Septuagesima.

Italic Text and Illustrations taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal, 

1952 edition, with the kind permission of ST. BONAVENTURE PRESS

Septuagesima Sunday.

Station at Saint Laurence-without-the-Walls.

Semi-Double.

Privilege of the Second-Class.

Violet Vestments.

Roman Text is taken from "The Liturgical Year" by Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.

Volume 4. 

Septuagesima.

Published by ST. BONAVENTURE PUBLICATIONS

Go you also into my Vineyard.

In order to understand fully the meaning of the Text of today's Mass, we must study it in connection with the Lessons of the Breviary, since, in the Church's mind, the Mass and the Divine Office form one whole.

The Lessons and Responses in the Night Office are taken this week from the Book of Genesis. In them is related the story of the Creation of the world and of man, of our first parents' fall and the promise of a Redeemer, followed by the murder of Abel and a record of the generations from Adam to Noah.

"In the beginning," we read, "God created Heaven and Earth and upon the Earth He made man . . . and He placed him in a garden of paradise to be mindful of it and tend it" (Third and Fourth Responses at Matins).

All this is a figure. Here is Saint Gregory's exposition. "The kingdom of Heaven is compared to the proprietor who hires labourers to work in his vineyard. Who can be more justly represented as Head of a household than our Creator, Who governs all creatures by His Providence and Who, just as a Master has servants in his house, has His Elect in this world, from the Just Abel to the last of His chosen, destined to be born at the very end of time ?

De Profundis (Septuagesima Sunday, Tract).

Gregorian Chant notation from the Liber Usualis (1961), p. 499.

Latin lyrics sung by the Benedictine Monks 

of Santo Domingo de Silos, Spain.

Available on YouTube at

http://youtu.be/81mqje9youA.

The vineyard which He owns is His Church, while the labourers in this vineyard are all those who, with a true Faith, have set themselves, and urged others, to the task of doing good. By those who came at the first, as well as at the third, sixth and ninth hours, are meant the ancient people of the Hebrews, who, from the beginning of the world, striving in the persons of their Saints to serve God with a right Faith, ceased not, as it were, to work in cultivation of the vineyard.

But, at the eleventh hour, the Gentiles are called and to them are spoken the words: "Why stand ye here all the day, idle ?" (Third Nocturn). Thus, all are called to work in the Lord's vineyard, by sanctifying themselves and their neighbour in glorifying God, since sanctification consists in searching for our supreme happiness in Him, alone.

Adam failed in his task and God told him: "Because thou hast eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat, cursed is the Earth in thy work; with labour and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee . . . In the sweat of thy face, shalt thou eat bread, till thou return to the Earth out of which thou was taken."

Septuagesima, 2008.

Gradual and Tract.

Edinburgh, Scotland.

Available on YouTube at

http://youtu.be/ZfOlH4Y_ryY.

Being exiled from Eden," says Saint Augustine, "the first man involved all his descendants in the penalty of death and reprobation, being corrupted in the person of him from whom they sprung. The whole mass of condemned humanity was therefore, plunged in misery, enslaved and cast headlong from one evil to another" (Second Nocturn). "The sorrows of death surrounded me," says the Introit, and, as a matter of fact, it is in the Basilica of Saint Laurence-without-the-Walls, close to the cemetery at Rome, that the "Station" for this Sunday is made.

The Collect adds that we are "justly afflicted for our sins". In the Epistle, the Christian life is represented by Saint Paul as an arena, where a man must take pains and strive to carry off the prize, while the Gospel bears witness that the reward of eternal life is only given to those who work in God's vineyard, where work is hard and painful since the entrance of sin.

"O God", prays the Church, "grant to Thy people, who are called by the name of vines and harvests, that they may root out all thorns and briars, and bring forth good fruit in abundance" (Prayer on Holy Saturday, after the Eighth Prophecy).

Homily on Septuagesima Sunday

and getting ready for Lent.

Father speaks about the significance of Lent,

and the Fast, and why we Fast.

Getting ready for Lent.

Available on YouTube at

http://youtu.be/Z5zNmfoaDFQ.

"In His wisdom", says Saint Gregory, "Almighty God preferred rather to bring good out of evil than never allow evil to occur". For God took pity on men and promised them a Second Adam, who, restoring the order disturbed by the First Adam, would allow them to regain Heaven, to which Adam had lost all right, when expelled from Eden, which was "the shadow of a better life" (Fourth Lesson). "Thou, O Lord, art our helper in time of tribulation" (Gradual); "with Thee, there is merciful forgiveness" (Tract).

"Make Thy face to shine upon Thy servant and save me in Thy mercy" (Communion). "Show Thy face, O Lord, and we shall be saved", the Church cries similarly in the Season of Advent, when calling upon her Lord. The truth is that God, "Who has wonderfully created man, has more wonderfully redeemed him" (Prayer on Holy Saturday after the First Prophecy), for "the creation of the world in the beginning was not a more excellent thing than the immolation of Christ our Passover at the end of time" (Prayer on Holy Saturday after the Ninth Prophecy).

This Mass, when studied in the light of Adam's fall, prepares our mind for beginning the Season of Septuagesima, and understanding the sublime character of the Paschal Mystery for which this Season prepares our hearts.

Español: El Monasterio de Santo Domingo de Silos es una abadía benedictina ubicada en el municipio de Santo Domingo de Silos, en la provincia de Burgos.

English: Santo Domingo de Silos Abbey is a Benedictine Monastery in the village of Santo Domingo de Silos in the Southern part of Burgos Province in Northern Spain. Its Cloister is a magnum opus of Romanesque art in Europe. [Editor: Listen to the Tract for Septuagesima Sunday, sung by the Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos Abbey. See, above.]

Deutsch: Kreuzgang - links eine der gedrehten Vierersäulen.

Photo: 25 July 2005.

Source: Own work.

Author: Juergen Kappenberg.

This File: 6 August 2007.

User: Schweigen

(Wikimedia Commons)

In response to the call of the Master, Who comes to seek us even in the depths wherein we are plunged, through our first parents' sin (Tract), let us go and work in the Lord's vineyard, or enter the arena and take-up with courage the struggle which will intensify during Lent.

The "Gloria in excelsis" is not said from this Sunday until Maundy Thursday, except when the Mass of a Feast is said.

From Septuagesima to Ash Wednesday, the Tract is said only on Sundays and Feast Days. On Ferias, when the Mass of the Sunday is said, the Gradual is said, without the Tract.

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

Cloister, with twisted Columns, Santo Domingo de Silos Abbey, Burgos, Spain.

The Cloister is a magnum opus of Romanesque art in Europe. [Editor: Listen to the Tract for Septuagesima Sunday, sung by the Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos Abbey. See, above.]

Photo: 15 January 2006.

Source: Own work.

Author: Mark Somoza.

(Wikimedia Commons)

THE HISTORY OF SEPTUAGESIMA.

The Season of Septuagesima comprises the three weeks immediately preceding Lent. It forms one of the principal divisions of The Liturgical Year, and is, itself, divided into three parts, each part corresponding to a week: The first week is called Septuagesima; the second week is called Sexagesima; the third week is called Quinquagesima.

All three are named from their numerical reference to Lent, which, in the language of the Church, is called Quadragesima, that is, "Forty", because the great Feast of Easter is prepared for by the Holy Exercises of forty days.

The words Quinquagesima, Sexagesima, and Septuagesima, tells us of the same great Solemnity as looming in the distance, and as being the great object towards which the Church would have us now begin to turn all our thoughts, and desires, and devotion.

Kyrie for Septuagesima Sunday,

Mass XI (Orbis Factor),

2010.

Saint Andrew's Roman Catholic Church,

Edinburgh, Scotland.

Celebrant: Fr. Emerson, FSSP.

Available on YouTube at

http://youtu.be/S6qdf-ACdyk.

Now, the Feast of Easter must be prepared for by forty days of recollectedness and Penance. Those forty days are one of the principal Seasons of The Liturgical Year, and one of the most powerful means employed by the Church for exciting, in the hearts of her children, the spirit of their Christian vocation. It is of the utmost importance that such a Season of Grace should produce its work in our Souls — the renovation of the whole spiritual life. The Church, therefore, has instituted a preparation for the Holy Time of Lent.

She gives us the three weeks of Septuagesima, during which she withdraws us, as much as may be, from the noisy distractions of the world, in order that our hearts may be more readily impressed by the solemn warning she is to give us at the commencement of Lent by marking our foreheads with Ashes.

This prelude to the Holy Season of Lent was not known in the early ages of Christianity: Its institution would seem to have originated in the Greek Church. Besides the six Sundays of Lent, on which by universal custom the Faithful never Fasted, the practice of this Church prohibited Fasting on the Saturdays, likewise; consequently, their Lent was short by twelve days of the forty spent by Our Saviour doing penance in the desert. To make up the deficiency, they were obliged to begin their Lent so many days earlier.

The Venerable Bede (673 A.D.-735 A.D.). Saint. Confessor. Doctor Of The Church. (Part Nine).

Text and Illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.

Bede, translating the Gospel

of Saint John on his deathbed.

Date: 1902.

Source: http://www.bible-researcher.com/bede.jpg.

Author: James Doyle Penrose.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Another educational work is De schematibus et tropis sacrae scripturae, which discusses the Bible's use of rhetoric. Bede was familiar with pagan authors, such as Virgil, but it was not considered appropriate to teach Biblical Grammar from such texts, and in De schematibus . . . Bede argues for the superiority of Christian texts in understanding Christian Literature. Similarly, his text on poetic metre uses only Christian poetry for examples.

Death of Saint Bede.

(From the Original Picture at Saint Cuthbert's College,

Ushaw, Durham, England).

Death of Saint Bede. Project Gutenberg eText 16785.

From The Project Gutenberg EBook of Our Catholic Heritage

in English Literature of Pre-Conquest Days, by Emily Hickey.

Source: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/16785.

(Wikimedia Commons)

According to his disciple, Cuthbert, Bede was also doctus in nostris carminibus ("learned in our songs"). Cuthbert's Letter on Bede's death, the Epistola Cuthberti de obitu Bedae, moreover, commonly is understood to indicate that Bede also composed a five-line vernacular poem known to modern scholars as Bede’s Death Song:

And he used to repeat that sentence from Saint Paul: “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God,” and many other verses of Scripture, urging us thereby to awake from the slumber of the Soul by thinking in good time of our Last Hour. And, in our own language — for he was familiar with English poetry — speaking of the Soul’s dread departure from the body:

Facing that enforced journey, no man can be

More prudent than he has good call to be,

If he consider, before his going hence,

What for his spirit of good hap or of evil

After his day of death shall be determined.

