The Anniversary of the Founding of the Church in Milan

According to an old Ambrosian tradition, March 13 of the year 51 was the date on which the church was founded in Milan, when the Apostle St Barnabas baptized the first Christians of the city anciently called Mediolanum. The story tells that as a challenge to the local Druids, who were still active in the areas outside the city, he planted a cross in the middle of a magic circle which they used in their rites. (Celtic pagan priests did in fact use magic circles, into which they would fix a curved rod to take auspices from the position of the stars.) This stone, preserved as a relic, is now in the church of Santa Maria al Paradiso, in the center of the city on Corso di Porta Vigentina. By immemorial custom, on this day a cross is inserted into it, in remembrance of the first wooden cross so fixed by the Apostolic founder of the church of Milan. (Thanks to Nicola de’ Grandi for the pictures and description.)

The stone where St Barnabas fixed the cross, as seen today in S Maria in Paradiso. The inscription reads “On March 13 in year of the Lord 51, St Barnabas the Apostle, as he was preaching the Gospel of Christ to the people of Milan, in a place near the walls at the via Maria by the eastern gate fixed the banner of the Cross in this round stone.”

“On the thirteenth day of March, in the year of the Lord 51, the Apostle St Barnabas in this round stone set up the sign of the Cross in order to preach the Gospel of Christ to the people of Milan, in a place near the walls of the eastern gate of the via Marina, the memory of which, (previously) translated to the church of St Dionysius, was (translated again) to this church of St Mary ‘in Paradise’ in the year 1783. by the brothers of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary (i.e. the Servite order). Each year this day is celebrated with a plenary indulgence.”

An historical photo of the wooden Cross fixed into the stone on “el tredesin de Marz”, as it is called in the Milanese dialect.

St Barnabas baptizing the first Christians of Milan.

A graphic showing the relative positions of certain stars and constellations as marked on the magic stone.

Artistic Treasures from Milan Cathedral

For the time being, this post will be the last set of Nicola de Grandi’s photos from the cathedral museum in Milan: see the previous posts from December and January. As always we are very grateful to him for sharing them with us; this time, the focus is on artworks rather than liturgical objects.

We begin with a wooden model of the Duomo (recently restored), which was produced in four different stages, by Bernardino Zenale (1519-22), Vincenzo da Seregno (1536-48), Giuseppe Bellora (1841) e Giovanni Brambilla (1889-90). As has been the case for so many of Italy’s great churches, the cathedral of Milan took a very long time to complete, and for centuries, the church simply had no façade at all. The front of the church was not finished until the early 19th century, in a fashion quite different from what we see in the model.

A painting of the façade when it was still fairly new, made to celebrate the coronation of the Austrian Emperor Ferdinand I as king of Lombardy and the Veneto in 1838.  

A tapestry of the Deposition from the Cross, made in Brussels 1505-10.

A very beautiful Flemish tapestry of the Passion of Christ, made in 1467-68, donated to the cathedral by the archbishop of Milan, Stefano Nardini, who is here depicted being presented to Christ by St Ambrose. 

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More Liturgical Treasures from Milan Cathedral (Part 2)

Following up on recent posts in December and January, here are some more items of liturgical interest from the museum of the cathedral of Milan, photographed by Nicola de’ Grandi.

This two-sided painting, known as the Madonna dell’Idea, was made in the 2nd quarter of the 15th century by Michelino and Leonardo da Besozzo, and is still carried every year in the procession on Candlemas.

A gilded and silvered copper head of God the Father, by Beltramino da Rho, 1416-25, originally mounted on the crossing of the ribs in the apse, (now replaced by a copy in the church itself).

A painting of St Charles Borromeo carrying in procession the nail of the Crucifixion, which is one of the most precious of the cathedral’s many relics; by Fede Galizia, 1628-29. Originally commissioned for the Theatine church of St Anthony, and used a processional banner during the plague of 1630, since St Charles had done the same during a severe outbreak of the plague that hit Milan in 1576. 

