Christmas Greetings to the Eastern Orthodox

Today being Christmas Day for my Russian Orthodox friends in Oxford and elsewhere, and also observed by my relatives of Serbian Orthodox descent, I extend to them seasonal good wishes.

A Russian Orthodox friend from the church here in Oxford - a redundant church which they have renovated and furnished in recent years - was telling me yesterday of the slightly comic consequences of having to adjust the calendar when everyone else was celebrating in the western tradition. Thus the family's Advent calendar had to be renumbered to start in mid-December, and December 25th observed as an anticipation of today.

My relatives with Serb ancestry got the best of both worlds as children - Christmas as Catholics with their mother and her family on December 25th, then keeping an Orthodox Christmas with their emigre father almost a fortnight later.

Image from Cantate-Domino blogspot

Blessed chalk for Epiphany

At the end of the Epiphany Mass at SS Gregory and Augustine this evening Fr Saward blessed and distributed chalk for the traditional blessing of homes.

With the blessed chalk you write

20+C+M+B+12

above the doorways - 2012 for the year, C, M and B for the three Magi - Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar - and Christus mansionem benedicat - May Christ Bless this House.

Whilst writing say 'Christus mansionem benedicat' and then recite this prayer:

Lord God of heaven and earth, you revealed your only-begotten Son to every nation by the guidance of a star. Bless this house and all who inhabit it. Fill us with the light of Christ, that our concern for others may reflect your love. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Shrine of the Three Kings

St Matthew tells us that the Magi returned to their country by another way, and so they leave the pages of the Gospel, but tradition, legend and piety has not stopped there.

They acquired names and kingdoms - Caspar, King of Tarsus -the land of Myrrh, Melchior, King of Arabia-the land of Gold, and Balthasar, King of Saba (pron SAY-ba) or Sheba- where Frankincense flows from trees. [Ancient Ind, Persia,Kasdim-Chaldea] - and were provided with a history.

"When the Children of Israel were gone out of Egypt and had won and made subject to them Jerusalem there was in the Kingdom of Ind a tall hill called the Hill of Vaws or the Hill of Victory. Twelve clerks of astronomy kept watch for the Star that was prophesied by Balaam to be the birth of Christ." The Star ascended above the hill and was seen by the three wise men. The Three Kings presented their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the Christ child. Gold symbolized kingship, frankincense showed godliness, and myrrh death. In return, He offered charity and spiritual riches for gold, faith for incense, and truth and meekness for myrrh.

The Kings returned home by a different route and St. Thomas found them in India and baptized them. They became martyrs and were buried outside the walls of Jerusalem. They were moved to Constantinople by Emperor Constantine’s mother St Helen to the Church of Hagia Sophia, and then to Milan. Finally in 1164 Archbishop Rainald of Dassel translated what were believed to be their relics to his cathedral in Cologne, where they continue to be venerated.

The Archbishop died in 1167 and the great reliquary which holds the bones was constructed between 1180-81 and about 1225, and is arguably the greatest surviving of all medieval relic chasses.

Archbishop Rainhold as depicted on the shrine

Around the relics there developed an extensive devotional and hagiographic literature. The text of an Early English translation of The Three Kings of Cologne by John of Hildesheim in its 1886 edition can be read here

I have heard the charming story that the church bells along the Rhine spontaneously rang as the relics passed by on their journey to their new home - it may be poetic licence, but it is a rather splendid notion.

There is an illustrated article about the Three Kings Shrine here and another with more detailed illustrations here.

As to the relics themselves and their provenence I have seen a documentary about them which pointed out that some of the wrappings were made from early and expensive Byzantine silk - these were well attested relics long before they came to Cologne.

The Shrine of the Three Kings in Cologne Cathedral

Images: Wikimedia

Celebrating the Epiphany

The Adoration of the Magi
Juan Reixach
c.1411-1485+

I am observing the Epiphany today - on its proper day, along with the Pope in the Vatican and the overwhelming historic majority of Catholics through the centuries.

Everyone I talk to thinks we should keep the feast today - not move it to the nearest Sunday, or, strictly speaking, I know, move the obligation to that day. Before there were evening Masses, and if it was not a holiday, I could imagine a case for moving the celebration, but not now. It encourages people not to put themselves out to go to church - and we should be putting ourselves out to worship the Lord. The Magi are a rebuke to such laziness - they bothered a lot more than the Episcopal Conference appears to think the average Catholic can be bothered to do. And, if the Bishops are right about such apathy, rather than pandering to it, what are they going to do to change it? We must maintain pressure to reinstate the proper observance of Epiphany, Ascension Day and Corpus Christi on their traditional days.

