23 August 2020

Bishop John Grandisson

August 23, the day after the Octave Day of the Assumption, was designated as his Obit Day by Bishop Grandisson ... although it was not in fact the Day of his Death.

Decades before, he had ordered that his Installation was to be on that Octave Day, because of his great devotion to our blessed  Lady of Mercy.

He ordered that, on that Octave Day, the Benedictus should have this interpolation:  
Benedictus Filius Mariae qui venit ...

He was a very great Pontiff. He was a buddy of our late Holy Father Pope John XXII and, in my view, is probably responsible for the 'English' monument to that pope in Avignon Cathedral. He introduced Corpus Christi to his Diocese, and gave magnificent monstrances to the Cathedral and to his Collegiate Church at Ottery.

He once sent his private army to repel a Metropolitical Visitation by the Archbishop of Canterbury.


It would be great fun if Bishop O'Toole had a similar exchange with his Metropolitan Archbishop. Which side would the Tablet take?

I wonder what odds the bookies are giving on O'Toole for Westminster.

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