Newspaper Page Text
BISHOP IN ARTIC
FLIES TO MISSIONS
Veteran Prelate to Have
New Experience Easter
BY J. F. WILLIAMS
(Written for N. C. W. C. Easter Sup
plement).
An airplane will bring to a 70-year-
old Bishop of the Far North this Eas
ter an experience new in his 45 years
of missionary labor in the Canadian
Northwest.
The Bishop is the Most Rev. Gabriel
Breynat, Vicar Apostolic of Macken
zie for 35 years, who has camped on a
wind-swept lake with the mercury 60
degrees below zero, who has “mushed”
over 1,000 miles at one time by dog
sled, who visits Ottawa to fight for
the physical as well as the spiritual
well-being of his Indian and Eskimo
charges before the Government. This
year, by using an airplane, he will be
enabled to celebrate Mass on Easter
Sunday at one of the two Eskimo
coastal mission points—either Copper-
mine or Burnside. Which mission will
have the honor of having'the Bishop
with it on that day depends upon the
progress made on an airplane visita
tion of his Vicariate in which the Bish
op is engaged.
45 YEARS IN NORTHWEST
On February 21, this weather beat
en missionary of the Arctic trails
marked the forty-fifth anniversary of
his ordination to the priesthood at
Liege, Belgium, and of the beginning
of his missionary work in the Cana
dian Northwest.
“And they told me when I asked to
be sent to the Northwest missions that
my health couldn’t stand the rigors of
the climate,” Bishop Breynat chuckled
as he recalled a few incidents in his
life for the N. C. W. C. News Service.
As a youth his zeal had been fired
by Oblate missionaries returning to
France, and his boyhood dreams cen
tered about service in the Mackenzie
district.
“That was quite a while ago,” he re
marked with a smile. “And I wouldn't
have changed my life for anything.
Yes. I am the oldest missionary Bishop
in Canada, and the third oldest Bishop
in the Dominion.”
Briefly Bishop Breynat's career fol
lows: Born in France on October 6.
1867, one of a family of four children,
(a brother who served as a priest in
the sunny clime of Southern France
died in 1919); ordained priest February
21, 1892, coming to Canada immediate
ly; named Vicar Apostolic of the Mac-
kenie district on July 22, 1901, con
secrated April 6, 1902. In point of
years, Bishop Breynat follows the Most
Rev. Paul Bruchesi. Archbishop of
Montreal, and the Most Rev. Herman
Brunault, Bishop of Nicolet, the deans
of the Catholic Hierarchy in Canada.
j SEEKS AID FOR INDIANS
SNOW IN THE HOLY LAND
EASTER LITURGY IS
MOTHER OF DRAMA
Father Gonner, S. M., Rec
ords Its Revival by Church
This is an unusual view of Gethsemane, scene of Our Lord’s agony in the garden. Snow, a rarity ill
the Holy Land, can be s&en covering the walks and lying in light patches on the ground. (Mombelli.)’
Fixed Easter and Calendar Reform Again
Being Advocated hy International Bodies
H61y See Is Interested and Believed to Be Ready to Cooperate Provided Reform Is
General and It Has the Approbation of Governments
And now in his seventieth year, the
veteran Bishop is “going modern”—
with a new, up-to-the-minute Waco
plane from Troy, Ohio, for use in the
missions. But to receive the plane was
not the main purpose of his visit to Ot
tawa, where he granted this interview,
He was camping on the Government
doorstep, determined to get some aid
for the 5,000 Indians in his vast terri
tory.
The Red Man gave up his lands with
the understanding he would be pro
tected against sickness and starvation
by the Government. But the white
trapper has cut into his field ruining
his livelihood, and tuberculosis and
scrofula are carying away whole fam
ilies. And all the time the Government
is seeking to cut down expenses on
the part of the Indians. If people real
ized how needs of the Indians were
being neglected it would be considered
a shame, Bishop Breynat declared.
