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The Basilica on the Feast of the Cathedra of St. Peter
UPDATE! It’s baaaaack! The papal tiara, or triregno is back on the head of the bronze statue of St. Peter in the Basilica today. For the last couple years, it was politically correctly absent.
Here are photos I have shot in the Basilica on this feast day.
You can see the candles on Bernini’s mighty bronzes for the Altar of the Chair. Tragically that was ripped out some years ago. I was there the morning they did it and watched them haul it away in chunks.
And something to delight us all
The famous statue used to be dressed up on 22 February and 29 June. They used to use the tiara and the cotta griccia ... but no more.
Here is a link to my entry last year on the Mass prayers for today.
6:20 a.m. The alarm goes off at 6:15. My eyes pop open. Could it be THE day? I smell the coffee my wife’s already making downstairs. I get up, and go blinkingly into the room of my seventh-grader and rouse him for school. Then, I stumble down the hall into my office. I pause, say a prayer, sit down, and click!
Usquequo, Domine?
Comment by Jon — 22 February 2007 @ 12:44 pmSo whose idea was it to desecrate a priceless work of art and treasure of the whole human race like Bernini’s altar, and just how many centuries in Purgatory will he have to spend because of it?
Comment by Jordan Potter — 22 February 2007 @ 1:54 pmUPDATE! It’s baaaaack! The papal tiara, or triregno is back on the head of the bronze statue of St. Peter in the Basilica today. For the last couple years, it was politically correctly absent.
Huzzah! And it had been gone only a couple of years, because I’m sure I’ve seen it on the statue within the past 3 or 4 years.
Comment by Zadok the Roman — 22 February 2007 @ 2:04 pmNow to get it back on the head of the Holy Father himself…
Comment by AM — 22 February 2007 @ 2:27 pmYES! YES! YES!
(Now, can we please see it used again also by its REAL owner? (No huh? Just once, pretty please ?! )
;-))
Comment by Fabrizio — 22 February 2007 @ 2:40 pmGreetings, Fr. Z.,
I notice that the six candles and the standing crucifix are back on the high altar under the baldichino, too. Or am I mistaken?
How long has that been the case? I am delighted to see it, and seemed to have missed it when this happened.
Comment by Fr. Augustine Thompson O.P. — 22 February 2007 @ 5:17 pm(Now, can we please see it used again also by its REAL owner? (No huh? Just once, pretty please ?! )
;-))
Comment by Fabrizio
NB: The coat of arms of BXVI has a episcopal mitre, and so I wonder whether he’ll ever wear the tiara.
Comment by RBrown — 22 February 2007 @ 7:21 pmDressing up stautes is approved of. Do you have any photos of the Sampietrini placing and removing the candles – that helps to give an idea of the scale of The Glory and of their foolhardiness.
God Bless our Holy Father, now gloriously reigning.
Comment by surge — 22 February 2007 @ 7:25 pmI was upon the magnificent St. Peter’s cupola a few months ago, and the Coat of Arms of flowers near the papal residence and diplomatic office, in the gardens behind St. Peter’s do have a tiara above the coat of arms of Benedict XVI. I guess the gardener is a traditionalist, as in most other places – besides in the Fraternity of St. Peter’s church and the church where JosemarÃÂa Escrivá de Balaguer lies – I saw the silly episcopal three-leveled mitre.
The demolishing of the (Westward) celebration altar for non-popes (and popes in less high masses) in the past and of the ornaments of the Petri Cathedra, is a scandal, a crime against art and the heritage of humanity. Tells you a lot about the occupants of the Vatican City of these days. Sadly.
Comment by Alex — 22 February 2007 @ 7:52 pmIt looks perfect on him:
http://i17.tinypic.com/34zhhtz.jpg
Comment by Vincenzo — 22 February 2007 @ 8:17 pmThe flag used by the Pontifical Swiss Guards always has the coat of arms of the reigning pontiff in it, and, in that flag, the coat of arms of the present Holy Father is surmounted, not by the Mitre, but by the traditional Tiara.
Comment by Antonio — 22 February 2007 @ 8:58 pmI thought they just use the Vatican flag, with the Papal coat of arms (tiara, keys, and red cord), not the coat of arms of a specific pope.
