Notre Dame de Rouen. The façade of the Gothic Church in France. Photographer: Hippo1947. Licence: SHUTTERSTOCK.

Wednesday 28 September 2016

Those Were The Days.



I didn't know that Stephen Fry was once a Waiter.
Illustration: PINTEREST

Ave Maria, Mother Of God.




"Salve, Regina".
"Hail, Holy Queen".
Available on YouTube at

Tuesday 27 September 2016

The Church Of Our Lady And Saint Thomas Of Canterbury, Wymondham Abbey, Norfolk. Altar Screen (Reredos) By Sir Ninian Comper.


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


Reredos (Altar Screen),
Church of Our Lady and Saint Thomas of Canterbury,
Wymondham Abbey, Norfolk, England.
With Tester (above) and Rood Figures (above the Tester),
designed by Sir Ninian Comper, 1922.
Date: 1922 (object created);
27 February 2007 (original Upload Date).
Source: Transferred from en.wikipedia;
Author: Sir Ninian Comper (creator of the object);
Photographer and Original Uploader: Richard Barton-Wood.
Attribution: Richard Barton-Wood.
(Wikimedia Commons)

Wymondham Abbey (pronounced Windham) is the Anglican Parish Church for the Town of Wymondham, in Norfolk, England. The Church is Dedicated to Our Lady and Saint Thomas of Canterbury. Today, the Abbey serves as the Parish Church of Wymondham, but it started life as a Benedictine Priory.

The Monastery was Founded, in 1107, by William d'Aubigny, Chief Butler to King Henry I. William was a prominent Norfolk landowner, with Estates in Wymondham and nearby New Buckenham. The d'Albini (or d'Aubigny) family originated from Saint Martin d'Aubigny, in Normandy. Later, the Founder's son, William d'Aubigny, 1st Earl of Arundel, in 1174, Founded Becket's Chapel, close by in the town, to be served by two Monks from the Priory.

William d'Albini's Monastery was a Dependency of The Benedictine Monastery at Saint Alban's, where his uncle, Richard, was Abbot. Wymondham Priory was relatively small, initially for some twelve Benedictine Monks, but grew in influence and wealth over the coming Centuries. Disputes between the Wymondham Monks and Saint Alban's Monks were quite common, and, in 1448, following a successful Petition to the King, the Pope granted Wymondham the Right to become an Abbey in its own Right. A notable Abbot was Thomas Walsingham.


Wymondham Abbey Hatchment,
now hung in The Ringing Tower.
Date: April 2007.
(Wikimedia Commons)

The Monastery Church was completed by about 1130, and, originally, was Dedicated to The Virgin Mary. Later, following the murder of Saint Thomas Becket in 1170, Becket's name was added to the Dedication. A modern icon Panel, by the late Rev. David Hunter, is on display in the Church and tells the story of Thomas's life in pictures.

In 1174, the Founder's son, also called William d'Aubigny, established a Chapel in the Town, dedicated to Becket, and served by two Monks from the Priory. The Church was originally Cruciform in shape, with a Central Tower and Twin West Towers. When it was built, Stone, from Caen, in Normandy, was shipped specially across The English Channel to face the walls.

The Central Tower was rebuilt, in about 1376, with a tall Octagonal Tower (now ruined), which held the Monks' Bells. In 1447, work on a much taller, single West Tower, began. This replaced the original Norman Towers and held the Townspeople's Bells.


Wymondham Abbey,
from across the River Tiffey,
clearly showing the ruined Octagonal Tower
and the newer Square Tower.
Photo:23 September 2006 (original Upload Date).
Source: Transferred from en.
Author: Original uploader was Etm157 at en.wikipedia.
(Wikimedia Commons)

From the start, the Church had been divided between Monks' and Townspeople's areas, with the Nave and North Aisle serving as Parish Church for the Town (as it still is). This, too, was, from time to time, the cause of disputes which occasionally erupted into lawlessness, though the Vicar of Wymondham was appointed by the Abbot.

King Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries brought about the closure of Wymondham Abbey, which was surrendered to the King in 1538. The Monks had, apparently willingly, already signed The Oath of Supremacy, and were given generous pensions - Elisha Ferrers, the last Abbot, became Vicar of Wymondham (the fine 16th-Century Sedilia, on the South Side of the Chancel, is said to be his Memorial).

