St Stephen's Day Mass Question --

[JamesHowell]

Hello.

I am not a Catholic, and I have a literary problem that I would appreciate some help with. Robert Lowell’s book of poems titled Lord Weary’s Castle opens with a Latin epigram:

Suscipe, Domine, munera pro tuorum commemoratione Sanctorum: ut, sicut illos passio gloriosos effecit; ita nos devotio reddat innocuos.

I have found a translation online that reads: “Receive, O Lord, our gifts, in commemoration of Thy Saints: that as suffering made them glorious, so our devotion may render us innocent.” The phrase seems to come from a portion of St. Stephen’s Feast, specifically from a segment titled “Secret.”

I am highly unknowledgeable about Catholic Mass procedures, and I am very curious to know what meaning the phrase quoted above has within the context of the St. Stephen’s Mass. Lowell was Catholic for a significant portion of his life (though I can’t remember whether he converted to Catholicism or away from it), and St. Stephen appears as a symbolic figure in a number of the poems of this collection.

Can anyone please answer this question for me?

James

 

[mercygate]

What a great question. St. Stephen, of course is the first Christian martyr (Acts 7 & 8).

Here is an article describing the “Secret” (“secret” means “in a low voice” in Latin – it doesn’t mean “stuff nobody knows except a few privileged people”).

When you say “Mass of St. Stephen” it does not mean a Mass offered to St. Stephen but the Mass offered to God in honor of St. Stephen.

Come back with further questions and we’ll see what we can do to help.

 

[JamesHowell]

mercygate:

What a great question. St. Stephen, of course is the first Christian martyr (Acts 7 & 8).

AHA! That Stephen!

I’m a member of the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), and I actually took required courses in Old and New Testament Scriptures at my first college. (A college named, appropriately enough, Presbyterian College.)

We covered Stephen’s martyrdom, of course, but, given the theological differences between the Catholic and Presbyterian churches, we never referred to him as Saint Stephen. Just “the martyr Stephen.”

I appreciate the link very much. I will look through that information and come back with questions, I am sure.

James

 

[mercygate]

JamesHowell:

AHA! That Stephen!

I’m a member of the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), and I actually took required courses in Old and New Testament Scriptures at my first college. (A college named, appropriately enough, Presbyterian College.)

We covered Stephen’s martyrdom, of course, but, given the theological differences between the Catholic and Presbyterian churches, we never referred to him as Saint Stephen. Just “the martyr Stephen.”

I appreciate the link very much. I will look through that information and come back with questions, I am sure.

James

We have other “Saint” Stephens also (St. Stephen of Hungary, for one) but the text you cite indicates that this is St. Stephen the Martyr.

The Catholic Encyclopedia I gave you the link to is a perfect gold mine of information. It is dated now (1913) but it is packed with great articles on a gazillion subjects. And it doesn’t whitewash some of the (ahem) less glorious history of the Church.

 

[tee_eff_em]

mercygate:

Here is an article describing the “Secret” (“secret” means “in a low voice” in Latin – it doesn’t mean “stuff nobody knows except a few privileged people”).

That is not quite correct.

The Latin *secretus *as an adjective means: secret, separate, separated, remote, retired, solitary, in private. As a noun: secret, something hidden, mystery, solitutde, retreat.

While it may have been used in context to indicate a low voice (ie “in private”), it oftentimes does, in fact, mean “secret”

tee

 

[mercygate]

tee_eff_em:

That is not quite correct.

The Latin *secretus *as an adjective means: secret, separate, separated, remote, retired, solitary, in private. As a noun: secret, something hidden, mystery, solitutde, retreat.

While it may have been used in context to indicate a low voice (ie “in private”), it oftentimes does, in fact, mean “secret”

tee

Great. But he asked a specific question about “the” secret of the Mass of St. Stephen.