Some months ago, Jeff Ostrowski, President of Corpus Christi Watershed and choirmaster at the FSSP apostolate in Los Angeles, contacted me for some thorough background on the Huron carol. This was my first inkling that his most recent project, the St. Jean de Brébeuf Hymna…
The Brébeuf Hymnal: An Interview with Jeff Ostrowski
Some months ago, Jeff Ostrowski, President of Corpus Christi Watershed and choirmaster at the FSSP apostolate in Los Angeles, contacted me for some thorough background on the Huron carol. This was my first inkling that his most recent project, the St. Jean de Brébeuf Hymna…
Latin Rite Altar on Mount Calvary (Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem)
One of the great privileges of my life has been to lead each year a Traditional Catholic (FSSP) pilgrimage to the Holy Land. I helped organize two last year and one this year. The highlight is always Mass in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the holiest shrine in Christe…
Hand Coloured 16th Century Pontificale Romanum
I was browsing Kline Books recently when I came across this rather unique Roman Pontifical they have for sale. The book includes illustrations that correspond to the various rites and ceremonies and while that particular aspect is not unique, what is are that these illustr…
Other Modern: An Art Deco Inspired Solemn Mass Set
It has been a little while since we featured any 'Other Modern' and a good opportunity was presented with a recent posting from the Institut of St. Phillip Neri, a priestly society based out of Germany. For the feast of the Immaculate Conception they utilized a set…
Some 20th Century Varieties of Violacea
To conclude our little 'mini series' considering some examples of violet vestments from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, we now conclude with the latter century. One can see in these examples transitional carryovers from the previous centuries, now often expressed …
From Theotokos to the Immaculate Conception: Select Landmark Images of Marian Iconography
Among the many acclaimed and beloved representations of the Immaculate Conception shines the one painted by the 17th century Spanish artist Esteban Murillo. A very young and beautiful Virgin Mary effortlessly floats in the heavenly realm, her hands clasped in a gesture of …
Women in the Liturgical Movement: Creating Domestic Rituals
“ If I am to carry Christ home with me from the altar, I am afraid He will have to come to the kitchen because much of my time is spent there .” -Florence Berger, 1949 The American 1950s earn particular opprobrium from the high priests of modernism as a stultified, hyper-patri…
19th Century Varieties of Violacea
Yesterday we considered some 18th century examples of violet vestments. In order to show how each century saw its own particular stylistic progression, I thought it would be of interest to LAJ readers to now see some 19th century examples, once again coming from BeWeb . Read…
More 18th Century Varieties of Violacea
With Advent having begun this weekend, I thought it would be of interest to show some further "varieties of violcaea" (violet) just as we did a year ago. Each of these examples comes from BeWeb and are from the 18th century. It is. of course. the case that each …
Details from Monreale Cathedral, Sicily: The Bible in Stone and Mosaic
One of my favourite endeavours is to show the lesser seen details of famed locales. Few churches rise to the level of iconographic recognizability as that of the Cathedral of Monreale in Sicily, with its Italo-Byzantine masterworks. The most famous view of this remarkable a…
Newly Wood-Carved Statue of Bl. Idelfonso Cardinal Schuster, Benedictine, Liturgical Scholar, Archbishop of Milan.
Longtime readers of NLM and now LAJ will realize that one of my great 'heroes' liturgically speaking was the Benedictine and Ambrosian, Blessed Ildefonso Cardinal Schuster, OSB, Archbishop of the Ambrosian See of Milan.
Schuster is, of course, especially known to E…
The Indian Mass in the Modern Parish (Part Three)
Wrapping up this series on the liturgical uses of the American Indian missions along the St. Lawrence (see Part One and Part Two ), we now arrive at the closely related Mohawk missions of Kahnawake and Akwesasne, where the Indian Mass reached a high point of development tha…
All Saints and All Souls from the Toronto Oratory
It has been awhile since we shared some videos and before November passes us by and Advent upon us, I thought it fitting to share two from the Toronto Oratory.
First we have Gabrieli's "Angeli archangeli", recorded at the Solemn High Mass for All Saints at the…
Revival of the New Classical Architecture in Italy
It is a great joy to witness the evolution of the revival of classical architecture, truly a global phenomena. Interestingly, it is taking continued new forms in different parts of the world as time marches on. It is always a relief to know of these positive developments…
Against All Odds: Restoring Beauty for a Rochester Gem
The cornerstone for Our Lady of Victory, a little French Church in downtown Rochester, NY was laid in 1868. This new church was to serve a young and growing local Francophone community including devout French, Belgian and Flemish immigrant families. From the outset, one o…
Chasuble of the First Bishop of Cincinnati
The following are images of a chasuble that belonged to Bishop Edward Dominic Fenwick, O.P. (1768-1832), the first Bishop of the Diocese of Cincinnati, who served in that capacity from 1822 until 1832. The chasuble is made of silk with silver thread and includes embroidered…
A Visual Meditation on the Unbleached Beeswax of the Requiem
On only the second day of this site's existence we spoke of some of the reasons behind symbols like unbleached beeswax candles for Requiem Masses. Therein we noted: "The matter is, to some degree, one of common sense. In the liturgical sphere of the Western traditi…
St. Kolbe's Vestments and Mass Items Offer Glimpse of Roman Beauty
One very interesting place of pilgrimage in Poland that I have visited is Niepokalanów, the Franciscan settlement in rural Poland. Here St. Maximilian Kolbe founded in 1927 his own friary-publishing house in the rural village of Teresin. A local prince from Warsaw had giv…
Sacristy Tips: Constructing a Catafalque for the Requiem Mass
In the usus antiquior , the catafalque is used for the absolution of the dead when no human remains are present. All Souls Day is one of the times of the liturgical year when it is seen and it has become an iconic aspect of the Roman rite.
As we are in a period of recovery …
The Value of Black as a Liturgical Colour
While All Souls Day is now almost two weeks behind us, it remains the month of the Holy Souls and as such it remains an opportune time to consider some of the liturgical arts which surround the traditional requiem of the Latin rite. Today, I wished to draw readers attentio…
