Traditional English Catholic Devotions

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Crusading_Canuk

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I was wondering if anybody knew of any devotions traditionally associated with English Catholics. Right now, the only two I can think of is venerating Our Lady of Walsingham and veneration of St. Thomas Beckett. I was just trying to find others that have pre-Reformation origins.

Thanks,
CC
 
Do you mean only devotions to saints or devotional practices?

One that comes to mind is the May Crowning of Mary.
 
I don’t know about specific practices, but I read the Venerable Bede’s writing on Caedmon of Whitby once. Caedmon’s verse seemed pretty pleasant.
 
uxordepp said:
Do you mean only devotions to saints or devotional practices?

One that comes to mind is the May Crowning of Mary.
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I’m refering to both devotions to saints and the Virgin as well as devotional practices traditonaly associated with the Catholic Church in the British Isles. I find it hard to find much information on this, due to the effects of the Reformation. And when I do see something which seems to be Catholic, I am not quite sure if it is merely High Church Anglican.
 
Check out the book “The Stripping of the Altars” by Eamon Duffy. He describes all sorts of religious practices in pre-Reformation England.
 
I don’t know if it qualifies as a devotion but I think there is still the custom of “dressing” wells on Holy Thursday. I recall Joanna Bogle talking about this in Feasts and Seasons.
 
Mothering Day, or Rose Sunday is coming up in late lent. Have a pastry!

Recite the Te Deum at sunrise on May Day.

I don’t know how unique these were to the Saxons, but St. George’s Day was the national saints day, then as now.

Many ancient practices of English Catholics would have been local, like throwing a farthing in the holy well of St. Margaret’s Church (the Treacle Well in Through the Looking Glass). Unless you live in Old Blighty, it will be hard to recreate these, but that was the stamp of pre-reformation Europe. We lost an awful lot, and the amount of loss helps explain why people fought so long and hard during the 1550 through 1600s.

But your English forbears would have prayed their Aves and Pater Nosters in Latin, on beads, and they would have kept a vigourous Lent, the Ember Days (itself a Saxon word), and Rogation Sunday.

You probably know about the Sarum missal, which was how they heard mass.

At this remove, and with the modern insistance that religion is fundamentally “personal,” it is hard to appreciate fully that our Catholic ancestors looked at the Faith as that which unified them with other all other men, not that which distinguished them.
 
allmercifulsavior.com/Western.html

This website, although done by a Western Rite Orthodox priest, there is a ton of information about traditional English devotions, many of which are pre-schism (which is why some Orthodox Christians use them). Hope that helps.

In Christ,
Andrew
 
Warrenton said:
Many ancient practices of English Catholics would have been local, like throwing a farthing in the holy well of St. Margaret’s Church (the Treacle Well in Through the Looking Glass). Unless you live in Old Blighty, it will be hard to recreate these, but that was the stamp of pre-reformation Europe. ** We lost an awful lot, and the amount of loss helps explain why people fought so long and hard during the 1550 through 1600s.**
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I know, it is a sad state the Church in England has been the Reformation. The sad thing is, Henry VIII who opened the Pandora’s Box of the reformation was for a long time the ideal Catholic ruler and by the standards of the day the most pious in Europe. I am in no way excusing what he did, but in some ways, what happened to him was a tragedy.
Harpazo said:
allmercifulsavior.com/Western.html

This website, although done by a Western Rite Orthodox priest, there is a ton of information about traditional English devotions, many of which are pre-schism (which is why some Orthodox Christians use them). Hope that helps.

In Christ,
Andrew
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Thanks! This is pretty much exactly what I was looking for. I had no idea there were still copies of the Sarum Rite missal in existence. As sonn as i update Adobe, I’ll look at it.

Thanks 😃
 
The English had a tremendous devotion to the Psalter for one devotion.

There is the Jesus Psalter which was most popular among the Recusant Catholics who also preferred the Rosary of 63 Hail Mary’s in honour of the years our Lady lived on earth.

The Seven Penitential Psalms with the Litany of all Saints together with the 15 Gradual Psalms were also a favourite among English Catholics.

Then there was the Little Office of the Virgin Mary which formed the basis for the “Books of Hours” that were so popular throughout Europe.

England had her “Pater Nosterers” who made beads for the recitation of 150 Our Father’s and 150 Hail Mary’s.

The English practice of constantly saying “Pater Noster” gave rise to the phrase “pitter patter” to indicate a certain tintinabulatory sound.

The website mentioned is excellent and we have an English Western-Rite Orthodox Benedictine monastery in Hamilton here that observes many Old English practices coming from the Sarum Use.

Alex
 
Crusading_Canuk said:
Thanks! This is pretty much exactly what I was looking for. I had no idea there were still copies of the Sarum Rite missal in existence. As sonn as i update Adobe, I’ll look at it.
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The Sarum Rite looks beautiful. However, I found the spelling to be somewhat interesting. Some transliteration problems perhaps?

Per Dominum nostrum Ihesum Ipistum Filium Tuum qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti, Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum.

allmercifulsavior.com/Liturgy/Ordo%20Missae%20Sarum.pdf
 
Alexander_Roman said:
Then there was the Little Office of the Virgin Mary which formed the basis for the “Books of Hours” that were so popular throughout Europe.
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Schoolboys said them, and about 100 years ago, Henry VIII’s Little Hours was auctioned!
 
ProVobis said:
The Sarum Rite looks beautiful. However, I found the spelling to be somewhat interesting. Some transliteration problems perhaps?

Per Dominum nostrum Ihesum Ipistum Filium Tuum qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti, Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum.

allmercifulsavior.com/Liturgy/Ordo%20Missae%20Sarum.pdf
Click to expand...
Correction. That should be:

Per Dominum nostrum Ihesum Xpistum Filium Tuum qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti, Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum.
 
Warrenton said:
Schoolboys said them, and about 100 years ago, Henry VIII’s Little Hours was auctioned!
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They are nice and were even popular in the Eastern Orthodox Church during the period of the Kyivan Baroque (published in Slavonic at Venice).

Henry VIII, of course, was a schismatic Catholic and carried his decima rosary around wherever he went - it is today on display somewhere in London.

There is also a London hospital that was built with funds granted by Henry VIII who only asked the order of nuns that was going to work in it that they should say a rosary for him daily for as long as the hospital exists.

They STILL say a rosary for King Henry VIII before 6:00 pm every day. I don’t remember the name of the hospital, however.

Alex
 
Alexander_Roman said:
They STILL say a rosary for King Henry VIII before 6:00 pm every day. I don’t remember the name of the hospital, however.

Alex
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I’ve done a little digging on Google, and the point seems to be that Henry dissolved hospitals along with the monasteries, as they were staffed by religious, and were seen as a source of money and property for him.

So I think it’s unlikely that any order of nuns survived to continue any rosary. Do you know the name of the Order?

Interestingly, one of the hospitals founded long before Henry (in the 12th century, I believe) and then given more funds by Henry as it was running short of funds by the time he was on the throne, contains the only public statue of the dear man, in the porch - the hospital is St. Bartholomew 's, usually called St. Bart’s.
 
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