Video: Historical Re-enactment of a 1450 Mass, Dominican Rite, Sweden

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youtube.com/watch?v=UTSJ7LqZLYQ

The video looks relatively old - maybe, 1990s or 2000s.

The celebrant is a real Roman Catholic priest, Anders Piltz. This took place in Visby, Gotland island, Sweden. The congregation are locals, wearing distinctive 15th-century clothing; the church interior also looks very medieval, while the priest’s balding head stands for a tonsure, I guess. 😃

The priest is a Dominican; so, it is no surprise that the Dominican Rite is used (note the gestures at 45.30 and 46.05). This is supposed to be an Ordinary Sunday, but the vestments are read - is it a Dominican Rite thing?

It looked to me quite an impressive recreation. I wonder whether it is intentional or accidental, but the gospel reading at this Mass was exactly the same as this week’s traditional reading!
 
So at that time the faithful were separated from the sanctuary by a physical screen, with the priest preaching through what effectively was a window in the screen? It appeared that unless one was somewhat tall, that when kneeling one couldn’t even see the altar. Was that a widespread design for a church at that time?
 
Tarpeian_Rock said:
So at that time the faithful were separated from the sanctuary by a physical screen, with the priest preaching through what effectively was a window in the screen? It appeared that unless one was somewhat tall, that when kneeling one couldn’t even see the altar. Was that a widespread design for a church at that time?
Click to expand...
Yes, exactly, they were widespread in the late Medieval architecture, especially in the Northern Europe. Here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rood_screen - it says that they sometimes could only see the Host when elevated. The screens were forbidden by the Council of Trent.
 
JurisPrudens said:
youtube.com/watch?v=UTSJ7LqZLYQ

This is supposed to be an Ordinary Sunday, but the vestments are read - is it a Dominican Rite thing?
Click to expand...
I have heard that the colours of vestments for particular seasons wasn’t definitively decided until 1570. SO it’s quite possible it was a local “thing”. For example, it was apparently the usage in some parts of England to use grey for Lent. And sometimes on special occasions the finest vestments would be worn regardless of their colour.
 
Tarpeian_Rock said:
So at that time the faithful were separated from the sanctuary by a physical screen, with the priest preaching through what effectively was a window in the screen? It appeared that unless one was somewhat tall, that when kneeling one couldn’t even see the altar. Was that a widespread design for a church at that time?
Click to expand...
Yep. Actually, many rood screens had a sort of loft, which could also serve as the pulpit on certain occasions. In fact, in some places they even had a secondary altar (sometimes called the ‘Jesus-altar’) right before the screen: Sunday Mass would be said at the main altar in the sanctuary, while weekday services were celebrated on the secondary altar.
JurisPrudens said:
Yes, exactly, they were widespread in the late Medieval architecture, especially in the Northern Europe. Here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rood_screen - it says that they sometimes could only see the Host when elevated. The screens were forbidden by the Council of Trent.
Click to expand...
They’re not really forbidden. The council just stipulated that the Mass should be made more accessible to the laity, which many people took to mean that they should literally do away with the rood screen, which obstructs the view of the sanctuary. (‘Spirit of Trent’, anyone? :p)
 
Mark1970 said:
I have heard that the colours of vestments for particular seasons wasn’t definitively decided until 1570. SO it’s quite possible it was a local “thing”. For example, it was apparently the usage in some parts of England to use grey for Lent. And sometimes on special occasions the finest vestments would be worn regardless of their colour.
Click to expand...
Absolutely correct. In the Middle Ages, different localities really had their own different customs regarding liturgical colors. (That explains why even today, blue is a valid liturgical color in some countries.) In some these places, red was actually the Sunday color.

And even then, these were more along the lines of suggestions than hard-and-fast rules, since in reality many churches (especially rural parish churches) weren’t wealthy enough to be able to own a full set of vestments: the clergy of the church would just use whatever they had.

This could have led to situations where the priest would wear a differently-colored vestment than the deacon or subdeacon - even situations where the clergy would wear individual vestments from different sets.

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
 
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