An altar frontal made for the canonization of St Charles, which took place on All Saints’ Day of 1610. This and the two items that follow, a chalice veil and an orphrey for a cope, both made for the same occasion, are largely the word of a famous master-embroiderer of the early 17th century called Ludovica Antonia Pellegrini. 

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More Liturgical Treasures from Milan Cathedral

At the end of last month, we published some photos by Nicola de’ Grandi of an ivory diptych and a cover for a Gospel book, both preserved in the cathedral museum of Milan. Here are several more of items of liturgical interest from the museum: two more ivory diptychs, some very nice chalices and processional crosses, and a miter painstakingly decorated with hummingbird feathers. (Unfortunately, for several of these items, there is less information available than one would want.)

A pax brede donated by Pope Pius IV (1559-64), a member of the Milanese cadet branch of the Medici family, to his nephew St Charles Borromeo, whom he appointed the see of Milan in 1560; St Charles then donated it to the cathedral. The Cross is surmounted with thirteen set diamonds, and the scene of the Deposition from the Cross is figured in gold beneath it. In the lunette above, a group of angels, and the stem of the Medici.

The Ambrosian Church still to this day uses this form of cylindrical monstrance, which was very common in the late Middle Ages. The lower part, in the form of a tree-trunk, was made in the late 15th century, and is decorated with pearls and green enamel formed to look like leaves; it seems to have originally been a decorative cup created for a secular context, and later donated to the cathedral and reworked, with the upper section added in the 16th century. Two angels are delicately cut into the rock-crystal.

This object is known as “the chalice of the liberal arts”, since the seven liberal arts and the original Four Doctors of the Latin Church are depicted on the ivory cup, which was made in the 14th century. The piece to which the ivory is attached is contemporary, but the base was made about 50 years earlier. This was almost certainly not used as a chalice for the consecration of the Precious Blood, but as a kind of pyx.

This carved ivory bucket for holy water, or “situla”, was commissioned by another archbishop of Milan, Gotofredo (974-80), for the blessing of the Emperor Otto II (967-983), which was supposed to take place in the Basilica of Saint Ambrose. It was probably never used, since the archbishop died before the emperor’s arrival in Milan. An inscription on the upper edge reads “A gift of Gotofredo to thee, holy prophet Ambrose, a vessel to sprinkle blessed water on Caesar when he shall come.” The relief images along the outside are separated from each other by columns supporting arches. The silver handle is made in the form of two winged monsters with reptilian tails and front paws, large, open eyes and feline ears, who hold a small human head in their jaws.

Miter decorated with hummingbird feathers, ca. 1525-75.

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St Babylas of Antioch, the First Translated Saint

In the Ambrosian Rite, and on the calendars of many medieval uses of the Roman Rite, today is the feast of St Babylas, the twelfth bishop (after St Peter) of the patriarchal see of Antioch. The feast is recorded on this day already at the beginning of the fifth century, in both a Syriac martyrology, and a Latin one traditionally (but erroneously) attributed to St Jerome. With him are celebrated also three boys whom he had brought to the Faith, and who were martyred along with or shortly after him. One of the earliest Western sources to mentioned them, St Gregory of Tours’ History of the Franks (1, 30), calls them Urban, Prilidian and Epolon, but the names appear differently in some other sources.

The basilica of St Babylas in Milan. Its first foundation as a place of Christian worship can be traced to the time of St Ambrose himself (374-97); his third successor, St Marolus (408-23), received some of the relics of Babylas and placed them in the church. The building owes its current appearance to a restoration of the late 19th century; the monumental column in front of it has nothing to do with it. (Image from Wikimedia Commons by Daniel Case, CC BY-SA 3.0).   

St Babylas and the three boys, depicted in the church’s apsidal mosaic, also a work of the 19th century. (Photo by Nicola de’ Grandi.)

In the sixth book of his Ecclesiastical History, Eusebius of Caesarea mentions Babylas’ election in passing (29, 5), around the same time as that of Pope St Fabian in 236. Later, at 39, 4, he mentions that the Saint died in prison “after his confession”; and this is all that he has to say about him.

