Buona Pasqua! Happy Easter!

Resurrection by Arturo Di Modica

On behalf of everyone here at Il Regno, I want to wish you all a very Happy Easter! In celebration, I'm posting The Tomb, a traditional Sicilian prayer reprinted from Prayers and Devotional Songs of Sicily, edited and translated into English by Peppino Ruggeri, Legas, 2009, p. 94-95. The accompanying photo of The Resurrection by Sicilian-American sculptor Arturo Di Modica was taken at the Italian American Museum in Little Italy, New York in 2010. Buona Pasqua!

The Tomb
Holy tomb, which often has been visited
With blood you have been made clean
For two days you were washed
So us sinners you could redeem.

O Sipurcu
O Sipurcu visitatu
chi di sangu fustu lavatu
fustu lavatu pi quarantottu uri
pi nuiautri peccatori.

Feast of Beata Giovanna di Tolosa

Beata Giovanna di Tolosa, ora pro nobis

March 31st is the Feast of Blessed Jane of Toulouse, Countess of Toulouse, Virgin, Carmelite tertiary and foundress of the Carmelite Third Order. Taking a vow of chastity, she received the tertiary habit from St. Simon Stock and dedicated herself to a life of prayer and helping the sick and poor. Many miracles have been attributed to her after her death. Blessed Jane was beatified on February 11, 1895 by Pope Leo XIII.

In celebration, we’re posting a prayer to Blessed Jane of Toulouse. The accompanying photo comes courtesy of Father Eugene Carrella. The holy card is part of Father Carrella’s impressive collection of religious artifacts. Evviva Beata Giovanna di Tolosa!

Prayer to Blessed Jane of Toulouse

Hear us, God our Savior, that, as we rejoice in commemorating the Virgin blessed Jane, we may be instructed by her loving devotion. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Way of the Cross — Solemn Candlelight Good Friday Procession in Brooklyn, New York

This year, the Shrine Church of St. Bernadette in
Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, hosted the procession

Some 1,500 devotees participated in the annual Good Friday procession

The procession returns to St. Bernadette

After the procession, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio offers the benediction

31 marzo 2024, Domenica di Pasqua: S. Messa in Rito Romano antico ore 12.15 nel Santuario di San Gaetano

www.messatridentinanapoli.com

Feast of Beato Gioacchino da Fiore

Beato Gioacchino da Fiore, ora pro nobis

March 30th is the Feast of Blessed Joachim of Fiore (ca. 1135—1202), Calabrian theologian, exegete, seer, ascetic, philosopher, mystic, Cistercian abbot and founder of the monastic order of San Giovanni in Fiore. Regarded as one of the great thinkers of the Middle Ages, his Trinitarian conception of history, divided into the age of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, corresponds with the Old Testament, the New Testament, and an impending age of regeneration of the church and society respectively. In celebration, we’re posting a prayer to Blessed Joachim of Fiore. Evviva Beato Gioacchino da Fiore!

Prayer to Blessed Joachim of Fiore

Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty God, that the examples of Blessed Joachim of Fiore may effectually move us to reform our lives; that while we celebrate his feast, we may also imitate his actions. Look upon our weakness, almighty God, and since the burden of our own deeds weighs heavily upon us, may the glorious intercession of Blessed Joachim protect us. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Santo Sabato (Holy Saturday)

Photo by New York Scugnizzo

Santo Sabato, or Holy Saturday, is the final day of Holy Week and the traditional Paschal Fast. A day of mourning, the sacred altar is bare and there is no Mass prior to sundown and the lighting of the Paschal candle, which symbolizes the light of Christ coming into the world. Commemorating the body of Jesus lying in the sepulcher until his resurrection on Easter Sunday, Holy Saturday is a time to meditate on Our Lord’s Passion, death, and descent into Hades (Sheol). Often referred to as the Harrowing of Hell, Jesus liberates the righteous captives in the underworld who died before His Coming (e.g. Adam, Eve, the good thief, etc.). In commemoration, I’m posting a Prayer for Holy Saturday. The accompanying photo of the Dead Christ with Our Lady of Sorrows was taken at the Shrine Church of the Most Precious Blood (113 Baxter St.) in Little Italy, New York.

Prayer for Holy Saturday

All-powerful and ever-living God, your only Son went down among the dead and rose again in glory. In your goodness raise up your faithful people, buried with him in baptism, to be one with him in the eternal life of heaven, where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.

