Fifth Sunday After Pentecost 1863

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28 SUNDAY Fifth after Pentecost, semidouble. White. Vespers of Sts Peter and Paul without any commemoration.

The Indulgence begins.

29 Monday. SS PETER AND PAUL, Apostles, Double of the First Class with an Octave, during which commemoration of the Octave, Creed,  and Preface of the APostles.Alban, Martyr, greater double. Second prayers of St Paulinus, Bishop Confessor. Red. Second Vespers of the Feast.

30 Tuesday. The Commemoration of St Paul, Apostle, double. Second prayers of St Peter. Red.


1 Wednesday. The Octave of St John the Baptist, double. White.

2 Thursday. The Visitation of the BVM, double of the second class. In Low Mass second prayers of SS Processus and Martinian, Martyrs. Creed.  Preface of the BVM. White. Plenary Indulgence.

3 Friday. St Angela Merici, Virgin, double (transferred from 31 May). White. Abstinence. [In Diocese of Plymouth St Eleutherius, Pope Martyr, double (transferred from 29 May). Red. In Diocese of Shrewsbury, Mass of the Octave of Sts Peter and Paul, semidouble, second prayers Concede. Third prayers for the Church or the Pope. Red.]

4 Saturday. St Francis Carracciolo, Confessor, double (transferred from 4 June). White. [In Dioceses of Clifton, St David's and Newport, and Plymouth, principal Mass of the BVM, with Gloria, one Prayer and Creed. In Diocese of Northampton, third prayers for the Bishop. In Diocese of Plymouth, St Angela Merici, double (transferred from 31 May). White.]

As ever, a feast of SS Peter and Paul is answered by one of SS Paul and Peter. How rich these four days are: the feast of the two Saints, the Commemoration of St Paul, the Octave of St John the Baptist, and the Visitation.  All of those closest to Jesus are commemorated in less than a week, long after Easter, six months before Christmas: but God's work in men and women is made manifest again.

The Indulgence attached to the Feast of Sts Peter and Paul is one of the eight in the year during which most Catholics went to Holy Communion. It is unique in the conditions attaching to it.  They are: sacramental confession, reception of Holy Communion, and prayers to God "with a sincere heart, for the conversion of Infidels and Heretics, and for the free propagation of the Holy Faith".  These feel like prayers we should be saying anyway.  Note that attendance at Mass isn't one of the conditions: receiving Communion separate from Mass was quite normal until the second half of the twentieth century.

There is another plenary indulgence available on Friday, it being a feast of the BVM.


St Mary's Abbey, at East Bergholt, near Colchester, is served by the Rt Reverend William Wareing, Bishop of Retimo.  Local people can enter an extension to the chapel where they can see from the side the priest saying Mass but can't see the community..

Bishop Wareing had been a Confessor to a Convent of English Benedictine nuns who had been forced to abandon France after the Revolution, and had also taught at Oscott, where he became Vice President and Spiritual Director.  After the reorganisation of the Vicariate, he became the first Vicar Apostolic of the Eastern District with the title of Bishop of Ariopolis, and, with the establishment of the Hierarchy in 1850, was the first Bishop of Northampton.  He received Frederick William Faber into the Church.  As an old man he resigned his See, was "translated" to a See in partibus, and became once again Chaplain to a Benedictine convent, where in time he died and was buried. 

On his deathbed he said: "I have no great talents; I have never done any great things; but I have always endeavoured to do my duty". I think this is an epitaph we might all strive for.

The Convent became a Friary, and the friars went in the 1970s.  Though the cemetery has been preserved, Bishop Wareing's tombstone is now pretty well illegible.  The Abbey/Friary has become a commune.  There are more pictures here, and here as well. They leave me feeling pretty depressed.