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Views from the Choir Loft

The Lorica of St. Patrick

Fr. David Friel · March 17, 2019

F ONE were to look only at the secular celebration of St. Patrick’s Day, one might have no idea what the day is really about. St. Patrick, of course, was the first to bring the Gospel to the people of Ireland, whom he converted in enormous numbers. So, the heart of today’s celebration, in its origin, is a day of thanksgiving for having received the gift of faith.

In his Confession, St. Patrick writes this: The Lord gave me the great grace that, through me, many peoples should be reborn in God. For those of us who are actually of Irish descent, we do owe a debt to St. Patrick, in a distant, historical sense. But, more proximately, all of us have received the gift of faith at the hands of others. For many, the faith has been received through parents or grandparents, friends or co-workers. For others, perhaps it was a particular author whose writings inspired a conversion.

Today would be a good day to call to mind that person and offer a prayer of thanksgiving for the gift of faith—a gift that lies beyond all price.

NOTHER worthwhile way to mark today’s feast might be to pray one of the most treasured Irish devotions, the Lorica (Breastplate) of St. Patrick. A good rendering of the text is available here. Portions of an illuminated version crafted by the Manx designer, Archibald Knox, are also available online.

This prayer, traditionally ascribed to St. Patrick and likely actually composed in the 5th century, comes to us through the Liber hymnorum, an 11th-century manuscript containing 40 hymns in Latin and Gaelic.

This ancient Irish hymn has been set to music often in modern times. The most common metrical version is the hymn I Bind Unto Myself Today, written in 1889 by Cecil Frances Alexander, a remarkable woman who also authored Once in David’s Royal City and All Things Bright and Beautiful. A beautiful unaccompanied, SATB setting of the last stanza of the Lorica is published through CanticaNOVA (available here).

N 2015, I had the pleasure of visiting Downpatrick in County Down (Northern Ireland), traditionally regarded as the burial site of Saints Patrick, Brigid, and Columbkille (my Confirmation patron). Here are a few photographs of the site:

Downpatrick3 Downpatrick2 Downpatrick1

O GOD, Thou who were pleased to send forth Patrick,
Thy blessed confessor and bishop,
to preach Thy glory among the nations,
mercifully grant, by his merits and intercession,
that we may be able to accomplish
that work which you command us to do.
Through our Lord, Jesus Christ, Thy Son,
who lives and reigns with Thee
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, forever and ever. Amen.

Collect for the Feast of St. Patrick

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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Fr. David Friel

About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel served as Parochial Vicar at St. Anselm Parish in Northeast Philly. He is currently a doctoral candidate in liturgical theology at The Catholic University of America.—(Read full biography).

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Surprising Popularity!

One of our most popular downloads has proven to be the organ accompaniment to “The Monastery Hymnal” (131 pages). This book was compiled, arranged, and edited by Achille P. Bragers, who studied at the Lemmensinstituut (Belgium) about thirty years before that school produced the NOH. Bragers might be considered an example of Belgium “Stile Antico” whereas Flor Peeters and Jules Van Nuffel represented Belgium “Prima Pratica.” You can download the hymnal by Bragers at this link.

—Jeff Ostrowski
15 February 2021 • To Capitalize…?

In the Introit for the 6th Sunday after Pentecost, there is a question regarding whether to capitalize the word “christi.” The Vulgata does not, because Psalm 27 is not specifically referring to Our Lord, but rather to God’s “anointed one.” However, Missals tend to capitalize it, such as the official 1962 Missal and also a book from 1777 called Missel de Paris. Something tells me Monsignor Knox would not capitalize it.

—Jeff Ostrowski
15 February 2021 • “Sung vs. Spoken”

We have spoken quite a bit about “sung vs. spoken” antiphons. We have also noted that the texts of the Graduale Romanum sometimes don’t match the Missal texts (in the Extraordinary Form) because the Mass Propers are older than Saint Jerome’s Vulgate, and sometimes came from the ITALA versions of Sacred Scripture. On occasion, the Missal itself doesn’t match the Vulgate—cf. the Introit “Esto Mihi.” The Vulgate has: “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in domum refúgii…” but the Missal and Graduale Romanum use “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in locum refúgii…” The 1970s “spoken propers” use the traditional version, as you can see.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“…I started down the road of the liturgy, and this became a continuous process of growth into a grand reality transcending all particular individuals and generations, a reality that became an occasion for me of ever-new amazement and discovery. The incredible reality of the Catholic liturgy has accompanied me through all phases of life, and so I shall have to speak of it time and again.”

— Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

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