ENRY FITZALAN-HOWARD, 15th Duke of Norfolk and Earl of Arundel, was related to Saint Philip Howard (13th Earl of Arundel) who was imprisoned for ten years1 by the Anglicans and died one year after Palestrina’s death. In 1875, John Henry Cardinal Newman wrote a famous RESPONSE to William Gladstone’s anti-Catholic views which took the form of a public letter to Fitzalan (Fitzalan having agreed to this proposal), being titled “Letter to the Duke of Norfolk.” Beginning in 1898, he edited—with assistance from Charles Tindal Gatty—the hymnal Arundel Hymns, to which Pope Leo XIII contributed a preface (in the form of a personal letter). In a moment, I’ll speak more about the 1905 ARUNDEL HYMNAL.
Kevin Allen, currently visiting France, sent the following snippet—recorded on 21 September 2025—from the RECESSIONAL HYMN in Lyon, at a parish run by the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter:
Mysterious Melody • I sent the snippet to each of our contributors, but nobody’s been able to identify it. Do you recognize it? It reminds me of this melody found in the 1905 ARUNDEL HYMNAL, edited by the Duke of Norfolk:
Please email me if you can help identify that tune!
1 Saint Philip Howard had been present at a 1581 debate in the Tower of London in 1581 between a group of Protestant theologians and Sts. Edmund Campion and Ralph Sherwin, which led him back to the true Church. Saint Philip Howard shares a feast-day with Sts. Isaac Jogues and John de Brébeuf, and his poetry is featured in the Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal. The Texas Secretary of State chose their feast-day, 19 October, to recognize Corpus Christi Watershed as a 501(c)3 public charity in 2006.