Fore ðæm nedfere nænig wiorðe

ðonc snottora ðon him ðearf siæ

to ymbhycgenne ær his hinionge

hwæt his gastæ godes oððe yfles

æfter deað dæge doemed wiorðe.

Tomb of The Venerable Bede,

The Galilee Chapel,

Durham Cathedral.

Photo: 4 May 2008.

Source: http://flickr.com/photos/

robert_scarth/2468987080/.

Author: robert scarth.

(Wikimedia Commons)

As Opland notes, however, it is not entirely clear that Cuthbert is attributing this text to Bede: Most manuscripts of the Letter do not use a finite verb to describe Bede's presentation of the song, and the theme was relatively common in Old English and Anglo-Latin literature. The fact that Cuthbert's description places the performance of the Old English poem in the context of a series of quoted passages from Sacred Scripture, indeed, might be taken as evidence simply that Bede also cited analogous vernacular texts.

On the other hand, the inclusion of the Old English text of the poem in Cuthbert’s Latin Letter, the observation that Bede "was learned in our song," and the fact that Bede composed a Latin poem on the same subject, all point to the possibility of his having written it.

By citing the poem, directly, Cuthbert seems to imply that its particular wording was somehow important, either since it was a vernacular poem endorsed by a scholar, who evidently frowned upon secular entertainment, or because it is a direct quotation of Bede’s last original composition.

The Galilee Chapel at Durham Cathedral,

where Saint Bede's Tomb is located.

Photo taken by James Valentine, circa 1890.

This File dated 17 July 2005.

Source: en-WP.

Author: en:User:Bhoeble.

(Wikimedia Commons)

There is no evidence for cult being paid to Bede in England in the 8th-Century. One reason for this may be that he died on the Feast Day of Augustine of Canterbury. Later, when he was Venerated in England, he was either Commemorated after Augustine, on 26 May, or his Feast was moved to 27 May. However, he was Venerated outside England, mainly through the efforts of Saint Boniface and Alcuin, both of whom promoted the cult on the Continent. Boniface wrote repeatedly back to England during his missionary efforts, requesting copies of Bede's theological works. Alcuin, who was taught at the school set up in York by Bede's pupil, Egbert, praised Bede as an example for Monks to follow and was instrumental in disseminating Bede's works to all of Alcuin's friends.

Bede's cult became prominent in England during the 10th-Century Revival of Monasticism, and, by the 14th-Century, had spread to many of the Cathedrals of England. Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester (circa 1008 – 1095) was a particular devotee of Bede's, Dedicating a Church to him in 1062, which was Wulfstan's first undertaking after his Consecration as Bishop.

His body was 'translated' (the Ecclesiastical term for relocation of Relics) from Jarrow to Durham Cathedral around 1020, where it was placed in the same tomb as Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne. Later, Bede's remains were moved to a Shrine in the Galilee Chapel, at Durham Cathedral, in 1370. The Shrine was destroyed during the English Reformation, but the bones were re-buried in the Chapel. In 1831, the bones were dug up and then re-buried in a new tomb, which is still there. Other Relics were claimed by York, Glastonbury and Fulda.

English: Galilee Chapel, Durham Cathedral.

(Saint Bede's Tomb can be seen on the right,

with a Prie-Dieu in front of it.)

Norsk: Durhamkatedralen, Galilee-kapellet.

Photo: 19 November 2004.

Source: Own work.

Author: Nina Aldin Thune.

(Wikimedia Commons)

His scholarship and importance to Catholicism were recognised in 1899, when he was declared a Doctor of the Church. He is the only Englishman named a Doctor of the Church. He is also the only Englishman in Dante's Paradise (Paradiso X.130), mentioned among Theologians and Doctors of the Church in the same canto [Editor: a division in a long poem] as Isidore of Seville and the Scot, Richard of Saint Victor.

His Feast Day was included in the General Roman Calendar in 1899, for celebration on 27 May, rather than on his date of death, 26 May, which was then the Feast Day of Pope Saint Gregory VII. He is Venerated in both the Anglican and Roman Catholic Church.

Bede became known as Venerable Bede (Latin.: Beda Venerabilis) by the 9th-Century, but this was not linked to consideration for Sainthood by the Roman Catholic Church. According to a legend, the epithet was miraculously supplied by Angels, thus completing his unfinished epitaph. It is first utilised in connection with Bede in the 9th-Century, where Bede was grouped with others, who were called "Venerable" at two Ecclesiastical Councils held at Aix-le-Chappelle in 816 A.D. and 836 A.D. Paul the Deacon then referred to him as "Venerable", consistently. By the 11th- and 12th-Centuries, it had become commonplace. However, there are no descriptions of Bede, by that term, right after his death.

THIS CONCLUDES THE ARTICLE ON THE VENERABLE BEDE.

The Venerable Bede (673 A.D.-735 A.D.). Saint. Confessor. Doctor Of The Church. (Part Eight).

Text and Illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.

Bede, translating the Gospel

of Saint John on his deathbed.

Date: 1902.

Source: http://www.bible-researcher.com/bede.jpg.

Author: James Doyle Penrose.

(Wikimedia Commons)

A full catalogue of the Library available to Bede in the Monastery cannot be reconstructed, but it is possible to tell, for example, that Bede was very familiar with the works of Virgil. There is little evidence that he had access to any other of the pagan Latin writers — he quotes many of these writers, but the quotes are almost all to be found in the Latin Grammars that were common in his day, one or more of which would certainly have been at the Monastery. Another difficulty is that manuscripts of early writers were often incomplete: It is apparent that Bede had access to Pliny's Encyclopedia, for example, but it seems that the version he had was missing Book xviii, as he would almost certainly have quoted from it in his De temporum ratione.

