Feast of St. Edward the Confessor

Mount Calvary Catholic Church will be celebrating a very special feast day in the Anglican Use Kalendar this Sunday, October 13 - the Feast of St. Edward the Confessor, second to last (some say the last) Anglo-Saxon King of England before the Norman Conquest, 1042-1066. Of St. Edward, the old (1911) Catholic Encyclopedia says this:

Being devoid of personal ambition, Edward's one aim was the welfare of his people. He remitted the odious "Danegelt", which had needlessly continued to be levied; and though profuse in alms to the poor and for religious purposes, he made his own royal patrimony suffice without imposing taxes. Such was the contentment caused by "the good St. Edward's laws", that their enactment was repeatedly demanded by later generations, when they felt themselves oppressed.

Yielding to the entreaty of his nobles, he accepted as his consort the virtuous Editha, Earl Godwin's daughter. Having, however, made a vow of chastity, he first required her agreement to live with him only as a sister. As he could not leave his kingdom without injury to his people, the making of a pilgrimage to St. Peter's tomb, to which he had bound himself, was commuted by the pope into the rebuilding at Westminster of St. Peter's abbey, the dedication of which took place but a week before his death, and in which he was buried. St. Edward was the first King of England to touch for the "king's evil", many sufferers from the disease were cured by him. He was canonized by Alexander III in 1161. His feast is kept on the 13th of October, his incorrupt body having been solemnly translated on that day in 1163 by St. Thomas of Canterbury in the presence of King Henry II.

Sunday's feast day High Mass will include selections of Medieval English music, including 13th century motets and a 14th century Ordinary, all British, in Latin, performed by the choir led by Choirmaster, Dr. Daniel Page. One of the motets is polytexted. There will also be the opportunity to venerate a relic of St. Edward. 

All interested are invited to join the congregation at 10:00 am for this special High Mass this Sunday. Solemn Evensong will be held at 4:30 pm as usual.

Happy Birthday to the Last Catholic Queen of England

In a historical aside, which reminds me of the paper that Dr. Anne Gardiner delivered at the Anglican Use Conference in June 2010, Stephanie Mann, at her blog "Supremacy and Survival" writes the following:

Mary Beatrice of Modena was born on October 5, 1658. She was the second wife of James, the Duke of York; they married in 1673. He was 25 years older than she and indeed presented her to his children as their new playmate! Charles II allowed his brother and heir to marry an Italian Catholic princess, but demanded that the children of James' first wife, Anne Hyde (who herself had become Catholic) continue to be raised an Anglicans. The succession was already under stress because of James's conversion to Catholicism and word of further Catholic heirs would encourage greater opposition in Parliament...

Read the rest at her very interesting blog: Supremacy and Survival