Statues at St Wilfrid's in York

The website of St Wilfrid's in York, now in the care of the Oxford Oratorians recently reported a gift of statues to the church from the Poor Clares in the city:

Visitors to the church will have noticed the new statues in the baptistery and on the altar steps. At least, they are new to St Wilfrid's. They have been in the Poor Clares' monastery in Lawrence Street for 140 years and have been given to us by the nuns now they have moved to their new house at Askham Bryan. We are very grateful to the sisters for their generosity.

The altar of the Sacred Heart was in the church and may be familiar to some people. The statues of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception and the Pietà are probably less well-known as they were in the cloister of the monastic enclosure.

The statues have already attracted a lot of prayerful devotion. We will use the Immaculate Conception statue in May and in December.

If these devotional images seem to fit very well here we should not be surprised. The plinth, altar and niches were designed by George Goldie, the architect of St Wilfrid's, only a few years after St Wilfrid's was opened in 1864. Goldie built a number of other churches in the diocese, including the old cathedral, and a number of churches in Ireland. His practice was in York; he was a parishioner here; and his daughter was one of the first nuns in Lawrence Street. So perhaps these statues were a labour of love. It is right that they should be kept in York.

Text and images: stwilfridsyork.org.uk

Pilgrimage for St Margaret Clitherow and the York Martyrs - May 9th

This year's pilgrimage for St Margaret Clitherow and the York Martyrs will be on Saturday, 9th May. We will be joined by members of the Guild of Our Lady of Ransom.

Fr Richard will give a talk in the Bedern Hall at 11.30am on the history of Christian York. There will be a High Mass in the Extraordinary Form at 1.30pm, followed by a procession at 3.00pm taking in St Margaret's House in the Shambles and the site of her martyrdom on Ouse Bridge. The day will end with Benediction back in St Wilfrid's at 3.45pm.

Text and image:stwilfridsyork.org.uk 

For anyone free to go to this pilgrimage I am sure that it would be an excellent occasion to attend.

Requiem Mass for King Richard III in York

Whilst researching the Easter liturgies of the Oratorians in York for a previous post I found the following piece, which I thought I would copy and paste, about their recent commemoration of King Richard III:

 

There were good numbers of people in St Wilfrid's for the Requiem Mass for King Richard III celebrated by the Rt Rev. Terence Drainey, Bishop of Middlesbrough, on Thursday, 26th March, the day of the reburial of the King's remains in Leicester Cathedral.

The choir sang the Plainchant Requiem Mass very beautifully, words that the King himself would have known and sung. It was his wish that this Mass should be celebrated for him in York and now that request has been fulfilled.

 

We borrowed a replica of King Richard's Standard of the White Boar to place on the catafalque where the Bishop said the prayers for the dead at the end of the Mass. Many people brought white roses.

Our bells rang fully muffled before and after Mass. This is a privilege reserved to the death of a monarch, and so is rarely heard.

The sermon preached by Fr Richard can be read here.

There are also some excellent photographs taken by a member of the congregation who has kindly agreed to share them in this post.

 

Images:Graham Tebby/stwilfridsyork.org

Oratorian celebrations of Easter

The Internet provides some image sof how the othe English Oratories celebrated Easter. The New Liturgical Movement has an account at the  following link with a splendid set of pictures The Easter Vigil at the London Oratory

There is a picture of the High Mass at Birmingham which can be accessed at http://www.birminghamoratory.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/IMG_1187-smaller-275x205.jpg

At York the celebrations appear to have been impressive. I have adapted and edited the post from the website of St Wilfrid's as follows:

The Sanctuary at the beginning of Holy Week 

Maundy Thursday and the Altar of Repose:

 

The Altar of Repose this year is particularly beautiful. The Poor Clares  gave us a beautiful altar frontal from their former monastery in Lawrence Street together with some of the other hangings pictured. The tabernacle veil and the altar linen are from the Bar Convent. We are very grateful to the Sisters for their generosity.

At the Maundy Thursday Mass our choir was joined by members of the St Austin's Singers from Wakefield who sang a polyphonic setting of the Mass by Casciolini.

After Mass a group walked in prayer down Petergate and Walmgate to visit the Altar of Repose at St George's Church.

Many people stayed in church until the end of the period of watching and joined the community in the Office of Compline.

 

 

The Paschal Candle decorated by the Oratory's guest Mr Eamon Manning

 

Lighting the Candle from the Paschal Fire

 

Blessing the Font

 

 

Receiving four candidates into full communion with the Church and administering the Sacrament of Confirmation.