Bishop Breynat has'conferred with
T. A. Crerar, Minister of Resources,
and is hopeful of getting some action.
If he doesn’t get it this time, he will
be back again soon.
Whether official reaction to his ap
peal is cool or not will make no dif
ference to the veteran Bishop. He
knows climatic and human vagaries,
and as regards climate has experienc
ed temperatures as low as 78 degrees
below zero, although he admits 60
beolw was the coldest when he was
forced to sleep trader canvas.
□-
LOST TOE BY FREEZING
9
-U
In 1903, while camping' on wind
swept Lake Athabaska—the tempera
ture was 50 below—the big toe on his
right foot was frozen. Reaching the
Chipewyan mission the toe was am
putated by a lay Brother using a razor
blade to prevent infection. There was
no doctor available.
“But in those days we never
thought of being sick,” Bishop Breynat
laughed when asked how emergency
sickness was treated.
Those were the days when “going
visiting” to the nearest neighbor meant
BY MASSIANI
(Written fcr N. C. W. C. Easter
Supplement)
* Hollywood! One is surprised no end
to find this name in a history of the
calendar down through the ages. It
has nothing to do with the movie
capital.
John of Hollywood was a Scotch
Monk who lived at Paris in the mid
dle of the thirteenth century. He
made a sensational discovery. He
discovered that the calendar in use
at his epoch, was seven days behind
the real date calculated according to
the progress of the sun. The year,
as a matter of fact, was calculated
according to the Julian calendar—the
calendar of Julius Caesar—at 365 days
and six hours. But, in reality, its
length was less. To pass from one
vernal equinox to another, the sun
made use of only 365 days, 5 hours,
48 minutes, 46 seconds and 98 thirds.
And at this interval diminished at the
rate of one-half-second per century.
However, it was not Hollywood
who reestablished the correct dura
tion. It was calculated by others in
the years following. But credit is
due him, at least for indicating the
need for making a new calculation.
In fact .this difference of 11 minutes
per year between the real duration
of the tropical year and the fixed du
ration of the calendar year, would
have resulted in the loss of a day in
128 years. Eventually the months
would not have corresponded to the
seasons and would have returned to
their proper place only after a pe
riod of about 46,000 years.
knowledge ts to be found within the
limited precincts of the little rural
rectory at St. Reverien.
THE SOLAR CALENDAR
□-
I POPE REMEDIES ERROR
O-
It was not until three centuries lat
er that the error was remedied un
der Pope Gregory XIII. It was de
cided to suppress ten days—the error
had become worse since Hollywood’s
time—and in the future that three
bissextile days would be dropped in
every four centuries. A curious
consequence of the application of this
reform has always been remembered
iri Spain: St. Theresa, who died on
October 4, was buried the fol
lowing day which was found to be
October 15.
This is one of the odd, also bewil
dering, ideas that one gets from lis
tening to the servitor of a modest
parish in the Diocese of Nevers; Abbe
Chauve-Bertrand, patsor of St. Rev
erien .
This 60-year-61d pastor, who in or
der to work with the Benedictines
lived until recently In Spain and re
ceived the sub-diaconate at Burgos,
has made a specialty of all problems
relating to the calendar. Unlimited
Q-
We who live “from day to day” and
know the calendar, have we taken
the trouble to reflect that there was
a time when men did not distin
guish between weeks, months or
years? They perceive solely 'that
night regularly succeeded day. They
observed the variations of the lunar
spectrum. They counted by moons.
On the whole, this was the first cal
endar. Then they noticed that the
seasons, annually, returned with ex
actitude and they tried to distinguish
between them and to observe the va
riations of the sun rather than the
renewal of the moon. They had
reached the age of the solar calen
dar.
By 424 B. C., the Egyptians had
broken the year into 12 months of 30
days each. The Chaldeans, on their
part, had divided the days into hours
of 60 minutes and the minutes into 60
seconds.