Detail of a Holy Card

depicting the Martyrdom of Saint Anastasius.

Saint Bede wrote a translation of the 

Greek passion of Saint Anastasius.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Image:Anastasius_of_persia.jpg.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The works dealing with the Old Testament included Commentary on Samuel, Commentary on Genesis, Commentaries on Ezra and Nehemiah, On the Temple, On the Tabernacle, Commentaries on Tobit, Commentaries on Proverbs, Commentaries on the Song of Songs, Commentaries on the Canticle of Habakkuk, The works on Ezra, the Tabernacle and the Temple were especially influenced by Gregory the Great's writings.

Bede's works included Commentary on Revelation, Commentary on the Catholic Epistles, Commentary on Acts, Reconsideration on the Books of Acts, On the Gospel of Mark, On the Gospel of Luke, and Homilies on the Gospels. At the time of his death, he was working on a translation, of the Gospel of Saint John, into English.

De temporibus, or "On Time", written in about 703 A.D., provides an introduction to the principles of Easter Computus. This was based on parts of Isidore of Seville's Etymologies, and Bede also included a chronology of the world, which was derived from Eusebius, with some revisions based on Jerome's translation of the Bible. In about 723 A.D., Bede wrote a longer work on the same subject, "On the Reckoning of Time", which was influential throughout the Middle Ages. He also wrote several shorter Letters and Essays, discussing specific aspects of Computus.

Saint Bede's Tomb, Durham Cathedral, England.

Watercolour by the English writer ,Augustus Hare. 

Hare may have created the illustration for his book 

"Handbook for Travellers in Northumberland and Durham," 

published in 1863, which he wrote, as well as illustrated. 

Courtesy of the British Museum, London.

Date: 1834-1903.

Source: British Museum [1].

Author: Augustus John Cuthbert Hare.

(Wikimedia Commons)

On the "Reckoning of Time" (De temporum ratione), Bede included an introduction to the traditional ancient and Mediaeval view of the cosmos, including an explanation of how the spherical Earth influenced the changing length of daylight, of how the Seasonal motion of the Sun and Moon influenced the changing appearance of the New Moon at evening twilight, and a quantitative relation between the changes of the Tides at a given place and the daily motion of the Moon.

Since the focus of his book was calculation, Bede gave instructions for computing the date of Easter and the related time of the Easter Full Moon, for calculating the motion of the Sun and Moon through the zodiac, and for many other calculations related to the Calendar. He gives some information about the months of the Anglo-Saxon Calendar in Chapter XV. Any Codex of Bede's Easter Cycle is normally found together with a Codex of his "De Temporum Ratione".

For Calendric purposes, Bede made a new calculation of the age of the world since the Creation, which he dated as 3952 B.C. Due to his innovations in computing the age of the world, he was accused of Heresy at the table of Bishop Wilfrid, his chronology being contrary to accepted calculations. Once informed of the accusations of these "lewd rustics," Bede refuted them in his Letter to Plegwin.

Church of Saint John Lee, 

Hexham, Northumberland, England.

Stained-Glass Window showing, in the centre panel, 

Saint John of Beverley (to whom the Church is dedicated); 

on the left is Saint Benedict; and, on the right, 

The Venerable Bede, 
author of the Ecclesiastical History of the English People 

- see http://www.britainexpress.com/History/bio/bede.htm.

Photo: 26 March 2009.

Source: From geograph.org.uk.

Author: Mike Quinn.

(Wikimedia Commons)

In addition to these works on astronomical timekeeping, he also wrote De natura rerum, or "On the Nature of Things", modelled, in part, after the work of the same title by Isidore of Seville. His works were so influential that, late in the 9th-Century, Notker the Stammerer, a Monk of the Monastery of Saint Gall, in Switzerland, wrote that "God, the orderer of natures, who raised the Sun from the East on the fourth day of Creation, on the sixth day of the world has made Bede rise from the West as a new Sun to illuminate the whole Earth".

Bede wrote some works designed to help teach Grammar in the Abbey School. One of these was his De arte metrica, a discussion of the composition of Latin Verse, drawing on previous Grammarians' work. It was based on Donatus' De pedibus and Servius' De finalibus, and used examples from Christian poets, as well as Virgil. It became a standard Text for the teaching of Latin Verse during the next few Centuries. Bede dedicated this work to Cuthbert, apparently a student, for he is named "beloved son" in the dedication, and Bede says "I have laboured to educate you in Divine Letters and Ecclesiastical Statutes". Another textbook of Bede's is the De orthographia, a work on orthography, designed to help a Mediaeval reader of Latin with unfamiliar abbreviations and words from classical Latin works. Although it could serve as a textbook, it appears to have been mainly intended as a Reference work. The exact date of composition for both of these works is unknown.

PART NINE FOLLOWS

A Day With Mary. Our Lady Of The Rosary Catholic Church, Blackfen, Kent DA15 8LW. Saturday, 15 February 2014.

Our Lady Of The Rosary

Catholic Church,

Blackfen, Sidcup,

Kent DA15 8LW.

A Day Of Instruction,
Devotion And Intercession;
Based On The Message
Given At Fatima In 1917.

Do come along and spend some time with Mary on Saturday, 15 February 2014, if you can.

The Day With Mary team ensure that the day is one not to be forgotten or missed.

