Medieval Parisian Vespers

The New Liturgical Movement has an article and video on its website reporting upon the celebration of the Solemn Vespers of Easter Day - and thus the Octave of Easter Week - according to the Gallican Parisian Use. The article explains that despite its abandonment in 1871 one church, St Eugène, was given the privilege of still using this form.

The singers are from the splendid Schola Ste Cecile, whom I had the good fortune to hear a few years ago when they spent a week in Oxford whilst on a tour of England.

The report and video can be accessed at Video of Medieval Vespers of Easter in Paris

The Turin Shroud in the news again

The Holy Shroud of Turin is back in the news with the publication of a new scientific study of the DNA contaminants on its surface. The hope is that such microscopic details will help reveal where it has been and what it has been exposed to.

The results show a vast variety of material, some of which are clearly from the last five or so centuries as they are from plant varieties introduced from the New World. Other material might well suggest that the shroud was in the Middle East, or indeed that it might originate in India. It is rather a case of “you pays your money and takes your choice”.

The first report I saw was from the Vatican centred website Zenit which tends to take a favourable view of the evidence as indicative of the authenticity of the Shroud. The article can be read at New Study Reopens the Case of the Turin Shroud’s Origins: what the DNA says

The second report is from Live Science which seems very anxious to stress the results of the 1980s Carbon 14 dating to the later medieval centuries.This dating is a matter of considerable academic debate. I rather regret the way the article is written, if not indeed skewed, to support the case for the Shroud being a forgery. However, in the interests of impartiality I am giving the link, which is accessible at Shroud of Turin, claimed to be Jesus' burial cloth, contaminated with carrot and red coral DNA

As I have written before on this subject I am definitely inclined to believe the Shroud is genuine, but accept that we shall probably never know with certainty this side of Judgement Day.

Christ is Risen Alleluia!

Christ is Risen, Alleluia!

He is Risen indeed, Alleluia!

 

Detail from The Resurrection 

Piero della Francesca

1463-65

Image: Finestre sull’ Arte

Looking back to my post for Easter Day last year and also to the fact that it was well received, I have done as I did last year and reproduced Pietro della Francesca’s depiction of The Resurrection, and an giving a link to last year’s article, which I definitely recommend because of its Patristic content, and which can be accessed at Christ is Risen Alleluia!

To supplement that and to provide some reflective and art historical reading about the painting and its survival as readers digest their Easter lunch, chocolate eggs, or relax on Easter Monday, here are three articles about it.

The first is a discussion of the work in its historical context and can be accessed at Piero della Francesca | The Resurrection, Museo Civico, Sansepolcro | Art in Tuscany

The second can be viewed at Travel Notebooks - Finestre sull'Arte

The third concentrates on the near miraculous survival of the fresco in 1944 and can be viewed at HOW ONE MAN SAVED THE "GREATEST PICTURE IN THE WORLD"

 I wish a holy, blessed, joyful and happy Easter to all my readers 

Alleluia!

Traditional Good Friday Chasubles

Yesterday the Liturgical Arts Journal had an article to mark Good Friday about traditional black vestments, as per the usage before Pope Pius XII’s changes in the 1950s. It has some splendid examples of the vestment maker and embroiderers arts in its illustrations. Some are antique, others from the later nineteenth and earlier twentieth centuries. It also includes a folded chasuble, which would only have been used on Good Friday.

The aricle can be seen at Historical Chasubles for Good Friday   

The medieval view of Judas

The always useful website Medievalists.net has an interesting article about how Judas and his fate, as well as an involved biography to shoe just how unsavoury he was, were presented by medieval writers.

Illustrated with illuminations from medieval books it can be accessed at Judas in the Middle Ages: The Making of an Anti-Hero 

Gethsemene by Giotto

Detail of the Kiss of Judas by Giotto, 

1304-6, in the Scrovegni Chapel, Padua

Image: Formae Divinae Wordpress

I think the fresco of the Kiss of Judas is the finest, or most powerful, of these early fourteenth century masterpieces in the Scrovegni Chapel, and one which commands attention and invites reflection and meditation.  

The way in which the lumpen figure of Judas envelops Jesus is striking, signifying the loss of personal autonomy of the Redeemer in the Passion - He is now in His enemies’ power. yet the serenity of expression points to the Divine self-surrender central to the Triduum. 

The website from where I found this image has a meditation on the painting and this central feature which can be read at “The Kiss of Judas” by Giotto

Twenty One Today

Today is the twenty first anniversary of my reception into the Church at the Oxford Oratory in 2005, two days before Pope John Paul II died.

Last year to mark the twentieth anniversary I wrote a long article on this blog about how I came to that decision, together with some reflections on my subsequent experiences. That can be viewed at Twenty years on. 

What I wrote then still holds good, but I think I am now a little more optimistic about the way the Church is going - which is not to deny that a lot needs to be done at parish, diocesan, national and, ultimately,Papal level to get it back properly on track.

On this twenty first anniversary I am not sure if I have come of age as a Catholic - faith is, after all a lifelong pilgrimage, and I did quite a bit of my pilgrimage years before I was received - but I remain sure that I made the right decision.

May St John the Baptist, St John the Evangelist, St Philip the Apostle, St Philip Neri, St Robert of Newminster, St Robert of Knaresborough, Bl. Robert Grosseteste, Bl. John of Dalderby, and St John Henry Newman continue to pray for me.

The Battle of Towton 565

Yesterday, Palm Sunday, was the 565th anniversary of the battle of Towton, fought in the date and feast day in 1461, and hence its fifteenth century name of Palm Sunday Field. It is normally accounted the bloodiest battle in English history, and one of the more momentous.

I have posted about Towton before, as a search on the blog will reveal.

Over the weekend the historian David Grummitt had two open access articles on SubStack about his latest research into the contemporary sources we have for the battles of the Wars of the Roses, and in this case, Towton.

They can be seen at Lord Clifford, the Battle of 'Dintingdale' and Palm Sunday 1461 and at Was the Battle of Towton Fought in a Blizzard?

His articles are well worth signing up to, and his book on the earlier battles of the Wars one I must get round to reading.