Taxus Baccata

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Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song of the western Christian Church. Although it had mostly fallen into disuse after the 1600s, it experienced a revival in the 19th Century in the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglo-Catholic wing of the Anglican Communion. Gregorian chant was organized, codified, and notated mainly in the Frankish lands of western and central Europe during the 9th and 10th centuries, with later additions and redactions, but the texts and many of the melodies have antecedents going back several centuries earlier. Although popular legend credits Pope Gregory the Great with inventing Gregorian chant, scholars believe that the chant bearing his name arose from a later Carolingian synthesis of Roman and Gallican chant.Gregorian chants are organized into eight scalar modes.
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Notre-Dame de Paris, known simply as Notre Dame in English , is a Gothic cathedral on the eastern half of the Île de la Cité in Paris, France, with its main entrance to the west. It is still used as a Roman Catholic cathedral and is the seat of the Archbishop of Paris.

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Ralph (died October 20, 1122), also known as Ralph d'Escures from the family estate Escures, near Séez in Normandy, was a medieval Abbot of Séez, Bishop of Rochester and then Archbishop of Canterbury. He studied at the school at the Abbey of Bec before he entered the abbey of St Martin at Séez in 1079 and became abbot of the house in 1091. He was a friend of both Saint Anselm and Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester, whose see, or diocese, he took over on the death of Gundulf. He was not chosen archbishop of Canterbury by the chapter of Canterbury alone. His election involved an assembly of the lords and bishops meeting with King Henry I of England. Ralph then received his pallium from Pope Paschal II, rather than travelling to Rome to retrieve it. As archbishop, Ralph was very assertive of the rights of the see of Canterbury and of the liberties of the English Church. He claimed authority in Wales and Scotland. Ralph also quarreled for a time with Pope Paschal II.
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• ... that typical subjects for late medieval Andachtsbilder include the Pietà, Pensive Christ, Man of Sorrows, Arma Christi, and the Veil of Veronica (pictured)?
• ... that gambling on papal elections has been documented since the 16th century, despite being punishable by excommunication?
• ... that the Cemetery of the Holy Rood has a privately funded area set aside for the burial of abandoned children?

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Elisabeth of Schönau (c. 1129 – 18 June 1164) was a German Benedictine visionary. She was an abbess at the Schönau Abbey in the Duchy of Nassau, and reportedly experienced numerous religious visions, for which she became widely sought after by many powerful men as far away as France and England. (Full article...)

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See also: Gregorio Barbarigo

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“

I cannot keep silent, nor would it be proper, so many favours and graces has the Lord deigned to bestow on me in the land of my captivity.

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23 May 2024 –

Pope Francis and the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints approves the canonization of Carlo Acutis, who will become the first millennial saint. (Holy See) (BBC News)

12 May 2024 –

Forty-nine Vatican Museums employees start an unprecedented labor dispute over unfair and poor working conditions against the Vatican's Pontifical Commission. (Reuters)

10 May 2024 – Demographics of Italy

Amid record low birth rates and an aging population, Pope Francis urges Italians to have more children. The Italian government also expands a campaign to encourage at least 500,000 births annually by 2033. (AP)

21 March 2024 –

Pope Francis laicizes Belgian bishop Roger Vangheluwe due to allegations of abuse. (NOS)