Vocation: Sister Disciples Of The Divine Master

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A Pauline Centenary Pastoral Tool

ALBERIONE AND THE LITURGICAL MOVEMENT, n. 7 ***

A Doctoral Thesis Presented at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute

THE PAULINE FAMILY’S CONTRIBUTION TO THE LITURGICAL MOVEMENT: “Blessed Alberione’s Liturgical Formation”

Together with the studies of history and pastoral care for souls, Blessed Alberione dedicated a large part of his time to the study of liturgy. The directives of Pope Pius X had evidently stimulated his interest for the liturgy and in the Abundantes Divitiae, Blessed Alberione would recall that he was particularly impressed by what the Pope had accomplished with regard to sacred chant, the breviary and the teaching of the liturgy. As professor at the seminary of Alba, he was assigned to teach liturgy for several years. He also fulfilled the task as seminary master of ceremonies and sacristan. Moreover, he became the master of ceremonies to the bishop and was entrusted with preparing the ceremonial book. As master of ceremonies he was not certainly satisfied with mere choreography precision.

He felt greatly obliged to deepen his knowledge of the history and spirit of the liturgy by reading the best authors on liturgical study from the 13th century up to our time. In the Abundantes Divitiae, n. 71, he affirmed that he profited greatly from reading the books of Guglielmo Durando (1230 c. - 1297), Bartolomeo Gavanti (1569 – 1638), Luigi Rodolfo Barin (1883 – 1933), Gaspare Destefani (1884 – 1952), Prosper Gueranger (1805 – 1875), Emmanuele Caronti (1882 – 1966), Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster (1880 – 1954), Pietro Veroni (1892 – 1935), Ludwig Eisenhofer (1871 – 1941) and Gaspare Lefebvre (1880 – 1966). Here below is a biographical sketch of the authors who had shaped the liturgical spirit of Blessed Alberione.

1. GUGLIELMO DURANDO: Born in Puimisson, France, around the year 1230, he studied law from Enrico Susa and from Bernardo of Parma, thus becoming an expert in that discipline. He obtained his doctoral degree at Bologna and soon after, was teaching canon law at Modena. When he was about 34 years old, he published his famous work Speculum iudicale, great appreciated by the jurists of his time, earning for him the nickname “Speculator”. He became Auditor General in Rome and held important posts in the Curia and in the Romagna region. Elected to the episcopate by Pope Honorius IV, he was consecrated bishop of Mende in 1286. However, since important problems detained him for a long time in Italy, he was able to accede his office only in 1291. He wrote the Constitutiones Synodales for his clergy and prepared in 1292 - 1293 a Pontifical for his own diocese which would have great success and which would later be incorporated into the Pontificale Romano. The Rationale Divinorum Officiorum, however, is considered as his most famous work. After guiding his diocese for four years, he was recalled by Pope Boniface VIII in order to become the governor of the provinces of Romagna and Emiliana travailed by factional groups. He died in Rome in 1296 and was buried in Santa Maria over the Minerva.

2. BARTOLOMEO GAVANTI: Born in Milano in 1569, he was given the baptismal name “Bernardino”. He was a cleric exorcist when he entered the congregation Chierici Regolari di San Paolo, known more commonly as “Barnabites”. He professed the vows on October 30, 1588 at Monza. After finishing his studies at Milano and Pavia, Federico Card. Borromeo ordained him a priest on September 27, 1595. Highly proficient in Hebrew and gifted with an extraordinary intelligence and lofty sense of values, he was known as an incomparable Master of Ceremonies. He was a consultor of the Sacred Congregation of Rites and a member of the commission for the reform of the Breviary and the Missal. He died on August 15, 1638. His expertise and contributions in the field of liturgical science earned him the title “Prince of liturgists”. Among his notable works were the Octavarium Romanum and the Thesaurus Sacrorum Rituum.

3. LUIGI RODOLFO BARIN: Member of the Vincentian congregation, his name was intimately linked with the Ephemeridies Liturgicae on the basis of his notable liturgical contribution to it. He was a censor of the Pontificia Academia Liturgica and became well-known among seminary professors for his highly successful Cathechismo liturgico, a liturgical manual intended for use in seminaries and destined for young clergy and rectors.

