Feast of St Martha

Since it is the Feast of St. Martha, here are links to some hymns and Sequences. Don’t worry I have only gone through a small selection of my database so should be more than a few more…

From the Analecta Hymnica,
Vol. 37
Vol43-45
Vol 45
Vol 54
Vol 55

Cantus has a few manuscripts, here,
Including this one with images…

The next job is to start setting them to music in chant notation we can all read.

Feast Of St. Anne

More Hymns coming soon,

Hymns for Doctors

The Paris Breviary of 1736 has a section on Office Hymns not found in the Roman Breviary, we have set the texts for the three Hymns for Doctors to melodies used in the Roman and Dominican books.

Common of Doctors

Vespers I & II – O Qui Perpetuus Nos Monitor Doces (Dominican Melody)

O Qui PerpetuusDownload

Nocturns – Iam Nunc Quae Numeras Tot Tibi Vindices (Roman melody)

Jam nunc quae numerasDownload

Lauds – Vos Succensa Deo Splendida Lumina (Roman melody)

Vos succensa DeoDownload

Prayers for Vocations

Three prayers cards that can be printed,

Prayers for the increase and preservation of the clergy

prayer-for-priestsDownload

Prayer for one aspiring to the priesthood

prayer-for-those-aspiring-to-the-priesthoodDownload

A mother’s prayer for vocations

prayer-for-vocationsDownload

The Espousals of the Blessed Virgin Mary

In the Missale Romanum four Feasts are found for the 23rd January, St Raymond of Pennafort, Confessor, St. Emerentiana, Virgin and Martyr, St Ildephonsus, Bishop and Confessor, and the Feast of the Espousals of the Blessed Virgin Mary, with commemoration of St. Joseph.

Latin English Propers sheet,

The Espousals of the B.V.M 23/1Download

St Rose of Lima

Tags

Sanctoral Hymns

St Rose of Lima has 3 hymns in the Dominican Beviary, by an unknown author.

Vespers Hymn, Telluris omnes IncolaeDownload

Matins Hymn, Limana Regum Civitas

Lauds Hymn, Aurora caelum purpuratDownload

From ‘The Hymns of the Dominican Missal and Breviary, Aquinas Byrnes O.P. 1943.‘ Biographical sketch. St. Rose (1586-1617) was born at Lima, the capital of Peru, in South America. She is justly styled “the first flower of sanctity in the New World.” Though christened Isabel, she was always called Rose because there appeared in the air over her cradle a beautiful rose which gently touched her face, and then vanished. Later on our Blessed Lady in a vision called her “Rose of St. Mary.” From infancy the choicest graces were showered upon her. As a child she enjoyed to a remarkable degree the gift of prayer, keeping herself constantly in God’s presence. Throughout her life, even in her dying moments, she manifested a heroic love of penance and morti- fication. To offset her striking beauty, she deliberately disfig- ured herself in many ways. She devoted ten hours of each day to needlework in support of her family. At the age of twenty- one she was admitted to the Third Order of St. Dominic, but continued residing at home. She was canonized by Clement X in 1671, and has since been declared the patroness of South America and the Philippine Islands.

Feast of St. Anne

St Anne has many hymns that imitate those in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary. A section of Hymns can be found here, Lateinische Hymnen des Mittelalters Vol.III or Analecta Hymnica Vol.52 and Sequences in the Analecta Hymnica Vol. 55.

Other Hymns can be found here, St. Anna, Mother of the B. V. M. and Feast of St Anne.

 

 

 

St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More

In the English supplement today’s feast is a double of the First Class,

Latin English Propers sheet, SS John Fisher & Thomas More

Gregorian Chant Propers, SS John Fisher & Thomas More Propers

Commentary from the St. Andrew’s Daily Missal, 1962 ed.

Amoung the Christian heroes who fought resolutely against heresy and laid down their lives rather than adhere to the schism in England, a place of honour is due to Cardinal John Fisher and to the Chancellor Thomas More.

John Fisher, born at Beverley in 1469, Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, later for thirty-three years bishop of Rochester, refuted Protestant errors in many learned works.

