Studio Newsletter

The Studio's Newsletter for June 2018 has now been published.

If you have not received a copy, although usually have done, it is because your e-mail address with us is no longer current.

New subscribers are most welcome.

Enquiries : stbede62@gmail.com

The Studio Blog

Each day, the Saint Bede Studio receives enquiries from those seeking vestments from many parts of the world and often the first response is to direct the enquirer to the Studio Blog.  The Blog has been designed to be as comprehensive as possible, within its limits.  It has been set up for viewing via a computer screen, tablet (or equivalent), but is not best navigated via a smartphone.

Frequently we are asked if the Studio has a catalogue.  The answer is here .

In the right-hand column (or sidebar) of each page of the Blog are helpful links for visitors.  Some of these are links to important pages detailing Studio policies, how to place an order &c.

Below that are links with images to pages describing the styles of vestments which are frequently enquired about.

After that is a list of links; mostly these refer to posts about vestments in the various liturgical colours and our styles.  These are a good guide to the range of materials and ornaments we use for our vestments and the best substitute for a catalogue we can offer.

The Studio quite deliberately does not have an online store because it is our policy to supply our vestments only to those in Communion (broadly speaking) with the See of Peter.  We cannot ensure this if purchases are made online.  Although this does limit our business, we feel that this is the best approach to our work.

Enquiries : stbede62@gmail.com

To the Sacred Heart

A beautiful hymn, written in Australia in the late 1950s by Professor James McAuley, to music by Richard Connolly.  It became part of the Living Parish Hymnbook, first published in 1961.  A recording of this lovely hymn may be heard at this YouTube post. 

Antiphon : 
Jesus, in your heart we find
Love of the Father and mankind;
These two loves to us impart
Divine love in a human heart.

May we stand within the fire
Of your Sacred Heart, and raise
To our God in joyful choir
All creation's song of praise.  

In our hearts from roots of pride
Deadly growths of evil flower;
But from Jesus' wounded side
Streams the sacramental power. 

To the depths within your heart
Draw us with divine desire,
Hide us, heal us, and impart
Your own love's transforming fire.

Fortescue on the Eighteenth Century

Father Adrian Fortescue

"In the eighteenth century a desolating wave of bad taste passed over Europe.  It gave us Baroc churches, tawdry gilding, vulgarities of gaudy ornament instead of fine construction.  It passed over clothes and gave us our mean, tight modern garments.  And it passed, alas! over vestments too, and gave us skimped, flat vestments of bad colour, outlined in that most impossible material, gold braid, instead of the ample, stately forms which had lasted until then....For these curtailed shapes are not the historic ones which came down hardly modified for so many centuries. They are a quite modern example of Baroc taste...Skimped chasubles, gold braid and lace are not Roman; they are eighteenth century bad taste."

So wrote one of the most illustrious ecclesiastical scholars of the early twentieth century, the Rev'd Dr Adrian Fortescue. This is an extract from a lecture which he gave to the Altar Society of Westminster Cathedral in 1912. Dr Fortescue's name is, unfortunately, better known for the ceremonial manual which he prepared in order to raise money for the building of his Parish church : The Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described, which has run into many editions, over almost one century.

Dr Fortescue made these counter-cultural comments a century ago, but each new generation of Catholics has to be reminded of them.

Penitential dalmatic

The Studio has recently completed a dalmatic for a young priest of the Diocese of Steubenville (Ohio), USA, a returning customer.

The vestments were made from a purple ecclesiastical brocade and lined in a deep red shade of taffeta. They are ornamented with a narrow braid in colours of Royal Blue, red, gold and white of the Studio's own design.

This dalmatic was made to match a chasuble set previously made for our customer.

Click on the image for an enlarged view.

Enquiries: stbede62@gmail.com

Priestly Ordinations 2018 : 1

Figure 1.
Father Moon pictured with seminarians
and ministers after the celebration of his
First Holy Mass.

