Still foggy out, or else it's cloudy...

Who can tell; it is lightening earlier in the day, that much is true. I heard my 'owl' throughout the night and came to the conclusion that it is not an owl at all but some other bird. Pigeons, eh. Perhaps I will investigate on the Internet later on. It is the feast of the Apostle Saint Peter's Chair at Antioch (CE, Introibo, Wiki); Holy Mass is streaming from (that isn't the most felicitous of expressions, tsk) Saint-Eugène at 1000. I seem to recall that in the Pauline Rite-- this is my new favorite name for that mess of Liturgy and nonsense-- today is the one feast of Peter's Chair without distinction between Rome and Antioch although (skimming) I see that John XXIII was the Roman Pontiff directly responsible for this alteration.

As we remarked on January 18, the feast of St Peter’s Chair at Rome was kept today, according to an ancient Roman tradition which remained unaltered down to the 16th century, without Antioch having any say in the matter. There was no idea at all of honouring all the different abodes of the apostle which he occupied successively in various parts of the world; the chair at the Vatican became a symbol of the universal primacy which Peter and his successors exercise from Rome over the whole Church; an unprecedented honour which the Eternal City claims exclusively for itself. The origin of this feast, noted on this day in the Philocalian Feriale of 336 (Natale Petri de Cathedra), is certainly Roman, but it is omitted in the Gelasian and Gregorian Sacramentaries, without any apparent motive, unless it be for the reason that it usually falls during Lent The circumstance also, that the sedes ubi prius sedit sanctus Petrus [the chair where Saint Peter first sat] in the Coemeterium Majus found about the 5th century a peaceful rival in the wooden Chair of the Vatican, contributed to lessen the importance of the ancient seat of the Via Nomentana. Towards the 7th century reasons which we cannot trace caused the ecclesiastical authorities moreover to limit and then to prevent the veneration which the lower classes by means of lighted lamps and incense paid to a chair cut in the tufa of the same Coemeterium Majus, and it was probably owing to similar disorders that the Roman Church endeavoured to exclude the feast of February 22 from her Sacramentaries. Tradition, however, was stronger than any edict of proscription, for we find in the Antiphonary of St Peter, that the festival of St Peter’s Chair was celebrated at the Vatican on its traditional date, February 22. The Mass is the same as on January 18, except that there is no commemoration of St Prisca. The following is the fine poem by St Damasus which former epigraphists of the early Middle Ages copied anew near the Vatican chair of the Prince of the Apostles, which at that time stood in the Baptistery: 

AD FONTES NON • HAEC • HVMANIS • OPIBVS • NON • ARTE MAGISTRA SED • PRAESTANTE • PETRO • CVI • TRADITA • JANVA • CAELI • EST ANTISTES • CHRISTI • COMPOSVIT • DAMASVS VNA • PETRI • SEDES • VNVM • VERVMQVE LAVACRVM VINCVLA • NVLLA • TENENT • QVEM • LIQVOR • ISTE • LAVAT 

The Martyrology of St Jerome contains today this notice: Romae, Via Tiburtina ad Sanctum Laurentium, natale sanctae Concordiae. The old Roman itineraries show her tomb near that of the great St Hippolytus, whose Acta maintain that she was his nurse.

I'll look at those lines of Pope Saint Damasus later on. Am listening at 0900 to Dr Gregory DiPippo, who is editor at New Liturgical Movement, give a presentation about the Papacy at Masters' Gallery Rome. Dr Elizabeth Lev is there, and several others. Am not so much interested in spending 45 minutes on the Roman Pontiffs this morning but I've never seen or heard Dr DiPippo and this seems like a good opportunity. The MGR lectures and presentations are some of them free although I think many cost ten or fifteen bucks. 

Faux bourdons are also on my agenda today; am not really sure what they are, in the first place. A faux bourdon is in some way an alteration, adaptation, or expansion of a passage of plainchant: that much is true, I think, but you could say Mozart's Dies irae is an 'adaptation' of the chant and it's not a faux bourdon. The first paragraph at Wikipedia:

Fauxbourdon, and also commonly two words, faux or faulx bourdon, and in Italian falso bordone, French for 'false drone', is a technique of musical harmonisation used in the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance, particularly by composers of the Burgundian School. Guillaume Dufay was a prominent practitioner of the form (as was John Dunstaple), and may have been its inventor. The homophony and mostly parallel harmony allows the text of the mostly liturgical lyrics to be understood clearly.

Hmm. The English have faburden, which is similar but different.

 

It is also the feast of Saint Margaret (13th century), of Saint Maria of Jesus (19th century), and of Blessed Diego (17th century).

V. Et álibi aliórum plurimórum sanctórum Mártyrum et Confessórum, atque sanctárum Vírginum.
R. Deo grátias.

LDVM