A Solemn Requiem Mass, co-sponsored with the New York Purgatorial Society and the the Catholic Artists Society, will be offered next Thursday, November 6th,
at the Church of St. Agnes in Manhattan.
The Schola Cantorum of St. Agnes, led by James Wetzel, will sing Duarte Lobo's glorious Renaissance setting for 8 voices, Missa pro Defunctis (Requiem à 8). This is a rare opportunity to hear this treasure of sacred polyphony in the service of the Liturgy for which it was composed.
The word "Pulpitum" is applied in Ecclesiastical Latin, both for this form of Screen and also for a Pulpit; the Secular origin of the term being a theatrical stage, or Speaker's Dais. It is thought that this form of Screen originated in Monastic practice, providing a raised stage from which Members of a Religious Community could address Pilgrims attending to Venerate the Church's Relics, while still maintaining their Monastic seclusion from Lay contact.
English: Norwich Cathedral's Spire, seen from the Cloister.
Norwich Cathedral is an English Cathedral located in Norwich, Norfolk, dedicated to The Holy and Undivided Trinity. It is the Cathedral Church for the Church of EnglandDiocese of Norwich and is one of the Norwich Twelve Heritage Sites.
The Cathedral was begun in 1096, and constructed of flint and mortar, and faced with a cream-coloured Caen limestone. A Saxon Settlement and two Churches were demolished to make room for the buildings. The Cathedral was completed in 1145, with the Norman Tower, still seen today, topped with a Wooden Spire covered with Lead. Several episodes of damage necessitated rebuilding of the East End and Spire, but, since the final erection of the Stone Spire in 1480, there have been few fundamental alterations to the fabric.
The large Cloister has over 1,000 Bosses, including several hundred carved and ornately-painted Bosses.
Norwich Cathedral has the second-largest Cloister, second only to Salisbury Cathedral. The Cathedral Close is one of the largest in England, and one of the largest in Europe, and has more people living within it than any other Close. The Cathedral Spire, measuring 315 ft (96 m), is the second-tallest in England, despite being partly rebuilt after being struck by Lightning in 1169, just twenty-three months after its completion, which led to the building being set on fire. Measuring 461 ft, or 140.5 m, long, and, with the Transepts, 177 ft or 54 m wide at completion, Norwich Cathedral was the largest building in East Anglia.
In 672 A.D., the Archbishop of Canterbury, Theodore of Tarsus, divided East Anglia into two Dioceses, one covering Norfolk, with its See at Elmham, the other, covering Suffolk with its See at Dunwich. During much of the 9th-Century, because of the Danish incursions, there was no Bishop at Elmham. In addition, the See of Dunwich was extinguished and East Anglia became a single Diocese once more. Following the Norman Conquest, many Sees were moved to more secure Urban Centres, that of Elmham being transferred to Thetford, in 1072, and, finally, to Norwich in 1094. The new Cathedral incorporated a Monastery of Benedictine Monks.
Norwich School Playing Fields in snow,
showing Norwich Cathedral (centre) and the Lower School (right).
The structure of the Cathedral is primarily in the Norman Style, having been constructed at the behest of Bishop Herbert de Losinga, who had bought the Bishopric for £1,900 before its transfer from Thetford. Building started in 1096 and the Cathedral was completed in 1145. It was built from flint and mortar and faced with cream coloured Caen limestone. It still retains the greater part of its original stone structure. An Anglo-Saxon Settlement and two Churches were demolished, to make room for the buildings, and a Canal was cut to allow access for the boats bringing the stone and building materials, which were taken up the River Wensum and unloaded at Pulls Ferry, Norwich.
The Ground Plan remains almost entirely as it was in Norman times, except for that of the Eastern Chapel. The Cathedral has an unusually long Nave of fourteen Bays. The Transepts are without Aisles and the East End terminates in an Apse, with an Ambulatory. From the Ambulatory, there is access to two Chapels of unusual shape, the Plan of each being based on two intersecting circles. This allows more correct orientation of the Altars than in the more normal kind of Radial Chapel.