Between these two references to Babylas, in chapter 34, Eusebius tells the story that the emperor Philip the Arab, who reigned from 244-49, attempted to enter a Christian church to celebrate the Easter vigil, but was forbidden entry by the bishop of the place, “until he had made confession and numbered himself among (the public penitents) … on account of the many crimes which he had committed. It is said that he obeyed readily, manifesting in his conduct a genuine and pious fear of God.” He does not say where or when this took place, nor does he specify Philip’s crimes. (There are other references in Eusebius to this emperor’s reputed adherence to the Christian faith, which have given rise to no little scholarly discussion.)

St John Chrysostom was a native of Antioch, born just under a century after Babylas’ death, and served the Church there first as a reader, then deacon, then priest, earning himself a reputation as a great preacher well before he became archbishop of Constantinople in 397. While still a cleric of Antioch, he gave a sermon about Babylas on his feast day, in which he states that the Saint had courageously forbidden an emperor (whom, however, he does not name) from entering a church because he had murdered a hostage, the young son of a defeated enemy.

Portraits of the emperors Gordian III and Philip the Arab on contemporary coins. (Both images from Wikimedia Commons: left, unattributed, CC BY-SA 3.0; right by Numismatica Ars Classica, public domain.)

These accounts were later conflated and elaborated on, so that it becomes Babylas who refuses Philip entry to the church at the Easter vigil, and this, because he had murdered his predecessor, Gordian III. (Gordian was in fact very young, just under twenty, when he died campaigning against the Persians on the Roman Empire’s eastern frontier, but the circumstances of his death are unclear.) The Ambrosian Breviary gives this as the reason for Babylas’ imprisonment and martyrdom, but it does not say exactly which emperor had him killed, nor whom exactly that emperor had himself killed earlier, a clear sign of the editor’s awareness that the conflation is regarded as historically dubious.

What is not doubtful is that Babylas is the first Saint for whom we have attestation of the translation of his relics. In a slightly later sermon about him, Chrysostom reports that the Caesar Constantius Gallus (351-54) had his mortal remains moved from their original burial place in Antioch to a church which he, Gallus, built near a famous temple of Apollo in a suburb of Antioch called Daphne; and furthermore, on their arrival, the oracle fell silent.

A painting of a medieval legend in which Julian the Apostate destroys the bones of St John the Baptist, ca. 1484, by the Netherlandish painter Geertgen tot Sint Jans. (Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.)

Gallus’ younger half-brother Julian became emperor in 361, and abandoned the Christian faith, whence his historical epithet “the Apostate.” Chrysostom goes on to say that Julian went to Daphne “to weary Apollo, praying, supplicating, entreating, so that the events of the future might be foretold to him.” But the oracle, whom he sarcastically calls “the prophet, the great god of the Greeks”, replied that it could not speak: “The dead prevent me from uttering… but break open the graves, dig up the bones, move the dead.” Julian therefore he had the relics returned to Antioch, but the temple of Apollo was struck by lightning and destroyed the very next day. The contemporary historian Ammianus Marcellinus reports that Julian believed that the Christians had set it on fire, and in retaliation, closed the cathedral of Antioch.

The bishop who ordained St John a deacon, St Meletius, later built a new church in the martyr’s honor, and translated the relics once again into it. (Meletius himself was also eventually buried in this church, which is located in another suburb of Antioch called Kaoussie; it has been discovered and excavated in modern times.) A further translation is reported in the early 12th century, to the Italian city of Cremona, about 50 miles southwest of Milan.

Plan of the martyrion of St Babylas outside Antioch. (Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.) 

Despite the uncertainties of St Babylas’ history, his cultus clearly attests that the ancient Church did not merely venerate the relics of the Saints, but also held that the places hallowed by them were special focuses of God’s gracious presence in this world. In this regard, it is especially noteworthy how Chrysostom treats the act of moving the relics, depending on who does the moving.

When the oracle of Apollo (which he takes for granted is really a demon) requests that Babylas’ remains be moved away from its shrine, he denounces this as a violation of the very laws of nature. “What could be more impious than these commands? … Who ever heard of the dead being driven forth (from their resting places)? Who ever saw lifeless bodies ordered to be moved as he commanded, overturning from their foundations the common laws of nature, (laws which) neither Greek, barbarian, Scythian, nor if there be any more savage than they, ever changed; but all reverence them, and keep them, and thus they are sacred and venerated by all. But the demon raises his mask, and with bare head, resists the common laws of nature.”