The years following The Dissolution saw the gradual demolition of the Monastic buildings for re-use of the Stone. The Eastern End of the Church (blocked off from the Nave by a solid wall since about 1385) was destroyed, leaving the present Church (at 70 m.) only about half its original length. Repairs to the Church were carried out following Queen Elizabeth I's visit in 1573 (date and initials may be seen on Exterior Stonework).


Becket's Chapel,
near Wymondham Abbey,
Norfolk, England.
This File: 24 January 2008.
User: Jaspe.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Beckets_Chapel.JPG.
Author: Bartonwood at the English Wikipedia project.
(Wikimedia Commons)

Notable features of the Church are the Twin Towers (a landmark for miles around), the Norman Nave, the splendid 15th-Century Angel Roof in the Nave and fine North Aisle Roof. The Church is also remarkable for its high-quality fittings, such as the 1783 Organ, by James Davis, and 1810 Chamber Organ (also by James Davis) and the splendid Gilded Reredos (or Altar Screen), one of the largest works of Sir Ninian Comper.

This was Dedicated in 1921, as a War Memorial, though the Gilding was not finished until 1934. Note, also, the Early-Tudor terracotta Sedilia (see, above), the Georgian Candelabrum and Royal Arms of George II, the Carved Mediaeval Font, with modern Gilded Font Cover, and many smaller features, such as Angels, Musicians and figures, Carved on the Roof Timbers and Corbels. The West Tower houses a Peal of ten Bells, re-cast and re-hung in 1967. Hung in The Bell Tower, are six well-preserved 18th-Century Hatchments.

[Editor: A Funerary Hatchment is a depiction, within a Black Lozenge-Shaped Frame, generally on a Black (Sable) background, of a deceased's Heraldic Achievement, that is to say, the Escutcheon showing the Arms, together with the Crest and Supporters of his Family or Person. Regimental Colours, and other Military or Naval Emblems, are sometimes placed behind the Arms of Military or Naval Officers.

Such Funerary Hatchments, generally therefore restricted in use to Members of the Nobility or Armigerous Gentry, used to be hung on the wall of a deceased person's house, and was later transferred to the Parish Church, often within the Family Chapel, therein, which appertained to the Manor House, the family occupying which, generally, being Lord of the Manor, held the Advowson (or Patronage) of the Church. In Germany, the approximate equivalent is a Totenschild, literally "Death Shield".]


Wymondham Abbey Nave.
(Note The Rood, above The Tester).
Photo: Richard Barton-Wood.
Date: 4 April 2007 (original Upload Date).
Source: Transferred from en.wikipedia.
Author: Original uploader was Bartonwood
(Wikimedia Commons)


THE SAINT ANDREW DAILY MISSAL



THE SAINT ANDREW DAILY MISSAL

Available (in U.K.) from

Available (in U.S.A.) from

Anima Christi (Soul Of Christ). Indulgenced Prayer Of Thanksgiving After Holy Communion (Blessed Pope Pius IX, 1854).


Text is taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal.



"Anima Christi".
Available on YouTube at


Anima Christi, sanctifica me.
Corpus Christi, salva me.
Sanguis Christi, inebria me.
Aqua lateris Christi, lava me.

Passio Christi, conforta me.
O bone Jesu, exaudi me.
Intra tua vulnera absconde me.
Ne permittas me separari a te.

Ab hoste maligno defende me.
In hora mortis meae voca me,
Et jube me venire ad te.
Ut cum Sanctis tuis laudem te.

In saecula saeculorum.
Amen.


Soul of Christ, Sanctify me.
Body of Christ, save me.
Blood of Christ, inebriate me.
Water from the Side of Christ, wash me.

Passion of Christ, strengthen me.
O good Jesu, hear me.
Within Thy Wounds, hide me.
Suffer me not to be separated from Thee.

From the malicious enemy, defend me.
In the hour of death, call me,
And bid me come unto Thee.
That with Thy Saints, I may praise Thee.

For ever and ever.
Amen.

