Irony Alert: Postconciliar Iconoclasts Arrive at the Feast of St John Damascene and Smash It

So much to observe about today's confluence in the Roman Rite, on this Thursday of the third week of Lent, with a commemoration of St. John Damascene.

A Saint—and a Mass—for Our Times: St. Camillus de Lellis (July 18)

This morning I had the privilege of singing the chant for a Solemn High Mass in the cathedral of Lincoln, Nebraska. It was a feast for which I had never sung before: that of St. Camillus de Lellis (1500–1614). The texts of the Mass itself made me want to learn more about him.

A soldier and a gambler, Camillus experienced a profound religious conversion that led him to attempt to join the Capuchins. Refused admission due to an incurable leg wound, he moved to Rome, took as his spiritual director St. Philip Neri, and dedicated himself to the unstinting care of the sick, whose wretched abandonment he witnessed firsthand. He was eventually ordained to the priesthood by the last surviving Catholic bishop of Great Britain, Lord Thomas Goldwell, in 1584. 

Camillus established a religious congregation, the Order of Clerks Regular, Ministers of the Infirm (also known as Camillians), devoted to the care of the sick—above all, the dying. Like so many other Counter-Reformation saints, he ministered tirelessly to plague victims. In 1591, the Order adopted a fourth religious vow: “to serve the sick, even with danger to one’s own life.”

A Collect Fit for a King (or Rather, an Emperor): St. Henry II

Today, on the traditional Roman calendar, is the feast of the Emperor St. Henry "the Exuberant" (d. 1024), husband of St. Cunegund. Both are buried, side by side, in the cathedral of Bamberg, which Henry had built. I had the privilege of visiting their tomb in 2018 when I gave a lecture "auf Deutsch" for Pro Missa Tridentina in Germany. Here are a few photos:

The imperial pair

Henry's traditional Collect is magnificent:

O God, who on this day didst translate blessed Henry, Thy confessor, from the summit of earthly empire to an eternal kingdom: we humbly beseech Thee, that even as Thou didst protect him with the fullness of Thy grace, and dist give him victory over the enticements of this life, so Thou wouldst enable us after his example to shun the blandishments of this world and to come to Thee with clean hearts. Through our Lord Jesus Christ...

We should celebrate St. Henry for many reasons. Here are three.