On the contrary, when Gallus moves the relics to Daphne, he did this, according to St John, “because God moved his soul to do it.” And in turn, the very presence of the relics not only silenced the oracle, but also put an end to the lascivious behavior for which Daphne was known. “So great is the power of the Saints, whose mere shadows and garments (the demons) cannot bear to see when they are alive, and at whose urns they tremble when they are dead.”

The relics of St Babylas and companions (inter alios) in the Milanese basilica mentioned above. Photo by Nicola de’ Grandi.

For this reason, it is the common custom of both East and West to keep special feasts to mark the translations of relics, or to keep a Saint’s principal feast on the anniversary of such a translation, when it is not possible to keep it on the anniversary of his death. And indeed, Chrysostom himself is an example of this very custom. He died on September 14th, the Exaltation of the Cross, and is therefore kept in the West on January 27th, the day his relics were brought back to Constantinople from the place where he died in exile.

An Ambrosian Chant for Epiphany: “Omnes Patriarchae”

Although the Ambrosian Office shares many features with that of the Roman Rite, its structure is different in almost every respect. Vespers begins not with psalmody, but with a Lucernarium, a responsory originally sung while the lamps of the church were being lit. This is often (but not always) followed by an antiphon called “in choro”, because it was originally sung by the cantors standing around the throne of the celebrant. At Second Vespers of the Epiphany, this antiphon is repeated four times; traditionally, the first repetition was followed by three Kyrie eleisons, the second by Gloria Patri, the third by Sicut erat, and the fourth by three more Kyrie eleisons. This is still observed in the Duomo of Milan to this day, with only a very slight modification, as in the video below. Also note that the second repetition is sung by the boys’ choir, and the third by the primicerius, one of the dignitaries of the cathedral chapter, as many chants of the Office are assigned to specific persons or parts of the choir in the Ambrosian liturgy.

Nicola de’ Grandi took an old photo of the choir of the Duomo of Milan during the chanting of this antiphon, and colorized it; the result is very nice.

Here is an older recording of several Ambrosian chants, in which Omnes Patriarchae is sung once by the boys’ choir, beginning at 10:15.

The Life of Christ in a 5th Century Ivory Diptych

Among the many artistic treasures preserved in the cathedral museum of Milan, one of the most ancient is an ivory diptych produced in northern Italy, very likely at Ravenna, in the later 5th century. It is known as the Diptych of the Five Parts, since each of the two panels is assembled out of five separately carved pieces. The events of Our Lord’s life which are celebrated in the current liturgical season are particularly prominent on the large panels at the top and bottom of both sides; this is generally understood as an assertion, in the light of the Christological controversies of the 5th century, as an assertion of the fullness of Christ’s humanity united to the divinity in the Incarnation. Thanks to Nicola for sharing these pictures with us. Beneath the photos of the diptych, I have included two others of a very beautiful cover for a Gospel book, made in the early 11th century.

The upper panel of the front side: the Nativity of Christ, with two symbols of the Evangelists to either side, Matthew and Luke, who give the genealogies of Christ. St Joseph is dressed as a Roman shepherd, but holds a carpenter’s saw. 

The Massacre of the Holy Innocents, with the evangelists themselves to either side.

The upper part of the left panel shows an episode from an apocryphal Gospel, in which an angel comes to the Virgin Mary as she draws water at a well before the Annunciation: below it are depicted the three Magi, pointing to the star of the Nativity, and below that, the Baptism of Christ. 

It is not certain which episode is depicted on the upper section of the right panel, either the Presentation of the Virgin in the temple, or an episode from another apocryphal Gospel, in which She is subjected to an ordeal to prove Her innocence after She is found to be pregnant. Beneath it are shown the twelve-year-old Christ in the temple, and His entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.

