TOPIC 3 (Liturgical Year, Medieval):
The Development of the Feast of Corpus Christi in the Thirteenth Century

This topic is a straightforward historical examination of the development of the Feast of Corpus Christi, including (but not exclusively of) the propers of the Mass and Office of the feast, from the alleged visions of Juliana of Mont Cornillon in Liège (1210) to the promulgation of the feast universally in the bull Transiturus of Pope Urban IV (1264).

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Studies and Sources

Caspers, Charles. “How the Sacrament Left the Church Building: Theophoric Processions as a Constituent of the Feast of Corpus Christi,” 383-403. Christian Feast and Festival, ed. G. Rowhurst and P. Post. Leuven: Peeters, 2001.

Delaissé, L. M. J. “A la recherche des origines de l’Office du Corpus Christi dans les manuscrits liturgiqes.” Scriptorium 4 (1950): 220-239.

Dudley, Martin. “Liturgy and Doctrine: Corpus Christi.” Worship 66 (1992): 417-426.

Gy, P.-M. “L’Office du Corpus Christi et s. Thomas d’Aquin: état d’une recherché.” Revue des sciences philosophiques et théologiques 64 (1980): 491-507.

_____. “L’office du Corpus Chrisi et la théologie des accidents eucharistique.” Revue des sciences philosophiques et théologiques 66 (1982): 81-86.

Lamberts, Jozef. “The Origin of the Corpus Christi Festival.” Worship 70 (1996): 432-446.

The Life of Juliana of Mont Cornillon, tr. Barbara Newman. Toronto: Peregrina, 1988.

Mitchell, Nathan. Cult and Controversy: The Worship of the Eucharist Outside Mass. Collegeville: Liturgical Press/Pueblo, 1990.

Rubin, Miri. “Corpus Christi: Inventing a Feast.” History Today 40 (1990): 15-21.

_____. Corpus Christi: The Eucharist in Late Medieval Culture, 164-302. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Walters, Barbara R. “Church-Sect Dynamics and the Feast of Corpus Christi.” Sociology of Religion 65 (2004): 285-301.

Walters, Barbara R., Vincent Corrigan and Peter T. Ricketts, The Feast of Corpus Christi. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006.

Dr. Hancock will be remembered by many for his years of service (1971-2004) as Organist and Master of Choristers at the Church of Saint Thomas Fifth Avenue in New York.

A few samples of Dr. Hancock’s work —

A 1976 improvisation on the Skinner at Saint Thomas:

The Savior’s Triumph, an improvisation by Dr. Hancock inspired by the windows in the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Hartford, Connecticut:

May he rest in peace;
and rise in glory. Amen.

Such things are perhaps easier to demonstrate than describe, so for your listening pleasure, the Choir of Westminster Abbey, singing Psalm 138 at Evensong (Sung Evening Prayer) during the Papal Visitation of September 2010:

The translation is from the Coverdale Psalter, which is part of the Book of Common Prayer 1662:

Psalm 138. Confitebor tibi
1. I will give thanks unto thee, O Lord, with my whole heart : even before the gods will I sing praise unto thee.
2. I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy Name, because of thy loving-kindness and truth : for thou hast magnified thy Name and thy word above all things.
3. When I called upon thee, thou heardest me : and enduedst my soul with much strength.
4. All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, O Lord : for they have heard the words of thy mouth.
5. Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the Lord : that great is the glory of the Lord.
6. For though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly : as for the proud, he beholdeth them afar off.
7. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, yet shalt thou refresh me : thou shalt stretch forth thy hand upon the furiousness of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me.
8. The lord shall make good his loving-kindness toward me : yea, thy mercy, O Lord, endureth for ever; despise not then the works of thine own hands.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost : as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

In short, harmony and (some) meter, and a history different but not wholly unrelated to that of Gregorian Chant, makes “Anglican Chant” Anglican. That’s the short of it, and we have ample musicological types who can supplement the details if they wish.

I should add — believe it or not — that this complicated-sounding chant is eminently singable, even by congregations with little formal musical training, provided that the pointing of the text is clear.

