On Thursday evening, 24 Aug. 2016, a Solemn High Requiem Mass in the traditional Roman Rite was offered at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Peoria, Illinois, for the repose of the soul of Archbishop John Lancaster Spalding, first bishop of Peoria. Those who attended report that the Mass, the first traditional Latin Mass at the cathedral since the liturgical revolutions and disorders of the 1960s (Latin "Novus Ordo" Masses have been celebrated at the cathedral in recent years), was exquisitely celebrated and well attended, with a good number of diocesan priests in choir besides the priests, deacons, and seminarians conducting the liturgy in the sanctuary. The cathedral schola chanted the propers and the Sequence Dies Irae. Communion was received at the communion rails before the side altars of Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Joseph.
The Mass inaugurated a weekend of "Founder's Day" celebrations to mark the completion of recent renovations at the cathedral (already an architectural treasure before the renovations, now even more lovely). Peoria's first bishop, John L. Spalding (nephew of Archbishop Martin Spalding of Baltimore, Maryland) built the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception in 1898. He fell asleep in the Lord 100 years ago this month.
