Forthcoming Extraordinary Form Masses in or near Oxford

I have received the following information from Dr Joe Shaw of the Latin Mass Society:

The Latin Mass Society Forthcoming Mass in the Extraordinary Form in the Oxford area. A brief reminder: tomorrow, Sat 2nd Nov, is All Souls' Day. There will be a Sung Requiem Mass in the Oxford University Chaplaincy at 3pm. The Chaplaincy is in Rose Place, off St Aldates in Oxford, OX1 1RD. It is very near the Westgate Car Park. Another Sung Requiem will take place in Milton Manor at 11am, accompanied by Chant and Polyphony from the Schola Abelis and the Newman Consort. Milton Manor is near Abingdon, OX14 4EN There will also be Low Mass at 9.30am in St Birinus, Dorchester on Thames, OX10 7JR and 12 noon Low Mass in SS Gregory & Augustine's, Woodstock Road Oxford OX2 7NS. Please do not neglect to pray for the Faithful Departed in November! Newly confirmed: There will be a Sung Requiem in St Benet's Hall on Saturday 23rd at 11.30am; all are welcome. St Benet's is in St Giles, Oxford, OX1 3LN. There will be Mass in Wardour Castle Chapel on Saturday 16th at 11am; There will be a Solemn Mass for St Birinus, in St Birinus, Dorchester on Thames, 5th Dec at 7.30pm. There will a Solemn Mass for St Lucy's Day, Friday 13th December, in SS Gregory & Augustine's, 6pm. *The annual candlelit 'Rorate' Mass in honour of Our Lady will take place at 7am in the Oxford Oratory on Saturday 14th December.

The picture is of Mass at Milton Manor, celebrated by Fr Daniel Lloyd of the Ordinariate.

Wardour Chapel Open Day November 9th

On November 9th the chapel of All Saints at Wardour Castle is holding an open day, and affording an opportunity for visitors to see this beautiful late eighteenth century Catholic Chapel. The website fot the Chapel can be viewed here.

Wardour Chapel

Image:countrylifeimages.co.uk

Wardour is the ancestral home of the family of the Lords Arundell of Wardour (the title itself became extinct in 1944) and the property passed to the Lords Talbot de Malahide.Today the great house, having been leased for many years to a school, is divided into eight luxury apartments.

There is an account of the Arundell peerage here and there is more about this remarkable family in the post  The Lords Arundell of Wardour - ancient English Catholic recusant family of Cornwall and Wiltshire from the blog Roman Christendom.

The spectacular Palladian New Castle at Wardour was built between 1769 and 1776 by the 8th Lord Arundell builder, who employed James Paine as his architect. The chapel, integral to the house, was  extended by Sir John Soane in 1789-90, and incorporates an altar by Giacomo Quarenghi, an italian who had done work in St Petersburg. there is an account of the house here.

The chapel will be open 10am-5pm, and Mass will be celebrated at 10.30am by Fr Dominic Robinson S.J.

In addition there will be a display of the superb collection of historic vestments which belong to the chapel, ranging in date from the 15th to the 19th centuries, and the organ, dating from 1791, will be played at intervals during the day.

Admission is £10, but Friends and their guests are free, although adonation would be appreciated.

Wardour is in south-west Wiltshire, 3 miles from Tisbury, and 5 miles from the A303.

More on the Westminster chasuble at Wardour

Earlier this month I posted about the Westminster chasuble at Wardour and I now see that the New Liturgical Movement has a piece about it with a much better photograph than the one I managed to find. The article can be viewed here.

The accompanying notes show how the vestment ihas been assembled from two seperate ones. The main fabric can be associated with Catherine of Aragon's marriages at the beginning of the sixteenth century, but the embroidered orphreys are a generation older and appear to be linked, through Bishop Richard Beauchamp of Salisbury, with the marriage, which he performed, of Margaret of York, sister of King Edward IV, to Charles Duke of Burgundy in 1468 (not 1408 as it says on NLM).

Bishop Beauchamp was very much associated with the Yorkist court, and he is depicted on a particularly interesting and splendid roof boss of St George's Chapel Windsor kneeling with King Edward IV before one of the great relics of the chapel, the Welsh Cross Gneth. There is a picture and an article about the boss and the Cross Gneth here. As Bishop of Salisbury from 1450-81 and ex officio the Chancellor of the Order of the Garter the Bishop was extensively involved the the King's rebuilding of the chapel in the 1470s.

Westminster chasuble at Wardour

The New Liturgical Movement has recently had two posts about a spectacular rose cope at Wardour Chapel in Wiltshire and a very handsome medieval chasuble that has survived in the collection there.

Following the link about Wardour I found a site produced in connection with last year's display of treasures there, which, unfortunately, I was unable to visit. The history of the chapel includes a list of some of the items that were on display and some photographs, one of which I reproduce here.

This vestment, known as the Westminster chasuble, has heraldic motifs on the red velvet fabric that help date it to the era of Queen Catherine of Aragon. Its alternating roses and pomegranates combined with the portcullis badge of the Beauforts and the fleur de lys point to her and her circle. It must therefore belong to the time after her marriage to Prince Arthur in 1501 or from her time as Queen after 1509 until the ''King's Great Matter" wrought such havoc in so many lives and churches, and the life of the nation.

I had seen the chasuble on television on John Betjeman's ABC of Churches many years ago, and was pleased to find this photograph, which is not unfortunately of the highest quality, to share.

I had half expected to see it at the Gothic exhibition at the V&A in 2003-4, but I think it was not on display, although other vestments that have survived from King Henry VII's rebuilding of the Westminster Lady Chapel were there.