Our Lady of the Pillar 2024 Recap

Thank you again to our poster designer Martin Palihnich for designing promotional flyers for the Feast of Our Lady of the Pillar, as well as for finding relevant liturgical materials pertaining not only to this Feast, but also to other feasts given to the Spanish liturgical calendars.

Finding the rubrics for the Feast was a bit of challenge since it required our search engine investigations to be conducted in Spanish. Before starting investigating in Spanish, however, I did find a useful PDF on Corpus Christi Watershed that provided the Spanish translation of the 1961 Missal. 

Later searches, including a reference to the Solesmes published Supplementum pro Hispaniae Dioecesibus (Supplement for the Dioceses of Spain) (1927), confirmed that the Mass of Our Lady of the Pillar was simply Salve sancta parens, unless you are in the region of Aragon, where the Mass has unique texts. 

The image of Our Lady of the Pillar is placed on the Marian side altar

For the votive chant during the Offertory, we sang the hymn Grata Maria Virginae, which is the Proper Hymn of Lauds of Our Lady of the Pillar. During the distribution of Communion, we sang another chant from the Spanish Supplement, this one being the Benedictus of St. James the Moor-slayer (Santiago Matamoros), celebrated on May 23. 

Recalling the miraculous victory of St. James over the Muslim oppressors in Spain, and remembering the great Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula for Christ (completed in 1492 with the expulsion of unbelievers), this chant is roughly translated here: Singing of the wondrous victory of St. James the Apostle today, with the greatest joy let us praise the Name of the Lord, alleluia.

In keeping with theme of wondrous victories against the enemies of Christendom, our second votive chant during Communion was the Magnificat of the Saturday before the Third Sunday of October (which the Feast of Our Lady of the Pillar fell on this year according to the pre-1955 Calendar). The chant recalls the great mourning of Israel over the death of Judas Maccabeus in his battle against the Seleucid armies of Antiochus IV Epiphanes under Nicanor: Moreover Israel mourned a great wailing over Judas and said: "How thou art fallen, mighty in battle, thou who wrought salvation for the Lord's people?"

A betrothal ceremony occurring before the image of
Our Lady of the Pillar following the Mass

In celebration of the Feast, a few of us gathered at Martin's house to enjoy some Spanish food, drinks, and even a tarta de Santiago (cake of St. James). Other recreational activities and some prayers also occurred.

As a final note, if one were to use the word "column" instead of "pillar" when naming this Feast (which the Roman Missal does in the Collect), then if one were to attach the suffix "-mas" seen in the names of feasts such as Christmas, Philipmas, and Childermas, then one could call the Feast of Our Lady of the Pillar Columnmas Day, which sounds similar enough to Columbus Day. We hope that you all had a very enjoyable Columbus Day weekend!

Tarta de Santiago