4. GASPARE DESTEFANI: Born in 1884, this Torinese priest became the first rector of the new major seminary at Rivoli (Torino). He was a canon of the Collegiata del Corpus Domini. A competent liturgical scholar and an expert lecturer, he collaborated in the preparation of many pastoral magazines and journals. Together with Canon Bertola, he founded the Centro Liturgico Torinese and published numerous writings that evinced a remarkable blend of solid culture and popular style. The majority of his liturgical works, edited by L.I.C.E. – Torino, concerns the holy Mass. We can also mention his Il Breviario ed il ministero pastorale published in 1938.

5. PROSPER GUERANGER: Born in 1805 at Sable, he was ordained secular priest in 1827 and became the secretary of Msgr. de la Myre, Bishop of Le Mans. Backed by Pope Gregory XVI, he acquired the old priory of Solesmes in 1833. He went to Rome in 1836 in order to embrace the Benedictine life. He professed the monastic vows in 1837. Nominated Abbot of the new abbey of Solesmes and Prior General of the Benedictine Congregation in France, P. Gueranger greatly emphasized the importance of authority and the exclusive rights of the Holy See to authorize changes in the liturgy. Because of this he was accused by his Gallican enemies of dogmatism. Under his guidance, the abbey of Solesmes reached a high degree of splendor and became a center for the study of Gregorian chant. During the First Vatican Council, he was a staunch defender of papal infallibility. His major work was Les Institutions liturgiques in four volumes. His most celebrated work, however was the l’Annee liturgique (1841-1866) of which he managed to write 9 volumes. The other six were completed by L. Fromage after P. Gueranger’s death.

6. EMANUELE CARONTI: He was born in Subiaco on December 21, 1882. When he died on July 22, 1966, at the abbey of Santa Maria della Scala in Noci (Bari), the Holy Father sent a message of condolence expressing his lively grief about his death while at the same time, recognizing the enlightened zealous activities he carried out in the liturgical apostolate. His name is linked with the beginnings of the Rivista Liturgica and his two doctrinal works: the Pieta Liturgica and the Sacrificio Cristiano played an important role in giving a decisive orientation to the Liturgical Movement in Italy.

7. ALFREDO ILDEFONSO SCHUSTER: He was a benefactor of the Pauline Family. The incipient Pauline community at Via Ostiense in Rome practically grew under his benevolent gaze, who was then the Abbot of the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls. He was born in Rome on January 18, 1880, and was given the name Alfredo Ludovico. His father was Giovanni Schuster, a pontifical Zouave hailing from Bavaria, and his mother was Maria Anna Tutzer, a hard-working lady from Bolzano, who was 30 years younger than her husband. At the age of 11, Alfredo Ludovico entered the monastery of Saint Paul Outside the Walls as a fledging student. He began the novitiate on November 13, 1898, and took up the religious name of “Ildefonso”. He made his religious profession in November 1899 and began his theological studies at the Benedictine International College of Saint Anselm. In 1903, he obtained his degrees in philosophy and theology and on March 19, 1904 was ordained priest. In 1905 he started teaching at the Pontifical School of Sacred Music. In 1914 he started collaborating with the Rivista Liturgica and in 1918 was elected president of the newly founded Pontifical Oriental Institute. In 1919 he published the first volume of the Liber sacramentorum, a collection of the lessons he gave to the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music and the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Art in Italy and in 1926, nominated censor of the Liturgical Academy. On June 26, 1929, he was elected Archbishop of Milan and became a Cardinal.

8. PIETRO VENERONI: He was the son of Giacomo Veneroni and Angela Gatti. He was born in Albuzzano, diocese of Pavia on October 23, 1862, and was baptized on the same day. He was confirmed at San Francesco, Pavia on May 12, 1871. Ordained deacon on December 19, 1885, he received the priestly ordination the following year, on April 10, 1886. In October 1887, P. Veneroni received his degree in theology and became vice-chancellor of the Bishop’s Curia in November 1894. He died on January 9, 1935. He wrote the Manuale di liturgia (4 vols.), the Omelie sui Vangeli delle Domeniche (2 vols.) and the Discorsi sulle feste.

