HE ABBAT OF SILOS, Dom Guépin, described how Dom Pothier began restoring authentic plainsong using lithography: “The Maestro created everything by hand, and made up for the imperfection of his equipment by superhuman patience and ingenious procedures he invented. Dom Pothier, himself, also acted as an illustrator, decorating his work with vignettes, illuminated capitals, tailpieces, and even full-page illustrations representing the mysteries of the Annunciation and Christmas. […] We never dreamt that one day the melodies we were chanting—at first with so much difficulty—would slowly make their way round the whole of Christendom.”
Jeff’s Mom • Earlier this year, my mother found out we desperately needed funds and were planning to run a fundraiser. She wanted to help. Realizing no decent image of Dom Pothier was available, she sat down and drew these beautiful sketches, which she has made available free of charge to the CORPUS CHRISTI WATERSHED audience:
* PDF Download • Abbat Joseph Pothier (FIRST VERSION)
—Original Sketch by Kathleen Ostrowski (April 2025).
* PDF Download • Abbat Joseph Pothier (SECOND VERSION)
—Original Sketch by Kathleen Ostrowski (April 2025).
Trying To Honor Him • Those who have read this blog for the last fifteen years know how highly we esteem Abbat Joseph Pothier. We attempted to add the Pothier sketch to our header. When my mother saw this, she quickly drew a sketch of Cardinal Ratzinger, who’s been on our header since 2012:
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“Artificial Intelligence” Digression • Over the last few years, there has been a fair amount of discussion vis-à-vis “artificial intelligence.” It isn’t my intention to enter that debate at this moment. I would simply point out that the last thing today’s society needs is more fake art! Several of our authors have lamented “artificial intelligence” plainsong. In other words, some companies offer computer programs that vomit out pseudo-chant compositions. Needless to say, such “ai” compositions lack authentic inspiration and beauty. On our website, we have attempted to promote plainsong that is genuinely beautiful.
We recently heard an example of this at our parish’s Sunday Mass. I wish you could’ve been there in person, because the microphones cannot reproduce how uttrerly gorgeous it sounded. The conductor was Kaitrin Drost:
