8 November 2021

All Saints of England

The Ordinariate Calendar offers, on the old Octave Day of All Saints, a Festum of all the Saints of England. Or of Wales!

The Mass which follows seems to me a very good one. But I do not know where it comes from. Does any reader?

There is, however, a prehistory to this celebration. The abortive English Anglican Prayer Book of 1928 contained, in an appendix, this feast. And the Collect it offered was

We beseech thee, O Lord, to multiply thy grace upon us who commemorate the saints of our nation: that, as we rejoice to be their fellow-citizens on earth; so we may have fellowship with them in heaven. Through.

What interests me is that this collect seems to have been lifted by '1928' from the Irish Appendix of the Roman Missal, which commemorates All the Saints of Ireland on November 6, with this Collect:

Gratiam tuam, Domine, multiplica super nos, solemnitatem celebrantes omnium insulae nostrae sanctorum: ut quorum esse cives gratulamur  in terris; cum his mancipatum habere mereamur in caelis. Per.

The whole Mass is Proper to that day. I wonder who borrowed it for '1928'.

It has long been my own custom to say this Mass on November 8 as (a double) of the Second Class. If someone could point me to a Latin original of the Divine Worship Mass, I will happily use that!

It is, course, satisfying to observe in some way the Octave Days sadly abolished by Pius XII. The Breviary readings for the Octave Day of All Saints seem to me very suitable for All the Saints of England!

The various religious orders observed festivals of All their Saints as follows: Jesuits, November 6; Benedictines, November 13; Franciscans, November 29; Dominicans, November 9; Discalced Carmelites, November 14; Augustinians, November 13; Servites, November 16. Some of these began Mass with an introit adapting Gaudeamus ...


 

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