Embedded Files
For the newly baptized Christians of the ancient and early medieval church of Rome, the Octave of Easter was the culmination of their baptismal preparation and the eight-week stational visits that had taken them with the Pope to most of the important churches of the city. The final station of the season, on the Octave of Easter, known as Low Sunday, was that at San Pancras (San Pancratius or Pancrazio). Why was this day known as Low Sunday, you may ask? “Low” is a comparative term which qualifies it relative to what is “high”! The high Sunday is Easter, certainly the greatest of all liturgical feasts. Low also referred to the neophytes (literally "new plants"), who "shed" their new skin (baptismal garments) to henceforth be considered ordinary Christians, lost in the mass of God’s chosen ones. (Churchmen have sometimes quipped that perhaps it is called Low Sunday because church attendance is usually a fraction of what it was on the feast day of Easter ! ! !)
Other names for this day include: Dominica in Albis or Sunday in White, referring to the laying aside of the white baptismal garments, and which still echoes in the tradition of children receiving their First Communion and the renewal of baptismal vows by the faithful. An interesting name for this Sunday is also Quasi Modo Sunday, taken from the first line in the Introit or Entrance Antiphon of the Mass: Quasi modo geniti infantes, alleluia... (As newborn babes, alleluia), a term still frequently used for the day in France and Germany. Remember the name of the Hunchback of Notre Dame? It was Quasimodo, after this day on which he was born. He is introduced in Victor Hugo's book like this:
Sixteen years previous to the epoch when this story takes place, one fine morning, on Quasimodo Sunday, a living creature had been deposited, after Mass, in the church of Notre-Dame, on the wooden bed securely fixed in the vestibule on the left, opposite that great image of Saint Christopher . . .
By Ali Sabbagh - Notre Dam De Paris, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=84033306
Upon this bed of wood it was customary to expose foundlings for public charity. Whoever cared to take them did so. In front of the wooden bed was a copper basin for alms . . . He (archdeacon Claude Frollo, Quasimodo's adoptive father) baptized his adopted child and called him Quasimodo; whether it was that he chose thereby to commemorate the day when he had found him, or that he meant to mark by that name how incomplete and imperfectly molded the poor little creature was. Indeed, Quasimodo, one-eyed, hunchbacked, and bow-legged, could hardly be considered as anything more than an almost.
That classic novel is an apologia for the goodness and glory of the magnificent Cathedral, which in our day we've all seen in flames, not that long ago - a moving, haunting, distressing image that seems to symbolize the destruction of the Catholic faith in our times. Like ours, Victor Hugo's time was one that disparaged religion, both its inheritance, and it's means of sanctification. Hugo thought that Notre Dame, by its very structure, was a means of evangelization, and sought to have it preserved, rather than made "modern." Hugo sought to save Notre Dame from destruction so that it might be a lamp of faith, just as there are those today seeking to have Notre Dame preserved from those who would "update it."
True Catholic buildings, true Catholic architecture, is not mere aestheticism, or symbolism, still less is it a a cultural artifact. True Catholic architecture is the fashioning of metal, wood, glass, and stone into a structure that proclaims the unsurpassable mystery of what that structure encases and protects, the very Altar of God. At every Mass, Christ Jesus, the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world, is clearly portrayed before our eyes as Crucified. Therefore, heaven and earth, on that very altar, are reconciled in, through, and by the body of Jesus Christ.
By Milliped - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=78063407
The body is more than a mere husk -- likewise, Notre Dame is not "just a building" -- it is the very means by which spiritual realities are expressed. Just as the wounds the Christ bids us to gaze upon and touch are the reality of His love for us, so Catholic architecture is the reality of our love for Him. The Blessed Trinity calls us to build Him something that embodies the beauty of eternity, something that will stand the test of time, something that will cause people centuries later to say, "The people who built this loved God."
In the Eastern Church, this Sunday is known as St. Thomas Sunday, because the Gospel reading is always John 20:19-29, relating the appearance of Christ to his disciples on the Sunday following his resurrection, with Thomas the Apostle present. The Eastern Christians call the day Antipascha... the re-dedication of the Resurrection of Christ, commemorating the event of the Holy Apostle Thomas' touching the wounds of Christ." (Synaxarion: ANTIPASCHA - Thomas Sunday)
To the left is a video of the reading of the Gospel and homily from our Eastern brethren at St. Herman Orthodox Church (OCA) - Glen Mills, PA. for Thomas Sunday. Click square in lower right corner to enlarge full screen.