Of course, Anglicans are capable (some would say ‘must needs be capable’) of poking fun at ourselves, our liturgy and our music. Here are the Master Singers, presenting the “Highway Code”:

Kerfuffles and fisticuffs are nothing new among the various churches that share custody of the major shrines of the Holy Land. Raymond Cohen’s study, Saving the Holy Sepulchre (Oxford, 2008), not only highlights a few of these colorful moments in intra-Christian relations, but illustrates how lack of agreement over how to manage and care for such spaces has imperiled (at times) the fabric of these ancient, holy places.

As a Christian with sympathetic ties to and respect for the Armenian, Byzantine and Roman traditions, I lament that these spats occasionally erupt. I have to wonder how such internal scuffles appear to Christians without an appreciation of the difficult history of these places — or without concern for the ancient historic churches. Moreover, I have to wonder — I can only imagine — how such things appear to non-Christians, whether they are believers in some religious system or not.

Let us pray for one another.

We are now several hours into 2012—
Anno Domini: the year of our Lord 2012;
Anno Salutis: the year of Savlation 2012—
several hours into day of new beginnings,
a day of new opportunities.

Some of us have made resolutions for the coming 366;
(it’s a leap year, you know);
some of us have already broken our New Year’s resolutions;
some of us won’t have the opportunity to see
if they hold for some time yet;
and some of us—perhaps the bravest and wisest of all—
have resolved not to resolve.

In addition to today being the first of the new year,
it is the octave day, the eight day, of the celebration of Christmas.
The octave day of a feast is a privileged day,
and is often kept as a feast day itself.
Following the chronology of today’s gospel [Luke 2:15-21]
some Christians will keep today either as the feast
of the Holy Name of Jesus,
or as the feast of the Circumcision of Jesus,
or as a feast in honor of Mary, under the title Dei Genetrix, Mētēr Theou, Mother of God incarnate.

For Episcopalians, it’s the first: the Holy Name of Jesus.
Eight days past, we celebrated his birth;
the appearance of the Word made flesh:
now he receives the name “given by the angel before he was conceived.”

This naming is a very human moment,
one that will be bound up with his identity,
his history, his narrative, his life’s journey.

It is also a divine moment,
one that binds his identity with that of God.
We call him Jesus in English, by way of the Greek;
they named him Yeshuah,
or possibly Yehoshua,
a name meaning (more or less) “God Saves.”
His name derives in part from The Name—
the one given by God to Moses through the burning bush.
Ehyeh asher Ehyeh:
I AM who am;
I will be with you as who I am.
This child’s name carries within it
the power and promise of the very Name of God.

Certainly, it was a common enough name, in its day;
perhaps some saw the irony in it when he was nailed to the cross
and the placard was hung above his head:
“God Saves”— but apparently not this one (?!?)

With now-familiar words,
the Victorian poet Caroline Noel summarizes for us:

Humbled for a season to receive a [human] name,
From the lips of sinners unto whom he came:
Faithfully he bore it, spotless to the last,
Brought it back victorious when from death he passed.

The name of Jesus, Saint Paul tells us,
God has exalted above every other name, such that
“at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth” (Phil 2:10).

We may not bend the knee every time we invoke it;
perhaps, when we remember, we at least bow our heads.
Invoke it, nonetheless, we do:
in moments of ecstatic joy,
deep grief,
and profound frustration.

Name him, Christians, name him, with love strong as death
And with awe and wonder, and with bated breath!
He is God the Savior, he is Christ the Lord,
Ever to be worshipped, trusted and adored.

Jesus: all that God has promised in the divine name,
all that I AM meant to the people
who waited for him ever so long
has become Emmanuel,
God-with-us,
promise fulfilled in Jesus.

And “Jesus” has become, as Charles Wesley reminds us,

The name that charms our fears,
That bids our sorrows cease:
‘Tis music in the sinner’s ears,
‘Tis life, and health, and peace.

Of course, we have another “name” for him—
the Hebrew title, “Messiah,”
rendered “Christos” in Greek: the Christ,
the anointed one of God.

Almost from the beginning,
his title was treated as a name;
as something of a surname, a last name:
thus we call him “Jesus Christ.”

