on 1 May 2023 at The Church of Corpus Christi, Maiden Lane, London.

With the support of The Latin Mass Society, Mass is Celebrated for the intentions of The Catholic Police Guild on the first Monday of each month at this Church.

The Guild are Dedicated to The Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Text and Illustrations: LMS CHAIRMAN

Blessed are the PEACEKEEPERS 

for they shall be called the children of GOD — Matthew 5:9.

This remarkable Banner was made in 1939.

With the Post-Conciliar decline in Processions (and, indeed, Guilds) it was in storage for many years.

The Banner resides in Corpus Christi Church and emphasises

the connection now established between this Church and

The Catholic Police Guild.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Web-Site of Corpus Christi Church

can be found

HERE

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Web-Site of The Latin Mass Society

can be found

HERE

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

“The Crucifixion”.

Artist: Titian.

1558.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

If you would like to join The Catholic Police Guild (non-Police personnel are welcome to apply, also), there is an Application Form on the Web-Site (see, below). If you are a non-Police person, just select “No Police Affiliation” in the “Service Status” section of the Application Form.

Web-Site of The Metropolitan & City Police Guild 

can be found

HERE

Fr. Finigan’s Sermon On The Feast Day Of The English And Welsh Martyrs.

Fr. Finigan gives a Sermon on

The Feast of The English and Welsh Martyrs

on 4 May 2020.

Available on YouTube

HERE

Saint Monica. Widow. Feast Day 4 May. White Vestments.

 

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

Saint Monica.
   Widow.
   Feast Day 4 May.

Double.

White Vestments.

English: The Angel appears to Saint Monica.

Italiano: Apparizione dell'angelo a Santa Monica

(madre di Sant'Agostino) [1714]. Dipinto nella "Cappella

di sant'Agostino" nel transetto destro della

chiesa di san Marco a Milano.

Artist: Pietro Maggi

Date: 1714.

Current location: Saint Augustine Chapel,

San Marco Church, Milan.

Source: Own work.

Author: G.dallorto

(Wikimedia Commons)

Born in Africa, Saint Monica married a pagan, whom she converted by her virtues. Having become a Widow, she devoted herself to her son, Augustine, whose mind was corrupted by the errors of Manicheism and his Soul by the dissolute manners of Rome.

“Night and day she Prayed” (Epistle) and “she shed for him more tears than other mothers shed over a coffin.”

For, above all else, she was penetrated by The Fear of God (Introit), and she knew that, in order to obtain the resurrection of the Soul of her son, she had to sacrifice herself (Gospel). She atoned for the sins of Augustine.

“Could you, O Lord”, so writes Augustine, “despise the contrite and humble heart of a chaste and mortified Widow ? Could you reject the tears of one who asked not for money, nor for any temporal thing, but only the Salvation of her son’s Soul ?”

“God, in His Mercy, accepted the tears of Charity of Blessed Monica” (Collect), and these two Souls now share in the Joy (Communion) of Jesus, Risen Again.

Saint Monica died at Ostia in 387 A.D.

Mass: Cognovi.

Pope Saint Alexander I. Martyr. Saint Eventius And Saint Theodulus. Martyrs. Saint Juvenal. Bishop And Confessor. Feast Day 3 May. Red Vestments.

 

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

Pope Saint Alexander I.

   Martyr.
Saint Eventius and Saint Theodulus.

   Martyrs.
Saint Juvenal,

   Bishop And Confessor.
Feast Day 3 May.

Simple.

Red Vestments.

Pope Alexander I.

Painted in The Gallery of The Popes,

Sistine Chapel, Rome.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Italy

Date: 16th-Century.

Author: Unknown.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Pope Saint Alexander I governed The Church under The Emperor Hadrian. He prescribed water to be mixed with the wine at Mass, on account of The Blood and Water that flowed from The Side of Jesus.

His name is inscribed in The Canon of The Mass (Second List). He was Martyred at the same time as the Priests Eventius and Theodulus, in 117 A.D., and their bodies rest in Rome, in the Church of Saint Sabina, where The Lenten Station is held on Ash Wednesday.

Saint Juvenal, Bishop of Narni, fell asleep on this day, in The Peace of The Risen Christ, towards 377 A.D.

Mass: Sancti tui.

“Two Years’ Mind”. Fr. John Hunwicke R.I.P.

“Two Years’ Mind”.

Fr. John Hunwicke (R.I.P.).

Text and Illustration: NEW LITURGICAL MOVEMENT

This Article is reprinted from 2024.

