January 16: Pope St Marcellus I, Memorial

Pope St Marcellus I was pope from May 308 to 309.  He seems to have been an active administrator, doing much to reorganize the Church after the devastation caused by the persecutions of Diocletian. 

He sparked the enmity, though, of those who had lapsed during this period by his demands that they do penance. 

Both this and the vigour of his efforts to re-establish the Church seem to have contributed to his banishment by the Emperor Maxentius.  He died not long thereafter.

January 15: The Office of Our Lady on Saturday after Christmas

Though Christmastide is now technically over, as Dom Gueranger points out in his Liturgical Year, the older tradition is that the season conceived more broadly extends for the forty days Our Lady spent in contemplation after the birth of Our Lord, until her re-entry to the Temple at the Feast of the Purification on February 2. 

This is reflected liturgically in Marian antiphon and prayers at Compline and in the Office of Our Lady on Saturday where the psalm antiphons of the Nativity continue to be used until February 2.

Here is a setting of the Lauds antiphon (albeit with a few extra alleluias):

January 14: St Felix of Nola, Memorial

According to the Wikipedia:

"Felix was the elder son of Hermias, a Syrian soldier who had retired to Nola, Italy. After his father's death, Felix sold off most of his property and possessions, gave the proceeds to the poor, and pursued a clerical vocation. Felix was ordained by, and worked with, Saint Maximus of Nola.

When Maximus fled to the mountains to escape the persecution of Decius, Felix was arrested and beaten for his faith instead. He escaped prison, according to legend being freed by an angel, so he could help his sick bishop, Maximus. Felix found Maximus alone, ill, and helpless, and hid him from soldiers in a vacant building. When the two were safely inside, a spider quickly spun a web over the door, fooling the imperial forces into thinking it was long abandoned, and they left without finding the Christians. A subsequent attempt to arrest Felix followed, which he avoided by hiding in a ruined building where a spider's web spun across the entrance convinced the soldiers the building was abandoned. The two managed to hide from authorities until the persecution ended with the death of Emperor Decius in 251.

After Maximus's death, the people wanted Felix to be the next bishop of Nola, but he declined, favoring Quintus, a "senior" priest who had seven days more experience than Felix. Felix himself continued as a priest. He also continued to farm his remaining land, and gave most of the proceeds to people even poorer than himself.

Legend assigns to Felix a martyr's death either in the year 255 under Emperor Valerian (253-260) or, in another version, in the general persecution instigated by the Emperor Decius (249-251)."

January 13: Commemoration of the Baptism of Our Lord

The Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord marks the last day of the extended Christmas season, and symbolically marks the end of the hidden years of Our Lord's life, and the beginning of his public ministry.

The feast is very recent indeed in origin: originally this was the Octave Day of the Epiphany, which encompasses the visit of the Magi, the wedding feast at Cena, and the Baptism of Our Lord. But when Pope Pius XII abolished the Octave of the Epiphany, he instituted this feast in its place.

Jan 9: Holy Family or Sunday after Epiphany?

This Sunday presents something of a liturgical oddity in the Benedictine calendar, in that the Sunday ends up being much less elaborate liturgically than it was before 1955, or is still in the 1962 Roman EF calendar. 

Once upon a time it would have been part of the Octave of Epiphany, and used the antiphons from that feast. 

In the Roman Extraordinary Form, this Sunday is the Feast of the Holy Family, a feast whose Gospel reading (the finding of the child Jesus in the Temple) provides something of a bridge between the Nativity and the Baptism of Our Lord (January 13).  

In the novus ordo, the feast was celebrated on the Sunday immediately after Christmas (where it really makes no sense chronologically at all!). 

But in the Benedictine calendar, the feast isn't celebrated at all - nor is this a '1962ism'.  In fact the Feast of the Holy Family is quite recent in origin, instituted only in 1893, and doesn't seem to have entered the monastic calendar at all as far as I can discover.  Instead, until 1955 at least, this was the Sunday within the Octave, and so the antiphons and so forth of Epiphany were used, in conjunction with - the same Gospel  as the Feast of the Holy Family!

But with the abolition of the Octave, the Sunday is of lower rank, and thus the standard antiphons of Sundays are used. 

Unless of course, you are associated with one of those monasteries that do actually celebrate the feast of the Holy Family (the feast has Canadian origins I believe), or are using the EF calendar...

January 7: Yes, it is still Christmastide (and Epiphanytide)...

Visiting the supermarket today I found that Hot Cross buns have appeared already!  Yet in fact, we are still in the last part of the Christmas season, Epiphanytide (so do keep saying Merry Christmas to people!). 

The traditional liturgy however keeps us firmly focused on Our Lord's birth, in this period particularly as a light to the whole world, represented by the worship of the Wise Men.  Fortunatley, the canticle antiphons from the old 'Octave' of Epiphany have been preserved (at least when not displaced by other feasts or the Saturday of Our Lady). 

Here's today's Magnificat antiphon:
Videntes stellam Magi, gavisi sunt gaudio magno: et intrantes domum, obtulerunt Domino aurum, thus et myrrham.

Seeing the star, the Magi rejoiced with great joy. And entering into the house, they offered the Lord gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

And here's a rather attractive setting of it by Poulenc.

January 5: Once was...Vigil of Epiphany

The Vigil of the Epiphany was abolished in 1955, but restored in 2002 in the Novus Ordo Calendar (at least where it is not celebrated on the Sunday only!).  It is unusual in that it was not a day of fasting, in keeping with the season.

There is an excellent article on the vigil and its celebration over at New Liturgical Movement.

Here is a musical offering for the Vigil by Palestrina.



The words are:

Surge, illuminare, Jerusalem,
quia venit lumen tuum,
et gloria Domini super te orta est.
Quia ecce tenebrae operient terram
et caligo populos.
Super te autem orietur Dominus
et gloria eius in te videbitur.

Arise, shine, Jerusalem;
for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
For darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you,
and his glory will appear over you.