We heard in the Epistle lesson [Gal 4:4-7]
just a few moments ago, that
“[w]hen the fullness of time had come,
God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
in order to redeem those who were under the law,
so that we might receive adoption as children” through him.

And, not unlike those adopted into our own families and communities,
God in Christ has bestowed upon us his name:
We are “Christians,”
those who, like Jesus himself,
have been anointed—quite literally in baptism;
we are christened: Christ-ened,
conformed to his own Sonship,
so that we might be “no longer a slave but a child,
and if a child then also an heir,” co-heirs of everlasting life,
co-heirs of the reign of God,
together with Jesus Christ our Lord.

Do we embrace that name that we have been given?
Have we learned to live every moment in and through that Spirit
by whom we cry out “Abba! Father!”?
Are we signs of the presence and promise;
do we make the Word-made-flesh real for those around us?
Are we living as those who have been “likened to Christ,”
untied to him as members of his body through baptism,
Christ-ened, anointed with his Spirit,
living by the power of the name of Jesus,
waiting with joy and hope,
ready to inherit with him the coming reign of God?

Ah! The stuff of New Years’ resolutions. . . .
and the day is still young—
besides, who ever said that resolutions had to be made right at midnight?

TOPIC 2 (Eucharist, Eastern):
Patristic and Early Medieval Byzantine Commentaries on the Eucharistic Liturgy

This topic exposes the examinee to four primary early and medieval commentaries (by Theodore of Mopsuestia, Pseudo-Dionysius “the Areopagite,” Maximus Confessor, Germanus of Constantinople and Nicholas Cabasilas) on the Divine Liturgies of the Byzantine rite, attending to what they reveal about the development of the liturgy itself, to the development of mystical commentary in the Byzantine tradition from “mystagogical” to “allegorical” and to the theology of the Eucharistic sacrament (including the topics of presence and sacrifice insofar as they are treated by the commentators).

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Primary Sources

Cabasilas, Nicholas. A Commentary on the Divine Liturgy, tr. J. M. Hussey and P. A. McNulty. Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1977.

Germanus of Constantinople. On the Divine Liturgy, tr. Paul Meyendorff. Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1984.

Maximus Confessor. “The Church’s Mystagogy,” 181-225. Maximus Confessor: Selected Writings, tr. George Berthold. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist, 1985.

Pseudo-Dionysius. “The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy,” 195-259. Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works, tr. Colm Lubheid. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist, 1987.

Theodore of Mopsuestia, “Baptismal Homily V” and “Baptismal Homily VI” (= Catechetical Sermons 15-16), 226-250. Edward Yarnold, SJ, The Awe Inspiring Rites of Initiation: The Origins of the R.C.I.A. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2001.

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Secondary Sources

Bornert, René. Les Commentaires byzantins de la divine liturgie du VIIe au XVe siècle (Archives de l’Orient Chrétien 9). Paris: Institut Français d’Études Byzantines, 1966.

Golitzin, Alexander. Et Introibo Ad Altare Dei: The Mystagogy of Dionysius Areopagita, with Special Reference to Its Predecessors in the Eastern Christian Tradition. Thessalonikē: Patriarchikon Idruma Paterikōn Meletōn/George Dedousis, 1994.

Loudovikos, Nikolaos. A Eucharistic Ontology: Maximus the Confessor’s Eschatological Ontology of Being as Dialogical Reciprocity, tr. Elizabeth Theokritoff. Brookline, MA: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2010.

Louth, Andrew. “The Reception of Dionysius up to Maximus Confessor,” 43-53. Re-Thinking Dionysius the Areopagite, ed. Sarah Coackley and Charles M. Stang Oxford Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.

Reine, Francis Joseph. The Eucharistic Doctrine and Liturgy of the Mystagogical Catecheses of Theodore of Mopsuestia. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1942 .

Rorem, Paul. Pseudo-Dionysius: A Commentary on the Texts and an Introduction to their Influence, 91-132. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Schulz, Hans-Joachim. The Byzantine Liturgy, tr. Matthew J. O’Connell. New York: Pueblo, 1986.

