ELOW is a website I recently discovered. It is called Society of Saint Bede and offers free liturgical resources. I have not been able to locate any information about who creates the website, but it seems to have been created in the United Kingdom. I prefer when websites provide information about who is “behind the curtain”—such as what Corpus Christi Watershed provides at the ABOUT US website. Maybe someday, the Saint Bede people will reveal more about themselves, but until such time I don’t wish to speculate. 1
* PDF Download • “Society of St Bede” • Free Liturgical Resources
From what I can tell, the website has been around since 2012. They seem to provide some very useful “out of the ordinary” things, such as a Booklet for First Vespers of the Immaculate Conception. They also re-typeset rare examples of plainsong which I have never heard of, such as this hymn to the Blessed Virgin Mary, including an English translation. In a certain sense, the people at the Saint Bede website seem to be in “spiritual union” with the Brébeuf hymnal, inasmuch as they seem to spend a lot of time writing out each verse of hymns, such as they did for the beautiful hymn called Præclara Custos Virginum. For myself, I am not a fan of the artwork they have on their page, but Father Valentine used to say: de gustibus non est disputandum (“About taste let there be no dispute”).
They include a copy of Jesu Nostra Redemptio, a beautiful hymn featured prominently in the Saint Jean de Brébeuf Hymnal. If you notice, they claim to have access to a “1909 Liber Usualis.” If that is true, I would love to see that book—because I don’t believe the Antiphonale Romanum had been released in 1909.
NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:
1 I’ve seen other major websites where certain people consider themselves “detectives”—and they attempt to use Google (and other sources) to ascertain who’s behind certain projects. They make all sorts of mistakes, and they have absolutely no right to proceed in such a manner; it’s contemptible.
