Saturday 25 July 2015

Nidaros ordo

Sunday 26 July. Eighth Sunday after Trinity. Commemoration of Saints Christopher and Cucuratus, martyrs. Anthem after Compline: Ave regina celorum.
Monday 27. The Seven Sleepers, three lessons. Sub tuum presidium.
Tuesday 28. VIGIL OF ST OLAF. Commemorations of St Pantaleon, martyr, and of Ss Felix, Simplicius, Faustinus and Beatrice, martyrs. Alma redemptoris.
Wednesday 29. ST OLAF, KING AND MARTYR, summum. Rogamus te.
Thursday 30. Feria V in Octave of St Olaf. Com. Ss Abdon and Sennen. Ave stella matutina.
Friday 31. Feria VI in Oct. Olaf. Com. St German, bishop and confessor. Mundi domina.
Saturday 1 August. The Chains of Peter, semidouble. Com. Oct. Olaf. Com. Maccabees, martyrs. Salve regina.

Saturday 18 July 2015

Nidaros ordo

Sunday 19 July. Seventh Sunday after Trinity. Anthem after Compline: Ave regina celorum.
Monday 20. Saint Margaret, virgin, semidouble. Sub tuum presidium.
Tuesday 21. St Praxed, virgin not a martyr. O florens rosa.
Wednesday 22. St Mary Magdalene, semidouble. Commemoration of St Wandregisillus. Rogamus te.
Thursday 23. St Appollinaris, bishop and martyr, three lessons. Ave stella matutina.
Friday 24. VIGIL OF ST JAMES. Commemoration of St Cristina, virgin martyr. Mundi domina.
Saturday 25. ST JAMES, apostle, double. Salve regina.

In the kalendar of the Nidaros Breviary, St Margaret's feast-day is unusually printed in red, a privilege normally reserved to feasts of double rank or higher. I wonder whether the immense popularity of this saint made her natale a sort of day of devotion?

Wandregisillus was the founder of the Abbey of Fontenelle, a.k.a. Saint-Wandrille, in the lower Seine valley not far from Le Havre. I wasn't able to get that far East on my recent visit to Normandy, but I did manage to pick up their CD of a typical Sunday Mass (fully Gregorian) in the very well-stocked Siloƫ bookshop on Mont-Saint-Michel. It was in writing of the conventual Mass at Saint-Wandrille that Patrick Leigh Fermor captured so brilliantly the effect of Gregorian plainsong in A Time to Keep Silence.

Friday's saint is Christina the Astonishing, who was formerly commemorated in a chapel of which Fr Bede Rowe may have some recollection.

Monday 13 July 2015

Nidaros ordo

Sunday 12 July. Sixth Sunday after Trinity. Anthem after Compline: Ave regina celorum.
Monday 13. Feria II. Sub tuum presidium.
Tuesday 14. Feria III. O florens rosa.
Wednesday 15. The Dispersal of the Apostles, semidouble. Rogamus te.
Thursday 16. Translation of St Swithun, bishop, semidouble. Ave stella matutina.
Friday 17. St Alexis, confessor not a bishop, three lessons. Mundi domina.
Saturday 18. Sabbath. Salve regina.

The feast of the divisio apostolorum, kept in various parts of the Church even into the twentieth century, commemorates the missionary activity of the apostles after their departure from Jerusalem to the peripheries.

UPDATE: See now the Muniment Room for details about the survival of this feast in England as late as 1910.

Sunday 5 July 2015

Nidaros ordo

Sunday 5 July. Fifth Sunday after Trinity. Anthem after Compline: Ave regina celorum.
Monday 6. Octave day of Ss Peter and Paul, apostles, three lessons. Sub tuum presidium.
Tuesday 7. Commemoration of Translation of St Thomas, archbishop. O florens rosa.
Wednesday 8. SAINTS OF SELJA, martyrs, major double. Rogamus te.
Thursday 9. Octave day of the Visitation of Mary, semidouble. Ave stella matutina.
Friday 10. Seven Brothers, martyrs, three lessons. Mundi domina.
Saturday 11. Translation of St Benedict, abbot, three lessons. Salve regina.

Thomas is Becket. Selja is an island off the Norwegian coast where St Sunniva, an Irish princess, and her companions were "martyred" when a cave, in which they were taking refuge from ill-intentioned heathens, collapsed. The seven brothers were sons of the Roman matron Felicity (not St Felicity); they were martyred under that tyrant and occasional writer of motivational soundbites, Marcus Aurelius.