Schola Cantorum of Santa Fe

            .                                                                                                                                                            The Schola Cantorum of Santa Fe, a capella sacred - music ensemble group, sang both Vespers and the Mass in Gregorian Chant on a recent Sunday evening at San Miguel Mission in Santa Fe. For more than 20 years the Schola Cantorum has been sharing the sounds of sacred music masterpieces in the chapels, missions, cathedrals and basilicas of New Mexico and Colorado. The Schola Cantorum was founded by Dr. Billy Turney in 1990. Dr. Turney was the principal organist and music director of the Saint Francis Cathedral in Santa Fe from 1990 to 2005. Turney studied Gregorian chant and polyphonic music of the Renaissance in Rome at the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music and has the unique perspective of presenting sacred music pieces in their original context. In addition to singing the ordinaries of the Mass at San Miguel Mission, the ensemble sang Salve Regina at the offertory and Pange Lingua at communion.

Listening to Schola Cantorum reminded me that Gregorian chant has no accompaniment, no instrumentals; it is plainchant performed by a single voice or many voices. The rhythm is very free and there is much room for pitch improvisation. The language is Latin except for the Kyrie sung in ancient Greek. The Schola Cantorum exuded a secure and confident love of Gregorian chant. There was nothing either self conscious, packaged or artificial about their performance. Their Gregorian chants were not of the commercial cross-over kind recently popular. Instead they sang true to the liturgy. Their sound was simply put - sacred. As Schola Cantorum sang their Gregorian chants, I was moved to devotion and prayer to our Lord, Jesus Christ. I would encourage all Christian pilgrims to the Southwest to seek out a concert by Schola Cantorum of Santa Fe, particularly their Gregorian Chant Mass.


For Schola Cantorum of Santa Fe's schedule of events, click on

Schola Cantorum of Santa Fe, New Mexico - Sacred Music of the ...

schola-sf.org/‎

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Latin Mass

When I attended the 2 P.M. Mass on a recent Sunday at San Miguel Mission in Santa Fe, I thought that I had traveled back in time to an earlier decade before 1962 when the Mass was almost universally celebrated in Latin. To my surprise the Mass at San Miguel was in Latin with the priest facing the tabernacle and not the congregation. Although I had trained as an altar server for the Latin Mass in the early sixties and had studied Latin for 4 years in the mid sixties at Bellarmine, a Jesuit high school in Tacoma, my Latin these days is very rusty so I had difficult keeping pace with the liturgy. Certain Latin phrases such as "et cum spiritu tu o" are easy to remember and the" Agnus Dei" is often cited in mixed English- Latin Masses. For other responses and prayers I needed to use the Latin- English Missal Guide in the pews. What struck me most about the rendition of the Latin Mass was the seemingly large number of blessings and genuflections performed by the priest. Also those receiving communion knelt at the altar rail and took Communion on their tongues - just as practiced when I was an altar server. I remember holding the patent to prevent the Eucharist from dropping on the rail or the floor. The women in attendance at San Miguel Mission all wore scarves or hats and some wore veils. The congregation was also older than at the English Mass I attended at San Miguel Mission although there were a number of college age students. My general impression of my first all Latin Mass in 50 years was favorable. The Latin liturgy is beautiful to hear as Latin is a very vowel heavy language, albeit different than  the melodious vowel tones of a Hawaiian Mass I once heard. Spoken Latin sounds like a sacred language so I would imagine that a Latin Mass would be especially appropriate for a wedding or an ordination to invoke the sanctity of those events. I also found San Miguel Mission, an ancient church, ideal for this liturgy. Again I will admit that despite my Latin background I couldn't always keep up with either the prayers or the responses but I presume that regular attendees at the Latin Mass become very familiar with the Latin phrases and their translations.  Also it was difficult to see exactly what the priest was doing with his back to us. I wondered whether the Latin Mass couldn't be celebrated with the priest facing the congregation.
 Upon returning home that evening I was curious - why had the Latin Mass all but vanished in the sixties and was it making a comeback? The Latin Mass has also been known as the Tridentine Mass, which is the form of the Roman Rite Mass, contained in the typical edition of the Roman Missal that was published from 1570 to 1962, promulgated originally at the Council of Trent. In 1962  permissions were granted from Pope Paul VI to celebrate the Mass in vernacular languages. Subsequent liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council from 1962-66 encouraged a wider participation of the laity in the liturgy of the Mass. The priest was to face his congregation to make the Mass more relevant and to encourage the laity to join in prayers and liturgical responses.  The Roman Missal was translated into modern languages also to enhance understanding of the liturgy. In 1969 the Mass of Pope Paul VI was introduced and officially replaced the Tridentine Mass. It was to be celebrated in the popular languages of the congregations. I will mention that neither the Second Vatican Council nor the subsequent revisions of the Roman Missal abolished Latin as the liturgical language of the Roman Rite. Indeed the official text of the Roman Missal continues to be in Latin. After 1969 permission to celebrate the Tridentine Latin Mass had to be granted by the local ordinate and was reserved for unique liturgical occasions. As an older generation of priests versed in the Latin Mass retired, they were replaced by a younger generation of priests without any training in the Latin Mass. In some respects the Latin Mass went away with the attrition of the previous generation of priests.  Also the fervor from the Vatican Council for the modern Mass of Paul VI led to the restrictions placed on the classic Tridentine Latin Mass. The 'times were also changing' in the Catholic Church in the sixties.
Yet the Latin Tridentine Mass still had its advocates. Traditionalist Catholics, who rejected some of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, such as the move away from the Latin Mass, either broke from the Catholic Church altogether or sought relief from their Bishops for the celebration of Latin Masses. Those who separated from the Vicar in Rome, such as Archbishop Marcel Lefebrve of France, were excommunicated. Those who remained within the Catholic Church and who attended approved Latin Masses continued to petition the Vatican for a relaxation of the restrictions placed on celebrating the Latin Mass.  In 2007, Pope Benedict issued an Apostolic Letter "Summorum Pontificum" liberalizing the approval for celebration of the Latin Mass. He encouraged Bishops to make the Latin Mass more available upon requests by the faithful. Indeed the Latin Mass at San Miguel Mission was officially approved by Archbishop Michael Sheehan in 2008 in  response to a petition from some of the faithful in Santa Fe, Los Alamos and Espanola. I was informed that attendance at the Latin Mass at San Miguel has steadily increased since its inception.
I encourage Catholic Pilgrims to attend a Latin Mass. The Latin Mass isn't meant to replace the Mass of Paul VI, yet it has its own unique beauty and sacredness. It is the Mass our parents and grandparents celebrated. The Catholic Mass in New Mexico, whether celebrated in English, Spanish or Latin has always been a summons for us to encounter Christ and to become the holy people of God.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

