St. Augustine
Take a look at the man in the below pictures. Doesn’t he look like one of the olden time Saints? He is Bl. Giaconto Longhin, who died in 1936. When I was a kid and I saw statues & pictures of the ancient Sainted bishops, I always wondered if they actually looked like that. You know: patriarchal, long stately white beard, cope & miter, so dignified looking etc.. well, here’s your proof…
Marvelous!
The whole site is marvellous!!!
If you’re doing a post on the Irish in the near future, maybe you’d include something about this:
Saint Conleth’s Catholic Heritage Association invites you to honour the Holy Year of St. Paul by attending Holy Mass in the Traditional Latin Rite (Missal of Blessed John XXIII) on Saturday, 30th August, 2008, at 11 a.m., in St. Paul’s Church, Emo, Co. Laois, Ireland, followed by a tour of Emo Court House and Gardens.
For the past 15 years, St. Conleth’s Catholic Heritage Association has been working prayerfully for the provision of the Traditional Latin Liturgy in the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin.
God bless the work!
I wish more Western Clergy would grow beards.
Of course, until the reforms of the 1960s/70s, beards were forbidden for secular clergy; only (some) religious (e.g. capuchins) were permitted to wear them.
Great pics of Bl Giacinto Longhin! The ascetic face is a beautiful match for the superb beard. I always scorned the prohibition on beards among the Western clergy, and was glad for its repeal. It seems to me a God given right that a man should raise a beard, nor should ecclesiastical custom forbid it. I’ve kept a good beard since I was 16, except for a few years in seminary at Econe. The African photos of Monseigneur Lefebvre with his gently pointy beard remain among the strongest images of the great man.
Yes – the Capuchins kept beards and missionaries too – especially in African and Islamic territories.
Many of the things that happened after VatII were ridiculous. Why on earth were beards forbidden?
Dymphna: I think it was before VatII that secular clergy were forbidden to grow beards (why, I don’t know). But since Vat II many Religious orders that always had beards, have just stopped wearing them, I don’t think there was any decree or anything, just as the de facto norm.
Cf. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02362a.htm The popular reason given before the rule was abolished was that beards were considered an expression of vanity, and thus unbecoming for clergy.
Vanity? The secular clergy ought better to have taken a lesson from Catholic missionaries and a number of the contemplative Orders of hermits and monks who kept their beards, not to mention the Orthodox tradition of the East. Rather than a beard being an expression of vanity (frankly, that seems like an idea of women, not men), the exact opposite is true. Vanity, if such it be, comes in shaving the beard, not in letting it grow. Better a clergyman with a full beard than the 2-3day stubble the fashionistas have proclaimed as de rigeur for the forward man. I’ve seen too many middle-aged priests who look like they FORGOT to shave! Give us back our holy men with beards!
Once again, that top pic of Blessed Giacinto is really something!
Thnx.
While the explanation regarding vanity was not mine, but the one traditionally given which I only reported, I am always amazed at how people who supposedly value tradition sweepingly condemn a discipline which has been around for over a thousand years, based on their personal preferences. I do not necessarily advocate this discipline, but perhaps we should be more careful in looking at its history and the reasons for it before making such high-handed statements. Just a thought.
Eeekk! I didn’t expect to open a can of worms about beards. How about beards for some, and no beards for others.
Absolutely, Ken, I hope you weren’t referring to me. To quote the article I linked to: “But as Ratramnus of Corbie protested, it was foolish to make an outcry about a matter which concerned salvation so little as this barbæ detonsio aut conservatio.” I was just expressing my constant amazement at how easily some friends of Tradition pronounce certain traditions to be complete rubbish just because they happen not to like them.
No Gregor, I wasn’t referring to you specifically. It was my lil’ tongue in cheek response to things which you see on occasion on “trad” blogs. How many Angels can fit on a pinhead and all that.
Agreed, sometimes our particular “version” (post-Trent usually) of Tradition doesn’t always match the actual larger Church Tradition.