Funeral of Empress Zita
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 1,945
    I found the video of the funeral of the Empress Zita, Servant of God, on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBJrOIcW8H8

    It's interesting to me, since it is such a public Mass. It might compare to our discussions of JFK's funeral. There are no rites at the opening, as far as I can tell: the body is neatly in place between the candles. Around the 16 minute mark, the Mass begins, and the announcer says, in German, that it is the Mozart. This was used at the Requiem Mass in Boston for JFK in 1964. (Alright, pardon the novel: I find it fascinating!)

    The Kyrie is sung following the Introit. , that's clearly impermissible nowadays, and I suspect it was probably so in 1989, but the work would be disrupted by the split, which was not necessary in the traditional form. The Sequence shows up after the 1st reading.

    The use of German is jarring, given that the Habsburgs are certainly friends of the traditional Latin Mass. One of their more distant descendants was married in that form in D.C. to an American, and I know another Habsburg, currently Hungary's ambassador to the Holy See, keeps up with the ICRSS. (Sadly the head of the family is separated from his spouse...) Political realities probably did not permit the Requiem Mass...

    While I realize that there is nothing binding in itself on the Novus Ordo when differences from the usus antiquior are allowed, it is interesting to me that the cardinal wore the pallium. My metropolitan archbishop (and Ordinary) wears it only when absolutely required. What times may it be worn nowadays? It was restricted in the older usage, and I cannot envision its usage at a Requiem Mass (the ins-and-out of the Novus Ordo Pontifical Mass are something of which I know little, given my preferences for the older form). I'm intrigued the deacon doesn't kneel for the blessing at the Gospel (something not in the Requiem Mass...), since the servers do for the incense (again not the in the Requiem); things like that are inconsistent. On the other hand, the cardinal said Mass not from the throne but what amounts to the faldstool, which was the more appropriate way to sing the Requiem (though using the crozier, something omitted generally at a Requiem Mass).

    They incensed the altar but did nothing at the casket, as I noted, which is interesting given in the Requiem the altar wouldn't be incensed then, which is something that some celebrants (licitly or not) might carry over into the Novus Ordo, albeit unintentionally (i.e. they just don't wish to use incense then).

    We're treated to the Alleluia we are used to from (ahem!) the Vespers of the Paschal Vigil, err... many a Mass in the new form.

    The Gospel was sung in German, and not at the ambo; I think the GIRM now prohibits it. The sung Gospel to the north is one of the most impressive features of the TLM... and this is the only reading I recognize, the raising of Lazarus in the Requiem, and the deacon sang it well. The cardinal was a terrible administrator, and I'm not so sure how faithful he was to the church's teaching, but he looks like a bishop ought, only missing the old pontificals (tunicle, gloves, buskins, stockings, and ring). Except, they forgot his miter at the offertory...and taste went out the window with the plastic missal stand.

    The solemn Dominus vobiscum is interesting... It would be the ferial tone in the old form. He has Germanic Latin pronunciation, but the chant is beautiful.... The splitting of the Sanctus is unsatisfying. The same at the preface goes for the Pater Noster. I cannot imagine why the ferial tone was cut, considering there are 3 tones... It's easier to learn than the other two, in my view. The Pax was not in the Requiem, but I appreciate that basically all European bishops give it in the old style.

    Of course they knelt for Communion.

    The change to the cope is traditional, and it was done at Archduke Otto's funeral too. The aspersion & censing without music is strange... and the crucifix and candles were not in the nave. You can spot some black birettas in the 8th video, which contains the famous entrance into the church.

    In the 9th video, the Vienna Boys Choir sings something, which I cannot place for the life of me! (It's sad that I cannot remember the melody...)
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,934
    An aside concerning Empress Zita. There is a movement in some eastern Catholic churches for her beatification. She was a good friend to them.
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 1,945
    In the Latin church her cause is open. I didn’t realize she died relatively recently. I thought she died in the 1950s. Apparently, Archduke Otto’s burial will be the last in the crypt due to reasons of space, as I read.
  • Liam
    Posts: 4,942
    Well, Archduke Otto was in a sense the last personage of state - he was Crown Prince in fact (not merely in pretense) for a couple of years.

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Kroenung_Budapest_Karl_und_Zita_1916a.jpg

  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,767
    The Hymn at 9" in part 9 is O Haupt, in the next to last harmonization (No.30) in the Matthew's Passion.
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 1,945
    Interesting. I’m not sure where I have heard it then...
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,150
    The orchestral music at the introduction in part 1 and at the end as the credits are rolling in part 10 is from the Adagio to Bruckner's 7th Symphony.

  • I was surprised to hear the hymn tune "Bethany" -- the most familiar setting for "Nearer, My God, to Thee" -- sung by the choir and congregation at Empress Zita's funeral. My guess is that it would have been at her request, and that she may have come to know the hymn during her lengthy exile in the United States and Canada. You can hear it in this segment at about the six-minute mark:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTD2-0-LyKM&t=55s&fbclid=IwAR3x4tUyKEm_qqpPc8unIJkIe2XjrS1qZRIsou2pUcNXo8oQd33_8y975QU
  • Many thanks for this link, GColville.
    It gladdens the heart of this royalist.
    A pox on Woodrow Wilson and all his house.
  • Liam
    Posts: 4,942
    Woodrow Wilson, for all his faults, didn't start World War I. The Austrians knew that the advent of the Dual Monarchy 50 years earlier was just buying time before its eventual transformation. They were just trying to wait out the demise of the older Sick Man of Europe for better advantage, only to end up as allies in a war that killed both and two others for bad measure.
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,045
    But Wilson ended the war. And if he had not, Europe eventually would have, on better terms, with probably no greater loss of life.
  • Liam
    Posts: 4,942
    That's a mighty stretch. I am familiar with the arguments that purport to support that conclusion, but am not persuaded by them. The only major power victors of WW1 were the USA and Japan (I'd also argue that Spain benefited from avoiding getting pulled in, unlike Portugal, but Spain eventually threw away those benefits), and that was baked into the cake even before the USA entered the war. Adam Tooze's The Deluge is to my mind the most convincing case of the recent wave of historical arguments about WW1.