1 January – The Circumcision

Nostra tulit Christi caro vulnera vulnere tristi
On the late 12C Verdun Altar (see also) in the Abbey of Klosterneuburg, between the circumcisions of Isaac and Samson.
Annus Dierus Sanctorum
Consummati sunt dies octo, ut circumcideretur puer.
Eight days were accomplished, that the child should be circumcised.
Luke 2.21
By his own blood, he entered into the holies.
Per proprium sanguinem introivit in Sancta.
Hebrews 9.12
Sponsus sanguinum ob circumcisionem.
A bloody spouse art thou to me, because of the circumcision.
Exodus 4.26

Luke 2.21

Martyrologium Romanum

Roman Martyrology

The Liturgical Year by Dom Guéranger

Heortology: A History Of The Christian Festivals From Their Origin To The Present Day by Heinrich Kellner (Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1908).

La vie des saints

The lives of saints, with other feasts of the year, according to the Roman calendar by Peter Ribadeneira.

Tradition in Action

Medieval Christology

Acta Sanctorum

The Golden Legend (and illustrations)

Sermons

Homilies Of Feasts And Sundays By Catholic Church Fathers by D. G. Hubert (Washbourne, 1901).

Sermons for the Sundays and Some Festivals of the Year by Thomas White.

Explanation of the Epistles and Gospels for the Sundays, holydays and festivals throughout the ecclesiastical year, to which are added the lives of many saints by Leonard Goffiné (Pustet, 1880).

Goffine’s Devout Instructions on the Epistles and Gospels for the Sundays and Holydays (Benziger, 1896).

The Catholic Pulpit: Containing a Sermon for Every Sunday and Holiday in the Year and for Good Friday (Murphy, 1851).

Readings for the Sundays and Holy Days of the Church’s Year (Bosworth, 1881).

Analysis of the Gospels of the Sundays of the Year by Angelo Cagnolo (Benziger, 1892).

Short Discourses for all the Sundays in the Year According to the Mind & Method of the Catechism of the Council of Trent by John McQuirk (St. Paul’s Library, 1908).

Meditations

The Way of Salvation: Meditations for Every Day of the Year by Saint Alphonsus Liguori.

Meditations for Every Day in the Year by Roger Baxter (Benziger, 1823, reprinted in 1884).

Meditations for All the Days of the Year by M. Hamon (Benziger, 1894).

Meditations on the Life, the Teaching and the Passion of Jesus Christ for Every Day of the Ecclesiastical Year by Augustine Maria Ilg (Benziger, 1901).

Meditations for the Use of the Secular Clergy by Pierre Chaignon (Benziger, 1907).

Daily Meditations on the Mysteries of Our Holy Faith and on the Lives of Our Lord Jesus Christ and of the Saints by Alonso De Andrade, and on the Holy Name of Jesus.

Music

Medieval Music Database

Cantus: A Database for Latin Ecclesiastical Chant

Marc-Antoine Charpentier, In circumcisione Domini, H.316 & In circumcisione Domini / Dialogus inter angelum et pastores, H.406 (fin 1683)

Art

Index of Medieval Art

Catalogo generale dei beni culturali

BeWeB

Portail Biblissima

POP : la plateforme ouverte du patrimoine

Warburg Institute Iconographic Database

Guide to Christian Iconography

Illustrations in the Golden Legend

ca. 1305 Fresco by Giotto in the Scrovegni Chapel

ca. 1463 Painting by Andrea Mantegna

ca. 1500 Painting by the workshop of Giovanni Bellini

ca. 1500 Seven Sorrows Polyptych by Albrecht Dürer 

1587 Painting by Tintoretto

Iconography of Christian Art

Customs & Devotions

Feastday Cookbook

Sunday within the Octave of Christmas

Monastery of Sankt Johann in Müstair (CH)

Today’s Gospel reading – Luke 2.33-40 – picks up after Simeon’s first words (Nunc dimittis – the Gospel Reading on the second of February, for the Feast of the Purification) with Simeon’s prophecy of the sword that will pierce Mary’s heart. We also today read about Anna the prophetess. Above is the lower half of a fresco of the scene from around the year 800. Its inscription reads SUSCEPTUS. The cloth over Simeon’s hands bears the initials C and M. Above and between those letters are the feet of the Christ Child.

The Liturgical Year by Dom Guéranger

Heortology: A History Of The Christian Festivals From Their Origin To The Present Day by Heinrich Kellner (Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1908).

Sermons

Homilies Of Feasts And Sundays By Catholic Church Fathers by D. G. Hubert (Washbourne, 1901).

Sermons for the Sundays and Some Festivals of the Year by Thomas White.

Explanation of the Epistles and Gospels for the Sundays, holydays and festivals throughout the ecclesiastical year, to which are added the lives of many saints by Leonard Goffiné (Pustet, 1880).

Goffine’s Devout Instructions on the Epistles and Gospels for the Sundays and Holydays (Benziger, 1896).

Abridged Sermons for all the Sundays of the Year by Saint Alphonsus Liguori.

The Catholic Pulpit: Containing a Sermon for Every Sunday and Holiday in the Year and for Good Friday (Murphy, 1851).

Readings for the Sundays and Holy Days of the Church’s Year (Bosworth, 1881).

