Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Wednesday 25 May 2022

Rogationtide with Fr Hunwicke


Fr Hunwicke has been marking Rogationtide this week with a series of typically well researched and informed posts about the origins and practical observance of the Rogation Days and all charged with his own distinctive and incisive observations.

I recommend reading and appreciating his articles, which can be seen at:

DE PONTIFICE ANATHEMATIZATO, and Rogation Week!


My 'Rogations' problem


Drinking the Evil Spirits away


Marx and Sparx


In addition Gregory DiPippo on the New Liturgical Movement has an article made up of quotations from William Durandus Bishop of Mende (c.1230-1296) Rationale Divinorum Officium, written in Italy before 1286, about the Rogationtide processions. It can be read at Durandus on the Minor Litanies


The rich mixture of Catholic piety, antique precedents and pagan origins, folk religion, communal celebration, the understanding of the natural order and rhythms of the agricultural year and all that bound these elements together and which characterised Rogationtide is wonderfully evocative of, to borrow a phrase, the world we have lost.



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