In the center is mounted an image of the Lamb of God made with the technique now known by the French name “cloisonné”, in which colored material of various kinds (here gemstones, but in many other examples, colored enamel) are set between metal wires (here gold.) This technique is very ancient, with examples dating back as far as the 12th century BC, but examples in early Christian art are extremely rare, much less ones as well preserved as this. 

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The Feast of St Ambrose 2023

Truly it is worthy and just... eternal God. Who in Thy Holy Catholic Church dost so arrange and order the priests as to make for Thyself a Church having no spot or wrinkle. (Eph. 5, 27) Who didst of old on the solemnity of this day deign to raise up the throne of Thy disciple Ambrose, confessor and priest, that when he had laid down secular office, and renounced public honor, Thou might make him the teacher and judge of Thy flock, and strengthen him before the Church as a shepherd. For his sake, we your subjects ask that Thou who didst suddenly exalt him as a bishop for Thy sheep, and through the voice of the people, choose Him as pastor for Thy flock, may by his prayers make us holier, having driven away our sins, and render Thy people more just, as it celebrates the solemnity of this day; that as shepherd and sheep together, by following in his footsteps, we may merit to come to the heavenly kingdom. (The Ambrosian Rite preface for the feast of St Ambrose.)

St Ambrose Bars the Emperor Theodosius from Entering the Cathedral, 1619-20, by the Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641). The holy bishop had excommunicated the emperor after his troops had massacred a large number of civilians during a riot in the Greek city of Thessalonica; the excommunication was not lifted until the emperor had publicly repented. (Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.)

VD: Qui in Ecclesia tua sancta Catholica, ita sacerdotes disponis et ordinas, ut efficias tibi Ecclesiam non habentem maculam, neque rugam. Qui olim diei huius sollemnitate alumni tui Ambrosii, Confessoris et sacerdotis, sublimare dignatus es cathedram, ut fasce saeculari deposito, et publico honore abiecto, Doctorem et iudicem gregis tui efficeres, et pastorem Ecclesiae praefirmares. Pro quo precamur subiecti, ut qui eum extemplo ovibus tuis sublimasti pontificem, et ex voce plebis gregi tuo praeelegisti pastorem, nos eius precibus explosis piaculis efficias sanctiores, et plebem tuam, huius diei sollemnia celebrantem, efficias iustiorem: ut pastor cum ovibus, eius sequendo vestigia, simul mereamur pervenire ad caelestia regna. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Per quem maiestatem tuam laudant angeli, venerantur archangeli, Throni, Dominationes, Virtutes, Principatus et Pot estates adorant. Quem Cherubim.

The Chapel of St Charles in Milan Cathedral to Reopen

The cathedral of Milan has just announced that after a two-year long restoration, the chapel in the crypt which contains the relics of St Charles Borromeo will soon be reopened. This chapel is known as the “scurolo”, a term which derives from a Milanese dialect word, “scuroeu – an underground or scarcely lit room.” The octagonal chapel was built in 1606, four years after Charles was beatified. (He was canonized by Pope Paul V on All Saints’ Day of 1610.) Around 1670, Cardinal Alfonso Litta, archbishop of Milan, had it decorated with silk embroidered draperies, and a series of silver relief panels which show episodes from the life of St Charles. The Saint’s body, dressed in pontifical vestments, is in an urn above the altar made of silver and rock crystal. For many years, it was the custom that Roman Rite bishops visiting Milan could only celebrate Mass within the Duomo at this altar.

In the first photograph above, one can see most of an elongated octagon in the ceiling, with a decorative metal grid laid over it. When the scurolo was originally built, this was completely open; on the floor of the nave, the aperture was surrounded by a metal balustrade decorated with four statues of angels holding candlesticks. Most unfortunately, in the post-Conciliar period, the decision was made to close this opening with a large piece of concrete, and plant the versus populum altar on top of it. The recent renovation was necessitated in part by the atmospheric problems created by the lack of air circulation between the crypt and the nave. (Thanks to Nicola for these photos.)

Here is a photograph of the Blessed Ildephonse Schuster celebrating Pontifical Mass at the high altar of the Duomo on the feast of St Charles, whose statue was placed on the Gospel side of the upper gradine only for this annual occasion.