  

St Wilfrid's decorated for Easter

 

Images: Patrick Thornber/St Wilfrid's York website

All of which suggests things are going very well in the new foundation in York.

A happy, blessed and joyful Easter to all the English Oratories

New Oratorian clothed at York

Yesterday the Oxford Oratory gained a new member in their foundation at York.

Br Henry O'Connell received the habit of St Philip on Monday, 16th March at St Wilfrid's; our second novice for York and the first to be clothed in the habit there. Please remember Br Henry in your prayers. Br Henry is in the back row, first on the left and pictured with other Fathers and Brothers of the Oxford Oratory.

16th March is an excellent day for an Oratorian clothing, since it is the anniversary of the famous Massimo Miracle in Rome when St Philip raised the young Paolo Massimo from the dead. The Massimi family were great devotees of St Philip, and when fourteen-year old Paolo lay dying, our Holy Father was summoned, but was saying Mass and so arrived too late. Nevertheless, his prayers raised Paolo from the dead: the boy then asked to go to confession. The saint sent everyone from the room, heard his confession, and then talked to Paolo for about half an hour about the joys of Paradise. After St Philip twice asked Paolo whether he died willingly, the boy died for a second time, peacefully and joyfully.

The event is still celebrated annually in Rome at the Palazzo Massimi where the house is open to the public for one day only and Mass is celebrated in the family chapel.

Images and text: Oxford Oratory

St Blaise in stained glass and in the blessing of throats

Yesterday was the feast of St Blaise, and about whom there is an online account here. To mark the feast of this popular medieval saint of Armenian origin here are a few images as posted on the Medieval Religion discussion group by Rev. Gordon Plumb:

Poitiers, Cathédrale Saint-Pierre, Bay 113b, some scenes from the story of Blaise:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/16292628462

and:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/16107323709

Another set of images of this window, taken more recently, with details of individual panels:

http://www.medievalart.org.uk/PoitiersWindows/113b_Pages/Poitiers_Bay113b_Key.htm

Wells Cathedral, Somerset, NII, 2a-3a:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/14801165007

Wells Cathedral, nV, A2:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/14981225159

Oxford, Christ Church Cathedral, sVII, A2:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/2701682243

Doddiscombsleigh, St Michael, Devon, nII, B4:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/3639778668

Harpley, St Lawrence, Norfolk, wI, A9:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/3319543681

There is an online account of the Blessing of Throats associated with the feast of St Blaise at Blessing of the Throats 

 

The Blessing of Throats at St Wilfrid's in York

 

Image; stwilfridsyork.org.uk

A new Oratorian Novice

Yesterday evening a new Novice began his formal life as an Oratorian here at the Oxford Oratory.

Br Adam and the Provost, Fr Daniel

Brother Adam Fairbairn, was clothed in the habit of Our Holy Father St Philip. He comes from near York and previously studied at the English College in Valladolid.

 The community who were present in the Oratory House.

From left, Br Oliver, Fr Jerome, Fr Nicholas, Br Adam, Fr Daniel, Fr Richard, who is the parish priest at St Wilfrid's in York

Br Adam has just completed a month's postulancy here in Oxford. Before that he was working in York at St Wilfrid's as a pastoral assistant from last December. He will now return to York as the first novice of the community there, but he will be making regular visits to Oxford over the course of the next year.

Br Adam Fairbairn

Please pray for Br Adam and the Oratorian community in York, and ask that God may bless both the house in Oxford and the house in York with many good vocations in the years to come.

Images and text adapted from Oxford Oratory website

Diaconal Ordination at Westminster Cathedral

Today I travelled with a friend, who is the Rector of the Brothers of the Oxford Oratory, to attend the diaconal ordination at Westminster Cathedral of a young man who used to attend our meetings when he was studying in Oxford at Blackfriars.

This necessitated an early start, and delays with the traffic, taking us on a long detour from Hillingdon to Hammersmith and back to Shepherds Bush, meant we arrived in the cathedral during the Gloria.

Our friend Kevin Athaide was ordained alongside Cyril Chiaha and David Lucuy, who are from the diocese of Westminster and studying with him at Allen Hall. In the current vacancy of the see of Nottingham, which is his sponsoring diocese, Kevin's ordination was conducted along with theirs by Bishop John Arnold as an auxiliary bishop of Westminster.vi

As befitted the occasion and setting this was a dignified liturgy, and it conveyed - as it should of course - a sense of the Church as a whole doing something significant in ordaining these three men.