DIRECTIONS TO OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY, BLACKFEN, ARE HERE.

DIRECTIONS TO OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY, BLACKFEN, ARE HERE.

"I Am The Immaculate Conception (Que Soy Era Immaculada Concepciou)". The Apparition Of The Blessed Virgin Mary At Lourdes, France, 11 February - 16 July 1858, To Saint Bernadette Soubirous.

Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal.

The Apparition of The Blessed Virgin Mary at Lourdes.
Feast Day 11 February.

Greater-Double.
White Vestments.

Deutsch: Frankreich: Lourdes, Basilika der unbefleckten Empfängnis, 

Rosenkranzbasilika und Krypta in Lourdes.

English: Basilica of The Immaculate Conception, Lourdes, France.

Photo: 2005.

Source: Own work.

Author: Milorad Pavlek.

(Wikimedia Commons)

From 11 February 1858 to 16 July 1858, The Blessed Virgin Mary came down from Heaven eighteen times (Introit), and showed herself to Saint Bernadette Soubirous (Collect), in the cave of the rock at Massabielle (Gradual).

On 25 March 1858, she said to the little shepherdess of fourteen years of age: "I am The Immaculate Conception". Today's Feast therefore recalls Mary's triumph over the serpent (Tract), which the Septuagesimal Liturgy has in mind.

Stained-Glass Window from Bonneval Church 

showing the Vision of Saint Bernadette of Lourdes.

Photo: 17 July 2009.

Source: Own work, adapted from 

Bonneval Eglise Notre-Dame vitrail 3.JPG.

Author: Xandar.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Like the women seen by Saint John, "clothed in the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars over her head" (Epistle), the Virgin of Lourdes "is clothed in a robe and veil, as white as snow, she wears a blue girdle and on her bare feet rests a golden rose," all symbolic of her virginal love.

She exhorts to Penance the unfortunate children of Eve who have not been, like herself, preserved from sin. On the day of the Annunciation, she declared her name to us, to manifest that it is on account of the Incarnation (Collect) that God has vouchsafed to her "not to be tainted with the original stain" (Tract).

Remembering that Mary is "the Ark of the new Covenant" (Epistle), let us go with confidence to her, who, "full of Grace" (Offertory), "visits our Earth to multiply in us the gifts of her riches" (Communion).

The Art Of The Beautiful. 15 February 2014. 1930 Hrs. Catholic Center, NYU. 238, Thompson Street, New York.

Taken from THE SOCIETY OF ST. HUGH OF CLUNY

The Venerable Bede (673 A.D.-735 A.D.). Saint. Confessor. Doctor Of The Church. (Part Seven).

Text and Illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.

Bede, translating the Gospel

of Saint John on his deathbed.

Date: 1902.

Source: http://www.bible-researcher.com/bede.jpg.

Author: James Doyle Penrose.

(Wikimedia Commons)

As Chapter 66 of Bede's "On the Reckoning of Time", in 725 A.D., Bede wrote the Greater Chronicle (chronica maiora), which sometimes circulated as a separate work. For recent events, the Chronicle, like his Ecclesiastical History, relied upon Gildas, upon a version of the Liber pontificalis, current at least to the Papacy of Pope Sergius I (687 A.D. – 701 A.D.), and other sources. For earlier events, he drew on Eusebius's Chronikoi Kanones. The dating of events in the Chronicle is inconsistent with his other works, using the era of creation, the anno mundi.

The Ruins of Saint Paul's Monastery.

Once the home of The Venerable Bede.

Photo: 12 November 2005.

Source: From geograph.org.uk.

Author: Mark Smiles.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Monastery of Saint Paul, in Jarrow, part of the twin foundation Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Priory, was once the home of the Venerable Bede, whose most notable works include The Ecclesiastical History of the English People and the translation of the Gospel of John into Old English. 

At the time of its foundation, it was reputed to have been the only Centre of Learning in Europe, North of Rome. In 794 A.D., Jarrow became the second target in England of the Vikings, who had plundered Lindisfarne in 793 A.D. The Monastery was later dissolved by King Henry VIII. The ruins of the Monastery are now associated with, and partly built into, the present-day Church of Saint Paul, which stands on the site. One wall of the Church contains the oldest Stained-Glass Window in the world, dating from about 600 A.D. Just beside the Monastery, is "Bede's World", a working museum, dedicated to the life and times of Bede. Bede's World also incorporates Jarrow Hall, a Grade II Listed Building and a significant local landmark.

His other historical works included Lives of the Abbots of Wearmouth and Jarrow, as well as Verse and Prose Lives of Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, an adaptation of Paulinus of Nola's Life of Saint Felix, and a translation of the Greek Passion of Saint Anastasius. He also created a listing of Saints, the Martyrology.

In his own time, Bede was as well known for his Biblical commentaries and exegetical, as well as other theological, works. The majority of his writings were of this type, and covered the Old Testament and the New Testament. Most survived the Middle Ages, but a few were lost. It was for his theological writings that he earned the title of Doctor Anglorum, and why he was made a Saint.

Bede synthesised and transmitted the learning from his predecessors, as well as made careful, judicious innovation in knowledge (such as recalculating the age of the Earth – for which he was censured before surviving the Heresy accusations and eventually having his views championed by Archbishop Ussher, in the 16th-Century – see below), that had theological implications.

English: Ruins of Saint Paul's Monastery, Jarrow, England.

Once the home of The Venerable Bede.

