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“What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too…” Pope Benedict XVI (7 July 2007)

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Views from the Choir Loft

Holy Souls in Purgatory • 15th-Century Missal Illumination

Fr. David Friel · November 2, 2019

ASCINATING medieval images of Purgatory are easy to find with a simple Internet search. Google quickly lets our twenty-first-century eyes look inside the folios of myriads of manuscripts, held in libraries throughout the world. There is extraordinary power at our fingertips.

One especially notable Purgatorial scene (shown at right) appears as a miniature detail in the missal of Eberhard von Greiffenklau (c. 1425-1450). This extraordinarily elaborate manuscript is held by the The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore and attributed to the Masters of Zwder van Culemborg. The museum webpage dedicated to this volume describes it as “a masterpiece of Dutch manuscript painting.”

This illumination received a brief but excellent analysis in the pages of Magnificat this month (November 2019). The piece is authored by Jennifer Healy, who serves as co-director of the Language & Catechetical Institute and as professor of art history in Gaming, Austria. Her short reflection on this miniature piece of sacred art is worth reading on this commemoration of All Souls.

Image: Souls in Purgatory, Missal of Eberhard von Greiffenklau (W. 174, folio 168v, column miniature) (c. 1425-1450), Masters of Zwder van Culemborg, The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: All Souls, Requiem, Traditional Catholic Artwork Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel served as Parochial Vicar at Saint Anselm Church in Northeast Philly before earning a doctorate in liturgical theology at The Catholic University of America. He presently serves as Vocation Director for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

19 May 2022 • “Trochee Trouble”

I’m still trying to decide how to visually present the “pure” Editio Vaticana scores, using what is (technically) the official rhythm of the Church. You can download my latest attempt, for this coming Sunday. Notice the “trochee trouble” as well as the old issue of neumes before the quilisma.

—Jeff Ostrowski
16 May 2022 • Harmonized Chant?

This year’s upcoming Sacred Music Symposium will demonstrate several ways to sing the CREDO at Mass. This is because—for many parishes—to sing a full-length polyphonic CREDO by Victoria or Palestrina is out of the question. Therefore, we show options that are halfway between plainsong and polyphony. You can hear my choir rehearsing a section that sounds like harmonized plainsong.

—Jeff Ostrowski
14 May 2022 • “Pure” Vatican Edition

As readers know, my choir has been singing from the “pure” Editio Vaticana. That is to say, the official rhythm which—technically—is the only rhythm allowed by the Church. I haven’t figured out how I want the scores to look, so in the meantime we’ve been using temporary scores that look like this. Stay tuned!

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

The effectiveness of liturgy does not lie in experimenting with rites and altering them over and over, nor in a continuous reductionism, but solely in entering more deeply into the word of God and the mystery being celebrated. It is the presence of these two that authenticates the Church’s rites, not what some priest decides, indulging his own preferences.

— Liturgicae Instaurationes (1970)

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