Solemn High Mass for Corpus Christi

21 Jun 2017

Downside’s annual Solemn High Mass took place this year on Saturday 17^th June.

The Solemn High Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite was offered at the high altar of the Abbey Church. Dom Boniface Hill offered Mass, assisted by Dom Anselm Brumwell as deacon and Father Jean-Patrice Coulon of Yeovil as subdeacon. St John’s Festival Choir from Bath contributed beautifully to the Holy Sacrifice, singing Monteverdi’s Missa Quattro Inequalum, Palestrina’s Jubilate Deo, and Victoria’s O Sacrum Convivium. In addition, a small schola sang the Greorian propers of the Mass, including – being within the Octave of Corpus Christi – the sequence Lauda Sion written in the 13^th century by St Thomas Aquinas.

We were blessed with beautiful weather, and after Mass many of the congregation enjoyed a simple lunch in the Weld and enjoyed the sunshine. The next following Masses in the Extraordinary Form will be on Sunday 2^nd July (4^th Sunday after Pentecost) and on Sunday 6^th August (Transfiguration), both at 11:15am. All are very welcome to both.