Taft, Robert F., “The Liturgy of the Great Church: An initial Synthesis of Structure and Interpretation on the Eve of Iconoclasm,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 34-35 (1980-1981): 45-75.

Tsirpanlis, Constantine N. The Liturgical and Mystical Theology of Nicolas Cabasilas. Athens: Theologia, 1976.

TOPIC 1 (Initiation, Reformation):
Development of the Confirmation Rite between the 1549 and 1662 Books of Common Prayer

Between publication of the first English Book of Common Prayer in 1549 and its terminal, “as by law established” edition in 1662 (upon which all other provincial Books of Common Prayer in some degree depend), the Anglican Rite of Confirmation rite underwent a number of adjustments in response to changing views of the sacrament, criticism by Continental reformers and changing pastoral exigencies. This topic will explore differences in the various rites (1549, 1552, 1559, 1662) within the broader context of the sixteenth-century Reformation initiation practice, attending especially to the first two Prayer Books — between which are the most numerous and most obvious differences — and focusing on the motivating factors for the development of the Anglican Confirmation rite.
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Primary Sources

The Book of Common Prayer (various editions). On-line at http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/england.htm.

Jagger, Peter J. Christian Initiation, 1552-1969: Rites of Baptism and Confirmation since the Reformation Period, Alcuin Club Collections 52, 3-33. London: SPCK, 1970.

Whitaker, E. C. Martin Bucer and the Book of Common Prayer, Alcuin Club Collections 55, 82-120. Great Wakering: Mayhew-McCrimmon, 1974.
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Secondary Sources

Buchannan, Colin. Anglican Confirmation, Grove Liturgical Study 48. Bramcote: Grove Books, 1986.

Fisher, J.D.C. Christian Initiation: The Reformation Period. Chicago: Liturgy Training Publications/Hillenbrand, 2007 (reprint).

_____. “Lutheran, Anglican and Reformed Rites,” 154-161. The Study of Liturgy, revised edn., ed. Cheslyn Jones, et al. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Jeanes, Gordon P. Signs of God’s Promise: Thomas Cranmer’s Sacramental Theology and the Book of Common Prayer. London: T. & T. Clark, 2008.

Johnson, Maxwell E. The Rites of Christian Initiation: Their Evolution and Interpretation, revised/expanded edn., 309-373. Collegeville: Liturgical Press/Pueblo, 2007.

Meyers, Ruth. Continuing the Reformation: Revisioning Baptism in the Episcopal Church. New York: Church Publishing, 1997.

Mitchell, Leonel L. “Christian Initiation: The Reformation Period,” 83-98. Made, Not Born: New Perspectives on Christian Initiation and the Catechumenate, ed. Murphy Center for Liturgical Research. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1976.

Stevick, Daniel B. “Christian Initiation: Post-Reformation to the Present Era,” 99-117. Made, Not Born: New Perspectives on Christian Initiation and the Catechumenate, ed. Murphy Center for Liturgical Research. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1976.

Probably only one, but according to Thomas J. Craughwell’s Saints Preserved: An Encyclopedia of Relics, at least seven places have claimed to have preserved the holy skull, including the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus (156).

With about 350 separate entities, Craughwell’s Saints Preserved is a whirlwind tour of the world’s bits and bones of sanctity. Although many entities note only where a saint’s body is entombed or major relics are enshrined and venerated, all of the entries of saints’ relics include at least a brief hagiography (biographical sketch), notes on associated patronage, and feast day data. Lengthier entries include what is known about the history of the relic(s) of a given saint, including peregrinations, translations, and thefts.

In addition to cataloguing relics of saints, Craughwell includes major and minor relics associated with the life of Christ—the holy prepuce (foreskin); articles of clothing; boards from the Bethlehem manger; a bench from the Last Supper and other relics of the Passion (crown of thorns, nails). No attempt is made to reconcile competing relic traditions, such as the shroud and sudarium of Aachen with their more famous counterparts at Turin and Oviedo, the various veils of Veronica or the lances of Longinus. Craughwell’s skills as both a serious historian and a popular journalist are in play here, reporting “just the facts,” and refraining from value judgments. Those same skills are also evident in his bibliography, and positively impact his economical but engaging writing style.