Feast of San Giovanni Climaco

San Giovanni Climaco, ora pro nobis

March 30th is the Feast of St. John Climacus (also known St. John of the Ladder), 6th century Hermit, Ascetic, Monk, and Abbot. At the age of sixteen, he devoted himself to a life of prayer, mortification and solitude as a hermit on Mount Sinai. Revered for his wisdom and holiness, he was elected abbot of the monastery, where he wrote the influential treatise on monastic life, The Ladder of Divine Ascent.

In celebration, I’m posting the prayers to St. John Climacus from Byzantine Catholic Prayer for the Home [link will open PDF file]. They are meant for private use. The accompanying photo comes courtesy of Father Eugene Carrella. The holy card is part of Father Carrella’s impressive collection of religious artifacts. Evviva San Giovanni Climaco!

Troparia
Troparion Tone 4 We find your virtues to be a ladder leading us to heaven, venerable Father John. You have become virtue personified, 0 glorious saint!

Kontakion Tone 4 The Lord has placed you on the pinnacle of chastity, 0 Father John our Guide. Like abrilliant star you shed light on the earth!

Stichera from For a Monk.
Sessional Hymns from the weekday.

Celebrating Giovedì Santo (Holy Thursday) at the Shrine Church of the Holy Innocents in Manhattan

After Mass, the altar was stripped to remind us how Our Lord was insulted and stripped of his garments when he fell into the hands of the Jews

Solemn Mass of the Lord's Supper and Adoration at the Altar of Repose until Midnight at the Shrine Church of the Holy Innocents in New York City.

After Mass, the Eucharist is processed to the Altar of Repose,
which symbolizes the sepulcher or tomb of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Venerdì Santo (Good Friday)

Ecce Homo

"Father forgive them for they know not what they do."

On behalf of everyone at Il Regno, I want to wish all of our readers a blessed Good Friday. 

In commemoration, I’m posting a Good Friday Prayer. The accompanying photo of Ecce Homo ("Behold the man") by Antonello da Messina (Sicilian, c. 1425–1479) was taken at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Good Friday Prayer

O Jesus, Who by reason of Thy burning love for us hast willed to be crucified and to shed Thy Most Precious Blood for the redemption and salvation of our souls, look down upon us here gathered together in remembrance of Thy most sorrowful Passion and Death, fully trusting in Thy mercy; cleanse us from sin by Thy grace, sanctify our toil, give unto us and unto all those who are dear to us our daily bread, sweeten our sufferings, bless our families, and to the nations so sorely afflicted, grant Thy peace, which is the only true peace, so that by obeying Thy commandments we may come at last to the glory of heaven. Amen.

Feast of San Bertoldo di Calabria

San Bertoldo di Calabria, ora pro nobis

March 29th is the feast of St. Berthold of Calabria, 12th-century French crusader, mystic, hermit, ascetic, founder and first prior general of the Carmelite Order. While defending Antioch from the Saracens, he had a vision of angels carrying his fallen brethren to heaven. After the siege, he established a small hermit colony in Palestine and built a chapel on Mount Carmel dedicated to Our Lady, founding the Carmelite Order in 1155. He served as prior for forty-five years until his death in 1195.

In celebration, we’re posting a prayer to St. Berthold of Calabria. The accompanying photo comes courtesy of Father Eugene Carrella. The holy card is part of Father Carrella’s impressive collection of religious artifacts. Evviva San Bertoldo di Calabria!

Prayer to St. Berthold of Calabria

Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty God, that the examples of St. Berthold may effectually move us to reform our lives; that while we celebrate his feast, we may also imitate his actions. Look upon our weakness, almighty God, and since the burden of our own deeds weighs heavily upon us, may the glorious intercession of St. Berthold protect us. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Easter Tuesday at St. Mary of Mt. Virgin in New Brunswick, New Jersey

HM Charles of Bourbon

Carlo di Borbone, Re di Napoli
e di Sicilia (1716-1788)

Reprinted from Western Exile @westernexile

Born the heir to thrones lost in war, when he became a man he set forth, for duty to his father, lineage and country, to reclaim the kingdoms of his ancestors in Italy, venturing well beyond comfort to do so. Finding and forging his courage across victorious battlefields of the Peninsula, he triumphed over the armies of Austria and entered Naples to popular adulation in 1734 and Palermo thereafter, reuniting the southern crowns once more.

As King, he displayed vision, ever tempered by the humility to consult and to delegate, and in fifty three years never lost sight of his calling to better the lives of his subjects. He found the South an outpost of empires past. He left her a realm proud once more of her ancient roots, yet the enlightened cradle too of the neoclassical world, buoyed by his enthusiastic patronage that would see Pompeii and Herculaneum rediscovered and revealed to the world.

