The Stavelot Triptych is the earliest surviving triptych style reliquary of the True Cross with illustrations from the Legend of the True Cross and is unique in that it unites in a single work of art Eastern and Western (Byzantine and European) iconographic and craftsmanshi…
The Stavelot Reliquary in New York
The Stavelot Triptych is the earliest surviving triptych style reliquary of the True Cross with illustrations from the Legend of the True Cross and is unique in that it unites in a single work of art Eastern and Western (Byzantine and European) iconographic and craftsmanshi…
Reprint: Proposal for the Internal Design and Layout of the Pauline Missal
Being interested in liturgical book binding, layout and design, while modern missal designs have improved in recent years, I think there are still further opportunities for improvement --though these do require the appropriate ecclesiastical permissions and approvals since …
A Newly Embroidered Conopaeum (Umbraculum) by Lawrence Caruana of Malta
Malta has frequently crossed our radar at LAJ and, indeed, it is one of the places in the Catholic world that most embodies a spirit of continuity, from its mitred canons to its frequent and continuing embrace of traditional craftsmanship. One such example comes in the form…
Three European Woodcarvers
It has been a little while since we've featured some woodcarving -- one of my favourite liturgical artforms -- and what better way than to feature a few of the more prominent European carvers, Mussner G. Vincenzo Ars Sacra ( website ), ALBL Oberammergau ( website ) and Ferd…
Two Contemporary Hand Illuminated Liturgical Books from the English Benedictines
Ever since the invention of Gutenberg's printing press in the mid fifteenth century, hand illuminated books have become more and more rare. While medieval manuscripts are those which most of us find ourselves thinking about when considering such books, there are some mo…
A Brief Consideration On the Diverse Shapes of Chasubles
By way of quick reflection, anyone who has followed liturgical art particularly since the advent of the twentieth century Liturgical Movement will know that one of the fixations that tends to plague some within the English speaking world is the matter of chasuble shapes. Th…
Summorum Pontificum and the Flourishing of the Liturgical Arts
Pope Benedict's motu proprio, Summorum Pontificum, has mainly been thought of in terms of the benefits that this legal epiphany provided for these liturgical rites and how it positively impacted communities and individual Catholics attached to the same. While this is pe…
St. John Henry (Cardinal) Newman on Ecclesiastical Ceremonies
It had been somewhat fashionable in the later half of the twentieth century to diminish the importance of the Church's ceremonial life. Indeed, it almost become a badge of honour as an early form of virtue-signalling to demonstrate one's more "mature" fait…
The Ceremonial Vesting of a Prelate in East and West
One of the aspects of the liturgical tradition of the usus antiquior that strikes many new observers to the traditional rites are the ceremonies that accompany the vesting of a prelate. While these are sometimes done within the privacy of the sacristy or separate chapel, o…
