The Latin Mass, Savannah and Flannery O’Connor

As Summorum Pontificum progresses, the Traditional Mass reassumes its rightful place in the life of the Church. It has emerged from the out of the way chapels and deserted parishes of the indult era and nowadays appears in the “best circles” of the Church. In the magnificent cathedral of Savannah, for example, a Missa Cantata is celebrated early each Sunday afternoon. A congregation of people of all ages is present. The sanctuary of the cathedral has suffered some frightful restoration work. However, the glorious Victorian surroundings of 1900 survive and provide a fitting environment for this liturgy.

Nearby is Flannery O’Connor’s childhood home. A lovely square, Victorian homes, a neo – Gothic cathedral, a Catholic academy: was there any other urban location in America in the 1920’s – 30’s where a child could get such a sense of beauty? May not these early visual experiences have accelerated the development of O’Connor’s artistic sensitivity?

As for O’Connor and the Latin Mass:

“I am one of the laymen who RESIST the congregation yapping out the mass in English & my reason besides neurotic fear of change, anxiety and laziness is that I do not like the raw sound of the human voice in unison unless it is under the discipline of music….

(Letter to “A” (17 October 1959) in Letters of Flannery O’Connor/the Habit of Being at p. 356; Sally Fitzgerald ed. (1979))

Her childhood home.