Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Hurrah! Valle Adurni is back

I am delighted to see that Fr Sean Finnegan is back with his Valle Adurni blog. I`m particularly happy to see his series of videos of one of his Sarum Use Masses he organised in Oxford in 1997. I went to one of them and it may have been that one. I am due to give a talk to the North East Catholic History society next Wednesday on `the Sarum Use and the recusants`, information about which has been hard to come by, despite consulting a number of people I thought might be able to help, but I think I have enough for a talk. I would have liked to have had more on 19th century attitudes to the Sarum use amongst Catholics but have found little. Two stories in particular continue to do the rounds but I can`t find a reference for them. One is that Pius IX offered the new English hierarchy the Sarum Use and they turned it down out of a desire to be thoroughly Roman and the other is that there was talk of having the Sarum Use at Westminster cathedral when it was opened in 1903. If anyone has any information on either of these stories I`d be very grateful for it.

10 comments:

Augustine said...

Do any priests celebrate the Sarum Use in our diocese?

Fr Michael Brown said...

In Hexham and Newcastle I don`t think so. The more I`ve read the more interested I`ve become. However there seem to be divided opinions on the liceity of using the Sarum Missal. I believe Fr Finnegan`s Masses were shut down after the second when someone asked the Vatican for an opinion on the use of the Sarum missal whereas there are other examples of bishops celebrating the Sarum Mass without any censure. Bishop Mario Conti had a Sarum Mass when he was bishop of Aberdeen and there was a reference on the NLM to a bishop in America celebrating a Sarum Mass.

Alnwickian said...

Fr MB
If you want to celebrate Mass using something other then the Roman Missal should it not be the Dunelm use or at the very least the Ebor use? Was the Sarum use not limited to Salisbury?

Fr Michael Brown said...

Alnwickian, I`ve not come across the Dunelm Use. The Sarum Use reached the North, aswell as Scotland and Scandanavia. For example as early as 1283 the bishop of Durham in making Lanchester church collegiate offered the chapter the choice of using the York or Sarum rite: they chose Sarum. The 15th century Esh missal kept at Ushaw came from this community. Anyway I don`t want to give the talk here. The Esh missal has quite a number of interesting characteristics I`ll be talking about next Wednesday.

Pastor in Monte said...

I wish I could be there on Wednesday: I've posted the little I know about the post-reformation history of the Use on Valle Adurni.I'd love to know more.

Fr Nicholas said...

I do hope you post the text
(or at least a summary) of your talk...

Anonymous said...

Very sad about the Sarum rite and Rome making a clumsy interference.

However, having read Fr Sean's post I could not but think of the irony that he had added his signature to a petition to stop the old Roman rite being celebrated at Corpus Christi, Maiden Lane, by the LMS some ten years ago. Indeed if memory serves me correctly it was he and the provost of the Brompton Oratory, which Fr Sean later joined (and did not find the experience agreable) who led the petition.

Fr Michael Brown said...

Fr Sean,, many thanks for the info on your blog. As I say I think I`ll be able to survive 45 minutes by talking about the origins and charcteristics of the Sarum Use first of all, a bit I have gleaned from various sources, including the Douai Diary, regarding the situation for Catholics after Mary and then something on recent revivals among which your own will be prominent.

Pastor in Monte said...

Fr Michael, please forgive that I must use your blog to correct Anonymous' remarks.
1) I have never, at any time, tried to prevent the use of the Traditional Mass in Maiden Lane or elsewhere. What I think Anonymous may be referring to is that the priests of the St John Fisher Association objected to the attempt at Maiden Lane to defy the Holy Father's direction that the 1962 Missal be used for the Old Rite (using instead the missal at some arbitrary date in the 40s) and said that we would not co-operate unless the 1962 missal be used.
2)It was not a petition: it was a statement of position.
3) I found the experience at the London Oratory perfectly agreeable (for the most part). It was one or two of the fathers who did not find me agreeable.
Fr Seán.

Fr Michael Brown said...

Thanks Fr Sean. I must confess I can`t imagine you trying to stop a celebration of the EF. While I am attached to some pre-1962 practices myself such as the confiteor before communion and while I found the ordo for the pre-1962 missal very interesting and lament the loss of certain feats, octaves, and folded chasubles in the 1962 missal, I agree we must stick as closely as we can to it to prevent chaos breaking out. On the other hand I hope that one day you may be able to revive your Sarum Mass activities. Surely the atmosphere in Rome would be more congenial to an interest in the Sarum Use?