The Crossing Tower was the last piece of the Norman Cathedral to be completed, around 1140. It is boldly decorated with circles, lozenges and interlaced Arcading. The present Spire was added in the Late-15th-Century.
The Cathedral was damaged after riots in 1272, which resulted in the City paying heavy fines levied by King Henry III, Rebuilding was completed in 1278 and the Cathedral was Re-Consecrated, in the presence of King Edward I, on Advent Sunday of that year.
A large two-storey Cloister, the only such in England, with over 1,000 Ceiling Bosses, was begun in 1297 and finally finished in 1430, after the Black Death had plagued the City.
The Norman Spire was blown down in 1362. Its fall caused considerable damage to the East End, as a result of which the Clerestory, of the Choir, was rebuilt in the Perpendicular Style. In the 15th-Century and Early-16th-Century, the Cathedral's flat timber Ceilings were replaced with Stone Vaults: The Nave was Vaulted, under Bishop Lyhart (1446–1472); the Choir, under Bishop Goldwell, (1472–99); and the Transepts, after 1520.
The Vaulting was carried out, in a spectacular manner, with hundreds of ornately-carved, painted and gilded Bosses. The Bosses, of the Vault, number over 1,000. Each is decorated with a Theological image, and, as a group, they have been described as without parallel in the Christian world. The Nave Vault shows the history of the world from The Creation. The Cloister includes a series showing The Life of Christ and The Apocalypse.
In 1463, the Spire was struck by Lightning, causing a fire to rage through the Nave, which was so intense it turned some of the creamy Caen limestone a pink colour. In 1480, the Bishop, James Goldwell, ordered the building of a new Spire, which is still in place, today. It is made of brick, faced with stone, supported on brick Squinches, built into the Norman Tower. At 315 feet (96 m) high, the Spire is the second-tallest in England. Only that of Salisbury Cathedral is taller at 404 feet (123 m).
A Squinch, in architecture, is a construction filling in the upper angles of a square room, so as to form a base to receive an octagonal or sphericalDome. Another solution of this structural problem was provided by the Pendentive.
Squinches may be formed by masonry, built out from the angle, in Corbelled courses, by filling the corner with a vice, placed diagonally, or by building an Arch, or a number of Corbelled Arches, diagonally across the corner.
The Squinch was probably invented in Iran. It was used in The Middle East, in both Eastern Romanesque and Islamic architecture. It remained a feature of Islamic architecture, especially in Iran, and was often covered by Corbelled Stalactite-like structures, known as Muqarnas.
The total length of the building is 461 feet (140 m). Along with Salisbury Cathedral and Ely Cathedral, Norwich Cathedral lacks a Ring of Bells, which makes them the only three English Cathedrals without them. One of the best views of the Cathedral Spire is from St. James's Hill, on Mousehold Heath.
Norwich Cathedral was partially in ruins, when John Cosin was at the Grammar School in the Early-17th-Century, and the former Bishop was an absentee figure. In 1643, during the Reign of King Charles I, an angry Puritan mob invaded the Cathedral and destroyed all Roman Catholic symbols. The building, abandoned the following year, lay in ruins for two decades. Norwich Bishop Joseph Hall provides a graphic description from his book "Hard Measure";
It is tragical to relate the furious Sacrilege committed under the authority of Linsey, Tofts the Sheriff, and Greenwood: what clattering of glasses, what beating down of walls, what tearing down of monuments, what pulling down of seats, and wresting out of irons and brass from the windows and graves;
what defacing of Arms, what demolishing of curious stone-work, that had not any representation in the world but of the cost of the founder and skill of the mason; what piping on the destroyed organ-pipes; Vestments, both Copes and Surplices, together with the leaden Cross which had been newly sawed down from over the greenyard pulpit, and the singing-books and service-books, were carried to the fire in the public market-place;
a lewd wretch walking before the train in his Cope trailing in the dirt, with a Service-Book in his hand, imitating in an impious scorn the tune, and usurping the words of the Litany. The ordnance being discharged on the guild-day, the Cathedral was filled with Musketeers, drinking and tobacconing as freely as if it had turned ale-house.