There have been various calendars:
Hebraic, Coptic, Hindu, Chinese, Az
tec, Greek, Arabic, Roman, the Jul
ian .then the Gregorian. Abbot
Chauve-Bertrand knows them all
with their special characteristics and
their defects, and he has crammed
some curious observations into the
book which he has dedicated to them:
La Question de Paues et le Calen-
drier (The Question of Easter and the
Calendar).
An old story, that of calendar re
form. It has been thought about for
a long time.
In the eighteenth century, Canon
Ceuorard of Torus Mad Father Nau, a
learned Jesuit, proposed certain
changes so as to bring about less va
riation in the date of Easter. The
Couucil of Nicaea, in 325, had fixed
the date for Easter as the Sunday
following the full moon after the ver
nal equinox; that is, after March 21.
This made the feast fall between
March 22 and April 25.
-O
from year to year, whereas certain
arrangements would result in the
first of January always falling on a
Sunday or a Monday.
Projects for calendar reform have
been extremely numerous, but it was
toward the close of the nineteenth
century and early in the twentieth
that the problem has been most dis
cussed—in 1884 at the Washington
International Conference on the Uni
versal Hour, and in 1907 at the Bene
dictine Conference at Rome.
hitching up a dog team and mushing
200 miles or more. Bishop Breynat has
traveled 1,000 miles by dog sled, but he
declared such trips, while causing
some physical hardship, were also a
rest, being a change from other trying
duties.
DIFFICULTIES
Various faults are found with this
instability of Easter which is celebrat
ed sometimes when the snow is still
falling .sometimes when the flowers
are in bud. Due to this instability,
certain Sundays” after the Epiphany”
disappear from the missal just as in
other years those “after Pentecost”
are lacking. The world of education
complains of the irregular and con
stantly varying chopping up of the
school year. This instability of Eas
ter is the principal charge made
against the Gregorian calendar.
Another is the great diversity in
the length of the months and the di
vision of the year into 52 weeks plus
one day, which makes the first of
January and the first day of each
month fall on a different day of week
HOLY SEE CONSULTED
In 1912, a congress held at Boston
decided, upon the unanimous vote of
the 891 persons present, coming from
47 states, to make inquiries of thi
Vatican. The Holy See declared that
it made no objection but invited the
civil powers to enter into an accord
on the reform of the civil calendar,
after which, it would willingly grant
its collalvo-atior. insofar as the mat
ter affected religious feasts.
Manifestations increased. As to
those concerning America, let us rite
the recommendations of the Pan-Am
erican Conference in Havana in 1928,
inviting all the countries of the Nev.-
World to take the initiative in pro
pagating the regularization of the
calendar and the fixity of Easter.
That same year the National Acad
emy of Sciences at Washington de
clared itself favorable to a revision
of the calendar and, at the same time,
George Eastman, of Rochester, N. Y.,
founded an American committee to
promote a campaign in favor of ihe
division of the year imo 13 months
of 28 days.
In 1930, the World Calendar Asso
ciation, founded at New York with
Miss Elizabeth Achelis as president,
began editing the Journal of Calendar
Reform.
So as not to derange the order of
the days of the week, Father Searle
would reduce the year to 364 days, or
exactly 52 weeks. He would elimi
nate the 365th and the supplementary
day of the bissextile year until there
were seven which would be added to
the end of December. Thus, several
times during a century, there would
be a year of 371 days, or 53 weeks.
D ; □
| OTHER CALENDAR PLANS |
□ —— a
Other plans that have met with the
most approbation and are endorsed
by Abbe Chauve-Bertrand are the
following:
It has been proposed to divide the
year into four equal quarters of 91
days each, each quarter or trimester
to have a month of 31 days and two
of 30 days. Each trimester would be
gin with a Sunday. The 365th day of
the year would be set apart and
would not bear the name of a week
day. It might be called the “day of
the year”. In the bissextile year,
the extra day would be placed in the
same fashion between June 30 and
(Continued on page fourteen)
Few of us realize that the drama
we enjoy today had its beginning in
the services of the Catholic Church.
