Undusted Texts

This is a digitized VHS copy of the Episcopal Ordination and Enthronement Liturgy of Bishop John Michael Kudrick, TOR, as Bishop of Parma.  The Liturgy was celebrated on July 10, 2002, at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Parma, OH.  Bishop Kudrick served as Bishop of Parma from 2002 until his resignation in 2016.  

 This is a digitized VHS copy of the Enthronement of Archbishop Basil M. Schott, OFM, as Metropolitan Archbishop of Pittsburgh.  It took place on July 9, 2002, at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Munhall, PA.  Basil Schott (1939-2010) served as Bishop of Parma from 1996 to 2002, and then as Metropolitan of Pittsburgh from 2002 until his death from lymphoma in 2010.  

This is a digitized VHS copy of a short 1992 educational video produced by the Eparchy of Parma's Office of Religious Education, with the help of Gemini Productions.      

In researching my recent post summarizing the papal bull instituting Bérulle's Oratory of Jesus, I came across another interesting document by Pope Paul V (r. 1605-1621).  The letter (#CLXX, 2/24/1610; Bullarium XI:664-666) is written to the Maronite Patriarch.  Confusingly, the letter refers to both the present patriarch and the past patriarch as "Peter"; this seems to arise from St. Peter being the first bishop of Antioch.  (Modern Maronite patriarchs, beginning with Paul Peter Massad (r. 1854-1890) all add "Peter" to their name upon their election to the patriarchate, in memory of this.)  The letter is actually addressed to Patriarch Yuhanna (John) Makhlouf (r. 1608-1633), and it discusses the reforms of the prior patriarch, Joseph el-Ruzzi (r. 1597-1608). Pope Paul's letter (§2) recounts many of the complaints Patriarch Yuhanna had about Patriarch Joseph's reforms:  It has reached our ears that your predecessor, Patriarch Peter of blessed memory, w...

The Octoechos or "the Book of Eight Tones" (lit. "Eight-Tone") is a liturgical book used in the Byzantine Rite.  It is the book of propers for Matins/Orthros and Vespers each day of the week and for Sunday Divine Liturgy.  Its use is roughly equivalent to times of "Ordinary Time" in the Roman Rite: it is the book used when the two movable seasonal books (the Triodion for Great Lent and its preparation and the Pentecostarion for Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost) are not being used.  It is used in conjunction with the Menaion (the book of immovable feasts, such as Nativity, Theophany, Dormition, and saints' feast days) and the Horologion (the book of the basic texts of the Divine Office/the Hours).  The only free version of the Octoechos I have found on-line is a copy from the Monastery of the Myrrhbearing Women , a women's monastery of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) in Otego, NY, as adapted for Canada and posted as a PDF on the websi...