Pope Benedict to wear
Palm Sunday vestments
patterned after what Leo X
wore at his installation
PETRUS today reports an item from Il Giornale della Toscana, translated here:
VATICAN CITY - On Palm Sunday, March 16, Benedict XVI will wear liturgical vestments that reproduce the fabric and the Medici coat of arms of Pope Leo X.
It is a rose silk damask with gold thread, brocaded with the heraldic symbols of the Medici who ruled Florence for centuries - three rings with a diamond point that are concentric and inscribed within a two-lobed leaf.
Giovanni de Medici, son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, became Pope Leo X on March 11, 1513.
The initiative follows the execution for the Office of Pontifical Liturgical Ceremonies of the Ash Wednesday vestments worn by Benedict XVI, by the company Tridentinum of Ferrara, under lay liturgist Pietro Siffi, who proposed the concept. The Palm Sunday vestments would recreate the vestments worn by Leo X upon his accession to the Papacy.
The Ash Wednesday vestments were a violet brocade with the heraldic emblems of Pope Paul VI Borghese.
Siffi's project aims at a revaluation of some Roman liturgical vestments which have been practically forgotten.
The Palm Sunday ensemble will include chasuble, dalmatic, cope and other accessories carrying the Medici motifs. Corresponding vestments will be prepared for the deacons who will assist the Pope.
The original installation vestments of Leo X are in the custody of the Servants of Mary friars in the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata in Florence.
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If this story is true, one hopes Mons. Guido Marini will come up with a good explanation of why Leo X!
Leaving aside the obvious - and questionable - suggestion of picking a Medici Pope for 'snob value' (as was the case of choosing a Borghese Pope for the Ash Wednesday vestments) that most people would see, Leo X is not exactly a Pope whose memory one would want to dredge up at will. His short reign from 1513-1521 was marked above all by Martin Luther's schism from the Church - and Leo X was, of course, unable to stem the Protestant Reformation that followed.
Maybe to say that the threats to the Church today are as serious as Luther's schism was?
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P.S. It turns out Father Z blogs about this today, and here are his observations and comments:
1) The historic vestments used by the Pope are not all being taken from the dusty cabinets which had been locked up for so long under the term of Mons. Piero Marini. They are also being commissioned.
2) There is a purposeful plan to "resurrect" historical fabrics and styles of vestments.
I think the Holy Father is saying something by commissioning new vestments of old styles and ancient fabrics. The very fabric and vestments he wears seem to reflect the principle of a hermeneutic of continuity: old treasures, made present as a guide into the future. So, there is an organic development taking place in his choice of important vestments for important occasions.
While I love the idea of simply drawing forth the splendors that have been so long locked up, rather than spending what must a not small amount of money, I also am pleased to see the Holy See becoming again a patron of fine works at this level of skill.
I know that in the past many vestments were commissioned, but very many of them were not really very successful. Those which were acceptable were forgettable while those which were memorable were apalling.
Holy Church has been the greatest patroness of the arts the world has ever known. That is harder to realize today, because the formation of artists is so lacking now. But it is time to get back into the game.
I am also interested to see the name of Pietro Siffi. This is the fellow who reproduced the Italian language liturgical manual for the 1962 edition of the Missale Romanum by Ludovico Trimeloni, the Compendio di Liturgia Pratica today (Milano: Marietti 1829, 2007). I wrote about it here and other places on this blog.
Siffi also has a little book out called, La Messa di San Pio V: osservazioni sul rito tridentino in risposta ai critici del motu proprio, an apologetic work about the older form of Mass as a response to critics of Summorum Pontificum.
So, this fellow is now working hand in glove with the Master of Ceremonies, Mons. Guido Marini and with the Roman Pontiff, in what seems more and more to be a coordinated projected.
I keep writing about a Marshall Plan. I think we are seeing another part of it.
Say what you want about other aspects of this Holy Father’s administration, which perhaps has not yet addressed some issues that need addressing, but he is certainly pushing ahead that all important tip of the spear, which is the liturgy.
Finally, Pope Leo X, whose body is found in Santa Maria sopra Minerva near the Pantheon, is the one who excommunicated Martin Luther.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 26/02/2008 17:33]