An Indulgence of 300 days each time this Prayer is said.
An Indulgence of seven years, if said after Holy Communion.
If said every day during the month, a Plenary Indulgence,
subject to the usual conditions, on any day chosen.
(Blessed Pope Pius IX, 1854)



Illustration: DAMSEL OF THE FAITH AND KNIGHT OF TRADITION

Monday 26 September 2016

Saint Cyprian And Saint Justina. Martyrs. Feast Day, Today, 26 September.


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

Saint Cyprian And Saint Justina.
Martyrs.
Feast Day 26 September.

Simple.

Red Vestments.


English: Saints Cyprian and Justina (honoured in The Eastern Orthodox Church

and Oriental Orthodoxy as Christians of Antioch, Pisidia, who, in 304 A.D., during
The Persecution of Diocletian, suffered Martyrdom at Nicomedia (modern-day İzmit, Turkey)
on 26 September, the date of their Feast).
Български: Икона на Свети Киприан и Юстина. Икона подарена от
моето 
семейство, на храм „Св.Св. Кирил и Методий“.
Photo: 26 October 2009.
Source: Own work.
Author: Biso.
(Wikimedia Commons)


"At Nicomedia,", says The Roman Martyrology, "the birth in Heaven of the Holy Martyrs Cyprian and Justina. This Virgin, after having endured many tortures under The Emperor Diocletian and the Judge Eutholmus, converted to Christ Cyprian the Magician, who had tried to seduce her by his incantations.


Both were Martyred in 304 A.D. Their bodies, after having been exposed to wild beasts, were taken away during the night by some Christian mariners, who carried them to Rome. Later, they were buried in the Basilica of Constantine (Saint John Lateran), near the Baptistry."

Mass: Salus autem.
Secret: Munera.
Postcommunion: Praesta.


Arch-Basilica of Saint John Lateran, Rome, Italy.
Saint Cyprian and Saint Justina were buried in this Arch-Basilica, near The Baptistry.
Photo: 21 April 2015.
Source: Own work.
(Wikimedia Commons)

The Last Days Of Summer. The Sea.



Illustration: DAILY MAIL


"La mer"
(The Sea).
By Charles Trenet.
Available on YouTube at

FRENCH LYRICS.

La mer
Qu'on voit danser le long des golfes clairs
A des reflets d'argent
La mer
Des reflets changeants
Sous la pluie

La mer
Au ciel d'été confond
Ses blancs moutons
Avec les anges si purs
La mer bergère d'azur
Infinie

Voyez
Près des étangs
Ces grands roseaux mouillés
Voyez
Ces oiseaux blancs
Et ces maisons rouillées

La mer
Les a bercés
Le long des golfes clairs
Et d'une chanson d'amour
La mer
A bercé mon cœur pour la vie




ENGLISH LYRICS.

The sea,
We see dancing along the shores of clear bays,
Shimmers with silver
The sea
Changing shimmers
Under the rain

The sea
With the summer sky
Mix up her white horses
With the angels so pure
The infinite azure shepherdess
The sea

The sea
By the ponds
Those big wet reeds
See
Those white birds
And those rusty houses

The sea
Has cradled them
Along the shores of clear bays
And with a love song
The sea
Has rocked my heart for life



Illustration: GOOGLE IMAGES


Illustration: DARWIN COUNTRY

Sunday 25 September 2016

"Parce Mihi Domine". "Spare Me, O Lord". Hauntingly Beautiful. Spanish Composer: Cristóbal De Morales (1500-1553).


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


Cristobal de Morales by Angelo Rossi (dates unknown).
The print is from the original Andrea Adami 's Osservazioni per il ben regolare choir Cappella dei della Pontifical cantori. Catalogue 'nomi, Cognomi, and homeland i cantori Pontifici (Rome, 1711).
Date: 18th-Century.
Source: Dejiny hudby II. Renesance, p. 231.
Author: Angelo Rossi.
(Wikimedia Commons)

Cristobal de Morales (1500 - 1553) was a Spanish composer of The Renaissance. He is generally considered to be the most influential Spanish composer before Victoria.