Comment by RBrown — 22 February 2007 @ 9:46 pmHere’s the Vatican flag:
http://www.fotw.net/flags/va.html
And here’s BXVI’s coat of arms:
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/elezione/stemma-benedict-xvi_en.html
Comment by RBrown — 22 February 2007 @ 9:51 pmI´m not talking about the Vatican Flag, in which the arms of the Holy See are seen. I´m talking about the Flag of the Pontifical Swiss Guards.
Comment by Antonio — 22 February 2007 @ 10:02 pmI,like a previous poster, noticed the Big Six and crucifix are back on the papal altar…if that’s recent, that’s a HUGE signal.
Comment by Ole Doc Farmer — 22 February 2007 @ 11:20 pmIf the “Big six and crucifix” are back, could you possibly get over there and post a picture for us, Father?
Comment by Jon — 22 February 2007 @ 11:49 pmFather,
Oh, and Thanks!
Comment by Jon — 22 February 2007 @ 11:50 pmAltar of the Chair was ripped out? Why was that done? If that was done in the name of Vatican II, something is deeply wrong with the Church.
Comment by Ted Krasnicki — 23 February 2007 @ 12:18 amI read it was done by the combination of Cardinal Virgilio Noe (now retired but then the Archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica), and our beloved Archbishop Piero Marini, Papal Master of Ceremonies. They pressured JP II to allow for it. Much to his discredit, John Paul II went along with it. It was around 1994 or so that the beautiful Altar of the Chair was ripped right out of the wall and the ugly “Vatican II” table put in it’s place.
Cardinal Noe and Archbishop Marini are both protogees of the infamous Archbishop Annibale Bugnini, the man who singlehandedly almost destroyed Catholic tradition and created the “Novus Ordo”.
Maybe Pope Benedict XVI will restore the altar. Destroying it I thought was a crime….after what, 490 years? Terrible. But then again, what happend in St. Peters’ has happened in tens of thousands of parishes around the world.
I hope the momentum starts swinging in the direction of restoration of Cahtolic tradition now.
Comment by Kenjiro Shoda — 23 February 2007 @ 1:33 amI had always though that the big six and the altar crucifix are always arrayed that way when the altar is not used.
Now that St. Peter has his tiara back, perhaps his successor might be persuaded to give it a go?
Comment by Andrew — 23 February 2007 @ 3:32 amWink, wink =)
I´m not talking about the Vatican Flag, in which the arms of the Holy See are seen. I´m talking about the Flag of the Pontifical Swiss Guards.
That uses the shield of BXVI. But his personal coat of arms has a mitre and pallium.
Comment by RBrown — 23 February 2007 @ 3:32 amperhaps his holiness would find time to celebrate an Eastern rite Divine Liturgy where the celebrant wears a crown instead of a mitre. it would be a nice excuse to actually wear the triregno.
Comment by ThePerpetualMalcontent — 23 February 2007 @ 3:38 amThe Pope wears Latin Rite vestments when celebrating or concelebrating the Divine Liturgy in an Eastern Rite.
This can be seen when Pope John Paul visited the Ukraine and celebrated the Byzantine Rite Divine Liturgy which Jeffrey Wills, spokesperson for the UGCC press service, called “the largest gathering of people in history for a Byzantine liturgy.” Father Borys Gudziak, rector of the Lviv Theological Institute, referring to the Byzantine tradition in which everybody takes part in singing the liturgy, called it the “largest choir ever assembled.”
Click here to find photos of the event.
Comment by Andrew — 23 February 2007 @ 2:22 pmI was in Rome a few years ago on this feast and did not find the crown of St. Peter’s head. I am glad it is back, and hope that Pope Benedict will soon wear it. However, I don’t think it is coming back soon. Look what happened when he uesd the camauro. He used it once, and never again. What would they say, if he would use the papal crown?
Comment by Justin — 24 February 2007 @ 12:25 amandrew:
take a look at this: http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6322/78/1600/J23Eastern.jpg
Comment by ThePerpetualMalcontent — 25 February 2007 @ 3:53 amThere is a picture on the Dapple Things photo blog in the tiara section where John XIII is wearing the tiara while celebrating an eastern right. Granted he wore it at other times, but he is wearing it specifically for that liturgy in the photo. Thought that I would throw that out there.
Comment by Daniel — 25 February 2007 @ 5:32 amYours is a very informative site which I just discovered.
Comment by Calvin Pitts — 12 April 2007 @ 10:41 pmI’ve been reading Malachi Martin lately.
Any comments about his strong position against Vatican II and its harmful effects on the traditions of the Church?
What has brought about this change in the Church?
Calvin Pitts