Each year, the Saint Bede Studio has the privilege of preparing sacred vestments for priestly Ordinands.  Happily, 2018 is no exception.

In this post, we are pleased to draw attention to the ordination of Father Maurice Moon of the Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas (USA).  Father Moon was ordained to the Sacred Priesthood in the Cathedral of Saint Patrick on 19th May by the Bishop of Fort Worth, the Most Rev'd Michael Olson.

Father Moon commissioned a set of festal vestments from the Studio in the Gothic Revival style for his First Holy Mass. 

The vestments were made from an English ecclesiastical brocade in a shade of red and ornamented with a braid in colours of red, burgundy and straw-gold of the Studio's own design. The vestments were lined in muted yellow taffeta.

Figure 2.
Vestments made for Father Moon.

Father Moon's First Holy Mass was celebrated in the beautiful parish Church of Saint Peter in Lindsay (Texas) on Pentecost Sunday.  Father Moon kindly sent us an image taken after the First Mass (above).  We are pleased to include below two other images of this church's interior and refer readers to this interesting article about this hidden gem, built at the end of the 19th century by the town's German Catholic community.

Please pray for Father Moon and for all newly-ordained priests.

Enquiries : stbede62@gmail.com

Please click on the images for an enlarged view.

Figure 3.
Saint Peter's church Lindsay, TexasView looking east down the nave.

Figure 4.
Magnificent polychrome paint treatment of the walls
of Saint Peter's church, Lindsey, Texas.
This work is in the style of the 19th century
German Romanesque Revival.

Festal Dalmatic

Recently, the Saint Bede Studio completed a chasuble and dalmatic based on the style of the 16th century for a priest of the Diocese of Rockville Centre (New York state). In this post, we feature the dalmatic, which is made from ecclesiastical brocade and ornamented with a narrow galloon in the Roman style.

From the 16th century onward, the manner of decorating dalmatics changed from the earlier ornamental schemes. From earliest time until the present day, dalmatics have typically been decorated with two strips of ornament called clavus (plural clavi) running parallel to each other down the full length of the vestment.

From the 16th century, the clavi, which had been paired typically at a distance of approximately 30 cm (12 inches) or less, came to be separated much more widely. The apparels - being fabric ornaments which linked the two clavi together,  generally positioned below the neckline of the dalmatic - were also greatly enlarged in size; we might say disproportionately so. In subsequent centuries these ungainly apparels were abandoned and only their outlining galloons remained as the typical form of decoration of the Roman dalmatic.

This simple dalmatic has the widely-spaced clavi, with the apparel being indicated by an outlining braid.

Click on the image for an enlarged view.

Enquiries: stbede62@gmail.com

The Notorious “Gala” : Some Personal Reflections.

Ten years ago, I had the privilege of making vestments which were used by Pope Benedict at a Solemn Mass in Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, during World Youth Day 2008. Probably the most humbling moment of my life was when Pope Benedict walked past me in the sacristy wearing the vestments which I had made with my own hands. I feel certain that anyone reading that last sentence will readily understand these sentiments.

Over more than fifteen hundred years, countless others have had a similar privilege of making vestments for the Pope. Such vestments are not pageant costumes or fine clothes, they are sacred robes intended for the fitting worship of God. They are not intended to glorify the wearer but to draw all who look upon them into the Sacred Mysteries, raising hearts and minds to God. I like to believe that vestment-makers over so many centuries have had these sentiments in their hearts when sewing sacred vestments, just as I do in the 21st century.

As a maker of sacred vestments, and for the reasons outlined above, I have found the recent events of the Met Gala and the exhibition accompanying it, confronting and profoundly offensive. I will pass over without much comment - since so many others have, and more eruditely - the sacrilegious outfits worn by celebrities at the Met Gala, being parodies of sacred vestments. In this highly-sexualised age, need we doubt that the title of this exhibition at the Museum Heavenly Bodies is purposely ambiguous? Bit of a give-away isn’t it? How shameful to consider the vestments worn by popes for the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy of centuries past now being part of such an exhibition, intermingled with designer costumes for female bishops and popes.