Nederland: Ruïne van het nl:klooster te nl:Jarrow, 

met de nog bestaande kerk op de achtergrond.

Date: 2004-12-15 (original upload date).

Source: Originally from nl.wikipedia; description page is/was here.

Author: Original uploader was Xaphire at nl.wikipedia.

Permission: Licensed under the GFDL by the Author.

(Wikimedia Commons)

In order to do this, he learned Greek, and attempted to learn Hebrew. He spent time reading and re-reading both the Old and the New Testaments. He mentions that he studied from a text of Jerome's Vulgate, which itself was from the Hebrew text. He also studied both the Latin and the Greek Fathers of the Church. In the Monastic Library at Jarrow were a number of books by theologians, including works by Basil, Cassian, John Chrysostom, Isidore of Seville, Origen, Gregory of Nazianzus, Augustine of Hippo, Jerome, Pope Gregory I, Ambrose of Milan, Cassiodorus, and Cyprian. 

He used these, in conjunction with the Biblical texts themselves, to write his Commentaries and other theological works. He had a Latin translation by Evagrius of Athanasius's Life of Antony, and a Copy of Sulpicius Severus' Life of Saint Martin. He also used lesser-known writers, such as Fulgentius, Julian of Eclanum, Tyconius, and Prosperius. Bede was the first to refer to Jerome, Augustine, Pope Gregory and Ambrose as the four Latin Fathers of the Church. It is clear from Bede's own comments that he felt his job was to explain to his students and readers the theology and thoughts of the Church Fathers.

Bede also wrote Homilies, works written to explain theology used in worship services. Bede wrote Homilies not only on the major Christian seasons, such as Advent, Lent, or Easter, but on other subjects, such as anniversaries of significant events.

Saint Boniface by Cornelis Bloemaert, circa 1630.

Used Bede's Homilies in his 

missionary efforts on the Continent.

Photo: 26 April 2013.

Source: Het Utrechts Archief.

Author: Cornelis Bloemaert (1603-1684).

(Wikimedia Commons)

Both types of Bede's theological works circulated widely in the Middle Ages. A number of his Biblical Commentaries were incorporated into the Glossa Ordinaria, an 11th-Century collection of Biblical Commentaries. Some of Bede's Homilies were collected by Paul the Deacon, and they were used in that form in the Monastic Office. Saint Boniface used Bede's Homilies in his missionary efforts on the Continent.

Bede sometimes included in his theological books an acknowledgement of the predecessors on whose works he drew. In two cases, he left instructions that his marginal notes, which gave the details of his sources, should be preserved by the Copyist, and he may have originally added marginal comments about his sources to others of his works. Where he does not specify, it is still possible to identify books to which he must have had access by quotations that he uses.


PART EIGHT FOLLOWS

Palestrina. Basilica Di Santa Maria Maggiore. Rome. Tallis Scholars.

Piazza Esquilino with 

Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, 

Rome, Italy.

Photo: March 2006.

Source: Own work.

Author: Sixtus.

Permission: GFDL.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Surge, illuminare1:08 

Missa Papae Marcelli Kyrie 4:19

Missa Papae Marcelli Gloria 8:39

Missa Papae Marcelli Credo 14:32

Missa Papae Marcelli Sanctus 23:46

Missa Papae Marcelli Agnus Dei 30:36

Miserere mei Deus [Allegri] 38:46

Stabat Mater 52:38

Alma Redemptoris Mater 1:02:40

Magnificat 1:06:14

Nunc dimittis 1:14:46

The Palestrina 400 Concert.

The Tallis Scholars.

Available on YouTube at

http://youtu.be/FpiiWFcOpSE.

The Venerable Bede (673 A.D.-735 A.D.). Saint. Confessor. Doctor Of The Church. (Part Six).

Text and Illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.

Bede, translating the Gospel

of Saint John on his deathbed.

Date: 1902.

Source: http://www.bible-researcher.com/bede.jpg.

Author: James Doyle Penrose.

(Wikimedia Commons)

He is also parsimonious in his praise for Aldhelm, a West Saxon who had done much to convert the native Britons to the Roman form of Christianity. He lists seven Kings of the Anglo-Saxons, whom he regards as having held imperium, or overlordship; only one King of Wessex, Ceawlin, is listed, and none from Mercia, though elsewhere he acknowledges the secular power several of the Mercians held. Historian Robin Fleming states that he was so hostile to Mercia, because Northumbria had been diminished by Mercian power, that he consulted no Mercian informants and included no stories about its Saints.

Bede relates the story of Augustine's mission from Rome, and tells how the British Clergy refused to assist Augustine in the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons. This, combined with Gildas's negative assessment of the British Church at the time of the Anglo-Saxon invasions, led Bede to a very critical view of the native Church. However, Bede ignores the fact that at the time of Augustine's mission, the history between the two was one of warfare and conquest, which, in the words of Barbara Yorke, would have naturally "curbed any missionary impulses towards the Anglo-Saxons from the British Clergy."

English: The Venerable Bede's "De naturis rerum". 

Bibliothèque du Grand Séminaire de Strasbourg, France. 

Conservateur : Louis Schlaefli.

Français: Bède le Vénérable, De naturis rerum (Ms 31/3), page de titre (IXe-Xe s.), 

à la bibliothèque du Grand Séminaire de Strasbourg. 

Conservateur : Louis Schlaefli.

Photo: 18 June 2013.

Source: Own work.

Author: Photo Claude TRUONG-NGOC.