Under his rule, the poor of Naples were fed, clothed, sheltered and educated, medieval dwellings became palaces and painters and musicians found ready patronage. Yet when Providence then bestowed upon him the throne of Spain, he, forgoing personal ambition and desiring peace in Europe, entrusted his beloved Naples and Sicily to his third son Ferdinand as kingdoms independent of his own, asking only that he be kept abreast of new discoveries of archaeology, as he turned then to build a second nation. So fundamental and sweeping would his deeds in Spain be that the very flag and anthem of that nation are still today his own.

To his realms he gave his industry and his honour. Yet above all, he gave them and their subjects dignity, and even three centuries later, he is remembered as one of the greatest of the Bourbons, and the very model of kingship.

Giovedì Santo (Holy Thursday)

Holy Thursday is the memorial of Christ’s Last Supper, when He established the Sacrament of Holy Communion and the institution of the priesthood. In celebration, I'm posting a prayer for Holy Thursday. The accompanying photos of sepolcri (lavureddi in Sicilian), potted wheat sprouts divested of their color, were taken in a friend’s basement. Traditionally in Southern Italy, people would grow wheat or legumes (lentils) in the dark to deprive them of their pigment. Symbolizing death, rebirth and heralding the Resurrection on Easter Sunday, the pale plants (sometimes decorated with silk ribbons and spring flowers) are brought to church on Holy Thursday and placed around the Altar of Repose, which represents the Holy Sepulcher or tomb of Our Lord.

Holy Thursday Prayer

O Lord Jesus, in order that the merits of your sacrifice on the Cross might be applied to every soul of all time, you willed that it should be renewed upon the altar. At the Last Supper, you said: 

"Do this in remembrance of me."

By these words you gave your apostles and their successors the power to consecrate and to the command to do what you yourself did. I believe that the Mass is both a sacrifice and a memorial- reenacting your passion, death and resurrection. Help me to realize that the Mass is the greatest gift of God to us and our greatest gift to God. Amen

Remembering Princess Cristina Pia of the Two Sicilies

24 December 1869 – 28 March 1870

In memory of Princess Maria Cristina Pia Anna Isabella Natalia Elisa di Borbone delle Due Sicilie, daughter of SG King Francesco II and Queen Maria Sophia of the Two Sicilies, we pray for the happy repose of her soul.

Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon her. May her soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Feast of San Giovanni da Capestrano

San Giovanni da Capestrano, ora pro nobis

March 28th is the Feast of San Giovanni da Capestrano, Franciscan friar and priest. Patron Saint of military chaplains and jurists, he is also the protector of Capestrano, a commune in the Province of L'Aquila (Abruzzo), where he was born in 1386. 

San Giovanni is revered as the "soldier saint" for his role in the valiant defense of Belgrade against the Ottoman Turks in 1456. With his fiery sermons, he helped raise a peasant army and assisted John Hunyadi, the heroic White Knight of Wallachia, in breaking the siege and routing the invaders. 

In celebration, I'm posting a Prayer in honor of St. John of Capistrano. Evviva San Giovanni!

Prayer to St. John of Capistrano

Lord, you raised up Saint John of Capistrano to give your people comfort in their trials. May your Church enjoy unending peace and be secure in your protection. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

Charla-coloquio «¿Qué es un círculo tradicionalista?» el 31 de marzo

Círculo Tradicionalista San Rafael Arcángel

Con la presencia del antiguo Jefe Nacional de las Juventudes Tradicionalistas, Víctor Javier Ibáñez, a las seis de la tarde (D.m.) del Domingo de Resurrección.

Los interesados pueden llamar al número de teléfono 655 865 257.

Feast of the Madonna dei Bagni

Madonna dei Bagni, ora pro nobis

Holy, or spy, Wednesday is the Feast of the Madonna dei Bagni, one of the so-called "Seven Sisters of Campania,” an appellation given to the region's major Marian devotions under different titles. Patroness of Scafati, Salerno, she gets the title Our Lady of the Baths from a fountain and spring renowned for their healing properties, especially for skin maladies, near where the sanctuary was later built. In ceelebration, I’m posting A Prayer to Our Lady for Healing. The image of the Madonna dei Bagni with St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist comes courtesy of the Santuario Madonna dei Bagni in Scafati. Ave Maria.