And yet, did St Thomas actually touch the wounds of Christ? Perhaps he did . . . But here is the way St John records the episode in John 20:24-29 :
24 Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe.”
26 Eight days later, his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. The doors were shut, but Jesus came and stood among them, and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”
Not a word about Thomas actually touching the wounds . . . . .
Left: Andrea del Verrocchio's Christ and St. Thomas
at the Orsanmichele of Florence, Italy https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Christ_with_St._Thomas_the_Apostle_of_India.jpgLeft: Andrea del Verrocchio's Christ and St. Thomas
Still another name for this Sunday was Pascha clausum, referring to the close of the Octave of Easter. Today, in the West, we know the Octave of Easter as Divine Mercy Sunday due to revelations imparted to St Faustina Kowalska. In them, she was told that the Sunday after Easter was a day of Mercy, and that those who made a confession, and received communion would have all their sins and punishments forgiven.
Now to our Station of the day . . . . .
Below: The Church of San Pancrazio on the Janiculum Hill in Rome
Below: The Church of San Pancrazio on the Janiculum Hill in Rome
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AQ12_Gianicolense_-_S._Pancrazio_1.JPG
St. Pancras was an orphan from Phrygia who had been left in the care of his uncle Dionysus at the age of 8, after his parents both died. Eventually, he and his uncle both moved to Rome, where Pancras converted to Christianity. The first account of the martyrdom of Pancras comes from the Martyrologium Hieronymianum which sets the date of his death as May 12th. Pancras was martyred in Rome during the persecution of Diocletian in the early 4th century; he was only fourteen years old. In the ancient Roman world, significantly, fourteen was the earliest age at which a young man could receive the toga virilis (toga or one-piece cloak worn by adult Roman males, given to a youth when he came of age as a symbol of manhood and citizenship), signifying his entry into adulthood. After that, he was legally able to be killed for his faith.
Over the course of Lent, the ancient catechumens had visited the churches of many different martyrs. On the day of their baptism, when they became "reborn" within the Church, they were reminded that although they were just at the very beginning of their spiritual life, they must give their whole lives to Christ, who gave His own Life for the salvation of the whole world. In those early days, when one was martyred for Christ just as he had became an adult, the white baptismal garments of his spiritual infancy were laid aside at his tomb, to signify his simultaneous passage into adulthood and into eternal life. So it was with San Pancras. It became customary for the neophyte Christians after their baptism at Easter, to wear their white baptismal clothing all week, and on the Octave of Easter to lay it aside, signifying entry into spiritual adulthood.
Above and below: Interior San Pancrazio
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AS_Pancrazio_-_interno_P1000661.JPGAbove and below: Interior San Pancrazio
Interior - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ASan_Pancrazio_-_interno_1542.JPG
Above: The altar of San Pancras decorated for Mass on Low Sunday, following the Polish custom of draping a stole over the Crucifix in Eastertide.
http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2012/04/station-churches-of-easter-octave.html#.Vvl3l8eyxSQAbove: The altar of San Pancras decorated for Mass on Low Sunday, following the Polish custom of draping a stole over the Crucifix in Eastertide.
Pancras condemned before the Emperor - notice his white garment
19th-century tableau - Church of St Pancras at Griesheim, Alsacehttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AGriesheimSouffel_StPancrace_28.JPGPancras condemned before the Emperor - notice his white garment
Left: 18th century baroque altarpiece with the image of Pancrace of Rome. Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Barcelona. Chapel of St Pancrace of Rome
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Barcelona_Cathedral_Interior_-_Statue_of_Saint_Pancrace_of_Rome.jpgAround 303, during the persecution of Diocletian, Pancras was brought before the authorities and asked to perform a sacrifice to the Roman gods. Diocletian was impressed with the boy's determination to resist and promised him great wealth but Pancras refused. Finally, the emperor ordered him to be beheaded on the Via Aurelia, on May 12, 303 AD.