About 1830, The West Front was remodelled by Anthony Salvin. In 1930 – 1932, a new Lady Chapel, designed by Sir Charles Nicholson, was built at The East End, on the site of its 13th-Century predecessor, which had been demolished during The Elizabethan Period.
Norwich Cathedral has a fine selection of 61 Misericords, dating from three periods – 1480, 1515 and the Mid-19th-Century. The subject matter is varied: Mythological; everyday subjects; and portraits.
The Precinct of the Cathedral, the limit of the former Monastery, is between Tombland (the Anglo-Saxon Market Place) and the River Wensum, and the Cathedral Close, which runs from Tombland into the Cathedral Grounds, contains a number of buildings from the 15th-Century to the 19th-Century, including the remains of an Infirmary. The Cathedral Close is notable for being located within the City's Defensive Walls and its considerable size, unusual for an Urban Priory. At eighty-five acres in size, it occupied, in Mediaeval times, one tenth of the total area of the City.
There are two Gates leading into the Cathedral Grounds, both on Tombland. The Ethelbert Gate takes its name from a Saxon Church that stood nearby. The original Gate was destroyed in the Riot of 1272 and its replacement was built in the Early-14th-Century. It has two storeys, the upper storey was originally a Chapel, Dedicated to Saint Ethelbert, and decorated with flushwork. In 1420, Sir Thomas Erpingham, benefactor to the City, had the Gate, which bears his name, sited opposite The Great West Door of the Cathedral, leading into The Close.
Please note: Because 2 November falls on a Sunday, this year, All Souls is Transferred to the Monday, 3 November.
Text and Illustrations from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal, unless otherwise stated. The Commemoration of all the Faithful Departed. All Souls. Feast Day 2 November. Double. Black Vestments.
The Feast of All Saints is intimately connected with the remembrance of the Holy Souls, who, detained in Purgatory to expiate their Venial Sins, or to pay the Temporal pains due to sin, are nonetheless confirmed in Grace and will, one day, enter Heaven.
Therefore, after having joyfully Celebrated the Glory of The Saints, who are The Church Triumphant in Heaven, the Church on Earth extends her maternal solicitude to the place of unspeakable torments, the abode of Souls who equally belong to her.
"On this day," says the Roman Martyrology, "Commemoration of all The Faithful Departed, in which our common and pious Mother The Church, immediately after having endeavoured to Celebrate, by worthy praise, all her children who already rejoice in Heaven, strives to aid, by her powerful intercession with Christ her Lord and Spouse, all those who still groan in Purgatory, so that they may join, as soon as possible, the inhabitants of the Heavenly City."
Nowhere, in The Liturgy, is more vividly affirmed the mysterious unity which exists between The Church Triumphant, The Church Militant, and The Church Suffering, and never is better fulfilled the double duty of Charity and Justice, incumbent on every Christian by virtue of his membership of the Mystical Body of Christ.
It is through the very consoling Dogma, of The Communion of Saints, that the merits and suffrages of The Saints may benefit others. Whereby, without infringing the indefeasible rights of Divine Justice, which are exercised in their full vigour after this life, The Church can join her Prayers, here on Earth, to those of The Church in Heaven, and supply what is wanting in the Souls in Purgatory, by offering to God for them, by The Holy Mass, by Indulgences, by the Alms and sacrifices of her children, the superabundant Merits of Christ's Passion and of His Mystical Members.
Requiem Aeternum.
The Introit from the Mass for the Dead.
Gregorian chant notation from
the Liber Usualis (1961), p. 1807.
Latin lyrics sung by the Schola of the Vienna Hofburgkapelle.
