Fr Thomas Regan OSB of Belmont Abbey, and parish priest of Our Ladye & St.Michael's, Abergavenny, celebrated his 30th anniversary of priestly ordination the other day with High Mass in the Parish Church. Deacon was Dom Antony Tumulty OSB, and Subdeacon was Rev Andreas Erhardt (a permanent deacon).The chasuble Fr Regan is wearing is a rather special one from the parish's medieval collection which I mentioned once before. It was donated by Henry VII, having been embroidered in 1498 by Robynett his court embroiderer. It was already 150 years old when worn by the Abergavenny martyrs St David Lewis (parish priest there for 31 years) and St Philip Evans (curate for 5 years) until his martyrdom in 1679. Here is a close-up:
8 comments:
Two questions Father:
First the simple one, why are these monks not wearing the monastic amice?
2)Concerning the chasuble, do you know if it was always this shape? I have heard tht in the 16th cent. there were already Latin chasubles in England but some argue that they were once fuller and were subsequently cut back.
Another consideration is the cut of some of the chasubles by new vestment makers who claim that their chasubles are like those worn by St. Charles Borromeo or St. Phil Neri. What they produce are fuller chasubles than these and, as well, Henry VII would have pre-dated the afore-mentioned saints.
Surely is is not possible that England was ahead of Rome in this regard. Boy would Percy Dearmer be rolling in his grave at that.
Now THAT'S what I call a locally-ethically-sourced, carbon-neutral, recycled, fair trade chausable! If only more priests went "green".
Congratulations indeed to Fr Thomas Regan. 30 years a faithful servant of Our Lord - that's fantastic!
The chasuble is magnificent and it's history puts a lump in my throat and gives me goosebumps! What an incredible history to this beautiful vestment and how lucky we are to have had this survive to the present day in such super condition - more to the point though how fortunate the Catholics of England and Wales are to have had such faithful Priests that would accept martyrdom rather than compromise their Faith.
St Lewis and St Evans pray for us.
Congratulations to Fr Regan and thanks for the update!
Is that the original shape of the chasuble or was it cut down later?
David - I'm afraid I'm not an expert on the monastic cowl or the history of chasubles. On the cowl, I expect it is dispensed with if the vestments are not adaptable to it or something.
On the chasuble, you raise a most interesting point - NLM has had much discussion on the development of the chasuble and you might want to point this out to them.
Congratulations to Fr Regan-i am most impressed with the history of the chasuble. We attended Mass in Abergavenny four years ago and met Fr Regan as we went in to Mass. We married that year in Belfast and since my husband is from South Wales we named our second son Patrick David. Our surname is Lewis so it seemed appropriate- especially since I found out I was pregnant on his feast day last August. Mary
Congratulations to Fr. Thomas.
It must be a great privilege for priest to be able to celbrate Mass using vestments, chalices, etc. which are, in fact second class relics of clerical Saints.
Just a thought, but does this mean that these items are therefore relics exposed on the altar during Mass as well as their usual functions in the Liturgy? Would this also mean that if a priest were to use, say a pattern that had belonged to a Saint, he would be achieving a sort of 'double whammy' when he kissed it during the Mass (venerating both an item intimately associated with Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, and also a Saint's relic)? Could a server venerate the relic if he used the solita oscula in this event? Any thoughts on these points, Fr. Tim?
Also, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London has some nice examples of early chasubles. I seem to recall English eamples of 'fiddleback' shape from the period that David mentions, but cannot be certain - perhaps someone could call in and take a look on the way to the Oratory?
:-)
God bless,
M.
Matthaeus - yes, I suppose a paten would be a second class relic and such venerations would have an extra significance.
BTW - "paten" (it took me a few moments to work out what you were talking about!)
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