By: Gregory Dipippo.

“I am very saddened to report (via the Facebook page of the Oxford Oratory) that the great Fr. John Hunwicke died on Tuesday, 20 April 2024, after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

“As many readers know, he was a Priest of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham; his blog, Fr Hunwicke’s Mutual Enrichment, has long been an incomparably valuable repository of wisdom, wit, and erudition, and we have very often highlighted his articles here on NLM over the years.

“Many of his Posts have been devoted to the defence of the authentic Liturgical Tradition of The Roman Rite, and the exposure of the scholarly impostures that underpinned its would-be replacement”.

Deus, qui inter apostolicos sacerdotes famulum tuum Joannem sacerdotali fecisti dignitate vigere: praesta quaesumus: ut eorum quoque perpetuo aggregetur consortio.

Per Christum, Dominum nostrum.

Amen.

God, Who, among the apostolic Priests, made Thy servant John to flourish with Priestly dignity; grant, we beseech Thee: that he may also be joined unto their perpetual society.

Through Christ our Lord. 

Amen.

The Feast Day Of The Finding Of The Holy Cross By Saint Helena, Mother Of Emperor Constantine. 3 May. Red Vestments.

Orthodox Cross forVeneration on the Feast Day of 

The Universal Exaltation of the Precious and Life Giving Cross.

Christ the Saviour Orthodox Sobor, Ottawa, Canada

Photo: 1 October 2011.

Source: Own work.

File is licensed under the 

Creative Commons Attribution-

Share Alike 3.0 Unported Licence.

Author: ΙΣΧΣΝΙΚΑ-888

(Wikimedia Commons)

Illustration: 

CATHOLICISM PURE AND SIMPLE

The following Text is from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia,

unless stated otherwise.

This Feast is called, in Greek, “ψωσις τοῦ Τιμίου καὶ Ζωοποιοῦ Σταυροῦ” (Raising Aloft of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross), and, in Latin, Exaltatio Sanctæ Crucis. In English, it is called The Exaltation of the Holy Cross, in the official translation of the Roman Missal, while the 1973 translation called it The Triumph of the Cross. 

In some parts of the Anglican Communion, the Feast is called Holy Cross Day, a name also used by Lutherans. The Celebration is also sometimes called Feast of the Glorious Cross.

Santa Croce in Gerusalemme.

 One of the masterpieces of the “Barochetto Romano”, 

by Pietro Passalacqua and Domenico Gregorini.

Date: 1743.

Photo: 18 February 2006.

Source: facade, s. croce in gerusalemme

File is licensed under the 

Creative Commons Attribution 

2.0 Generic Licence.

Author: Anthony M. from Rome.

(Wikimedia Commons)

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

The Finding Of The Holy Cross.
   3 May.

Double of The Second-Class.

Red Vestments.

After the victory gained by Emperor Constantine, by virtue of the Cross which appeared to him in the sky, and whose sign he reproduced in the “Labarum”, Saint Helena, his mother, went to Jerusalem to try and find the true Cross.

At the beginning of the 2nd-Century A.D., Emperor Hadrian had covered Calvary and the Holy Sepulchre under a terrace of 300 feet in length, on which had been erected a statue of Jupiter and a temple of Venus. 

The Empress razed them to the ground, and, in digging up the soil, they discovered the nails (Alleluia) and the glorious trophy to which we owe “Life, Salvation, and Resurrection” (Introit).

The miraculous cure of a woman authenticated The Sacred Tree (Collect).

Saint Helena divided into three the precious wood, which had been “worthy to bear the King of Heaven” (Alleluia).

One part was deposited in Rome, in the Church which on this account was called Holy Cross in Jerusalem. The second part in Constantinople and the third part in Jerusalem.

Heraclius returns the True Cross to Jerusalem,

anachronistically accompanied by Saint Helena.

Artist: Miguel Ximénez.

Date: 1483-1487.

Collection: Saragossa Museum.

Source: [2]

(Wikimedia Commons)

This last Relic, having been carried off by the Persians, and recovered by the Byzantine Emperor, Heraclius, was solemnly brought back to Jerusalem, by Heraclius, on 3 May 628 A.D.

Covered with Gold and Precious Stones, Emperor Heraclius suddenly felt himself held back by an invincible power. 

At this sight, Zacharias, Bishop of Jerusalem, told him to imitate the poverty and humility of Jesus bearing His Cross.