Originally, of course, drama came
from the Greeks but it was so cor
rupted by the Romans that it event
ually become extinct, largely because
of the condemnation it received from
Catholicism.
The rebirth of drama took place
in the bosom of the Catholic Church.
The first recorded liturgical dramati
zation centers around the feast of
Easter. The medievel tendency of
troping, i. e., of inserting unauthor
ized matter into the text, led the
clerics of the ninth and tenth cen
turies to take liberties with the ritual
and in consequence a tendency to
wards acting die Biblical stories soon
manifested itself.
In such a dramatic development we
might conjecture that it would be the
feast of the days of the Church
which would receive the greatest at
tention since they were most impres-
give to the popular mind. And such
is exactly the case. The most im
portant feast of the year furnishes us
with the earliest examples of litur
gical drama and that simple play is,
strangely enough, connected with the
first choral part of the Mass, the In-
troit. It is the famous St. Gall Quern
Quaeritis (V/hom Seek Ye) Trope so
called from its opening words as
found in a manuscript from the Ben
edictine monastery of St. Gall, Swit
zerland.
ANCIENT MANUSCRIPT
This trope reads as follows:
Question: Whom see ye in the
sepulchre, O lovers of Christ?
Answer: Jesus of Nazareth, the
Crucified One, O dwellers of heaven!
He is not here, He is risen as He
said; go and announce that he has
risen from the sepulchre.
It is followed by the word “Resur-
rexi” which is the first word of the
Introit of Easter Sunday.’ The manu
script that carries this text cannot be
dated earlier than the middle of the
tenth century. But as we have a
more elaborate version from about
the year 925 we may suppose the St.
Gall trope to have originated at an
earlier date.
The Quem Quaeritis Trope enjoyed
a remarkable development. Upon it
were built the Easter plays. There
are over four hundred texts of it
known and they are ordinarily classi
fied into three groups or stages.
The First Stage represents the ac
tion at the sepulchre and shows the
three Marys and the Choir. The
passages worked into it are for the
most part from the authorized litur
gy. The examples of this type are
quite familiar and were in use for
over five hundred years, i. e., from
the tenth to the sixteenth century.
The Second Stage adds the scene
of the race of the Apostles to the
sepulchre. Once arrived there these
new characters constitute the main
source of attention and replace the
Marys in exhibiting the grave clothes
and doing other simple dramatic
movements. For most of the churches
this scene represents the height of
development.
APPEARANCE OF SAVIOR
Only a few churches seem to have
had the Third Stage. The added ele
ment here is the appearance of the
Risen Christ.
The Victimae Paschali, the most
lyrical of the hymns of the Easter
season, may or may not be found
in the various stages. It lends a
particular grace and charm to the
play, a grace and charm that we are
in a position to appreciate, because it
is still an authorized and chanted text
for the._Mass during Easter week.
The Quem Quaeritis Trope, or the
Visitatio Sepulchre (as it was known
on being shifted from Mass to
Matins), was not the only play of
the Easter season. There was the
Peregrinus (The Traveller) which set
forth the story of the travellers on
the way to Emmaus as told by St.
Luke (xxiv: 13-35); the Ascension
Day, depicting the last incident of
the Savior’s life on earth; and the
Pentecost play which dramatized the
descent of the Holy Ghost upon the
Apostles.
The people of the Middle Ages
must have been greatly instructed
and impressed by seeing these stories
of the Bible enacted in their church
es. These plays were fully devoloped
by the middle of the thirteenth cen
tury and from there they underwent
changes which robbed them of their
liturgical character. They passed from
the hands of the clergy into the
hands of the laity, became more sec
ular in spirit, were taken over by the
Guilds, and were eventually replaced
entirely by the secular drama of the
different countries. Hence it is cor
rect to say that the drama we witness
today had its origin in the drama of
the Medieval Church, ,
GUfiti
VOL. XVin N. 3
AUGUSTA, GEORGIA, MARCH 27, 1937
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