We are now halfway through our journey and would like to approach the daily procession as pilgrims, trying to reread some passages from the guide booklet with the help of Father Carlo Giuseppe Adesso, an Italian priest and professor of Church History, who has been in the Holy Land serving the Custody for three years.
A special feature of the procession is the use of Latin. The friars who use it daily know it by heart, but pilgrims who participate can follow the translations offered in at least six different languages.
From the church's vast literary heritage, the Franciscans have wisely and carefully chosen the hymns, prayers and antiphons most suitable for the procession.
Saint Venantius Fortunatus is one of the authors. Born in Italy between 530 and 540 AD, at some point in his life he left the city of Ravenna, where he had gone to study. And from there, in order to fulfill a vow to St. Martin of Tours, who had cured him of a bad eyesight, he made a pilgrimage and went to France, where he died at an unspecified date between 600 and 610s.
Fr CARLO GIUSEPPE ADESSO
Diocese of San Marino-Montefeltro
"Venantius Fortunatus is the first great author of the Middle Ages and he is a truly remarkable author because he takes the best of classical antiquity that he had studied in Ravenna and, through his poems, combines it with the mystery of Christ crucified, dead and risen. That's why his hymns became very famous and we also find them here in the procession in the Holy Land."
St. Venantius never came to the Holy Land, but to him came a relic, a stone, a stone from the Holy Sepulcher, and he composed a poem about that very thing.
"But there is a much stronger connection which is given by the Cross, of which Venantius is the greatest Singer. So Venantius Fortunatus, as I have said, writes a great many hymns, but he produces six precisely for the Cross. Among them, two were chosen, selected by the Franciscans to enrich the four stops, four stations of the procession that we carry out every day here at the Holy Sepulcher. They are very famous. One is called "Vexilla Regis Prodeunt" and the other is called "Pange Lingua Gloriosi."
The Franciscans took these hymns, broke them up, adapted them precisely for this procession.
Let's start with the first Vexilla regis prodeunt - "Advance the banners of the King's Cross." So the Cross is presented by Venantius as the standard, the banner of Christ's victory.
This is a clear reference to the Gospel of John. In John's Gospel the Cross becomes almost the scepter that Christ wields to win against sin and against death.
Venantius says the same thing, but he also says something else. Vexilla regis "The banners, the standard of the king." We know that the feast of Christ King of the Universe is a recent feast. Pope Pius XI wanted it in 1925. But the whole Middle Ages, the whole spirituality of the Middle Ages has a great devotion and love for Christ the King. It is here, in Venantius' hymn, we find them when he says vexilla regis prodeunt, that is, they advance and proceed.
Father Carlo Giuseppe says this detail attracted the curiosity of scholars for a specific reason, which was to accommodate a real relic of the Cross of Christ that St. Helena found right here in this chapel.
Venantius wrote these two hymns to accompany the procession that carried the relic of the Cross to the monastery, where it was then received. So these hymns were written precisely for a procession. And so it is fitting that the Franciscans included them in the prayer accompanying the daily procession. These hymns are very rich, beautiful.
The Cross is sung in so many possible ways. In the hymn Vexilla Regis the Cross is sung as a tree, a fruitful tree. The reference is to the tree of earthly Paradise that brought damnation. Instead, the Cross brings salvation.
Fr CARLO GIUSEPPE ADESSO
Diocese of San Marino-Montefeltro
But the Cross, and this is typical of Venantius, is called the steelyard, that is, the scales, the balance of the great redemption. This is an image we find only in Venantius Fortunatus. Jesus Christ paid a price. That price was weighed on a scale. The scale is the Cross by which our sin, our debt was atoned for.
We are almost at the final stage of our pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulcher. In the next video we will listen to the second hymn by Venantius Fortunatus and how we pilgrims can participate, come closer to this grace of the Cross of Christ that saved us from sin.
The Christmas Message of the Custos of the Holy Land, Brother Francesco Patton; the prayer for peace in Rome; the new book on the history of the origins of Christianity and finally the Jewish feast of Hannukah.
On 11 December, Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere in Rome was lit with candles of Faith and Hope during a prayer dedicated to world peace. The prayer was presided over by Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, President of the Italian Bishops' Conference, together with the Vicar of the Custody of the Holy Land, Brother Ibrahim Faltas.
On 13 December, Dar Al-Kalima University, in cooperation with the Pontifical Mission, organised a conference at the Dar Al-Kalima University Theatre in Bethlehem to present the book ‘Palestine, Cradle of Christianity: An Introduction to the History of the Origins of Christianity from the First to the Seventh Century’.