Heraclius, thereupon, covered his shoulders with a common cloak, and, without further hindrance, went his way. (Breviary, 14 September.)

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

Mass: Nos autem.
Commemoration: At Low Mass, only. Of Saint Alexander and Companions.
Creed: Is said.
Preface: Of The Cross.

Labarum of Constantine I 

(Vexilloid of the Roman Empire).

The Vexillum was a Standard, composed of a square piece of cloth fastened to a cross bar at the top of a spear, sometimes with a fringe all round, and sometimes fringed only below, or without a fringe, but draped at the sides, 

When placed over the General’s tent, it was a sign 

for marching, or for battle. 

The Labarum of the Emperors was similar in form, and frequently bore upon it a representation of the Emperor.

Date: 1 April 2011.

Source: Labarum_of_Constantine_I.svg 

(reconstruction by Eugene Ipavec, 2006).

This file is licensed under the 

Creative Commons Attribution-

Share Alike 3.0 Unported Licence.

Author: Labarum_of_Constantine_I.

(Modifications made by Philly boy92).

(Wikimedia Commons)

The following Text is from “The Liturgical Year”.
   By: Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.
      Volume Eight.
      Paschal Time.
      Book Two.

It was most just that our Divine King should show Himself to us with the Sceptre of His power, to the end that nothing might be wanting to the majesty of His empire. This Sceptre is The Cross; and Paschal Time was to be the Season for its being offered to Him in glad homage.

A few weeks back, and The Cross was shown to us as the instrument of our Emmanuel's humiliation and as the bed of suffering, whereon He died; but, has He not since then conquered Death ? And what is His Cross, now, but a trophy of His victory ?

Exaltation of The Cross from the

Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry

(Musée Condé, Chantilly, France).

This File: 14 April 2005.

User: Petrusbarbygere.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Let it, then, be brought forth to our gaze and let every knee bend before this Sacred Wood, whereby our Jesus won the honour and praise we now give Him !

On the day of His birth at Bethlehem, we sang these words of the Prophet Isaias: “A Child is born unto us, and a Son is given to us, and His government is upon His shoulder”. [Is. ix 6. - Introit of The Third Mass for Christmas Day.]

We have seen Him carrying this Cross upon His shoulder; as Isaac carried the wood for his own immolation; but, now, it is no longer a heavy burthen. 

It is shining with a brightness that ravishes the eyes of the Angels; and, after having received the Veneration of Man as long as the World lasts, it will suddenly appear in the clouds of Heaven, near the Judge of the living and the dead - a consolation to them that have loved it, but a reproach to such as have treated it with contempt or forgetfulness.

A Note On Our Lady’s Title Of Co-Redemptrix.

“Whoever then was present on the Mount of Calvary”, 

says Saint John Chrysostom, “might see two Altars, on 

which two great Sacrifices were consummated; the one 

in the body of Jesus, the other in the heart of Mary”.

(Saint Alphonsus Liguori: “The Glories of Mary”).

TRANSALPINE REDEMPTORISTS

This Article is taken from, and can be read in full at, 

TRANSALPINE REDEMPTORISTS

This past week [Editor: This Article is dated 7 November 2025] the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a new Doctrinal Note called “Mater Populi Fidelis”, which denied Our Blessed Mother her titles of “Co-Redemptrix“ and “Mediatrix Of All Graces”.

The Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer do not accept this new teaching.

English: The Crowning of The Virgin Mary

in Heaven by The Holy Trinity.

Español: Coronación de la Virgen.

Deutsch: Die Krönung Marias.

Artist: Diego Velázquez (1599–1660).

Date: Circa 1645.

Current location: Prado Museum, Madrid, Spain.

Source/Photographer: https://www.museodelprado.

es/en/the-collection/online-gallery/on-line-gallery/

obra/the-coronation-of-the-virgin/

(Wikimedia Commons)

The following is a non-exhaustive list of Saints, Popes, and Theologians, who taught, at least implicitly, the Doctrine of Our Lady as Co-Redemptrix.

The title itself is more modern, as “Mater Populi Fidelis” points out: “The title “Co-Redemptrix” first appeared in the 15th-Century as a correction to the invocation “Redemptrix” . . . which had been attributed to Mary since the 10th-Century.”

However, the principles on which this title is based are not modern, especially that Our Lady is the New Eve:

St. Justin
St. Irenaeus
Tertullian
St. Cyprian
Origen
St. Cyril of Jerusalem
St. Ephrem
St. Epiphanius
St. Basil
St. Ambrose

St. Jerome
St. John Chrysostom
St. Augustine
St. Proclus
St. John Damascene
St. Germanus of Constantinople
St. Anselm
St. Bernard of Clairvaux
St. Albert the Great, O.P.
Hugh of Saint-Cher, O.P.

