The Holy Chalice Today
Pope John Paul II himself celebrated Mass with the Holy Chalice in Valencia in November 1982. In 2006 at Valencia, Pope Benedict XVI also celebrated with the Holy Chalice, on this occasion saying “this most famous chalice”, words in the Roman Canon said to have been used for the first popes until 4th century in Rome, and supporting in this way the tradition of the Holy Chalice of Valencia.
In the hymns from St. Finian’s office we read:
Regressus in Clonardiam
Ad cathedram lecturae
Apponit diligentiam
Ad studium scripturae.
Which translates:
Returning to Clonard {Monastery}
to the chair of lecture
He established diligence
to the study of Scripture
Here are the Holy Twelve of Ireland:
“Behold the inheritance of the Lord are children: the reward, the fruit of the womb.” (Psalm 126:3, D-R)
Will you give 1% of 1440 minutes each day to God?
If so, pray the daily Rosary in 15 minutes – 1% of 24 hours.
There is also a plenary indulgence attached the family Rosary with the usual conditions. If you need tips on praying the family Rosary (something that can seem impossible with young children), please read this:
12 Tips for Praying the Family Rosary daily (Attention Catholic Dads)
Please pass this on to your friends. The culture war will be won through the Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary because it so quickly and easily leads us to our Lord Jesus Christ.
Chartreuse is that famous French liqueur made by Carthusian Monks. The founder of the Carthusians was Saint Bruno, an amazingly dedicated man who sought Christ in all things.
In 1084, Saint Bruno and six of his companions, he presented themsleves to St Hugh of Châteauneuf, Bishop of Grenoble, who installed them in a deserted location called Chartreuse, not far from Grenoble. Here they built a monastery for their life of prayer, poverty, and study. The monks began producing a spicy liquor (it contains 130 herbs!!!) of the same name “Chartreuse” in the 1700s.
It’s fantastic greenish color also gave name to the color “Chartreuse.”
Although I never met my paternal grandfather, I understand that he favored this liquor.
The origin of the liquor is interesting. Around 1605, a French marshal of King Henry IV, named François Hannibal d’Estrées, presented the Carthusian monks with a manuscript recipe for an “elixir of life.” The French name “Elixir Végétal de la Grande Chartreuse” comes from this manuscript. The recipe includes 130 herbs suspended in an alcohol base fermented from grape. The monks brewed this potion as a medicine and reached its current version in 1737 under the oversight of Brother Jerome Maubec.
Here’s a dutiful Carthusian monk performing his divinely inspired chemistry for the sake of the green elixer:
There is also yellow version which is flavored with saffron. So celebrate Saint Bruno and the Carthusians and enjoy a cocktail with Chartreuse.
One of these days, I’d like to do a study and post on the religious origins of various wines, beers, and liquors.
Godspeed,
Taylor
PS: The Catholic influence of Chartreuse is also witnessed to in Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited.. Anthony and the Charles Ryder drink Chartreuse after dinner. Anthony muses that it’s “Real G-g-green Chartreuse, made before the expulsion of the monks. There are five distinct tastes as it trickles over the tongue. It is like swallowing a sp-spectrum.”
I mentioned this once before on Canterbury Tales. Many do not know that the stigmata of Saint Francis contained something like nails in his hands and his feet. These nails could move within the wounds. Here’s the account from the Fioretti:
On the death of St Francis his glorious, the sacred stigmata were seen and kissed, not only by the said Lady Jacopa and her company, but by many citizens of Assisi; among others by a knight of great renown, named Jerome, who had doubted much, and disbelieved them; as St Thomas disbelieved the wounds of Christ.
And to assure himself and others, he boldly, in the presence both of the brethren and of seculars, moved the nails in the hands and feet, and strongly pressed the wound in the side. By which means he was enabled to bear constant witness to the truth of the miracle, swearing on the Gospels that he had seen and touched the glorious, holy stigmata of St Francis, the which were seen and touched also by St Clare and her religious, who were present at his burial.
Here is another description of the wounds and their fleshly nails:
For upon his hands and feet began immediately to appear the figures of the nails, as he had seen them on the Body of Christ crucified, who had appeared to him in the likeness of a seraph. And thus the hands and feet appeared pierced through the midst by the nails, the heads whereof were seen outside the flesh in the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet, and the points of the nails stood out at the back of the hands, and the feet in such wise that they appeared to be twisted and bent back upon themselves, and the portion thereof that was bent back upon themselves, and the portion thereof that was bent back or twisted stood out free from the flesh, so that one could put a finger through the same as through a ring; and the heads of the nails were round and black. In like manner, on the right side appeared the image of an unhealed wound, as if made by a lance, and still red and bleeding, from which drops of blood often flowed from the holy breast of St Francis, staining his tunic and his drawers.
Clearly, this stigmata of the Seraphic Father was different from that of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina. Father Solanus Benfatti of the Friars of the Renewal has recently composed a thesis in Rome on the stigmata of Christ. I hope to be able to read it soon.
On a related note, my friend the Reverend Father Solanus Benfatti of the CFRs has just published a fascinating study on the earliest texts witnessing to the stigmata of Saint Francis: The Five Wounds of Saint Francis (TAN, 2011). Please click on the link and order a copy.