Thomas More, born in London in 1478, a layman, a married man and the father of a family, learned jurist and scholar, was made High Chancellor of England by henry VIII.

Both were imprisoned in the Tower of London by order of the king because they were opposed to his illegitimate union with Anne Boleyn and because they refused him the usurped title of supreme head of the church of England in matters spiritual as well as temporal.

John Fisher, created cardinal by Pope Paul III, ascended the scaffold on June 22, 1535, and was beheaded after reading this sentence of the Gospel: “This is eternallife: thattheymayknowThee,theonlytrueGod,andJesusChrist,Whom Thou hast sent.”

Thomas More was beheaded in his turn on July 6, 1535, for having resisted, after the example of the great doctor of the law Eleazar, all solicitations on the part of his own family which he deemed contrary to his conscience and to the rights of God, of Christ and the Church.

Pius XI solemnly canonized these two saints on March 19, 1935.

May the merits and the prayers of these martyrs of the true faith and of the primacy of the Church of Rome obtain that we may be united in Christ by the same profession of faith.

Feast of Saints Peter and Paul

One of the oldest Hymns to Sts. Peter and Paul is the Aurea Luce, it is based upon the poem of Elpis, wife? of the philosopher Boethius.  She died around 493.  This hymn was revised under Pope Urban VIII in 1632, to become the Decora lux, as found in the Liber Usualis.  Verses 1,2,5,& 6 are sung on the Feast of St. Peter and Paul (June 29). Verses 3 & 6 are sung on the Feast the Chair of St. Peter at Antioch (Feb. 22). Verses 4 & 6, are sung on the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. (Jan. 25).

• • Aurea Luce, Dominican music and Dominican text.
  • Aurea Luce, Dominican music with later text for verse 5.
  • Aurea Luce, Roman music and original text.
  • Aurea Luce, Roman music with later text for verse 5.
  • Aurea Luce, Roman music (Alter Tonus) and original text.
  • Aurea Luce, Roman music (Alter Tonus) with later text for verse 5.

Verse 5 was originally,
Olívæ binæ pietátis únicæ, Fide devótos, spe robústos máxime,
Fonte replétos caritátis géminæ Post mortem carnis impetráte vívere.

This was later replaced by a verse from the Felix per Omnes, suitably modified to fit the different meter.
O Roma felix, quæ tantórum Príncipum Es purpuráta pretióso sánguine,
Non laude tua, sed ipsórum méritis Excéllis omnem mundi pulchritúdinem.

The Second of our Hymns to Sts. Peter and Paul is the Felix per omnes, this hymns is based on our first hymn and is possibly written by Paulinus of Aquileia c. AD 730-802.

• • Felix per omnes, Roman melody
  • Felix per omnes,

This page is under construction!

The Greater Litanies, and St. Mark

St. Mark & Rogations booklet

From the Liturgical Year, Gueranger Vol. 8. pg. 392. https://archive.org/details/liturgicalyear08gura/page/392/mode/2up

This day is honoured in the Liturgy by what is called Saint Mark’s Procession. The term, however,is not a correct one, inasmuch as a Procession was a privilege peculiar to the twenty-fifth of April previously to the institution of our Evangelist’s feast, which, even so late as the sixth century, had no fixed day in the Roman Church. The real name of this Procession is The Greater Litanies. The word Litany means Supplication, and is applied to the religious rite of singing certain chants while proceeding from place to place, and this in order to propitiate Heaven. The two Greek words Kyrie eleison (Lord have mercy on us) were also called Litany, as likewise were the invocations which were afterwards added to that cry for mercy, and which now form a Liturgical prayer used by the Church on certain solemn occasions.
The Greater Litanies (or Processions) are so called to distinguish them from the Minor Litanies, that is, Processions of less importance as far as the solemnity and concourse of the faithful were concerned. We gather from an expression of Saint Gregory the Great that it was an ancient custom in the Roman Church to celebrate, once each year, a Greater Litany at which all the Clergy and people assisted. This holy Pontiff chose the twenty-fifth of April as the fixed day for this Procession and appointed the Basilica of Saint Peter as the Station.

Hymn to St Mark