Candlemas Mass and Office

At last, someone has made the full video available of the Sarum Mass celebrated in Merton College Chapel in Oxford. It was celebrated by the Roman Catholic priest Fr Sean Finnegan in 1997. These were the Masses allowed for Roman Catholics by the then Archbishop of Birmingham but forbidden by Rome. It gives some idea of the complexity of High Mass, and the care taken to recapture the beauty of the music and ceremonies. Until recently, it was split up into ten-minute segments as per the former YouTube rules.

This year on 1st February, I Vespers of Candlemas was sung in St Patrick’s Church, Philadelphia, also under Roman Catholic auspices (Ordinariate). This ceremony was organised by an extraordinary young man by the name of James Griffin. Here is the video:

See the congregational booklet. It can be downloaded.

It is heartening to see interest in the Use of Sarum and another liturgical tradition that transcends both the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation.

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3 Responses to Candlemas Mass and Office

  1. David Llewellyn Dodds says:

    Many thanks! Handy to have the Finnegan Merton mass in one video. What a splendid booklet! What a video to look forward to!

    • David Llewellyn Dodds says:

      Well, I am glad and grateful now (on Julian Candlemas Eve) to have had a ‘first listen’ of the Vespers (more listening than watching, this time, as I was reading along in the booklet for the texts – which has now also got me curious about Psalm versions and wanting to compare the Vulgate…)!

      Thank you again for making us aware of this!

      • I believe that it’s the same in the pre-Vatican II Roman Breviary as in Sarum and the Monastic Office and most others except the Ambrosian, etc. The Psalms are not from the Vulgate but the Vetus Latina version. It strikes me as a parallel to the Prayer Book Psalter which is from the Coverdale translation and not the King James Bible.

        Here’s an interesting article on Latin psalters.

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