Afterwards we were able to congratulate Kevin, and catch up on news as well as to see Fr Richard Duffield C.O.from York. We talked with him about developments there at St Wilfrid's, all of which sounded very promising.

Afterwards the two of us from Oxford went up to visit the exhibition of Cathedral Treasures in the lower part of the tower. After some comic difficulties negotiating the turnstile, we got in to see firstly the display about the building of the cathedral, and to look at the original model for the building. One thing I discovered was that the architect, J.F.Bentley, came from my father's home town of Doncaster.

The collection of treasures is very well worth seeing, and includes relics, altarplate and vestments. Here are some pictures of the display from the cathedral website:

The mitre was worn by Cardinal Wiseman at the dedication of St George's Southwark, and is a Pugin design.
The enormous monstrance was given by a nun as a thanksgiving for her accetance into her Community.

Image: westminstercathedral.org

Also on display is the amethyst encrusted cope morse traditionally worn for their enthronements by the Archbishops of Westminster, including the present one.

The Archiepiscopal morse

Image: heraldsgospelsinengland.blogspot

In another case was Cardinal Hume's Order of Merit, and relics of  St John Southworth, and a display about the survival of the relic of his body, which is enshrined in the cathedral.

The cathedral website has details about the exhibition which may be read here.

Before we left the cathedral precints we had a good look around the St Pauls Bookshop and that of the Catholic Truth Society in the piazza outside. 

An enjoyable day, and a significant one for the three deacons, whom I invite readers to join me in keeping them in our prayers.

St Philip's Day in York

The website of St Wilfrid's in York has a report of the first celebration in the parish, yesterday, of St Philip's Day since the Oratorian clergy from Oxford took charge of the church. I have copied and posted it from their parish site.

Bishop Robert Byrne Cong. Orat. was the celebrant and preacher at St Wilfrid's for St Philip's Day, the first for him as a bishop and the first for the Oratory Fathers in York. There was a Solemn Mass at 11am followed by a party in the Rectory. In the evening Bishop Robert celebrated Benediction. Apart from our York parishioners there were some visitors from elsewhere in the county who know the Oratory from Birmingham, London and Oxford or through the Oratory School.

A happy feast of St Philip to all our Oratorian brethren and friends!

Text and images: St Wilfrid's York

York Foundation

Yesterday Fr Richard, accompanied for the first month by Fr Nicholas, set off to take on the care of St Wilfrid's church in York, and with the eventual hope of establishing an Oratory there.

The Oxford Oratory now has three related posts about this: Please pray for our foundation in York, Fr Richard leaves for York and the link for the remodelled St Wilfrid's Website

Please join me in keeping this important initiative in your prayers.

More on St Wilfrid

Today is the feast of St Wilfrid, a saint to whom I have a continuing devotion, and about whom I have posted beforehand in St Wilfrid and Celebrating St Wilfrid. The second of these deals with two relatively modern churches dedicated to him, the Anglican one by Temple Moore in Harrogate and the Catholic one in York. My interest in him has been given a more immediate focus with the proposed Oratorian care of that church of St Wilfrid in York, a project which starts later this month.

St Wilfrid

An early sixteenth century painting in Chichester cathedral

Image: yorkarchaeology.co.uk

There is a lot of information about him and places linked to his life and ministry in the website In Search of St. Wilfrid from the Anglican church of St Wilfrid in Bognor in Sussex. This was compiled to mark the 1300th anniversary of his death in 2009 and a commemorative pilgrimage undertaken by the parish to places associated with St Wilfrid.

To mark his feast day I am posting two more images of this great saint, who combined a passion for the unity of the Church under Roman leadership with an apostolic zeal that led him to evangelize the people of Sussexand to found a whole series of monasteries, together with a very real concern for the rights and privileges of the churches of which he had care. 

The first is from the exquisite Comper restoration of the historic parish church of St Wilfrid at Cantley, just south of Doncaster. This was a self-conscious attempt to re-create the atmosphere of a late-medieval English parish church, and was entrusted to the young Ninian Comper. The result, together with its very skilful modern extension, is quite spectacular - very well worth a visit if you are nearby. I posted about it two years ago in my piece St Wilfrid's Cantley. The church's own website is here.