A Roman matron named Ottavilla recovered Pancras' body, covered it with balsam, wrapped it in precious linens, and buried it in a newly dug sepulchre in the Catacombs of Ottavilla in Rome, but his head was placed in the reliquary that still rests today in the Basilica of Saint Pancras.
Two centuries later, when Pope Gregory I sent Augustine to Canterbury on his missionary trip to England, he also sent relics of St. Pancras, and so the young martyr's cult was transported to England. St Pancras Old Church is one of the oldest sites of Christian worship in England, dating to around AD 400, and the famous railway station in London was named after St Pancras because it was within the parish of Old St Pancras.
Translation of St Pancrazio to Heaven in the company of angels.
Mural in the Basilica of St Pancrazio in RomeThe body of San Pancrazio lies in an urn reading "Hic decollatus fuit Sanctus Pancratius" ("Here Saint Pancras was beheaded").
The porphyry sarcophagus containing the relics of St Pancras, beneath the high altar of St Pancras in Rome.
http://www.stagnes.org.uk/pages/SaintAgnesStPancras.htmlThe porphyry sarcophagus containing the relics of St Pancras, beneath the high altar of St Pancras in Rome.
Below: The Baptism of St. Pancras - Fresco in the Basilica of San Pancras in Rome
Below: The Baptism of St. Pancras - Fresco in the Basilica of San Pancras in Rome
The Martyrdom of St Pancras, from a fresco in the Basilica of St Pancras, Rome
The Martyrdom of St Pancras, from a fresco in the Basilica of St Pancras, Rome
This church of San Pancrazio was reconstructed or restored by Pope Symmacus about AD 500. Gregory of Tours wrote that the people of Rome used to come here to take and ratify their oaths, believing that on this spot the sin of perjury would result in death. The basilica was restored several times over the centuries, but was essentially destroyed in the stormy political turmoil at the end of the 19th century, and had to be rebuilt at the beginning of the 20th century. As a result, little remains of its antiquities. In the adjoining catacombs of St. Pancras, which were so frequently mentioned in the acts of the martyrs, there was also great desecration, and many marble markers were carried away. Even the relics were somewhat scattered but at last the bodies of the titular Saint and of his uncle St. Dionysius, and several other martyrs now lie peacefully in the rich porphyry sarcophagus under the high altar of the Basilica.
The Catacombs of Pancrazio
The Catacombs of Pancrazio
Entrance from the street to the Basilica of San Pancrazio and its Catacombs
By user:Lalupa - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=532510
And so, my dear pilgrims, ends the great Station Church Pilgrimage for another year. But you are far richer now than you were on Ash Wednesday at the beginning of Lent for having trekked repeatedly through the streets of Rome in the footsteps of the ancient catechumens and saints. Remember them now and then as you trek through your own modern life. You will find that at the most unexpected times, they are with you still. They are now your own personal "cloud of witnesses" in the Communion of Saints. Use the "eyes" of your soul now and then, instead of just your physical eyes, and see that they form a safety net around you, guiding you, cheering for you when you succeed, weeping for you when you fall, helping you to recover your feet and continue on. They stand as marker stones through the perils of this life, making the strait and narrow path clear before you. They love you. They are gifts to you from a loving Father, from our precious Redeemer, and from the Holy Spirit. They are also the gifts of Holy Mother Church and your Mother Mary. They are meant to be your friends. Get to know them better, and call on them by name. After all, they pray for you by name. Listen at Mass for the names of those whose memory is embedded in the sacred liturgy of the Roman Canon. Greet them as you hear those venerable names, reminding you of the lavish nature of God's work in His great plan of Salvation. Nothing is too extravagant, too costly, too complicated for the salvation of His children. Our great God has prepared everything we need, without exception, for our benefit and sanctification. He desires to embrace us and hold us to His most Sacred Heart. We were bought with the Precious Blood of our dear Saviour, reinforced by the blood of His saints. Allow His beautiful Saints and Angels to help you get dressed in your Wedding Garment. The Feast is prepared. Step back and see that we move in a great throng toward the Marriage Supper of the Lamb!
Christus Rex
Christus Rex
Christ conquers, Christ reigns, Christ commands
Christ conquers, Christ reigns, Christ commands
Christ the King
Christ the King
A few little extras . . . . .
A few little extras . . . . .
Google Sites
Report abuse