Wherefore, The Liturgy, the centre of which is The Sacrifice of Calvary continued on the Altar, has always used this pre-eminent means of exercising, in favour of The Departed, the great Law of Charity; for it is a precept of Charity to relieve our neighbour's wants, as if they were our own, in virtue of the supernatural bond, which unites in Jesus, those in Heaven, in Purgatory, and on the Earth.
The Liturgy of The Dead is, perhaps, the most beautiful and consoling of all. Every day, at the end of each Hour of The Divine Office, we recommend to The Divine Mercy the Souls of The Faithful Departed. In The Mass, at the Suscipe, the Priest offers the Sacrifice for the living and the dead and, in a special Memento, he implores The Lord to remember His servants, who have fallen asleep in Christ and to grant them to dwell in Consolation, Light and Peace.
Masses for The Dead are already recorded in the 5th-Century. But, to Saint Odilo, the fourth Abbot of the famous Benedictine Monastery of Cluny, is due the Commemoration of All The Departed. He instituted it in 998 A.D., and prescribed that it should be Celebrated the day following All Saints' Day.
Through the influence of this illustrious French Congregation (Cluny Abbey), the custom was soon adopted by the whole Christian World and it even sometimes became a Day of Obligation. In Spain, Portugal and the formerly-Spanish parts of South America, Priests, in virtue of a Privilege granted by Pope Benedict XIV, Celebrated three Masses on 2 November.
A Decree of Pope Benedict XV, dated 10 August 1915, authorises the Priests of the whole world to do the same. [By this same institution, The Holy See granted a Plenary Indulgence toties quoties, on the same conditions as on 2 August, applicable to The Souls of The Departed on All Souls' Day, to all those who visited a Church between Noon, on All Saints' Day and Midnight on the following day and Prayed for the Intention of The Sovereign Pontiff.]
The Church reminds us in an Epistle, taken from Saint Paul, that the dead will rise again, and tells us to hope, for, on that day, we shall all see one another in The Lord. The Sequence strikingly describes The Last Judgment, when the good will be for ever separated from the wicked.
The Offertory reminds us that it is Saint Michael who introduces Souls into Heaven, for, as the Prayers for the recommendation of the Soul say, it is he who is "the Chief of the Heavenly Host" in whose ranks men are called to fill the places of The Fallen Angels.
"The Souls in Purgatory," declares The Council of Trent, "are helped by the suffrages of The Faithful, especially by The Sacrifice of The Altar." The reason is that, in Holy Mass, the Priest offers officially to God the ransom for Souls, that is, The Blood of The Saviour. And Jesus, Himself, under the elements of Bread and Wine, which recall to The Father the Sacrifice of Golgotha, Prays God to apply to these Souls its atoning virtue.
Let us, on this day, be present at The Holy Sacrifice of The Mass, when The Church implores God to grant to The Faithful Departed, who can now do nothing for themselves, the remission of all their sins (Collect) and Eternal Rest (Introit, Gradual, Communion), and let us visit the Cemeteries where their bodies repose [the word "Cemetery" comes from a Greek word meaning "a place where one rests in peace".] until the day when, in the twinkling of an eye, at the sound of the Last Trumpet, they will rise again to be clothed in immortality and to gain, through Jesus Christ, the Victory over Death (Epistle).
The following is taken from "The Liturgical Year", by Abbot Gueranger, O.S.B., for All Souls' Day, 2 November. "We will not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them that are asleep, that you be not sorrowful, even as others who have no hope." [Saint Paul, I Thess. iv. 13.] The Church today has the same desire as the Apostle thus expressed to the first Christians. The truth concerning the dead not only proves admirably the union between God's justice and His goodness; it also inspires a charitable pity, which the hardest heart cannot resist, and at the same time offers to the mourners the sweetest consolation.
