Within the Liturgical Movement of the twentieth century there was often a critique around traditional altar arrangements where it was said that the gradines and/or reredos overtook the altar itself. In some ways this critique can, at first glance, seem valid. One has to thi…
The Altar and Its Related Parts: Avoiding Abstractions
Within the Liturgical Movement of the twentieth century there was often a critique around traditional altar arrangements where it was said that the gradines and/or reredos overtook the altar itself. In some ways this critique can, at first glance, seem valid. One has to thi…
Cartagloria: Eighteenth Century Altar Cards
Altars cards are a development which stem from the sixteenth century and contain certain prayers recited within the Ordo Missae (Ordinary of the Mass) at each and every Mass. In contemporary times they are almost exclusively rectangular in shape but in centuries such as the…
Phat Diem Cathedral in Vietnam
From time to time over the years I have spoken of good models of inculturation. Such models present themselves, not as incompatible compromises, but instead as truly harmonious approaches that adopt local or national cultural and artistic customs to authentically Catholic p…
Sacristy Series: The Merits of the Italian Form of the Incense Boat
The use of incense within Catholic liturgical life is, suffice it to say, very ancient. Like so many things in the first few centuries of the Church's life, however, specific dates are hard to come by. The first clear evidence that we have of its use in Christian worshi…
In Tribute to Don Giuseppe Vallauri: Zealous Defender and Promoter of the Roman Rite
Yesterday morning on the Feast of All Saints, while vested in his sacerdotal vestments and celebrating Holy Mass in suffrage for the dead, a dear priest and our good friend Don Giuseppe Vallauri reposed at age seventy-five. In the Traditional Mass community in Rome, Don Va…
Memento Mori – The Congregation of Good Death of Barcelona
“A priest forever… yet mortal” thus reads the motto carried with a biretted skull, a warning to be heed by all priests that behold it. This memento mori
is part of the insignia and improperia that were solemnly carried through the
streets of Barcelona on Ash Wednesday durin…
In Memoriam: Mr. William "Bill" Strub: Aka "The World's Oldest Altar Boy" Passes at Age 98
I cannot say enough good things about Bill Strub. He was my mentor at the altar when I was a boy. Bill passed away earlier this year at age 98. This saintly man was my first mentor at the altar when I began serving Mass at age 9. Bill was there in November 1988 when I s…
The Portico of the Angers Cathedral
As one walks
along the north bank of the Maine river towards the Pont du Verdun, the eye is
drawn to the slender spires of the Cathedral of St Maurice, perched upon the
hill that dominates the old town of Angers. A pedestrian boulevard steeply climbs
the hill, the Montée St…
Substantial Architectural Progress at Clear Creek Abbey
The Abbey of Our Lady of Clear Creek is a Benedictine monastery situated in Oklahoma, USA, This particular Benedictine monastery has been focused on the building of more substantial monastic buildings, including the abbey church, and as part of the latter project they recen…
On Liturgical Beauty and False Stylistic Absolutes
If you want to see a bit of what at least some of the earlier part of the twentieth century Liturgical Movement considered "ideal" then this photo from a 1942 issue of Liturgical Arts Quarterly (LAQ) is instructive. Of course in saying this it must be noted that …
Christus Vincit: Music for the Feast of Christ the King (Part 1 of 2)
Guest Article by Thomas Neal The feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ the King is a relatively recent addition to the liturgical calendar. Promulgated by Pope Pius XI with his encyclical, Quas primas , in 1925, the feast was assigned to the last Sunday in October immediately before…
Papal Ceremonial: The Sedia Gestatoria
Traditions from the East such as the sedia gestatoria or "triumphal chair," stir the human spirit and speak a language of oriental beauty and refinement. And they reflect something rare today - the common sense acquisition of a special kind of otherworldliness. …
The St. Philip Chasuble
Only just yesterday we featured a number of our contemporary vestment designers' approaches to the gothic revival and on the very same day the following appeared on Sacra Domus Aurea : a silk chasuble in the sixteenth century Neri cut complete with embroidered orphreys a…
Recent Gothic Revival Vestment Work of Note
Today I thought we would turn our attention to a few contemporary approaches to the gothic revival in the area of vestment design. To my mind, these represent some of the most successful and interesting approaches in recent memory insofar as they all reclaim some of the mor…
Before and After: St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Lambertville, New Jersey
Quite frequently our before and after series features significant architectural renovations. Other renovations don't require quite this level of intervention but do demonstrate the important of colour and decoration in the overall effect. The following, undertaken by wa…
Beautiful New Church Completed: St. Thomas Aquinas University Parish in Charlottesville, Virginia
More good news. St. Thomas Aquinas University Parish , the Dominican chapel under construction in Charlottesville, Virginia (Diocese of Richmond), has at long last been been completed after five years of anticipation. It was dedicated on Sept. 20 by Bishop Barry Knestout a…
Saint Teresa of Avila's Biretta: A Brief Introduction to the Iconography of St. Teresa of Avila as Doctrix Ecclesia
It might be shocking to some (in particular those outside of the Hispanic world) to come upon an image of St Teresa wearing the biretta, which generally considered an exclusive item of clerical vesture. We must nevertheless remember that the biretta is the common ancestor o…
