On the Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth

Regnans gloriose

Almighty God, we pray for your servant Elizabeth our Queen, 

now by your mercy reigning over us. 

Adorn her yet more with every virtue, remove all evil from her path; 

that with all the Royal family she may come in grace to you, who are the Way, the Truth and the Life. Amen.

Saint Martin Chasuble

For an esteemed returning customer in the United States, the Studio prepared a set of vestments shewn in the adjacent photographs in our Saint Martin style.

The Saint Martin chasuble is the Saint Bede Studio's own contemporary interpretation of the ancient form of Roman vestment.  It is extremely ample.  The ornamentation of these vestments is arranged in the Roman style, being a Tau ornament in the front and a column at the back, formed from braids and contrasting damask.  The vestments can be made in a variety of qualities of fabric in all the Liturgical colours.

This dignified set was made from dupion silk in a subtle shade of gold and lined in red taffeta.  It was ornamented with brighter red dupion silk and one of the Studio's unique braids, called Saint George.

Click on the images for an enlarged view.

Enquiries : This page. 

Saint Bede the Venerable

Greetings to all readers of this Blog on this Feast of Saint Bede the Venerable, monk of Jarrow (UK) and first historian of the Church in England.  

Read a little about the life and work of Saint Bede here.

The Saint Bede Studio, which takes its name from the English monk, is a small enterprise but continues to receive large numbers of enquiries each year. Please say a prayer for God's Blessing on the work of the Studio and the good health of its staff.

Enquiries : stbede62@gmail.com

Priestly Ordinations 2021 : 6

In this post, we are pleased to describe a set of vestments in the Saint Bede Studio's Saint Benet style, which was commissioned by an ordinand from Canada.

These Gothic Revival vestments were made from an ecclesiastical brocade in a lovely shade of ivory, and ornamented with the Studio's unique braids.  The wider braid illustrated is called Saint George and is derived from an orphrey designed by the famed English Gothic Revivalist A.W.N. Pugin. The lining of these vestments was formed from a deep red shade of taffeta.

Please pray for all newly-ordained priests.

Click on the images for an enlarged view.

Enquiries : This page.

Priestly Ordinations 2021 : 5

In this post, we are pleased to describe a set of vestments in the Saint Bede Studio's Saint Austin style, which was commissioned by an ordinand from the United States.

These Gothic Revival vestments were made from an ecclesiastical brocade in a lovely shade of ivory, and ornamented with the Studio's unique braids.  The braid illustrated is called Saint Chad and is derived from an orphrey designed by the famed English Gothic Revivalist A.W.N. Pugin. The lining of these vestments was formed from a crimson shade of taffeta.

Please pray for all newly-ordained priests.

Click on the images for an enlarged view.

Enquiries : This page.

Orphrey braids of the Saint Bede Studio

Each year, the Saint Bede Studio adds to its range of orphrey braids.  We are working on the development of some new braids for production in 2022.  Most of our braids are derived from precedents, either Gothic Revival or Mediaeval. They are never merely copies, but always have original touches to enhance the diversity of their use.  

These unique braids are designed by the Studio and only used in conjunction with our vestments. They are not commercially available, nor available to any other vestment makers and are reserved under international copyright. *

The braids shewn in the adjacent image are used for orphreys in both the Gothic and Roman  styles of vestments designed and made by the Studio.

A key to the illustrated braids :

1. Maria Regina
2. English Rose
3. Saint Columba
4. Chi Rho
5. Saint James
6. Stella
7. Saint Marie
8. Saint Austin
9. Welbye
10. Saint George
11. Saint Edmund (green/red)
12. Salisbury
13. Saint Edmund (silver/red)
14. Saint Chad (green/red)
15. Saint Giles
16. Rosa Antiqua
17. Lux Aeterna
18. Saint Dunstan
19. Saint Chad (blue/red).

Click on the image for an enlarged view.

Enquiries : stbede62@gmail.com


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* This measure has been necessary because of an unpleasant experience in which a manufacturer misappropriated one of the Studio's unique designs and then sold it for his own commercial gain. 

Newsletter of the Saint Bede Studio

The Studio Newsletter has just been circulated.  The twists and turns of 2021 resulted in our not publishing a newsletter last year.