9. LUDWIG EISENHOFFER: This German liturgist was born in Munich in 1871 and died in Eichstatt in 1941. He was ordained priest in 1895 and became professor of liturgy, patrology and Church history at the seminary of Eichstatt. He is greatly remembered for his manual of liturgical science which presents a vast and solid study of liturgy in its historical evolution, together with the literal and mystical meaning of rites, as well as their theological and ascetical content. This manual of two volumes, published at Freiburg in 1932, was an offshoot of V. Thalhofer’s Handbuch der Katholisch Liturgik. The Italian version, translated by Paolo Carosi, O.S.B., was published by the Casa Editrice Marietti under the title Compendio di liturgia.

10. GASPARE LEFEBVRE: A Benedictine monk from the abbey of Saint Andre-Bruges in Belgium, he was the author of several types of missal for the people widely diffused even abroad. His Missel Quotidien et Vesperal was translated and edited by G. Destefani and S. Bertola and published under the title Messale quotidiano e Vesperale. He was described as an “apostle of the participation of the people in the liturgy”. The Italian readers would remember him, likewise, for his Liturgia, principii fondamentali. He was also director of the trisemestral magazine, La Croisade liturgique a l’ecole et au Foyer and editor of the Bulletin Paroissial Liturgique.

Of these ten authors, six were religious, four of which four were Benedictine monks; Gueranger, Schuster, Caronti and Lefebvre; one, Gavanti – a Barnabite; the other one, Barin – a Vincentian. The other four were members of the diocesan clergy: Durando, bishop of Mendes together with Destafani, Veneroni and Eisenhofer. Blessed Alberione’s range of studies was very wide. Though he read preferably Italian authors, which was understandable since he was not proficient in other modern languages, he tried to extend the area of his research by consulting Italian translations, for example, Eisenhofer’s Compendio di liturgia. He always strived to keep abreast with current sources while at the same time, kept a chronological approach to liturgical study. He read the works of important Benedictine liturgists like Gueranger, Schuster, Caronti and Lefebvre. Nonetheless, it is evident that he was not restricting himself in the monastic ambit. He was reading, in fact, the works of the more important non-monastic writers in the field of liturgy. He was consulting the authors of well-know liturgical manuals: Barin, Veneroni, Eisenhofer, etc. Indeed, he tried to acquire a mastery of the liturgical science and penetrate the true meaning of the liturgy. He profited, moreover, from the reading of the Ephemerides Liturgicae and Rivista Liturgica of Finalpia. Through all these, Blessed Alberione avowed that he found more and more delight in the prayer of the Church and in praying with the Church.

Blessed Alberione’s bishop, Msgr. Francisco Re, began inserting into his sermon the dogmatic and moral aspects contained in liturgical prayers. As Blessed Alberione himself narrated: “One day the bishop confided to him: ‘Once I preferred to preach dogma; later moral doctrine. Now I think it is more helpful to explain the prayers of the liturgy, together with the dogmatic and moral teachings associated with them.’” What Msgr. Re said served as a directive for him. Indeed, through his example, the bishop contributed to direct Blessed Alberione more decisively into the field of liturgy whose true meaning the latter strived to penetrate more deeply.

As professor at the seminary of Alba, Blessed Alberione was also assigned to teach sacred art. Therefore, he read texts, went to see works of art, held discussions on magazines and also private discussions on the principle, “Art for life, for truth, for the good.” Moreover, he was enrolled early in the society Amici dell’arte Cristiana founded by Msgr. Celso Costantini (1876-1958), later cardinal, in 1913 for the realization of sacred art in general and of liturgical art in particular. Blessed Alberione’s many assignments in the field of liturgy led him to desire churches suitable for beautiful liturgical ceremonies. Later on, three principal churches dedicated to the Divine Master, the Queen of the Apostles and Saint Paul, corresponding to the three principal devotions of the Pauline Family, would be constructed and whose realization he himself would directly care for.

(TO BE CONTINUED)

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