(Wikimedia Commons)

At the time Bede wrote the Historia Ecclesiastica, there were two common ways of referring to dates. One was to use indictions, which were fifteen-year cycles, counting from 312 A.D. There were three different varieties of indiction, each starting on a different day of the year. The other approach was to use regnal years—the reigning Roman Emperor, for example, or the ruler of whichever kingdom was under discussion. This meant that, in discussing conflicts between kingdoms, the date would have to be given in the regnal years of all the kings involved. Bede used both these approaches on occasion, but adopted a third method as his main approach to dating: the anno domini method, invented by Dionysius Exiguus. Although Bede did not invent this method, his adoption of it, and his promulgation of it in De Temporum Ratione, his work on chronology, is the main reason why it is now so widely used.

The Historia Ecclesiastica was copied often in the Middle Ages, and about 160 manuscripts, containing it, survive. About half of those are located on the European Continent, rather than on the British Isles. Most of the 8th- and 9th-Century texts of Bede's Historia come from the Northern parts of the Carolingian Empire. This total does not include manuscripts with only a part of the work, of which another 100 or so survive.

It was printed for the first time between 1474 and 1482, probably at Strasbourg, France. Modern historians have studied the Historia, extensively, and a number of editions have been produced. For many years, Early-Anglo-Saxon history was essentially a retelling of the Historia, but recent scholarship has focused as much on what Bede did not write as what he did. The belief that the Historia was the culmination of Bede's works, the aim of all his scholarship, a belief common among historians in the past, is no longer accepted by most scholars.

English: The Venerable Bede's "De naturis rerum". 

Bibliothèque du Grand Séminaire de Strasbourg, France. 

Conservateur : Louis Schlaefli.

Français: Bède le Vénérable, De naturis rerum (Ms 31/3), page de titre (IXe-Xe s.), 

à la bibliothèque du Grand Séminaire de Strasbourg. 

Conservateur : Louis Schlaefli.

Photo: 18 June 2013.

Source: Own work.

Author: Photo Claude TRUONG-NGOC.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Modern historians and editors of Bede have been lavish in their praise of his achievement in the Historia Ecclesiastica. Stenton regarded it as one of the "small class of books which transcend all but the most fundamental conditions of time and place", and regarded its quality as dependent on Bede's "astonishing power of co-ordinating the fragments of information which came to him through tradition, the relation of friends, or documentary evidence ... In an age where little was attempted beyond the registration of fact, he had reached the conception of history." Patrick Wormald described him as "the first and greatest of England's historians".

The Historia Ecclesiastica has given Bede a high reputation, but his concerns were different from those of a modern writer of history. His focus on the history of the organisation of the English Church, and on Heresies and the efforts made to root them out, led him to exclude the Secular history of Kings and Kingdoms, except where a moral lesson could be drawn or where they illuminated events in the Church. 

Besides the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the Mediaeval writers, William of Malmesbury, Henry of Huntingdon, and Geoffrey of Monmouth, used his works as sources and inspirations. Early-Modern writers, such as Polydore Vergil and Matthew Parker, the Elizabethan Archbishop of Canterbury, also utilised the Historia, and his works were used by both Protestant and Catholic sides in the Wars of Religion.

English: Figure published 1727 in ""Theatrum arithmetico geometricum" 

by Jacob Leupold (1674–1727). Representing counting with fingers, 

described by The Venerable Bede.

Suomi: Kuva julkaistu 1727 kirjassa ""Theatrum arithmetico geometricum" teikijä Jacob Leupold (1674–1727). Esittää sormilla laskemista, jota Bede Venerabilis (kuoli 735) kuvaili jo 700 luvulla.

Date: Circa 1727.

Source: John D. Barrow: "Pi in the Sky", 1992, Oxford University Press, figure.

Author: original figure by Jacob Leupold (1674–1727).

(Wikimedia Commons)

Some historians have questioned the reliability of some of Bede's accounts. One historian, Charlotte Behr, thinks that the Historia's account of the arrival of the Germanic invaders in Kent should not be considered to relate what actually happened, but rather relates myths that were current in Kent during Bede's time.

It is likely that Bede's work, because it was so widely copied, discouraged others from writing histories and may even have led to the disappearance of manuscripts containing older historical works.

PART SEVEN FOLLOWS

Ave Regina Caelorum.

English: Blessed Virgin Mary with the Christ Child and Saint John the Baptist.

Deutsch: Madonna della Tenda, Szene: Maria mit Christuskind und Johannes dem Täufer.

Français: La Vierge au rideau (Vierge à l'Enfant avec saint Jean-Baptiste.

Artist: Raphael (1483–1520).

Date: 1514.

Current location: Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany.

Source/Photographer: The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM, 2002. 

ISBN 3936122202. Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH.

Permission: [1].

(Wikimedia Commons)

Ave Regina Caelorum.

Motet from Giovanni Legrenzi,

from Jaroussky's, 'Beata Vergine'.

Philippe Jaroussky, counter-tenor,

Marie-Nicole Lemieux, contralto.

Available on YouTube at

http://youtu.be/hCkgQ26PgBM

The Venerable Bede (673 A.D.-735 A.D.). Saint. Confessor. Doctor Of The Church. (Part Five).

Text and Illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.

Bede, translating the Gospel

of Saint John on his deathbed.

Date: 1902.

Source: http://www.bible-researcher.com/bede.jpg.