The breadth of saints’ relics represented in this collection is truly noteworthy. The European saints included (obviously a majority) span beyond the usual Spanish-French-Italian-German swath and include a number of English and Irish saints (not to mention the Danish Saint Knud Lavard). Of English saints from after the reformation, Craughwell notes what relics remain and where they are enshrined—such as the hand of Saint John Kemble at Hereford, or the eye of Saint Edward Oldcorne at Stonyhurst College. Non-Europeans mentioned in the book include the martyrs of Nagasaki, Uganda, Korea and Vietnam. The balance between women and men is nearly equal, and non-ordained persons are well represented. All United States citizens who have been canonized or beatified are included in the volume, and mention is made of two of the larger relic collections in the United States (Maria Stein, Ohio and Saint Anthony’s Chapel in Pittsburgh). Unfortunately, some saints whose major relics (i.e., full remains) are enshrined in this country—including the boy-martyr Saint Peregrine at Collegeville, MN and Saint Marcellus at Notre Dame in Indiana—are not included among the entries.

Although Craughwell makes no mention of the relics and shrines of those venerated as saints and worthies from communities that emerged after the sixteenth-century reformations, he does include a number of holy ones who have been glorified by the Russian Orthodox Church, including Saint Sergius of Radzoneh and Saint Alexander Nevski.

This book suffers only from a few flaws, all of which may be overlooked and some of which have already been mentioned. A comprehensive index including associated locations would have made it more useful, though as an alphabetically arranged book, intended for a popular audience, once can understand the absence. More substantive is Craughwell’s remark that “[e]very Catholic church and chapel contains at least one relic—it is a requirement of the Church under canon law that every altar consecrated fro the celebration of Mass must contain the relic of at least one saint, preferably a martyr” (xvi) is undocumented and simply untrue. While such a case is ideal, highly desirable, laudably customary, every-effort-ought-to-be-made, etc., it is neither a strict requirement of the 1983 Code, nor of the Rite for the Dedication of an Altar that a relic be reposed in a consecrated altar. That factual gaffe may be overlooked in light of the overall achievement of the book’s introduction, which contextualizes the cultus of relics both theologically and anthropologically, making it—along with the rest of the book—as useful an entrée into the world of relics for skeptical Catholics and non-Catholics as for the devout.

Thomas J. Craughwell, Saints Preserved: An Encyclopedia of Relics. New York: Random House/Doubleday/Image, 2011. xx + 313 pages.

$16.00 — ISBN-13: 978-0-307-59073-2
Available from Random House.

Yesterday, I submitted my list of examination topics and preliminary bibliographies. In the coming weeks, I will be sharing with our readers the topics on which I’m preparing to be examined and my initial ideas about them for discussion here. I thought our readers might enjoy an inside, on-the-ground-running peek at liturgical studies at this level and stage. I also thought that everyone might enjoy a bit of a diversion from you-know-what coming on October 1.

Until then. . .

One of the first megachurches in the United States, the Crystal Cathedral has been the home of the weekly “Hour of Power” broadcast ministry, founded in 1970 by the Rev. Dr. Robert H. Schuller, an ordained pastor of the Reformed Church in America.

Conflicts have plagued the Crystal Cathedral’s ministries since 2006, when Dr. Schuller’s son, the Rev. Robert A. Schuller, assumed the senior pastor role; he was removed from that post in 2008. In 2009, Dr. Schuller’s daughter, Sheila Schuller Coleman, became Executive Director of Ministry and Mission.

In October of 2010, the Crystal Cathedral filed for bankruptcy. Only three days ago, the Orange County Register reported that Dr. Schuller had been voted off the Crystal Cathedral’s board of directors; the website of the Crystal Cathedral spins that story rather more positively, indicating that Dr. Schuller has been named “honorary Chairman of the Board Emeritus.”

Information on the Crystal Cathedral’s architecture can be had here and here.

Information on the Virgil-Fox-designed Aeolian-Skinner/Ruffatti combination organ can be had here and here.

H/T to Fran Rossi Szpylczyn