Reading this post, please consider making Reparation for this blight on the sacred beauty of Holy Mother Church and that all Churchmen involved with it will regret such folly.

Michael Sternbeck
The Saint Bede Studio.

A Monastic Solemn Mass 1945

The Preparation of Incense.

The well-known ceremonial study of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite The Celebration of Mass, prepared by Canon JB O'Connell (who also edited later editions of Fortescue's The Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described), was first published in 1945 in three volumes. One volume, studying the ceremonies of Solemn Mass, featured a number of photographs taken in the Abbey Church of Prinknash, England.

Canon O'Connell, in the introduction to his book, gives an explanation:

By the very great kindness of the Right Reverend Wilfrid Upson OSB, Abbot of Prinknash Abbey, Gloucester (England), and the monks of his monastery, a number of photographs were taken in the (temporary) Abbey church to celebrate the chief ceremonies of High Mass.

The photographs, some of which are reproduced here, were taken by the Walwin Studio of Gloucester, probably in the year 1941. In the last several years, the Prinknash Community recently returned to residence in the original Abbey and the Chapel pictured in these photographs is once again the Abbey Church.

The Chanting of the Gospel.

The photographs are intended as a staged illustration of the ceremonies of Solemn Mass: obviously it was not an actual Mass which was photographed. The 1st photograph shews the preparation of incense at the beginning of Mass; the 2nd photograph shews the singing of the Gospel; the 3rd photograph shews the ablutions after Holy Communion and the 4th photograph shews the Blessing. Each of these photographs may be clicked on for an enlarged view.

A number of things may be commented upon. The first is the excellent architecture of this tiny chapel, illustrating that beautiful and proportionate things can be created in confined spaces. Especially noteworthy are the tasteful statue niches and the blind arcading and tracery around the walls of the sanctuary.

The Ablutions after Holy Communion.

The second noteworthy thing is the vestments and paraments. The vestments are very ample, the chasuble being semi-conical, and are decorated in a mediaeval manner. Observe that the dalmatic and tunic are ornamented in a completely different manner from each other: a practice which, unfortunately, ceased to be commonplace from the Baroque era onward. Observe also that the chasuble is decorated exactly in the Roman manner: a massive "Tau" on the frontal of the chasuble and a simple column on the back. This style of ornament has been employed continuously in Rome for a millenium.

An interesting touch, and very monastic, is the modest scale of the candlesticks on the High altar. Lastly, it would be of interest to include these explanatory remarks by Canon O'Connell:

The Blessing.

By special privilege of the Holy See, the monks of Prinknash Abbey, though belonging to the Subiaco Congregation of the Benedictine Order, wear a white habit. The tonsure of these Religious is the same as that in use in the Carthusian Order. For the purposes of the photographs, the monks who appear in them were good enough to lay aside for the moment some of their monastic usages in order to conform in full to the Roman rite. Accordingly, for example, in the photographs the lesser ministers wear the surplice instead of the amice, alb and girdle, which is the monastic practice; the Deacon and Subdeacon kneel for the blessing, instead of merely bowing, as solemnly professed monks do in their monastery. It will be noticed that the monks are wearing the monastic hood with the special type of amice that fits over it; and the Sacred Ministers are clad in vestments which are designed and made at the Abbey by members of the community.

Click on the images for an enlarged view.

Importance Notice :Commissions for 2018 and 2019

To all readers considering placing commissions for vestments with the Studio :

At present, the Studio is accepting commissions for 2019.

Over the last few months, we have had to disappoint a number of Ordinands who applied to us too late to have vestments made for mid-2018 Ordinations.

Please avoid similar disappointment for 2019 by approaching us without delay to discuss your intentions for vestments.

Enquiries : stbede62@gmail.com