If Faith teaches us the existence of a Purgatory, where our loved ones may be detained by unexpiated sin, it is also of Faith that we are able to assist them; and Theology assures us that their, more or less speedy deliverance, lies in our power. Let us call to mind a few principles which throw light on this Doctrine. Every sin causes a twofold injury to the sinner: It stains his Soul, and renders him liable to punishment. Venial sin, which displeases God, requires a Temporal expiation. Mortal sin deforms the Soul, and makes the guilty man an abomination to God: Its punishment cannot be anything less than eternal banishment, unless the sinner, in this life, prevents the final and irrevocable sentence. But, even then, the remission of the guilt, though it revokes the sentence of damnation, does not cancel the whole debt. Although an extraordinary overflow of Grace upon the prodigal may sometimes, as is always the case with regard to Baptism and Martyrdom, bury every remnant and vestige of sin in the abyss of Divine Oblivion; yet it is the ordinary rule that, for every fault, satisfaction must be made to God's justice, either in this world or in the next.
Monks of one of the Abbeys of The Solesmes Congregation sing this beautiful Chant. The Te Deum is attributed to two Fathers and Doctors of The Church,
Saint Ambrose and Saint Augustine, and is one the most majestic Chants
in the Liturgy of The Church.
It is sung in Traditional Seminaries and Monastic Houses at
The Divine Office and for Double Feasts of The First Class (Editor: Such as The Feast of All Saints), The Nativity, Easter, Corpus Christi, Epiphany, Pentecost,
and those Feasts
which have an Octave.
The Solemn Te Deum is sung on all occasions of public Church rejoicing
Text and Illustrations from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal, unless otherwise stated. The Feast of All Saints. Feast Day 1 November. Double of The First-Class with an Octave. White Vestments.
The temple of Agrippa was dedicated, under Augustus, to all the pagan gods, hence its name of "Pantheon". Under Emperor Phocas, between 607 A.D. and 610 A.D., Pope Boniface IV Translated hither numerous remains of Martyrs taken from the Catacombs.
On 13 May 610 A.D., he dedicated this new Christian Basilica to Saint Mary and the Martyrs. The Feast of this Dedication later took a more universal character, and the temple was Consecrated to Saint Mary And All The Saints.
As there was already a Feast in Commemoration of All The Saints, Celebrated at first on various dates in various Churches, then fixed by Pope Gregory IV in 835 A.D., on 1 November, Pope Gregory VII transferred to this date the Anniversary of the Dedication of the Pantheon as a Church. The Feast of All Saints, therefore, recalls the Triumph of Christ over the false pagan deities. In this Church is held the Station on the Friday in the Octave of Easter.
As the Saints Commemorated during the first three Centuries of the Church were Martyrs, and the Pantheon was at first Dedicated by the Church to them, the Mass of All Saints is made up of extracts from the Liturgy of Martyrs. The Introit is that of the Mass of Saint Agatha, used later for other Feasts; the Gospel, Offertory and Communion are taken from the Common of Martyrs.
The Church gives us on this day a wonderful vision of Heaven, showing us, with Saint John, the twelve thousand signed (twelve is considered a perfect number) of each tribe of Israel, and a great multitude, which no-one can count, of every nation and tribe, of every people and tongue, standing before the Throne and before The Lamb, clothed in White Robes and with Palms in their hands (Epistle).
Christ and Our Lady; the Blessed Battalions distributed in Nine Choirs; the Apostles and Prophets; the Martyrs, crimsoned in their blood; the Confessors, adorned in White Garments; and the chaste Choir of Virgins, form, as the Hymn of Vespers sings, the Majestic Court.
It is composed of all those, who, here below, were detached from worldly riches, Gentle, Suffering, Just, Merciful, Pure, Peaceful, and Persecuted for the Name of Jesus. "Rejoice," the Master had foretold them, "for a great reward is prepared for you in Heaven" (Gospel, Communion).
Among those millions of The Just, who were faithful Disciples of Jesus, on Earth, are several of our own family, relations, friends, members of our Parochial Family, now enjoying the fruit of their Piety, adoring The Lord, King of Kings, and Crown of All Saints (Invitatory at Matins) and obtaining for us the wished-for abundance of His mercies (Collect).
Every Parish Priest celebrates Mass for the people of his Parish.