On the same day in 1894, Cardinal Andrea Ferrari made his solemn entry into the Duomo, departing from the church of St Eustorgius, as is the custom. Upon his election, the new archbishop took Charles as a second name in tribute to his sainted predecessor.

The Order of a Synod in the Traditional Pontifical - Second Day

For the current Synod on Synodality, we are sharing the traditional order for holding a synod according to the 1595 Pontifical of Clement VIII, both as a matter of general interest, and as something which will perhaps serve to inspire prayers for the good outcome of the current assembly. It is divided into three days, and seems to presume that much of the Synod’s business will be determined by the bishop and his assistants beforehand. The rubrics are given here in summary, omitting several of the less pertinent details, such as the places where the bishop removes his miter etc.

The second day of the synod begins with the same ceremony as the first, although it is not specifically stated in the rubrics that the Mass of the day is to be the Mass of the Holy Spirit. When this is over, a faldstool is placed before the altar, and the bishop, in red cope and precious miter, accompanied by deacon and subdeacon also in red, kneels before the altar, and intones the following antiphon. “Propitius esto * peccátis nostris, Dómine, propter nomen tuum: nequando dicant gentes: Ubi est Deus eórum? – Forgive us our sins, o Lord, for Thy name’s sake: lest ever the gentiles should say: Where is their God?” The choir continues the antiphon, followed by the whole of Psalm 78, “O God, the heathen are come into Thy inheritance”, during which the bishop sits until the psalm is finished and the antiphon repeated. (These are different from the psalm and antiphon said the day before.)

The bishop then turns to the altar and says:

Bending the knee of our hearts before Thee, o Lord, we ask that we may accomplish the good which Thou seekest of us; namely, that we may walk with Thee, ready in solicitude, and do judgment with most careful discretion; and with love of mercy, shine forth in our zeal for all that pleaseth Thee. Through Christ our Lord.

All answer “Amen”, and the bishop adds a second prayer.

Let us pray. Kindly pour forth upon our minds, we beseech Thee, o Lord, the Holy Spirit; so that we, gathered in Thy name, may in all things hold to justice, ruled by piety, in such wise that here our will agree with Thee entirely; and ever pondering on reasonable things, we may accomplish what is pleasing to Thee in word and deed. Through our Lord Jesus Christ etc.

This prayer is a cento of the first collect of the Ember Saturday of Pentecost, the first prayer of the preceding day of the synod, and the collect of the Sixth Sunday after Epiphany.

The previous day the Litany of the Saints was said at this point; it is not repeated today. The bishop now sings, “Oremus”, the deacon “Flectamus genua”, and the subdeacon, after a pause, “Levate”, after which the bishop sings this prayer.

O God, who command that we speak justice, and judge what it right; grant that no iniquity be found in our mouth, no wickedness in our mind; so that purer speech may agree with pure heart, justice be shown in our work, no guile appear in our speech, and truth come forth from our heart. Through our Lord Jesus Christ etc.

The deacon then sings the following Gospel, Luke 10, 1-9, the common Gospel of Evangelists (and some Confessors), with the normal ceremonies of a Pontifical Mass.

At that time: The Lord appointed also other seventy-two: and He sent them two and two before His face into every city and place whither He himself was to come. And He said to them: The harvest indeed is great, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he send laborers into his harvest. Go: Behold I send you as lambs among wolves. Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes; and salute no man by the way. Into whatsoever house you enter, first say: Peace be to this house. And if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon him; but if not, it shall return to you. And in the same house, remain, eating and drinking such things as they have: for the laborer is worthy of his hire. Remove not from house to house. And into what city soever you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you. And heal the sick that are therein, and say to them: The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.

As on the previous day, the bishop kneels to intone the hymn Veni Creator Spiritus, which is continued by the choir, after which he sits at a chair which is set up facing the assembly, and addresses it. At the corresponding point the previous day, a brief model for his address is given; the rubric of this days specifies that he speaks “his verbis – with these words,” but also says that he may omit them.

