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.


Saturday 16 December 2023

The Great O Antiphons


I have decided to renew a custom I had in my earlier years as a blogger.

This was to blog each day from December 17th about the Great O Antiphons sung or said before and after the Magnificat at Vespers that act as an introduction to, and as a lead into, Christmas. They convey a deep sense of expectation and urgency, rooted in the Old Testament, but looking forward to the new dispensation. I did this for several years as I recall and they were well received by the then readership.

I hasten to add that much of the content of the articles is from others with genuine expertise - I am merely an editor and occasional reviser or addendraist.

The articles will commence tomorrow with O Sapientia 

I will conclude on the final day of the series, December 23rd, with a further note about the additional Eighth Antiphon from the medieval English Sarum Use, which started the series a day earlier on December 16th, and survives as a name for the day in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer as O Sapientia. It is, I understand, still the Praemonstatensian - Norbertine - custom, and was, at least at one time, an Anglo-Catholic usage to observe all eight Antiphons.

My introduction to the series can be read at The O Antiphons


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