Join Village Preservation, parishioners, and fellow East Village and preservation organizations for a rally on Monday, August 31 at 6 pm in front of the Most Holy Redeemer Church at 173 East 3rd Street (east of Avenue A). The church was closed to parishioners one year ago. The rally is being organized to call for the historic church to be preserved and reopened.  The archdiocese has made several moves indicating they intend to permanently shut down the church, which would likely lead to its sale and demolition. A petition has been filed with the New York City Landmarks Preservation Committee to landmark the structure.

We have been following this issue on this blog. For more information about the closure of Most Holy Redeemer Church see our post.

Last week another successful Chant Camp took place at St. Mary’s Church, Norwalk, CT, led by Charles Weaver, Elizabeth Weaver and Nicholas Botkins. The children sang a Missa Cantata every day at 12:10. The picture here is courtesy of Mark Bertotti.

The following churches will offer Traditional Masses on Saturday, August 15 for the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Connecticut

St. Mary Church, Norwalk, 10 am Missa Cantata

St. Mary Church, Greenwich, CT, 8 am Missa Cantata. n.b. in lower level chapel: enter through parish center door to left of the church.

Sts. Cyril and Methodius Oratory, Bridgeport, 8:30 am Low Mass; 10:15 Solemn Mass

St. Patrick Oratory, Waterbury, CT, 8 am Low Mass; 10:30 am High Mass

New York

Holy Innocents Church, Manhattan, 10:30 am High Mass; 1pm Low Mass

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Manhattan (Harlem) 9 am, followed by adoration of the Most Blessed Sacarment.

St. Josaphat Oratory, Queens, 9:30 am High Mass

St. Rocco Church, Glen Cove, Long Island, 10 am Missa Cantata

St. Paul the Apostle, Yonkers, 12 noon

Annunciation Church, Crestwood, 12 pm, Missa Cantata in lower church

Immaculate Conception Church, Sleepy Hollow, NY, 12 noon.

Holy Trinity, Poughkeepsie, NY, Missa Cantata, 7 pm

New Jersey

Our Lady of Sorrows, Jersey City, 11 am Missa Cantata

Holy Trinity Church, Hackensack, 8 am Missa Cantata

Our Lady of Fatima Chapel, Pequannock, 7 am, 9 am, 11 am

St. Anthony of Padua, West Orange, 9 am Low Mass; 11 am High Mass

Some photos of the Mass at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in East Harlem on July18, courtesy of Mr. Brendan Young. He reports that “the bishop was overjoyed and there were about 200-250 faithful.”

Due to travel we regettably could not be present at the Traditional pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in East Harlem last Saturday. We have covered this pilgrimage since its inception in 2012. For the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel had become dear to CatholicTraditionalists. Did they somehow sense that Pope Francis would promulgate Traditionis Custodes – aiming at their destruction – on that feast in 2021?

I heard a favorable report from someone present, even though publicity for the pilgrimage (see the flyer resproduced above) had been limited. Let me add a few details. Members of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St. George helped to organize the event. And the Society of St Hugh of Cluny funded the excellent music, which included:

Byrd’s Mass for Three Voices.

Offertory Motet Quam pulchra es by John Dunstaple (Song of Songs 7).

Communion Motet Flos florum by Guillaume Dufay

Charles Weaver ( the music director of St. Mary’s, Norwalk) led the music.

(Above) An engraving of a censer by Martin Schongauer (15th century).

A most unusual exhibition can be seen at the Metropolitan Museum of Art until July 19th. It displays medieval and early renaissance designs for works of Gothic architecture and art. Many of these architectural drawings are actual working documents for the creators of the Gothic cathedrals.  Some of them are of considerable size. The condition of the drawings is astoundingly good, the penmanship incredibly precise. 

What is noteworthy is the unity in Gothic art of aesthetics, mathematics and engineering. In the age of the Gothic there was no separation of these elements. There was no contrast, as in modernity, between the “decorative” and the “structural,”  between the “symbolic” and the “functional.”  And of course, each Gothic cathedral also “preached” in a mystic, liturgical and symbolic language – sophisticated, but nevertheless accessible to those who shared the religion and culture of  that time .   

But the genius of the Gothic was not confined solely to ecclesiastical architecture. This exhibition displays drawings of secular buildings, outdoor shrines, tabernacles and liturgical vessels. And in addition to drawings, we see examples of early engravings produced by artists in collaboration with the artisans and cathedral builders. In all these cases the same design principles governed. 

The overwhelming majority of the exhibits comes from the German world, as it was then organized in the Holy Roman Empire. There are also major objects on display from France, England and the Low Countries. The relative  lack of examples for these regions has to do, I would guess, with losses due to centralized destructive campaigns  as in case of   the English reformation or the French Revolution. In the more diffuse political and religious environment of the Holy Roman Empire much more survived. 

(Above) Drawing of a crozier by Hans Holbem the Elder – perhaps in collaboration with a goldsmith..

For starting from Strasbourg, Cologne and Mainz in the West  to Freiburg, Ulm, Regensburg and on to Vienna the various lodges of masons within the Empire exchanged ideas and developed creative “solutions” (as we would say today)to the design challenges of their projects. For the construction of a Gothic cathedral proceeded for generations, even centuries. So, we can see in the exhibition early versions of such masterpieces as the facade of Strasbourg cathedral or the tower of the minster of Freiburg-im-Breisgau. Inevitably, much remained unrealized. 

(Above) Design for a since-destroyed outdoor shrine in Ulm.

I can only give this exhibition my highest recommendation!

(Description of the Exhibition – with many photographs)