My venerable and most beloved brethren, just as we reminded your kindness and gentility yesterday, concerning the divine offices, and the sacred grades of (service at) the altar, or even (our own) mores and the needs of the Church, it is necessary that the charity of all of you, whensoever it knoweth of any matter in need of correction, hesitate not to bring forth in our midst such matters for emendation or renewal; that by the zeal of your charity, and the gift of the Lord, all such matters may come to the best, to the praise and glory of the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

A photograph of an archdiocesan synod held in the Duomo of Milan during the episcopate of the Bl. Andrea Card. Ferrari, archbishop of Milan from 1894-1921. The cardinal is preaching from one of the two large pulpits on either side of the entrance to the main choir. At the lower left is seen the “scurolo”, the chapel in the crypt where the relics of St Charles are kept over the altar. This was formerly open in such wise that one could look down into it from the floor of the Duomo; it was, more unfortunately closed for the construction of the post-Conciliar versus populum altar. – In the post-Tridentine period, although the church of Milan maintained the use of the Ambrosian liturgy, it adopted the Roman Pontifical, and would therefore have followed the rite given above for the celebration of a synod.

As on the previous day, before or after the bishop’s address, a “learned and suitable man” delivers a sermon “on ecclesiastical discipline” and other matters “as the bishop may determine”. The archdeacon then reads any Apostolic Constitutions which may not have been promulgated hitherto in that place, and other such documents, as the bishop may decide. There are then read out the constitutions put forth for the approval of the synod, which are then voted upon. (One must assume that in accordance with local traditions, various other matters may also be dealt with.) The bishop then gives the Pontifical blessing, and all depart.

The Translation of St Peter Martyr

When St Peter Martyr was assassinated near Como in northern Italy on April 6th, 1252, his body was taken to the very ancient basilica of St Eustorgius in Milan, which had been given over to his order less than 30 years earlier. As narrated in Fr William Bonniwell’s History of the Dominican Liturgy (pp. 237-8), in 1335, the community of this church made a general appeal to the Order for funds to build a monumental tomb for him; these were swiftly collected, and the tomb was commissioned in 1339 from a Pisan sculptor named Giovanni Balducci.

The following year, a general chapter was held in Milan, and on Pentecost Sunday, June 4th, the original tomb where Peter had been laid to rest 87 years before was opened. The body was discovered to be incorrupt, and the large wound on his head still clearly visible; it was then laid on the church’s altar so that it could be clearly seen, and as often happens on such occasions, many miracles took places. It was then removed to the new tomb, which is of the type known as an ark, which is designed so that the faithful can walk under it and venerate it. (All pictures by Nicola de’ Grandi.)

A feast to commemorate this translation was instituted by the Dominican general chapter of 1348, and at first assigned to June 4th, but later moved to May 7th, only eight days after his principal feast on April 29. (Fr Bonniwell does not say so, but this must have been because June 4th so often coincided with Pentecost or Corpus Christi, and their octaves.) This feast was suppressed by the general chapter held at Salamanca in 1551, which did a thorough revision of all the Order’s liturgical books; reinstated on June 4th during the reign of Pope Benedict XIV (1740-54), then removed from the Order’s general calendar when the Dominican version of the St Pius X Divino Afflatu reform was promulgated in 1923. Finally, in the post-Conciliar rite, St Peter was assigned to this day on the Order’s new general calendar, although of course, this year, he is impeded by Trinity Sunday, and will not be celebrated at all.

In 1462, a Florentine named Pigello Portinari, who was the director of the Milanese branch of the Medici bank, commissioned a large family chapel attached to the basilica, which was completed by 1468; in 1736, the ark of St Peter was moved into the middle of the chapel, where is still stands today. The attribution of the design of the chapel is a matter of discussion; the frescos on the walls are by a Lombard named Vincenzo Foppa.

Pigello Portinari and St Peter Martyr, 1460, by Benedetto Bembo (?)

The major panels on the front of the tomb show St Peter’s funeral, his canonization, and a posthumous miracle by which he saves a ship in danger.

On the back, St Peter heals a mute, causes a cloud to cover the sun while he preaches outdoors, and heals a sick man and an epileptic.

On the left side, the martyrdom of St Peter...

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