Leo XIV, Cherubini's Mass, and Charles X
by Roberto de Mattei
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| The Coronation of Charles X at Rheims (1825) |
On December 12, in the Vatican, in the presence of Leo XIV, Maestro Riccardo Muti conducted Luigi Cherubini's Mass for the Coronation of Charles X, performed by the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra and the Guido Chigi Saracini Choir of Siena Cathedral.
Luigi Cherubini (1760-1842), a composer much loved by Riccardo Muti, was one of the central figures in European music between the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Born in Florence, he spent most of his life in France, where he lived through some of the most dramatic periods in modern history: the French Revolution, the era of Napoleon Bonaparte, and the monarchical Restoration that followed in 1814. The author of important operas and sacred works, he became director of the Paris Conservatory, exerting a decisive influence on European music education.
The Mass for the Coronation of Charles X represents one of the high points of his sacred output: a work conceived for a ritual in which music, theology, and sacred politics were intertwined.
The Mass was composed for the coronation of Charles X of France, celebrated on May 29, 1825, in Reims Cathedral. Charles X (1757-1836), formerly Count of Artois, was the brother of Louis XVI, who was guillotined on January 21, 1793, and of Louis XVIII, who ascended the throne in 1814 after the fall of Napoleon but died without issue in September 1824. Charles X reigned for only six years and, after the July Revolution of 1830 and his abdication, lived in exile with great dignity, interpreting it as a trial permitted by Providence. He died in Gorizia in 1836 and is buried in Castagnavizza, together with other members of the French royal family.
Charles X firmly believed in the monarchical principle and wanted to be crowned according to the ancient ritual codified by Charles V in 1365, but whose origins dated back to the pontifical ceremony of Egbert in the 8th century. For over eight hundred years, that ritual had not undergone any substantial changes, and Charles X wanted to revive it in its entirety. During the ceremony, the king insisted on kneeling personally at the most solemn moments, despite his age and physical difficulties, stating that one could not receive sacred power while standing.
The central moment of the coronation was the consecration with holy oil, traditionally kept in the famous Holy Ampulla. According to the account of Incmar of Reims, a dove brought this ampoule from heaven to Saint Remigius, who anointed Clovis, the first Christian king of the Franks, with the oil it contained. From then on, the King of France was considered almost as the vicar of Christ, invested with a providential mission. The royal consecration expressed the sacred origin of temporal power.
During the French Revolution, on October 7, 1792, a member of the Convention, the Protestant pastor Philippe Rühl, solemnly broke the Holy Ampulla in the square of Reims, making a gesture of public rejection of the sacred character of the monarchy. However, according to a report from the time, the day before, a part of the chrism had been extracted with a gold needle and preserved, which was then used for the consecration of Charles X.
