30 Aug

2025

Viri Galilaei Celebrate 10th Anniversary with Choral Vespers

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We welcome this history of the Viri Galilaei written by member Steven Merola:

On September 9, 2015, a group of men under the direction of David Hughes met in the basement chapel of St. Mary’s parish in Norwalk to begin to learn to chant the office of Vespers. They toyed with several ideas for a group name,  including the incipit of Psalm 132, Ecce quam bonum (Lo how good and pleasant it is, for brothers to dwell in unity). Ultimately, they settled on the name Viri Galilæi, Men of Galilee, the incipit of both the first vespers antiphon and the introit of the Ascension. This name, connected both to the traditional Office and Mass, would prove fitting: after a year of practicing Vespers, the Viri began to sing the propers and ordinary of the Wednesday night Mass at St. Mary’s. 

Throughout the past decade, Viri Galilæi has met continuously on Wednesday evenings to chant a Missa Cantata and the office of Vespers. The group has also studied medieval polyphony like Machaut’s Messe de Nostre Dame and the chants of the Codex Calixtinus. After an initial four years at St. Mary’s, the Viri has traveled all over the Diocese of Bridgeport and brought sung Mass and Vespers to no less than six different parishes and visited many more. The group has provided music for weddings, Requiems, first Masses, Tenebrae, and other occasional liturgies throughout the tristate area. At present, Viri regularly sing for a Wednesday Missa Cantata and Vespers at the Oratory of the Sacred Heart in Georgetown, CT. 

In honor of their tenth anniversary, the Viri Galilæi will be chanting Solemn Vespers at St. Cecilia Church in Stamford, CT on the day of their founding, Tuesday, September 9th, 2025 at 7:00 PM. Fr. Richard Cipolla will officiate. All friends of the Viri are most warmly invited to attend to celebrate this milestone. 

A beautiful Rorate Mass at St. Gabriel Church, Stamford on Saturday Dec. 7, 2019. David Hughes conducted the Viri Galilaei in the Machaut Mass.
The Office of Tenebrae for Maundy Thursday at St. Mary’s Church, Norwalk in April, 2019. The Viri Galilaei, augemented by many priests and seminarians, chanted in choir, while the St. Mary’s Schola Cantorum sang polyphonic settings in the choir loft.
The Viri Galilaei sang at a Solemn Mass at Most Holy Trinity Chapel at West Point Military Academy in 2019–Perhaps the first such Mass ever this chapel.
In 2018, when Fr. McIntosh began the weekly celebration of a Saturday morning Missa Cantata at St. Roch Church in Greenwich, members of the Viri Galilaei were there. They continue to sing at this Mass to the present day. (though the location has changed to the chapel of St. Mary Church, Greenwich.)

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