Original, Short and Practical Sermons for Every Feast of the Ecclesiastical Year : Three Sermons for Every Feast by Francis Weninger (Lowen, 1882).

Analysis of the Gospels of the Sundays of the Year by Angelo Cagnolo (Benziger, 1892).

Sermons for Children’s Masses, Accorading to the Sundays and Principal Festivals of the Year by Raphael Frassinetti (Benziger, 1900).

Sermons from the Latins by James J. Baxter (Benziger, 1902).

Short Discourses for all the Sundays in the Year According to the Mind & Method of the Catechism of the Council of Trent by John McQuirk (St. Paul’s Library, 1908).

Meditations

Meditations on the Life, the Teaching and the Passion of Jesus Christ for Every Day of the Ecclesiastical Year by Augustine Maria Ilg (Benziger, 1901).

Art

Index of Medieval Art

“The Iconographic Development of the Presentation in the Temple”

5th Century Mosaic at Santa Maria Maggiore (there is an alternate, though improbable, identification of these scene)

ca. 817-824 Enamel Cross Reliquary of Pope Paschal I

Folio 38 in the Drogo Sacramentary, ca. 850

Panel on the Golden Altar of Sant’Ambrogio, ca. 850

ca. 1305 Fresco by Giotto in the Scrovegni Chapel

1342 Painting by Ambrogio Lorenzetti (see also)

1450-1452 Painting by Fra Angelico

ca. 1455 Saint Columba Altarpiece by Rogier van der Weyden (see also)

ca. 1454 Painting by Andrea Mantegna (see also)

1450-1475 Painting by Giovavnni Bellini (see also)

Compare the painting technique of these two paintings here.

1404-1405 Predella of the Oddi Altarpiece by Raphael (see also)

1516 Painting by Fra Bartolommeo (see also)

1552-1556 Painting by Lorenzo Lotto

1554-1556 Painting by Tintoretto

1641 Painting by Simon Vouet (see also)

Warburg Institute Iconographic Database

Guide to Christian Iconography

Kornbluth Photography

Google Art Project

Iconography of Christian Art

25 December – The Nativity of Our Lord

Annus Dierum Sanctorum
Ecce rex tuus venit.
BEHOLD THY KING will come
Zacharias 9.9
Hodie scietis, quia veniet Dominus.
Today you shall know that the Lord will come.
> Exodus 16.6

Luke 2.1-14

Martyrologium Romanum

The Liturgical Year by Dom Guéranger.

Heortology: A History Of The Christian Festivals From Their Origin To The Present Day by Heinrich Kellner (Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1908).

“Flower of Babies Was Their King” in A Wreath of Feasts.

La vie des saints

Medieval Sources

The Golden Legend (and illustrations)

Sermons

Gregory the Great’s Eighth Gospel Homily

Homily by Aelfric

Homilies Of Feasts And Sundays By Catholic Church Fathers by D. G. Hubert (Washbourne, 1901).

Sermons for the Sundays and Some Festivals of the Year by Thomas White.

Explanation of the Epistles and Gospels for the Sundays, holydays and festivals throughout the ecclesiastical year, to which are added the lives of many saints by Leonard Goffiné (Pustet, 1880).

Goffine’s Devout Instructions on the Epistles and Gospels for the Sundays and Holydays (Benziger, 1896).

The Catholic Pulpit: Containing a Sermon for Every Sunday and Holiday in the Year and for Good Friday (Murphy, 1851).

Readings for the Sundays and Holy Days of the Church’s Year (Bosworth, 1881).

Analysis of the Gospels of the Sundays of the Year by Angelo Cagnolo (Benziger, 1892).

Sermons from the Latins by James J. Baxter (Benziger, 1902).

Short Discourses for all the Sundays in the Year According to the Mind & Method of the Catechism of the Council of Trent by John McQuirk (St. Paul’s Library, 1908).

The lives of saints, with other feasts of the year, according to the Roman calendar by Peter Ribadeneira.

Tradition in Action

“The Night of Little Things” and several more poems by Hugh Francis Blunt.

Meditations for Every Day

The Way of Salvation: Meditations for Every Day of the Year by Saint Alphonsus Liguori.

Meditations for Every Day in the Year by Roger Baxter (Benziger, 1823, reprinted in 1884).

Meditations for All the Days of the Year by M. Hamon (Benziger, 1894).

Meditations on the Life, the Teaching and the Passion of Jesus Christ for Every Day of the Ecclesiastical Year by Augustine Maria Ilg (Benziger, 1901).

Meditations for the Use of the Secular Clergy by Pierre Chaignon (Benziger, 1907).

Daily Meditations on the Mysteries of Our Holy Faith and on the Lives of Our Lord Jesus Christ and of the Saints by Alonso De Andrade.

Art & Architecture

Index of Medieval Art

Catalogo generale dei beni culturali

BeWeB

Portail Biblissima

POP : la plateforme ouverte du patrimoine

Warburg Institute Iconographic Database

Music

Medieval Music Database

Cantus: A Database for Latin Ecclesiastical Chant

Marc-Antoine Charpentier, In nativitatem Domini canticum, H.314 & In nativitatem Domini Nostri Jesu Christi canticum, H.414 (1684) & In nativitatem Domini Nostri Jesu Christi canticum, H.421

Customs

Feast Day Cookbook