Recordare Iesu Pie

Here is a festive detail from an early 20th c. Roman catafalque which was being set up for the Requiem High Mass at San Gregorio dei Muratori this evening. I link to a larger version so you can enjoy it as a wallpaper if you wish.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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16 Comments

  1. Garrett says:

    Wasn’t there some prohibition given in the early-to-mid 20th century by a certain Pope
    (Pius XI, maybe?) against all new vestments being made containing bones or skeletal representations?

    While I think this type of thing is not totally conducive to an optimistic hope that the deceased will at some point enter Heaven, I do find this type of thing “creepy-cool,” if only from an aesthetic point of view.

  2. Garrett: Memento mori, friend, Memento mori.

  3. Pes says:

    I’ve always like Holbein’s anamorphic skull:

    http://smarthistory.org/images/holbein.jpg

    To see it, you have to view the humanist world of power from a different, ahem, perspective.

  4. matt says:

    …ne me perdas illa die…

  5. Anyone use this as wallpaper for your desktop yet? o{]:¬)

  6. Sidney says:

    Sorry Father, but it’s not good to our mind health to have an skeletal representation on
    on our desktop…

  7. Sidney: Memento mori, friend, Memento mori.

  8. Sidney says:

    Sorry Father! Now it’s my desktop!

  9. Tim Ferguson says:

    As devoted as I am to the Poor Souls, and as much as I need a regular reminder of my mortality, I found it more appropriate, today, to have as my desktop the picture of the Minnesota National Guard’s 34th Infantry Division holding up a sign saying “Halp Us Jon Carry – We R Stuk Hear n Irak”

  10. michigancatholic says:

    They’ll know we are Christians by our screen savers. ;)

  11. Tim Ferguson: No argument there! Those are Minnesota boys, too! When I heard Kerry’s remarks, I was so mad I almost went down to Naples to try to get on a ship.

  12. Anonymous says:

    Thank you, Father. I keep a store of appropriate desktops for special days, and this one shall be reserved for 2nd Novmber and days of friends’ funerals, of which there seem to be more and more as time goes on.

  13. Londiniensis says:

    Thank you, Father. I keep a store of appropriate desktops for special days, and this one shall be reserved for 2nd November and days of friends’ funerals, of which there seem to be more and more as time goes on.

  14. Anonymous says:

    I’ll display my ignorance here. What does Latin phrase above the skelton mean?

  15. matt says:

    Recordare, Jesu pie, quod sum causa tuæ viae = “Remember, gracious Jesus, that I am the cause of your journey”…

    It’s part of the Dies Irae (Day of Wrath) poem about the day of judgement.

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