The Roman Martyrology is a definitive history of various Catholic saints listing about twenty martyrs a day from the early Church.  Each martyr receives about one sentence, so it only takes two minutes a day to read.  But Christmas Eve has a very unique beginning to its daily martyrs, as it also contains the history of the entire world leading up to the birth of Christ. These words are sung during Midnight Mass, as you will quickly recall: In the year, from the creation of the world, when in the beginning God created heaven and earth, five thousand, one hundred and ninety-nine; from the flood, two thousand, nine hundred and [...]

In Archaeologism Part I, I demonstrated that Popes from 1786 to 1947 condemned the heretics projecting Protestant notions of liturgy onto the early Church under pretext of "archeology" or "Church history."  This modernist fad is also called "antiquarianism." Realize first that Pope Pius XII basically warned the faithful not to believe the Holy Spirit was less active in guiding the Church of the Middle Ages than the Church of the Primitive Ages.  Secondly, he wanted us to realize the Holy Spirit does not change His directives in liturgy or doctrine. But on top of this,  I personally believe the modernists executing "archaeologism" (saying the early Church had no complex rites, [...]

Before looking at the Synod of Pistoia, let's define Archaeologism (also called antiquarianism.)  Unam Sanctam defines it: Archaeologism is not so much a heresy as a fad, a certain approach to Catholic liturgy and practice. Its distinguishing characteristic is an excessive value placed on those Catholic practices which came earlier in historical-chronological succession. For the archaeologist, first is always best. A practice or prayer of the patristic Church is “better” or “purer” than a practice of the medieval Church. Consequently, the goal of any true liturgical renewal ought to be to return to the practice of the first Christians, inasmuch as possible. The modern Church ought to imitate the apostolic [...]

One of the most interesting arguments I hear against traditionalists these days goes something like this: "The lifestyle and liturgy of the early Christians was much more like that of modern charismatics than that of modern traditionalists." I too believed such silly arguments for a long time in my Catholic formation. Of course, there's mountains of evidence against such an assertion. The Roman Breviary for today's saints is just one such piece of evidence.  Pope Saint Soter was martyred around AD 174 or 177. Pope St. Pope Caius (aka Gaius) was martyred in AD 296. Notice what the old Roman Breviary says about today's saints, but also notice what it also [...]

The above picture is one of the earliest discovered paintings of Madonna and child in the catacombs of Rome.  It is found in or near the Church of St. Priscilla.   The earliest Christians were certainly full of the fruits of the Holy Spirit as listed in Galatians (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control) but that does not mean that they were shallow, smiley, happy or clappy in their approach to life.  The notion that the early Church's liturgy was simplistic is overturned in these videos I did on Antiquarianism and Archaeologism.  (In these videos I show that the ancient Mass is closer to the TLM [...]