To read Pope Benedict's "Summorum Pontificum" click on

Summorum Pontificum 

www.vatican.va/.../hf_ben-xvi_let_20070707_lettera-vescovi_en.html‎

San Miguel Mission - Santa Fe

 

                                                                                                                                                                                   

Last Sunday I visited the oldest church in North America, San Miguel Mission in Santa Fe, which was originally built in 1610 by the Tlaxcalan Indians from Mexico under the supervision of Fray Alonso de Benavidez, OFM. The church predates the Puritan settlement at Jamestown and the  Spanish settlement at St. Augustine, Florida. Indeed it has been center stage in the early history of  Santa Fe and the New Mexico territory. It is said that the Pueblo Indian rebellion of 1680 began with the burning of San Miguel Church.  Eighty Tlaxcalan Indians, Spanish settlers and missionaries died within the Church when the roof was set afire by Pueblos, leading to its collapse. After defeating the Pueblo tribes and resettling Santa Fe in 1691, the Spanish Conquistador General Diego de Vargas had a new roof constructed and the thick adobe walls redone by 1710.  Subsequently a three tiered bell tower was constructed in 1830. In 1858 Bishop Lamy purchased the Mission San Miguel from local residents and converted the meeting rooms into the first school of the New Mexico territory, taught by Christian brothers. In 1862 the Christian brothers covered the dirt floor with wooden planks, built an altar rail in front of the sanctuary and enlarged the entrance door to the chapel. In 1872 a 4.5 earthquake took down the three tiered church tower and the San Jose bell. The church was closed as the Christian brothers lacked funds for repairs and even considered demolishing the 250 year old structure but Santa Fe residents came to the rescue, raising the necessary revenues to restore their beloved historical Mission.  In 1875 stone buttresses were built on the front of the chapel to shore it up, both the exterior and the interior were plastered, a tar and gavel roof replaced the old mud one, and finally a new and smaller bell tower was built. The remodeled bell tower still stands but the bell is no longer in the tower. Owing to its weight it was brought down to help preserve the tower. The San Jose bronze bell which was cast in Spain in 1350, now rests in the vestibule of the Mission.

                                                                                                                                                                                         

The interior of the chapel is long and narrow consistent with Spanish Southwestern colonial mission architecture. The ceiling is supported by 20 hand carved wood vigas. A large wooden beam holds up the front of the choir loft in the back of the church. On it, carefully inscribed in Spanish, was written, " The Marquis of Penueala. The building was erected  by the Royal Ensign Don Augustus Flores Vergara, his servant, in 1710." Several religious paintings grace the walls. In the left rear of the chapel is an early reproduction of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Facing the altar, the painting on the left on buffalo hide is of Christ on the Cross, the painting on the right on deer skin is of Saint John the Baptist. These were painted by he Franciscan friars around 1630 and were used as teaching aids in their work of converting the Indians. Directly to the left of the altar is a painting of the Annunciation, believed to be the work of a disciple of the Spanish painter Murillo. To the right of the altar is an encased Penitente carving of the crucifixion from the early 1700's.  The oldest reredos in New Mexico hangs as the backdrop to the altar. This wooden structure which was hand carved and painted in 1798 contains a statue of San Miguel, the patron of the Mission Church. This statue was carved in old Mexico in the 1600's and was brought by the Franciscan missionaries to Santa Fe.  Above the statue of San Miguel is a painting of Christ the Nazarene. The 4 oval paintings on the reredos date back over three hundred years. The oval painting at the top to your left is St. Theresa of Avila. Below it is Saint Francis of Assisi. To the right is Saint Gertrude of Germany, and below is Saint Louis IX, king of France.

                                                                                                                                                                      
 In 1955 the Christian brothers commissioned an archaeological study of the ancient chapel. The investigation revealed the original sanctuary dirt floor and altar steps as well as the adobe walls burned during the Pueblo rebellion. The dig also uncovered 300 human remains, most believed to be the devout Tlaxcalan Indians, buried beneath the sanctuary floor. The Franciscans, in those ancient days, often made arrangements for the dead to be interred, if possible, under the altar of their Catholic Church in the hope of being remembered in the prayers of the faithful who attended Mass there. On the Sunday I participated in Mass at San Miguel Mission, the history of this Mission church reminded me of the early Christians who settled in New Mexico, their diversity reflected in our contemporary Southwestern Christian population, their perseverance and sacrifice a testimonial to the staying power of their faith, passed on to us. I encourage all Christian pilgrims to visit San Miguel Mission and to remember in their prayers those who first brought the Christian faith to New Mexico.

For more history of San Miguel Mission in Santa Fe click on 

SAN MIGUEL MISSION - Rozylowicz

www.rozylowicz.com/pdf-files/mission.pdf‎

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