St. Thomas Aquinas, O.P.
St. Bonaventure, O.F.M.
Richard of Saint-Laurence
St. Alphonsus Liguori, C.SS.R.
Francisco Suárez, S.J.
St. Lawrence of Brindisi, O.F.M. Cap.
St. Robert Bellarmine, S.J.
Ferdinand Chirinos de Salazar, S.J.
Angelo Vulpes, O.F.M. Conv.
Placido Mirto Frangipane, C.R.

Roderick de Portillo, O.F.M.
George de Rhodes, S.J.
St. John Eudes, C.J.M.
St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, S.M.M.
Fr Frederick William Faber, C.O.
St. Pius X
Bl. Pius IX
Pope Leo XIII
Pope Benedict XV
Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XII
St. Pio of Pietrelcina, O.F.M. Cap.
Benoît-Henri Merkelbach, O.P.

The Greatest Restoration Project Of A Generation: Wentworth Woodhouse, Yorkshire.

Greatest Restoration Project Of A Generation: 

Wentworth Woodhouse, Yorkshire.

Available On YouTube

HERE

Text is from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia,

unless stated otherwise.

Wentworth Woodhouse is a Grade-I-Listed Country House in the Village of Wentworth, in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. 

The building has more than 300 rooms, with 250,000 square feet (23,000 m2) of floorspace,[3] including 124,600 square feet (11,580 m2) of living area, and was – until it ceased to be privately owned – often listed as the largest private residence in the United Kingdom.[4][5][6] 

It is surrounded by a 180-acre (73 ha) park, and an estate of 15,000 acres (6,100 ha).

The original Jacobean house was rebuilt by Thomas Watson-Wentworth, 1st Marquess of Rockingham (1693–1750), and vastly expanded by his son, the 2nd Marquess, who was twice Prime Minister, and who established Wentworth Woodhouse as a Whig centre of influence.[7] 

In the 18th-Century, the house was inherited by the Earls Fitzwilliam and the family of the last Earl owned it until 1989. 

It now belongs to the Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust and is undergoing restoration.[8]

Saint Athanasius. Bishop. Doctor Of The Church. Feast Day 2 May. White Vestments.

Saint Athanasius Church, Găgăuzia, Moldova.

Biserica Sf. Atanasie din Etulia, Găgăuzia.

Photo: 12 July 2025.

Source: Own work.

This File is made available under 

the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 

Universal Public Domain Dedication.

Author: Gikü

(Wikimedia Commons)

Text is from “The Liturgical Year”.
   By: Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.
   Volume 8.
   Paschal-Time.
   Book II.

The Court of Our Divine King, during this grandest  of Seasons, is brilliant beyond measure; and, today, it is gladdened by the arrival of one of the most glorious champions that ever fought for His Holy Cause.

Among the guardians of the Word of Truth, confided by Jesus to the Earth, is there one more faithful than Athanasius ?

Does not his very name remind us of dauntless courage in the defence of the Sacred deposit, of heroic firmness and patience in suffering, of learning, of talent, of eloquence — in a word, of everything that goes to form a Saint, a Bishop, and a Doctor of The Church ?

Athanasius lived for The Son of God; the cause of The Son of God was that of Athanasius: He who Blessed Athanasius, Blessed the Eternal Word; and he who insulted Athanasius insulted the Eternal Word.

Never did our Holy Faith go through a greater ordeal than in the sad times immediately following the Peace of The Church, when the Barque of Peter had to pass through the most furious storm that Hell has, so far, let loose against her.

Satan had vainly sought to drown the Christian race in a sea of blood; the sword of persecution had grown blunt in the hands of Diocletian and Galerius; and The Cross appeared in the heavens, proclaiming the triumph of Christianity.

Saint Athanasius Church, 

Lozen, Sofia Province, Bulgaria.

Photo: 14 May 2011.

Source: Own work.

This File is licensed under the 

Creative Commons Attribution-

Share Alike 3.0 Unported licence.

Attribution:

© Plamen Agov • studiolemontree.com

Author: MrPanyGoff

(Wikimedia Commons)

Scarcely had The Church become aware of her victory, when she felt herself shaken to her very foundation. Hell sent upon the Earth a heresy which threatened to blight the fruit of three hundred years of Martyrdom.

