The Offertory for the Feast of All Saints: Justorum animae ("The souls of the righteous")

Justorum animae is the Offertory for the Feast of All Saints - one of my favorite feast days of the year.  And as with so much else on this day, the chant is beautiful:



(Not sure who the singers are there; there's nothing at the YouTube page about them.)

The words, too, are very beautiful; they come from Wisdom 3:1-2a, 3b:

Justorum animae in manu Dei sunt,
et non tanget illos tormentum mortis.
Visi sunt oculis insipientium mori,
illi autem sunt in pace.

The souls of the just are in the hand of God,
and the torment of death shall not touch them.
In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die;
but they are in peace.

Translation by St Ann choir

Here's the chant score:

In his Chants of the Vatican Gradual (1934), Dom Dominic Johner points out that this melody was, in the Tridentine mass, also used for the Offertory for the Feast of St. Michael, Stetit Angelus ("An angel stood near the altar of the temple").  In his explication of Stetit Angelus, Johner discusses the melody in detail, and finally notes that:

This melody is also sung on the feast of All Saints to the text Justorum Animae, and, with the same text, in the third Mass for several Martyrs; likewise in the Mass for Deliverance in Time of Pestilence to the text Stetit pontifex, and its first half on the feast of St. Peter's Chair at Rome (January 18) to the text Tu es Petrus. In some places it is sung on the feast of St. Vincent de Paul (July 19) to the text Inclinet.

In his discussion of this proper, Justorum Animae, John says:

The melody was explained on the feast of St. Michael. The happy  adaptation of this text was accomplished in the twelfth century. We are  tempted to ask why the small word autem was favored with such florid  neums. In the original we find them over ascendit, which easily lends  itself to tone-painting. But we must take into consideration not so much  the word as the entire thought. This part, with its jubilant melody,  forms a magnificent contrast to mori ("to die") with its low pitch in the  preceding phrase. Individually, the phrases, according to their text, are  shorter than those of the original. This might explain the omission of  the descent to the fourth below the tonic which we find there at the end  of the second, third, and fourth phrases.  

"The priest offers up pure sacrificial gifts in the sight of God. With  these gifts also the earthly sufferings and heavenly joys of the saints  ascend to the throne of God. A most mysterious and most intimate connection is thus forged between their lives and the life and death of  Christ. Their lives are woven into His sacrifice, and together with the  Eucharistic Sacrifice they are immolated to God. The singer recognizes  this; he would also have his song ascend to heaven bright and clear as  the clouds of incense which he sees rising from the altar" (C. 0., 50, 151).

Orlando di Lasso wrote a beautiful setting for this proper:

 

Surprisingly, to me at least, Camille Saint-Saens set it, too; that piece doesn't seem to be online, though.  Gabriel Jackson's beautiful setting is, though; lucky for us!



The YouTube page says, about the video above, that it's:

A recording of a live television broadcast on the 3rd of November 2013. Sung by the Cappella Nicolai, conducted by Michael Hedley.

http://www.cappellanicolai.nl http://www.muziekindenicolaas.nl

That's a Dutch choir, evidently.

Gabriel Jackson seems to enjoy writing settings for some of the old chant propers (for instance, see his setting of the Advent Sequence, Salus Aeterna), so I'm always interested when I discover another. 

Here are mp3 files for all the propers on the day, from ChristusRex.org:

Die 1 novembris
Omnium Sanctorum Introitus: Ps. 32 Gaudeamus... Sanctorum omnium (3m09.8s - 2969 kb) score
Graduale: Ps. 33, 10. V. 11b Timete Dominum (2m33.1s - 2395 kb) score
Alleluia: Mt. 11, 28 Venite ad me (3m34.5s - 3355 kb) score
Offertorium: Sap. 3, 1.2.3 Iustorum animæ (2m25.8s - 2281 kb) score
Communio: Mt. 5, 8.9.10 Beati mundo corde (1m29.8s - 1408 kb) score

And here are posts about these on Chantblog:

• The Introit for the Solemnity of All Saints: Gaudeamus Omnes ("Let us all rejoice")
• The Gradual for the Solemnity of All Saints: Timete Dominum omnes sancti ejus ("Fear the Lord, all ye his saints").
• The All Saints' Alleluia: Venite ad me, omnes ("Come to me, all ye who labor").
• The Offertory for the Feast of All Saints: Justorum animae ("The souls of the righteous") 
• The Communion Song for the Solemnity of All Saints: Beati Mundo Corde  ("Blessed are the pure in heart")
• The Office for November 1: The Feast of All Saints, and All Saints' Day: The Complete Office

This is a photograph (by user Silar) of Central Cemetery in Sanok, Poland, on All Saints' Day:

The Communio for the Feast of the Transfiguration: Visiónem quam vidístis ("The Vision you have seen")

The Communio for the August 6 Feast of the Transfiguration is the lovely Visiónem quam vidístis:



This beautiful chant is also the Communion song for the second Sunday of Lent; at one time the Transfiguration was celebrated on that day.  The August 6 Feast is relatively recent in the West.

The text comes from Matthew 17:9. a passage that immediately follows the story of the Transfiguration on the Mountain in that Gospel:

Visionem quam vidistis, nemini dixeritis,
donec a mortuis resurgat filius Hominis.

Tell the vision you have seen to no man,
till the Son of man be risen from the dead.

 Here's the chant score:

Transfiguration has been celebrated at different times and dates throughout history, but in the West the August 6 date was fixed in 1456. Here's a bit from the Wikipedia article about the feast:

The Feast of the Transfiguration of Jesus is celebrated by various Christian denominations. The origins of the feast are less than certain and may have derived from the dedication of three basilicas on Mount Tabor.^[1] The feast was present in various forms by the 9th century, and in the Western Church was made a universal feast on August 6th by Pope Callixtus III to commemorate the raising of the Siege of Belgrade (1456).^[2]
 
In the Syriac Orthodox, Indian Orthodox, Revised Julian calendars within Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholic, Old Catholic, and Anglican churches, the Feast of the Transfiguration is observed on 6 August. In those Orthodox churches which continue to follow the Julian Calendar, August 6 falls on August 19 of the Gregorian Calendar. The Transfiguration is considered a major feast, numbered among the twelve Great Feasts in Orthodoxy. In all these churches, if the feast falls on a Sunday, its liturgy is not combined with the Sunday liturgy, but completely replaces it.

 
Here's the section about Transfiguration's significance in the East, from the same page:

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Transfiguration falls during the Dormition Fast, but in recognition of the feast the fast is relaxed somewhat and the consumption of fish, wine and oil is allowed on this day.

In the Orthodox view the Transfiguration is not only a feast in honor of Jesus, but a feast of the Holy Trinity, for all three Persons of the Trinity are interpreted as being present at that moment: God the Father spoke from heaven; God the Son was the one being transfigured, and God the Holy Spirit was present in the form of a cloud. In this sense, the transfiguration is also considered the "Small Epiphany" (the "Great Epiphany" being the Baptism of Jesus, when the Holy Trinity appeared in a similar pattern).

The Transfiguration is ranked as one of the Twelve Great Feasts of the Orthodox liturgical calendar, and is celebrated with an All-Night Vigil beginning on the eve of the Feast.

Grapes are traditionally brought to church to be blessed after the Divine Liturgy on the day of the Transfiguration. If grapes are not available in the area, apples or some other fruit may be brought. This begins the "Blessing of First Fruits" for the year.

The Transfiguration is the second of the "Three Feasts of the Saviour in August", the other two being the Procession of the Cross on August 1 and the Icon of Christ Not Made by Hand on August 16. The Transfiguration is preceded by a one-day Forefeast and is followed by an Afterfeast of eight days, ending the day before the Forefeast of the Dormition.

In Eastern Orthodox theology, the Tabor Light is the light revealed on Mount Tabor at the Transfiguration of Jesus, identified with the light seen by Paul on the road to Damascus.

