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.


Monday, 8 September 2025

What the Pope wore for the canonisations yesterday


The Cæreamoniale Romanum website picked up and shared a noteworthy ( in these troubled times) feature of the Pope’s liturgical vesture at the canonisation Mass in St Peter’s Square yesterday. 

The white dalmatic was worn under a gold chasuble worthy of Pipe Benedict XVI himself.
There are a couple of views at Post from Caeremoniale Romanum

Some Traditionalist might well see that as not sufficiently significant - as in this post from Return to Tradition which can be seen at Vigano Exposes What Everyone Is Missing About Pope Leo And The Traditional Mass

Liturgical styles and, indeed, fashion may be of little import beyond the eye of the beholder, or the wearer, but nevertheless it can, should, be indicative of the attitude of the celebrant to what he is there to do at the altar, and what is his intention.

We know that one swallow does not make a summer, but after the hard bleak winter we have endured from 2013 to this year any swallow at all is welcome. By the calendar it may indeed be autumn but spiritually do I sense a hint of spring in the air?

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