The Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described [Hardcover]

Adrian Fortescue (Author), J. B. O'Connell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1998

Father Adrian Fortescue's Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described was the standard ceremonial manual for almost 50 years from 1917. Revised several times by Canon J. B. O'Connell after Fortescue's early death in 1923, the last edition was published in 1962. The Saint Austin Press has republished this edition to meet the growing demand for this authoritative guide to the celebration of the traditional Roman Rite.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Adrian Fortescue (1874-1923) was a Roman Catholic priest and Englishman who was an influential liturgist, artist, calligrapher, composer, polyglot, amateur photographer, Byzantine scholar, and adventurer. He has been described by Michael Davies as, 'the greatest authority on the liturgy of the Roman Rite the English speaking world has ever known'. Canon J.B.O'Connell (d. 1977). Ceremonial and rubrics were his life's work and on the death of Adrian Fortescue in 1923, he was asked to prepare the third edition of this book. Over the next forty years he prepared a further nine editions. Canon O'Connell was a secular priest of the Menevia Diocese. Dr Alcuin Reid is a former Benedictine monk. He is a leading liturgy scholar and the author of The Organic Development of the Liturgy. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 424 pages
• Publisher: Saint Austin Press; Revised edition (April 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1901157008
• ISBN-13: 978-1901157000
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,573,225 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Add this to your personal library, March 27, 2010

By 

A. Williams - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described (Hardcover)

Simply indispensible for teaching and personal reference. Combine with O'Connell "The Celebration of Mass" and you have simply two unbeatable reference on how to and when to and what is proper.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Complete Scholarly Guide!, August 19, 2006

By 

A. Beltz (Ohio, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ceremonies Roman Rite Described 14 E: 14Th Revised Edition (Hardcover)

This book is an absolutely necessary addition to the collection of anyone who has a fondness for or interest in the rites of the Sacred Liturgy. The beauty of Theology in the old rites of the Mass are made simple in a very thorough way, and in understanding all of the nuances of the Tridentine, a person can easily come to a greater understanding and appreciation for the New Liturgy, and how the Liturgical traditions of the Church have naturally evolved throughout history. Excellent!

26 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not the Real Fortescue, October 1, 2008

By 

M. Morrison - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ceremonies Roman Rite Described 14 E: 14Th Revised Edition (Hardcover)

Adrian Fortescue (1874-1923) would have wanted nothing to do with this "edition" of his original work, The Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described, which ranked in esteem just below the Latin rubrical authorities, of which Innocentius Walpelhorst's Compendium Sacrae Liturgia is the most authoritative.

After the death of Fr. Fortescue in 1923 until 1962, when Hannibal Bugnini started implementing his Novus Ordo (New Order) service after the first session of the Second Vatican Council (1963), J.B. O'Connell updated Fr. Fortescue's work. That work ended with the 12th edition of 1962, after which the Traditional Latin Mass was supplanted with the Novus Ordo service, written by Hannibal Bugnini and his Committee of Six Protestant Ministers. This is the service offered in most diocesan churches today, although there are a significant number of sites that refuse to go along with the Novus Ordo and instead maintain either the 1962 Mass or earlier versions.

This, so-called 15th edition, is quite dishonest. It contains unauthorized changes made by Alcuin Reed. If this edition were for the 1962 rite, why wasn't the 12th edition simply reprinted? This book is not faithful to Fr. Fortescue's 12th edition. It contains three more editions of "modernizing" changes engineered to conform to the Novus Ordo, not the Traditional Latin Mass.

If you want to get the real McCoy, get the Fortescue-O'Connell original 1962 edition as a used book. That way you won't get the false "updates" injected throughout into this edition. Better yet, get one of the earlier editions before 1962, by which time Bugnini was already implementing changes that were not traditional to the Traditional Latin Mass.