Author: James Doyle Penrose.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Bede quoted his sources at length in his narrative, as Eusebius had done. Bede also appears to have taken quotes directly from his correspondents at times. For example, he almost always uses the terms "Australes" and "Occidentales" for the South and West Saxons, respectively, but in a passage, in the first book, he uses "Meridiani" and "Occidui", instead, as perhaps his informant had done. At the end of the work, Bede added a brief autobiographical note; this was an idea taken from Gregory of Tours' earlier "History of the Franks".

Bede's work as a hagiographer, and his detailed attention to dating, were both useful preparations for the task of writing the Historia Ecclesiastica. His interest in "Computus", the science of calculating the date of Easter, was also useful in the account he gives of the controversy between the British and Anglo-Saxon Churches over the correct method of obtaining the Easter date.

Saint Bede's Church (founded 1771),

Appleton, Cheshire,

England.

Photo: 27 March 2007.

Source: From geograph.org.uk.

Author: Sue Adair.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Bede's Latin has been praised for its clarity, but his style in the Historia Ecclesiastica is not simple. He knew rhetoric, and often used figures of speech and rhetorical forms which cannot easily be reproduced in translation, depending, as they often do, on the connotations of the Latin words. However, unlike contemporaries, such as Aldhelm, whose Latin is full of difficulties, Bede's own text is easy to read.

In the words of Charles Plummer, one of the best-known editors of the Historia Ecclesiastica, Bede's Latin is "clear and limpid ... it is very seldom that we have to pause to think of the meaning of a sentence ... Alcuin rightly praises Bede for his unpretending style."

Bede's primary intention, in writing the Historia Ecclesiastica, was to show the growth of the united Church throughout England. The native Britons, whose Christian Church survived the departure of the Romans, earn Bede's ire for refusing to help convert the Saxons; by the end of the Historia, the English, and their Church, are dominant over the Britons. This goal, of showing the movement towards unity, explains Bede's animosity towards the British method of calculating Easter: Much of the Historia is devoted to a history of the dispute, including the final resolution at the Synod of Whitby in 664 A.D. Bede is also concerned to show the unity of the English, despite the disparate kingdoms that still existed when he was writing. He also wants to instruct the reader by spiritual example, and to entertain, and, to the latter end, he adds stories about many of the places and people about which he wrote.

St. Bede's RC Church in Jarrow,

County Durham (now Tyne & Wear),

England.

Photo: 29 March 2007.

Source: From geograph.org.uk.

Author: Vin Mullen.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Bede's extensive use of miracles is disconcerting to the modern reader, who thinks of Bede as a more or less reliable historian, but men of the time accepted miracles as a matter of course. However, Bede, like Gregory the Great, whom Bede quotes on the subject in the Historia, felt that Faith, brought about by miracles, was a stepping stone to a higher, truer Faith, and that, as a result, miracles had their place in a work designed to instruct.

Bede is somewhat reticent about the career of Wilfrid, a contemporary, and one of the most prominent Clerics of his day. This may be because Wilfrid's opulent lifestyle was uncongenial to Bede's Monastic mind; it may also be that the events of Wilfrid's life, divisive and controversial as they were, simply did not fit with Bede's theme of the progression to a unified and harmonious Church.

Bede's account, of the early migrations of the Angles and Saxons to England, omits any mention of a movement of those peoples across the Channel from Britain to Brittany, described by Procopius, who was writing in the 6th-Ccentury. Frank Stenton describes this omission as "a scholar's dislike of the indefinite"; traditional material that could not be dated or used for Bede's didactic purposes had no interest for him.

Saint Bede's Catholic Church,

Clapham Park, London SW12 OLF.

Image: ST. BEDE'S CATHOLIC CHURCH

Bede was a Northumbrian, and this tinged his work with a local bias. The sources he had access to gave him less information about the West of England than for other areas. He says relatively little about the achievements of Mercia and Wessex, omitting, for example, any mention of Boniface, a West Saxon missionary to the Continent of some renown, and of whom Bede had almost certainly heard, though Bede does discuss Northumbrian missionaries to the Continent.


PART SIX FOLLOWS

The Knights Templar. Chant of The Templars. Salve Regina.

Text from Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia,

unless otherwise stated.

The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon (Latin: Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Salomonici), commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple (French: Ordre du Temple or Templiers) or, simply, as Templars, were among the most wealthy and powerful of the Western Christian military orders. The organisation existed for nearly two centuries during the Middle Ages.

Officially endorsed by the Catholic Church, around 1129, the Order became a favoured Charity throughout Christendom and grew rapidly in membership and power. Templar Knights, in their distinctive white mantles with a red cross, were among the most skilled fighting units of the Crusades.

CHANT OF THE TEMPLARS.

SALVE REGINA.

Available on YouTube

at http://youtu.be/uv_2x6JmuaE.

Non-combatant members of the Order managed a large economic infrastructure throughout Christendom, innovating financial techniques that were an early form of banking, and building fortifications across Europe and the Holy Land.

The Templars' existence was tied closely to the Crusades; when the Holy Land was lost, support for the Order faded. Rumours about the Templars' secret initiation ceremony created mistrust and King Philip IV of France, deeply in debt to the Order, took advantage of the situation.

In 1307, many of the Order's members in France were arrested, tortured into giving false confessions, and then burned at the stake. Under pressure from King Philip, Pope Clement V disbanded the Order in 1312. The abrupt disappearance of a major part of the European infrastructure gave rise to speculation and legends, which have kept the "Templar" name alive into the modern day.