He was born in Seville, Spain, and, after an exceptional early education, which included a rigorous training in The Classics, as well as Musical Study with some of the foremost composers, he held Posts at Ávila and Plasencia.


"Parce Mihi Domine".
Composed by Cristobal de Morales (1500-1553).
Available on YouTube at
http://youtu.be/Uk1YMS2M0L4 .

Parce mihi Domine
(Job  7:16 -21)

Latin.

Parce mihi Domine, nihil enim sunt dies mei.

Quid est homo, quia magnificas eum ?

Aut quid apponis erga eum cor tuum ? Visitas cum diluculo, et subito probas illum.

Usquequo non parcis michi, nec dimittas me, ut glutiam salivam meam ? Peccavi.

Quid faciam tibi, o custos hominum ?

Quare posuisti me contrarium tibi, et factus sum michimet ipsi gravis ?

Cur non tollis peccatum meum, et quare non aufers iniquitatem meam ?

Ecce nunc in pulvere dormio; et si mane me quesieris, non subsistam.

English.

Spare me, O Lord, for my days are nothing.

What is a man that Thou shouldst magnify him ?

Or why dost Thou set thy heart upon him ?
Thou visitest him early in the morning, and Thou provest him suddenly.

How long wilt Thou not spare me,
nor suffer me to swallow down my spittle ? I have sinned.

What shall I do to Thee, O keeper of men ?
Why hast Thou set me opposite to Thee, and I am become burdensome to myself ?

Why dost Thou not remove my sin, and why dost Thou not take away mine iniquity ?

Behold now, I shall sleep in the dust: And if Thou seek me in the morning, I shall not be.

Lyrics from WIKIA


Contemporary illustration of  The Babington Conspirators.
Illustration: LONDON HISTORIANS


The following excellent Article, on "The Terrible Execution of The Babington Conspirators", contains a reference to "Parce Mihi Domine", exclaimed by Anthony Babington, whilst he was being Hung, Drawn, and Quartered, in 1586.

The Article can be read in full at LONDON HISTORIANS

On Tuesday, 20 September 1586, seven Catholic men were bound to hurdles in The Tower of London – one of them, a Priest named John Ballard, on a single sled, the others two-a-piece – and were dragged Westward on their final slow journey through the City’s Autumnal streets to a hastily-erected scaffold in the open fields ‘at the upper end of Holborn, hard by the highway-side to Saint Giles’, probably somewhere a little to the North-West of what is now Lincoln’s Inn Fields, then known as Cup Field.


The crowd gathered at the scaffold numbered in thousands. The authorities had fenced off the site to stop horsemen blocking the view, and had also raised the gallows ‘mighty high’, so that everyone could see justice being done.

The names of the men were – Ballard aside – Anthony Babington, John Savage, Robert Barnwell, Chidiock Tichbourne, Charles Tilney, and Edward Abingdon. (Seven more conspirators and their accomplices would die the following day: Edward Jones, Thomas Salisbury, John Charnock, Robert Gage, John Travers, Jerome Bellamy and Henry Donne, elder brother of the poet.)


Most of them were minor courtiers, well-connected, wealthy; it was said they wore fine silks on this, their last day. Just a week before, they had been tried at Westminster and found guilty of treason; six weeks before that, they had still been free men. But then had come intimations of arrest – one story is that Babington was alerted by catching sight of a message delivered to a dining companion named Scudamore and, realising that Scudamore was, in fact, one of Walsingham’s men – followed by dispersal and desperate flight, Babington and four others taking to what was then still wild woodland beyond the City at Saint John’s Wood.

The first man to die, was Ballard, arguably the plot’s ringleader. The second, its lynchpin, was Babington. He, alone of the men standing beside the scaffold awaiting their fate, watched Ballard’s agony’s unflinchingly, coolly, not even deigning to remove his hat; the others turned away, fell to their knees and bared their heads in Prayer.

But when it was his turn to suffer, and he was pulled down breathing from the gallows to face the executioner’s knife, he cried again and again "Parce mihi Domine Iesu", "Spare me, Lord Jesus".



THE SAINT ANDREW DAILY MISSAL



THE SAINT ANDREW DAILY MISSAL

Available (in U.K.) from

Available (in U.S.A.) from

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