The article also notes that Transfiguration is one of the "Luminous mysteries" of the rosary, chosen as such by Pope John Paul II in 2002.

And from another Transfiguration page:

The theology of the Transfiguration received the attention of the Church Fathers since the very early days. In the 2nd century, Saint Irenaeus was fascinated by the Transfiguration and wrote: "the glory of God is a live human being and a truly human life is the vision of God".^[25]

Origen's theology of the Transfiguration influenced the patristic tradition and became a basis for theological writings by others.^[26] Among other issues, given the instruction to the apostles to keep silent about what they had seen until the Resurrection, Origen commented that the glorified states of the Transfiguration and the Resurrection must be related.^[26]

The Desert Fathers emphasized the light of the ascetic experience, and related it to the light of the Transfiguration – a theme developed further by Evagrius Ponticus in the 4th century.^[26] Around the same time Saint Gregory of Nyssa and later Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite were developing a "theology of light" which then influenced Byzantine meditative and mystical traditions such as the Tabor light and theoria.^[26] The iconography of the Transfiguration continued to develop in this time period, and there is a sixth-century symbolic representation in the apse of the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe and a well known depiction at Saint Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai in Egypt.^[27]

Byzantine Fathers often relied on highly visual metaphors in their writings, indicating that they may have been influenced by the established iconography.^[28] The extensive writings of Maximus the Confessor may have been shaped by his contemplations on the katholikon at Saint Catherine's Monastery – not a unique case of a theological idea appearing in icons long before it appears in writings.^[28]

In the 7th century, Saint Maximus the Confessor said that the senses of the apostles were transfigured to enable them to perceive the true glory of Christ.^[29] In the same vein, building on 2 Corinthians 3:18, by the end of the 13th century the concept of "transfiguration of the believer" had stabilized and Saint Gregory Palamas considered "true knowledge of God" to be a transfiguration of man by the Spirit of God.^[30] The spiritual transfiguration of the believer then continued to remain a theme for achieving a closer union with God.^[18][31]

One of the generalizations of Christian belief has been that the Eastern Church emphasizes the Transfiguration while the Western Church focuses on the Crucifixion – however, in practice both branches continue to attach significance to both events, although specific nuances continue to persist.^[32] An example of such a nuance is the saintly signs of the Imitation of Christ. Unlike Catholic saints such as Padre Pio or Francis (who considered stigmata a sign of the imitation of Christ) Eastern Orthodox saints have never reported stigmata, but saints such as Seraphim and Silouan have reported being transfigured by an inward light of grace.

August 6 is also the anniversary of the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II - a sad commentary on the human condition, indeed.  (And as noted above, the Feast itself was made universal as a commemoration of a victory in battle.)



Here are all the chants for the day, from ChristusRex.org:

In Transfiguratione Domini

Introitus: Ps. 26, 8.9 et 1 Tibi dixit cor meum (cum Gloria Patri) (2m59.6s - 2808 kb)
Graduale: Ps. 44, 3 et 2 Speciosus forma (4m20.2s - 4068 kb) score
Alleluia: Sap. 7, 26 Candor est lucis æternæ (2m36.223s - 1223 kb) score
Offertorium: Ps. 8, 6.7 Gloria et honore (1m22.047s - 643 kb) score
Communio: Mt. 17, 9 Visionem (2m36.4s - 2446 kb) score

Here are posts about chant propers for this day on Chantblog:

• The Introit for the Feast of the Transfiguration (August 6):  Tibi dixit cor meum quaesivi vultum tuum
• The Gradual for the Feast of the Transfiguration: Speciosus forma
• The Alleluia for the Feast of the Transfiguration:  Candor est lucis æternæ 
• The Communio for the Feast of the Transfiguration:  Visiónem quam vidístis ("The Vision you have seen")
• Office hymns On the Feast of the Transfiguration (August 6)

This icon comes from the Novgorod school, 15th century (see this page).