A Prayer to Our Lady for Healing

Mary Immaculate, you have given yourself to us as our Lady of the Miraculous Medal. You have asked us to pray with confidence, and we will receive great graces. We know your compassion, because you saw your Son suffer and die for us. In your union with his suffering you became the mother of us all. Mary, my mother teach me to understand my suffering as you do and to endure it in union with the suffering of Jesus. In your motherly love, calm my fears and increase my trust in God's loving care.  According to God's plan, obtain for me the healing I need. Intercede with your Son that I may have the strength I need to work for God's glory and the salvation of the world. Amen. Mary, health of the sick, pray for us.

Remembering Charles III, Duke of Parma

14 January 1823 – 27 March 1854

In memory of Carlo III di Borbone, Duke of Parma and Piacenza, we pray for the happy repose of his soul. While out for a stroll on Sunday 26 March 1854, the Duke was mortally wounded by an assassin’s blade and died at 5:30 PM the following evening on 27 March.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Easter Sunday at Our Lady of Peace Church in Brooklyn, New York

Celebrating Palm Sunday and Monthly Lecture by Dr. John C. Rao

The High Altar and shrine to the Madonna
Addolorata at Our Lady of Peace Church

Palm Sunday, we celebrated Traditional Latin Mass at Our Lady of Peace Church in Gowanus, Brooklyn. Blessing and distributing the palm before the church procession, Mass was sung by Fr. Christopher Cullen.

I bought a copy of The Complete Works of Alberto Caeiro by Fernando
Pessoa and Wlliam Blake at the Huntington by Robert N. Essick

With some time to kill before Dr. John Rao’s Lecture at Most Holy Redeemer Church in Manhattan, we had our morning cortado at Despaña and croissant at Maman. While in the city, we picked up some much-needed art supplies at the Blick and found a couple of interesting titles at the Strand. Currently going through a renewed interest in the great Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935), I found a copy of The Complete Works of Alberto Caeiro (New Direction Books, 2020), written under one of his three main heteronyms.

A look inside Most Holy Redeemer Church

Arriving early to the talk, we took the opportunity to explore Most Holy Redeemer’s beautiful nave and crypt and pray before the Reliquary and Our Lady of Perpetual Help chapels.

The statues and Crucifix in the Sanctuary were veiled in violet cloth. Signifying Christ's hiding from the Jews until he entered Jerusalem (commemorated of Palm Sunday), they will remain covered until the Glória is sung on Holy Saturday, which signals the end of Lent and the beginning of Eastertide

(L-R) The Reliquary and Our Lady of Perpetual Help chapels

(L-R) Icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and ex-voto

Altar in the crypt

A half-hidden stained glass window depicting
the Resurrection of Christ in the church crypt

Joining our friends in the meeting room, we listened to and discussed Dr. Rao’s riveting and revealing talk, “The Grand Coalition of the Status Quo and the Temptation to Obey the Zeitgeist: 1000s-1500s.” Most of Dr. Rao’s writings can be found at For the Whole Christ and his lectures (including this one) can be heard on Soundcloud.

While exploring the church, we ran into Dr. Rao preparing for his lecture

Ponderable Quote from Iamdudum Cernimus (1861)

Bl. Pope Pius IX, ora pro nobis

Allocution of the Supreme Pontiff Pope Pius IX

For a long time, we have seen, Venerable Brothers, what a miserable conflict civil society is agitated by, especially in these unhappy times of ours, due to the war raging between truth and error, virtue and vice, light and darkness. In fact, some on the one hand support some maxims of, as they call it, modern civilization; and others on the other advocate the rights of justice and our holy Religion. The former ask that the Roman Pontiff reconcile and make peace with Progress, with Liberalism, as they say, and with today's civilization. The latter rightly ask that the immovable and unshakable principles of eternal justice be kept inviolate and intact; and may the healing virtue of our divine Religion be preserved unharmed, which propagates the glory of God, provides an appropriate remedy for the many evils that afflict the human race, and is the sole and true norm by which the children of men, after having been educated in every virtue in this mortal life, they are led to the port of eternal bliss.

But the patrons of today's civilization do not consent to this difference, since they proclaim themselves true and sincere friends of Religion. We would certainly like to believe them, if the very sad facts, which are there for all to see, did not fully demonstrate the opposite. To be sure, there is only one true and holy Religion throughout the earth, founded and instituted by Christ himself, Our Lord; she, fruitful mother and nurturer of every virtue, dispeller of vices, liberator of souls, indicator of true happiness, is called Catholic, Apostolic, Roman. We have already declared another time what should be thought of those who live outside this ark of salvation in Our Consistorial Address of 9 December 1854; here we confirm the same doctrine. Therefore we ask those who invite us to extend a friendly hand to today's civilization, whether the facts are such as to be able to induce the Vicar of Christ on earth, divinely established by Christ Himself to defend the purity of His celestial doctrine and feed the lambs and sheep, confirming both in it; we ask whether the facts can induce him, without the gravest fault of conscience and without the greatest scandal for all good people, to associate himself with the aforementioned modern civilization, through whose work such great and never sufficiently deplored evils occur, so many horrible opinions are promulgated and many errors and false principles completely opposed to the Catholic religion and its doctrine. Nor is anyone unaware that among these deeds is the total destruction of the same solemn concordats, formally made between this Apostolic See and the royal Sovereigns, as recently happened in Naples. Of which We, in this very large Assembly of yours, with all the strength of Our spirit We lament, Venerable Brothers, and above all we protest in the same way in which on other occasions we have cry out against similar attacks and violations.

