The late great Msgr. Richard Schuler (1920 - 2007) was an old mentor and friend of mine from my native Minnesota. Ordained in 1945, Msgr. Schuler was a proud priest of the Diocese of St. Paul (Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis). Many of his fans, myself, included, …
Monsignor Richard.J. Schuler on Art, Music & Beauty in the Liturgy
The late great Msgr. Richard Schuler (1920 - 2007) was an old mentor and friend of mine from my native Minnesota. Ordained in 1945, Msgr. Schuler was a proud priest of the Diocese of St. Paul (Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis). Many of his fans, myself, included, …
Eucharistic Utensils
As we live through this 21st century plague with growing concerns regarding the transmission of diseases through the species of Holy Communion, it is interesting to examine the different forms of receiving holy communion with utensils that the Latin Church has employed thr…
Liturgical Treasures from the Cathedral Museum of Krakow
Wawel Cathedral Museum in Krakow, Poland, is home to some very interesting treasures of liturgical art and while I do not have any specific historical information on the following pieces, they are well worth showing regardless. (Many thanks to Nicola de Grandi who took thes…
The Noble Simplicity of the Traditional Sanctuary Order
Readers may recall that I have spoken of the noble beauty and simplicity that is to be found in traditional sanctuary arrangements of the Latin rite. For those who do not recall, it is my contention that these traditional arrangements, taken in their core essentials, prese…
Portable Altars in Malta
Our recent post on house chapels drew a fair bit of interest and in particular the so-called "wardrobe altar" and so it seemed like a good opportunity to share an exhibition that took place in Malta in the around 1999-2000. The exhibition in question was on "…
Lenten Veils from the Monastery of the Holy Cross in Segovia. A Reconstruction.
The hanging of painted Lenten Veils was a very popular and ancient custom in Spain. In many churches and cathedrals one may still see the hooks and mechanisms used to hoist up these immense curtains. For a few weeks a year, the interior of the church was completely transfor…
Private Chapels Brought to Light by Social Distancing
The Book of Job famously teaches that "the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away" but He also gives back again and in the light of the cancellation of so many public Masses, many priests have taken to live-streaming their private Masses to help keep the faithful c…
Before and After: St. Catherine of Siena in Trumbull, Connecticut
LAJ is pleased to present yet another example in our "Before and After" series, coming this time within the context of St. Catherine of Siena church in Trumbull, Connecticut. The project was undertaken by the parish in partership with Duncan G. Stroik Architect . …
The Daily Procession at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem
One of the great privileges of my life has been to bring pilgrims to the Holy Land and to introduce them and encourage them to participate in local liturgical functions that will stir their imaginations, evoking dazzling beauty and sentiments of devotion and reflection. A…
Art for the Domestic Church from Daniel Mitsui
The following comes from Daniel Mitsui , who some of you will remember for his custom drawn altar cards which we featured here on LAJ shortly after this site began:
"In order to slow the spread of disease, many churches have suspended their public liturgical celebratio…
Singing on High: The Gloria Laus Ceremony of Palm Sunday in Medieval France
The eminent 18th century liturgist Claude de Vert’s work is a wealth of picturesque knowledge about the pre-Revolutionary Gallican Church. We have previously discussed the key role he played in the anti-allegorical turn in liturgical studies. But in this place his rationali…
A Brief Consideration of the Historical Use of Oriental Silks in European Vestments
While the silk trade would eventually spread, the history of silk is inextricably tied up with the Orient and the ancient Silk Road ; a trade route that connected the civilizations of East and West. By means of these trade routes precious silks were exported from the Orient…
The Patriarchal Co-Cathedral of the Diocese of Jerusalem
I have always said one of Jerusalem's best kept secrets inside the walls of the city is the Co-Cathedral of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, located at the Latin Patriarchate in the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem. This chapel, ordinarily closed to the public, is in some w…
An Eighteenth Century Chasuble with Scenes from the Life of St. Charles Borromeo
As a general rule I am not usually a fan of "scenic" chasubles, but normally this is because they lack the usual compositional elements like the cross and column orphreys. This particular example presents another variation where the chasuble is treated as a scenic…
The Isenheim Crucifixion
"For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him." -- Isaiah 53:2-3
Matthias Grünewald must have been thinking about these prophetic ver…
A Contemporary Black Vestment Set with Memento Mori: Theorized and Realized
It was around All Souls Day 2018 that I first wrote my article, A Contemporary Case for the Inclusion of Memento Mori on Black Vestments . In that piece I commented:
A Peritus of the Second Vatican Council on the Church and Modernistic Art in the Liturgy
The Second Vatican Council's most competent American peritus was the Rt. Rev. Msgr. Rudolph G. Bandas, Ph.D., Agg. S.T.D. et M (1896-1969). Catholics of today should know his name. In the 1960s he was labeled a "staunch conservative" by the Catholic press. …
A Good Friday Chasuble from Twentieth Century Lithuania
Earlier this week we shared a couple of "memento mori" chasubles and while in the process of discovering those, this example also turned up. The chasuble is another coming from the Archdiocese of Vilnius in Lithuania and is dated to approximately 1909.The chasub…
Episcopal Prelatial Dress in Eighteenth Century New Spain
The Codex Trujillo is an encyclopedic work compiled by bishop Baltasar Jaime Martínez Compañón of Trujillo, Peru, at the end of the 18th century. It is a detailed ethnographic examination of many aspects of life of his diocese, including the different tribes, dresses, lang…
Two ''Memento Mori' Chasubles
On All Souls Day in the year 2018, I made a case for the inclusion of "Memento Mori" on Black vestments -- which is to say, " imagines mortuorum " (images of the dead). In a nutshell, I would argue that we live in a time where the illusion of immortality …
