Dante Aligheri, poet of the Divine Comedy, died today in 1321 at the age of about 56. Dante (seen above, left) wrote the three parts of his great poem – Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso – in exile from Florence, but after he died, his family were not able to find the final 13 cantos of the Paradiso. According to a story told by Dante’s first biographer, Giovanni Boccaccio, after several months of searching, Dante’s two sons decided to complete the work themselves. But then one of them, Iacopo, had a dream one night in which Dante appeared, dressed in spotless clothes and lit by an unusual light. Iacopo asked him if he had completed the Divine Comedy and if so, where the missing manuscript had gone. Dante led him into his old bedroom, placed his hand on a wall and said, ‘That which you have so much sought after is here.’ On waking, Iacopo searched the bedroom again and found a rug fixed to the wall. Behind it, tucked away in a small window, were the writings containing the ending of the poem.
George Frideric Handel completed a new oratorio, The Messiah, on this day in September 1741. It had taken him 24 days to write an estimated quarter of a million notes, although he often wrote his operas at breakneck speed. The text of The Messiah had been created by Charles Jennens, a close friend of Handel, who collected texts mostly from the King James Bible, with the books of Isaiah, Psalms, and the resurrection passages of 1 Corinthians being the most frequently quoted. Like Johann Sebastian Bach before him, Handel wrote SDG on his completed manuscript, standing for Soli Deo Gloria, ’Glory to God alone’.
The Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship published a new edition of Cæremoniale Episcoporum today in 1984, detailing the peculiar ceremonial habits of Catholic Bishops. The book, first published in 1600, included an appendix on the colourful plumage of the different species of the clergy, with instructions on when and when not to be seen in purple stockings, a black biretta with red tuft, a mozzetta, mantelletta, or a sash with silk fringes (but not tassels) at both ends.
‘The dress of the Bishop on solemn occasions outside liturgical celebrations consists of the black cassock with red trimming, with the piping, stitching, buttonholes and buttons of red silk, without oversleeves; the shoulder-cape, with the same trimming, may be worn over it; purple silk sash with fringes also of silk at the two ends; pectoral cross suspended by the chain; purple skullcap and rabat.’ Cæremoniale Episcoporum
Robert Raikes, a newspaper owner in Gloucester, England, and one of the creators of Sunday schools, was born today in 1736. The schools were the first organised attempt to educate the children of the poor, and grew rapidly in popularity when they were introduced in the late 18th century.
St Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, became a martyr today in 258 during a persecution by the Emperor Valerian. Nine years earlier, in another persecution, Cyprian had gone into hiding, but this time, he waited in his garden until he was arrested and taken by chariot to appear before the proconsul. Condemned to death for refusing to sacrifice to the gods, he was taken to a thicket of trees, into which the Christians supporting him climbed. He took off his cloak, paid his executioner 25 gold pieces, and was then beheaded.
‘How great a dignity and how great a security it is to go forth hence happy, to go forth glorious in the midst of difficulties and affliction, in a moment to shut the eyes with which men and the world were seen, to open them immediately that God and Christ may be seen. How great is the swiftness of so happy a departure!’ St Cyprian, Exhortation to Martyrdom
Image: Mae Decena