So I said the Office of Epiphany last night and this morning, attended Mass in the Extraordinary Form at the Oratory at lunchtime, and will be present at a second such celebration at SS Gregory and Augustine later on, and I am wishing people a happy Epiphany for today.

Theabove passage is a re-posting of what I wrote last year as I still hold to the views I expressed then. I would add that the homily at the Mass celebrated at the Oratory stressed the point of the Epiphany is the adoration by the Magi, not their gifts. If the Epiphany is indeed about adoration, and we adore that which we hold to be paramount, then I think it right to say that we should be , and should be expected to be, willing to put ourselves out just a little to offer that adoration to the Incarnate Godhead.

Epiphany

To mark the Epiphany I am doing as I did on Christmas Day and reproducing, with a few emendations, a post from last year.

It is Stefan Lochner's depiction of the Adoration of the Magi, dated to c.1440-45. It forms the central panel of his triptych of the Virgin and Child with the saints of Cologne, which is in the Lady Chapel of Cologne Cathedral - a cathedral which houses the relics of the Magi. As I had used his Madonna of the Rose Bower on my Christmas Day post I thought I would reproduce his Epiphany picture, partly because I like his paintings and particularly as in it he re-uses the same image of Our Lady:

The following are notes on Stefan Lochner from the Web Gallery of Art site:

This German late Gothic painter, considered to be the greatest representative of the school of Cologne. He is known primarily for his highly mystical religious paintings.

Little is known of his early life, but he is thought to have studied in the Netherlands, possibly under Robert Campin (tentatively identified with the Master of Flémalle), whose influence is evident in the treatment of the drapery and the careful rendering of detail in what may be Lochner's earliest extant painting, St Jerome in His Cell (heirs of Edith von Schröder Collection).

Lochner settled in Cologne about 1430. The earliest work he did there was an altarpiece for the church of St Laurenz (centrepiece with the Last Judgment now in Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne; the wings are dispersed). The abundance of minute observation reflects his continued interest in Netherlandish art. But in the central panel he bound the various themes into a unified composition through the use of a dominating rhythmic design.

In the later 1430s Lochner must have been in the Netherlands again, where he encountered the art of Van Eyck. The first work to reflect this influence is the Madonna with the Violet (c. 1443; Erzbischöfliches Diözesan-Museum, Cologne). Van Eyck's influence is most noticeable in Lochner's chief work, the great town hall altarpiece much admired by Dürer. In this Altar of the Patron Saints, now in Cologne cathedral, Lochner adds to the idealism of the older painters of the Cologne school with a wealth of naturalistic observation in the figures, while the sculpture-like draperies lend them a monumental dignity. In 1447 he became a member of the town council, and from the same year dates the splendid Presentation in the Temple (Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt), which was originally in St Katharinen. The exquisite Madonna of the Rose Bower (Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne) was painted soon afterward.

Lochner became one of Cologne's greatest painters, combining naturalism with a masterful sense of colour and design into a festal solemnity of representation. His work forms perhaps the most successful visual interpretation of late medieval German mysticism before Grünewald. Book illumination was also done in his workshop.

The tough life of a modern Capuchin

A correspondent on the medieval religion discussion group drew readers attention to this newspaper story about the tough regime of modern Capuchins in Sicily, which has also featured in other papers. In many ways it is heartening reading - as well as being amusing.

Birthday of the King of Spain

Today is the 74th birthday of the King of Spain, and an opportunity to express good wishes to a sovereign who has not only proved dutiful and capable but is also a shining example of what a monarchy can offer a nation.

The King and Queen of Spain

Image:barcelonareporter.com

His reign shows what could be done in other countries less fortunate than Spain and which have not restored their historic institutions of governance. The recent problems surrounding one of his sons-in-law are unfortunate and the Royal family are clearly showing their distance from allegations of financial scandal, but the King's achievements far outweigh what must be, I trust, a passing shadow.

An insight into his approach to kingship in the modern age can be gleaned from this article from 2008 which is based around letters he wrote to the Prince of Asturias whilst the Infante was studying in the USA.

The King and Queen of Spain and the Prince of Asturias

Image: Daily Telegraph

Spain is very fortunate indeed in its King and Queen and their royal family, as is the cause of monarchy across Europe and the world.

Solemn Profession at Ryde

Please remember in your prayers Sister Elizabeth Burgess, formerly of the Oratory Parish here in Oxford, who will make her Solemn Profession as a Benedictine nun at St Cecilia's Abbey Ryde in the Isle of Wight tomorrow.