February 22: St Peter's Chair, Class III

In the re-1962 calendar there were actually two different feasts of St Peter's chair.  The first related to his pontificate in Rome, and today's feast related to his tenure at Antioch where he spent seven years.  In the 1962 calendar they have been combined, an unfortunate downplaying of the links between East and West in my opinion, not to mention depriving of us a chance to celebrate again the greatest of the Apostles and reinforce the importance of his successors!

But in any case, we can certainly celebrate him today.

Here is an extract from St Augustine for the older version of the feast on St Peter's tenure at Antioch:

"Today's solemn feast received from our forefathers the name of Saint Peter's Chair at Antioch, because of a tradition that on this day Peter, first of the Apostles, took possession of his episcopal Chair. Fitly, therefore, do the churches observe the day of his enthronement, the right to which the Apostles received for the sake of salvation, (which comes to us in the churches,) when the Lord said: Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church. It was the Lord himself who called Peter the foundation of the Church, and therefore it is right that the Church should reverence this foundation whereon her mighty structure rises. Justly is it written in the Psalm which we so often chant : Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the seat of the elders. Blessed be God, who hath commanded that the holy Apostle Peter be exalted in the congregation! Worthy to be honoured by the Church is that foundation from which her goodly towers rise, pointing to heaven! In the honour which is this day paid to the inauguration of the first Bishop's throne, an honour is paid to the office of all Bishops. The Churches testify one to another, that, the greater the Church's dignity, the greater the reverence due to her priests."

February 19 after the hour of None: The season of Septuagesima

We come now to one of those times of the year that has been unfortunately suppressed in the new calendar.

The nature of Septuagesimatide

In the traditional calendar, instead of going cold turkey into Lent, we have a three week pre-Lent period of preparation. 

Of course in the Benedictine calendar, pre-Lent started traditionally at least back in November if one follows the Rules fasting regime!  For this reason presumably, Benedictines did not adopt Septuagesima until quite late, in the twelfth century According to Dom Gueranger, by Papal order.

The most immediate change to the liturgy is the 'burying' of the Alleluia, the subject of assorted rituals from different regions, and its replacement in the opening prayers to each hour by 'Laus tibi, Domine, Rex aeterne gloriae'.

But there is also an intensification of the Office, with increased use of specific antiphons and other texts with a focus on helping us remember why we need to do penance.

I Vespers of Septuagesima Sunday

The Magnificat antiphon for Vespers today refers to the Fall, reflecting the fact that at Matins from Sunday the Scripture readings are from the Book of Genesis. 

February 14: St Valentine, Memorial

The feast of St. Valentine (d c269) was first established in 496 by Pope Gelasius I, who included Valentine among those "... whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to God." As Gelasius implied, nothing was known, even then, about the lives of any of these martyrs. The Saint Valentine that appears in various martyrologies in connection with February 14 is described either as a Roman priest, a bishop, or a martyr from Africa. 

Most of the legends that associate the saint with romantic love seem to have been fourteenth century inventions associated with Chaucer.

February 7: St Romuald OSB, Class III

St Romuald (c 951-1027) is one of those figures who illustrates the importance of "second founders", who add a distinctive charism of their own to combine with St Benedict's wisdom,  in the Benedictine tradition. 

A nobleman, he fled the world in horror after seeing his father kill someone in a duel.  After some time in a monastery he left to become a hermit.  After a checkered career including a failed attempt to reform an existing monastery, he formed a new Camaldolese Order that integrated the Benedictine Cluniac school, the stricter Irish ascetic tradition and Iberian monasticism.  His spirituality is much more eremitic in flavour than that prescribed by the Benedictine Rule, and favours a greater focus on meditation and prayer as well as asceticism.

St Romuald's short Rule for monks says:

"Sit in your cell as in paradise. Put the whole world behind you and forget it. Watch your thoughts like a good fisherman watching for fish. The path you must follow is in the Psalms — never leave it.

If you have just come to the monastery, and in spite of your good will you cannot accomplish what you want, take every opportunity you can to sing the Psalms in your heart and to understand them with your mind.

And if your mind wanders as you read, do not give up; hurry back and apply your mind to the words once more.

Realize above all that you are in God's presence, and stand there with the attitude of one who stands before the emperor.

Empty yourself completely and sit waiting, content with the grace of God, like the chick who tastes nothing and eats nothing but what his mother brings him."

Today the Camaldolese have two distinct branches: one has its headquarters at Camaldoli and maintains a mix of monasteries and hermitages among the communities of men. The other, the Congregation of Monte Corona, was established by the Renaissance reformer, Saint Paolo Giustiniani lives solely in hermitages, usually with a very small number of monks comprising the community.

Happy feastday to all Camaldolese oblates!

February 5: St Agatha, Class III

St Agatha is one of the seven female saints named in the canon of the mass. 

She had vowed herself to virginity but was persecuted by the pagan official in charge of her city, Catania in Sicily.  Told to sacrifice to the gods or suffer, she stood firm, whereupon she was subjected to a series of tortures, including having her breasts cut off. 

Forbidden medical treatment, in the middle of the night an old man approached her, and revealed himself to be the apostle Peter.  He healed her, but this only spurred on her tormentor to greater indignities, ordering her to be burnt naked over hot coals. 

The Benedictus antiphon for her feast refers to the eruption of the volcano above Catania on the day of her death: crowds of pagans snatched up the pall that covered the saint’s tomb, and hung it up in the path of the advancing fire and lava; miraculously, the steam of lava ceased its advance.

February 3: St Blaise, Memorial

St Blaise was a bishop and physician who was martyred in 316.  He is one of the fourteen holy helpers.

He is most famous for his association with the blessing of throats, done on this day as a sacramental. 

His legend states that as he was being led away after he was arrested during one of the persecutions of Christians, a mother set her only son, choking to death of a fish-bone, at his feet, and the child was cured straight away. Regardless, the governor, unable to make Blaise renounce his faith, beat him with a stick, ripped his flesh with iron combs, and beheaded him.

February 2: Candlemas, aka Purification of Our Lady, Class II

Candlemas, aka The Purification of Our Lady, aka the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, is celebrated 40 days after Christmas, the traditional date for the ceremonies of purification after childbirth in Jewish law that were translated over into Catholic tradition as the rites for the churching of women.

In Jewish tradition women were ritually impure after childbirth; in Catholic tradition the ceremony is a thanksgiving for survival of childbirth, and a blessing for the future. In both cases it was no doubt a practical measure in part, to allow the mother to recover before having to resume her normal duties including attending worship! These days of course the idea is considered ideologically unsound, so the feast has been renamed the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple (which was certainly part of the traditional ceremonies, albeit the part supplanted by infant baptism).

The popular name for the feast comes from the ceremony held on the day whereby the candles to be used for the year ahead are blessed.

The Gospel for the day, Luke 2, describes the events, and gives us the Nunc Dimittis, Simeon's canticle used at Compline in the Roman Rite.