St Wilfrid

Statue in the Church of St Wilfrid at Cantley near Doncaster

An early work by Ninian Comper

Image:berthanet.co.uk

The other image is from the website In Search of St. Wilfrid and is a depiction which attempts to more faithfully capture the style of vestments and pallium of the seventh century - I suspect they are less elaborate than St Wilfrid would have deemed suitable, and may have an element of 'false archaeology' to them! Blue is an unlikely colour for a vestment at that time I would opine, and St Wilfrid, who was only a Bishop, would not have been entitled to wear a pallium.

 

Early twentieth century glass in the Chapel of St Wilfrid, Church Norton 

Image:wilfrid.com 

May St Wilfrid pray for all his churches, and especially for the Oratorian project in York

St Wilfrid's York

The announcement this weekend by the Bishop of Middlesborough that he has invited the Oxford Oratory to take charge of the church of St Wilfrid in York, and the consequent hopes that this will lead to the eventual establishment of a York Oratory represents a very positive challenge for both the Oratorians and the parishioners in York. The parish includes the shrine of St Margaret Clitherow in The Shambles. It is a project that will need our prayers to support it, but it holds great possibilities.

The Oratory website has a piece about the proposal, and a copy of Bishop Drainey's letter to the parish which can be seen in the article  St Wilfrid's, York. 

There is an online account of the church here. Although I have often passed the church when in York, which is close to my home town, I do not think I have ever been inside it to look around. It has a very distinctive French or continental appearance. It stands in strong contrast to the Minster, which is only yards away. Here are some pictures of the church:

The church from Duncombe Place

St Wilfrid's Church and its near neighbour YorkMinster

 The highly ornate doorway. 

St Wilfrid's Church was designed by George Goldie and was built in 1862-1864. For some years it served as the pro-cathedral of the diocese of Beverley until that was divided in 1878.

The view down the nave to the polygonal apse and altar. It is built in late 13th century  style and the pillars of the aisle arcade arches are quite massive and assertive with a pronounced shaft ring and elaborate Early-French Gothic capitals.

Images: docbrown.info

Another door opens for the Oratorians

Image: Patrick Costello on Flickr

May Our Lady, St Philip Neri and St Wilfrid pray for this proposal

Celebrating St Wilfrid

Today is the feast of St Wilfrid, one of the greatest figures in the history of the Anglo-Saxon church. Although originating in Northumbria his career and ministry took him to other parts of England, notably Sussex and the Isle of Wight, and in later years to Mercia, as well as his visits to the continent.

I posted about him last year and that can be read at St Wilfrid. There is an online biography here and the Oxford DNB life by Alan Thacker can be read here.

He is the patron of forty eight ancient churches, mainly in the the north and these are not infrequently associated with the medieval estates of the Archbishops of York - much more than St Paulinus, and with reasonable historical justification, he was seen as the establisher of the See.

Devotion to him has survived especially in Ripon and the public commemoration of his return from exile appears to have survived as a custom that was reinvigorated in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as can be read in this piece about this year's celebrations, held on July 31st. However I am rather inclined to think they do such religious pageants with more panache in Italian cities.

In Yorkshire he is also commemorated by two fine churches of a more recent date. St Wilfrid's York was opened in 1864 by Cardinal Wiseman and served until 1878 as the pro-cathedral of the Diocese of Beverley before it was partitioned into two. The church is close to York Minster, and the effect is perhaps not necessarily a happy one, with St Wilfrid's very French style making it all the more conspicuous. I do not know if this was at all intentional.

St Wilfrid's and York Minster

Image:phototravelings.blogspot.com

St Wilfrid's Harrogate from the south-east

Image: The Victorian Society website

In Harrogate is the great Anglo-Catholic church of St Wilfrid, the masterpiece of the architect Temple Moore. Begun in 1904 it was completed in 1935. Temple Moore worked mainly in the north - almost his only southern building is Pusey House in Oxford.

Fr Faber's devotion to St Wilfrid, and his taking of that name in religion, led to the creation of St Wilfrid's chapel at the London Oratory as well as St Wilfrid's Hall there.

On another tack altogether - what has happened to the Society of St Wilfird and St Hilda ( SWISH for short) that was launched as a reaction to the Ordinariate? I commented last year on the irony of St Wilfrid at least as patron - he was the most ardent Romaniser and loyal subject of the Papacy in his age.

May St Wilfrid continue to pray for his churches and the lands he evangelised and ministered to, and for the unity of the Church.