Translated from the Italian at www.vatican.va

Photo of the Week: Terracotta Hydria Depicting the Abduction of Persephone by Hades

Terracotta hydria (water jar) depicting the abduction of Persephone

by Hades. Greek, Apulian, red figure, ca. 340-330 B.C. Found at

Canosa, Puglia before 1878. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC

Photo by New York Scugnizzo

Lingue, patrimonio culturale e mass media: il caso del Napoletano

In Napoli

Next Enrollment Window to Help Convert Your Loved Ones

www.margaretofcortona.org

Feast of the Madonna di Picciano

Madonna di Picciano, ora pro nobis

March 25th is the Feast of the Madonna di Picciano and the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, protectress of the Santuario della Madonna overlooking the nearby hamlet of Picciano in Matera. Once guarded by the Knights Templar and later the Knights of Malta, the ancient sanctuary continues to draw pilgrims attracted to the miraculous image of the Blessed Mother, despite its suppression during the Napoleonic age. In celebration, I'm posting a Prayer for the Feast of the Annunciation. The accompanying photo of the sanctuary’s wooden processional statue comes courtesy of Andrew Giordano. Evviva Maria!

Prayer for the Feast of the Annunciation

O God, Who wast pleased that the eternal Word, according to the declaration of the angel, should take flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary: Give to our humble petitions; and grant that we, who believe her to be truly the Mother of God, may be helped by her prayers. Through the same Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

Novena to Santa Fara (Burgundofara)

Santa Fara, Ora pro nobis

Pray Novena to Santa Fara for nine consecutive days, March 25th to April 2nd, in preparation for the Feast on April 3rd. Evviva Santa Fara!

Glorious Saint St. Fara, beloved Patron, you served God in humility and confidence on earth. Now you enjoy His beatific vision in heaven. You persevered till death and gained the crown of eternal life. Remember now the dangers, confusion and anguish that surround me and intercede for me in my needs and troubles, especially...

(Mention your need here...).

Amen.

Saint Fara, pray for us.

Our Father…, Hail Mary… and Glory be…

* The accompanying photo comes courtesy of Father Eugene Carrella. The holy card is part of Father Carrella’s impressive collection of religious artifacts.

Sacred Triduum Anno Domini 2024 at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Shrine in East Harlem, New York

Feast of the Pupazze

Photos of the Pupazze courtesy of Made in South Italy Today

Every year on Palm Sunday (Domenica delle Palme) in Bova Superiore, a scenic commune in the Province of Reggio Calabria, the locals celebrate the Messiah’s triumphal entrance into Jerusalem with a unique ritual known as the Feast of the Pupazze.

On Palm Sunday, as the name suggests, it is traditional for devotees to weave palm leaves into religious symbols. However, in southern Italy palm was hard to come by, so during the feast celebrants used olive branches instead. In Bova, this art form was taken to new heights. Townspeople skillfully weave ornate female figures out of the branches and adorn them with flowers and local produce. The verdure effigies are carried through the town in a colorful procession to the shrine of St. Leo, Bova’s beloved patron, where they are blessed. Continue reading

Feast of San Gabriele Arcangelo

San Gabriele Arcangelo, ora pro nobis

March 24th is the Feast of San Gabriele Arcangelo, the exalted messenger of God. He is the patron saint of postmen, diplomats, messengers and telecommunication workers. In celebration, I’m posting a Prayer to Archangel Gabriel. The accompanying photo of The Annunciation by Luca Giordano was taken at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Evviva San Gabriele!

A Prayer to the Archangel Gabriel

O Blessed Archangel Gabriel, we beseech thee, do thou intercede for us at the throne of divine Mercy in our present necessities, that as thou didst announce to Mary the mystery of the Incarnation, so through thy prayers and patronage in heaven we may obtain the benefits of the same, and sing the praise of God forever in the land of the living. Amen.