If you usually receive the Newsletter, but have not, please contact us.

If you would like to receive the Newsletter, please contact us.

The Newsletter is written and typeset entirely by the Saint Bede Studio.  Its images are also produced by the Studio.

Address : stbede62@gmail.com

 

Fortescue comments on the Eighteenth century (re-posted)

Father Adrian Fortescue

"In the eighteenth century a desolating wave of bad taste passed over Europe.  It gave us Baroc churches, tawdry gilding, vulgarities of gaudy ornament instead of fine construction.  It passed over clothes and gave us our mean, tight modern garments.  And it passed, alas! over vestments too, and gave us skimped, flat vestments of bad colour, outlined in that most impossible material, gold braid, instead of the ample, stately forms which had lasted until then....For these curtailed shapes are not the historic ones which came down hardly modified for so many centuries. They are a quite modern example of Baroc taste...Skimped chasubles, gold braid and lace are not Roman; they are eighteenth century bad taste."

So wrote one of the most illustrious ecclesiastical scholars of the early twentieth century, the Rev'd Dr Adrian Fortescue. This is an extract from a lecture which he gave to the Altar Society of Westminster Cathedral in 1912. Dr Fortescue's name is, somewhat regrettably, better known for the ceremonial manual which he prepared in order to raise money for the building of his Parish church : The Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described, which has run into many editions, over an entire century.

Dr Fortescue made these counter-cultural comments more than a century ago, but each new generation of Catholics, believing it has the true interpretation of Tradition, has to be reminded of them afresh.

Festal Dalmatic

In this Easter Season, we are pleased to present this dalmatic made by the Studio as part of a set of vestments for a returning customer.

These vestments were constructed from an English ecclesiastical brocade and ornamented with one of the Studio's unique braids called ChiRho.  The vestments were lined in taffeta in a shade of moss-green.

Please click on the images for an enlarged view.

Enquiries : stbede62@gmail.com

The Screens ! The Screens!

Before the procession is formed, the deacon cries "The Screens !  The Screens"  whereupon the minister turns on the screens and monitors so that the assembly may more fully enter into the Sacred Mysteries.

General Instructions on the Roman Missal from the year 2040.

This naughty rubric is, of course, invented, but it has a semblance of possibility about how the liturgy of the modern Roman Rite could develop, as things are presently celebrated.

Forty years ago, those who were concerned more about the transcendent aspects of the Sacred Liturgy and less about Liturgy as communication would bemoan the over-arching importance of the sacred microphone and public address system.  Everything had to be clearly audible; everything had to be amplified ... or perhaps over-amplified.

Decades later, the Sacred Liturgy has moved beyond the imperative of the public address system to the imperative of the digital SCREEN : the ultimate liturgical accessory for the digital age.  I must qualify, this is the Catholic experience in Australia.

Where once was a shrine, now a SCREEN or monitor is placed.  Where once you could enter the church and try to recollect yourself before Mass, now - just like the movie theatres in the old days - a series of notices is put up on the SCREEN, advising people of the name of the Church they are in, where the fire-exits are, the names of ministers etc.  Finally, the fixation with the SCREEN large and small that dominates our lives has entered our places of worship.  Once content to use hymn books and missals, now everything is flashed up on the SCREEN : look away if you can.

Rather than direct our greater attention to the Sacred Mysteries, the SCREENS are now their own point of focus.  The casualty is recollection and prayer.  Instead of closing our eyes to pray, we look upon the SCREEN.  Gathered in a large and noble church, where we may look upon many beautiful works of sacred art, instead we are given close-ups of the celebrant and ministers, shewn on the SCREEN.  Look away if you can ... we are drawn to it.

Why must we hear everything, be it sung or spoken, over-amplified?  Is there not a more recollected way of worshipping God?  Why must we have close-up images of the Holy Place, as if we are at a concert watching every gesture and expression of the performers we are applauding?  It is the attitude which deems these new electronic phenomena essential to modern worship which is the enemy of transcendent celebrations of the Sacred Liturgy.  

You will be ever-hearing, but never understanding; you will be ever -seeing, but never perceiving.

The Septuagint text of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah 6 : 10.

Purveyors of ecclesiastical digital equipment, please let the Faithful come into our churches and pray without worldly digital distractions.