Arius began his impious doctrine, that he who had hitherto been adored as The Son of God was only a creature, though the most perfect of all creatures.

Immense was the number, even of the Clergy, that fell into this new error; the Emperors became its abettors; and had not God Himself interposed, men would soon have set up the cry throughout the World that the only result of the victory gained by the Christian Religion was to change the object of idolatry, and put a new idol, called Jesus, in place of the old ones.

Saint Athanasius Greek Orthodox Church, 

Rookwood Cemetery, Sydney, Australia.

Photo: 20 May 2018.

Source: Own work.

This File is licensed under the 

Creative Commons Attribution-

Share Alike 4.0 International licence.

Author: J Bar

(Wikimedia Commons)

But He, Who had promised that the gates of Hell should never prevail against His Church, faithfully fulfilled His promise.

The primitive Faith triumphed; the Council of Nicæa proclaimed the Son to be consubstantial with The Father; but The Church stood in need of a man in whom the cause of the consubstantial Word should be, so to speak, incarnated — a man with learning enough to foil the artifices of heresy, and with courage enought to bear every persecution without flinching.

This man was Athanasius: And everyone that adores and loves The Son of God, should love and honour Athanasius.

Saint Athanasius of Alexandria.

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Five times banished from his See of Alexandria by the Arians, who even sought to put him to death, he fled for protection to the West, which justly appreciated the glorious Confessor of Jesus’ Divinity.

In return for the hospitality accorded him by Rome, Athanasius gave her of his treasures. Being the admirer and friend of the great Saint Antony of Egypt, he was a fervent admirer of the Monastic life, which, by the Grace of The Holy Ghost, had flourished so wonderfully in the deserts of his vast Patriarchate.

He brought the precious seed to Rome, and the first Monks seen there were the ones introduced by Athanasius.

The heavenly plant became naturalised in its new soil; and though its growth was slow at first, it afterwards produced fruit more abundantly than it had ever done in the East.

Athanasius, who has written so admirably upon that fundamental Dogma of our Faith — the Divinity of Christ — has also left us most eloquent treatises on the Mystery of the Pasch: They are to be found in the “Festal” Letters which he addressed each year to the Churches of his Patriarchate of Alexandria.

The collection of these Letters, which were once thought to have been irretrievably lost, was found, a few years back [Editor: Abbot Guéranger was writing circa 1875], in the Monastery of Saint Mary of Scete, in Egypt.

The first, for the year 329 A.D., begins with these words, which beautifully express the sentiments we should feel at the approach of Easter: “Come, my beloved brethren, celebrate the Feast; the Season of the year invites you to do so. The Sun of Justice, by pouring out His Divine Rays upon you, tells you that the time of the Solemnity is come.

“At such tidings, let us keep a glad Feast; let not the joy slip from us with the fleeting days, without our having tasted of its sweetness”.

During almost every year of his banishment, Athanasius continued to address a Paschal Letter to his people. The one in which he announces the Easter of 338 A.D., and which he wrote at Treves, begins thus: “Though separated from you, my brethren, I cannot break through the custom which I have always observed, and which I received from the Tradition of the Fathers.

“I will not be silent; I will not omit announcing to you the time of the Holy annual Feast, and the day on which you must keep the Solemnity. I am, as you have doubtless been told, a prey to many tribulations I am weighed down by heavy trials; I am watched by the enemies of truth, who scrutinise everything I write, in order to rake up accusations against me and thereby add to my sufferings; yet notwithstanding, I feel that the Lord strengthens and consoles me in my afflictions.

“Therefore, do I venture to address to you the annual celebration; and from the midst of my troubles, and despite the snares that beset me, I send you, from the furthermost part of the Earth, the tidings of the Pasch, which is our salvation.

“Commending my fate into God’s hands, I will celebrate this Feast with you; distance of place separates us, but I am not absent from you. The Lord Who gives us these Feasts, Who is Himself our Feast, Who bestows upon us the gift of His Spirit — He unites us spiritually to one another, by the bond of concord and peace”.

How grand is this Pasch, celebrated by Athanasius, an exile on the Rhine, in union with his people who keep their Easter on the banks of the Nile !!!

It shows us the power of the Liturgy to unite men and make them, at one and the same time, and despite the distance of Countries, enjoy the same Holy emotions and feel the same aspirations to virtue.

Greeks or Barbarians, we have all the same mother-country, The Church; but that which, after Faith, unites us all into one family, is The Church’s Liturgy.