Praying in Advent 2021: 20, ‘O Sapientia’ and Saint Elizabeth

The Visitation … a panel from the 19th century Oberammergau altarpiece in the Lady Chapel in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

This is a busy day, including an end-of-term school service in Rathkeale later this afternoon. Before this busy day begins, I am taking some time early this morning for prayer, reflection and reading.

Each morning in my Advent calendar this year, I am reflecting in these ways:

1, Reflections on a saint remembered in the calendars of the Church during Advent;

2, the day’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

‘The Visitation’ in a stained-glass window in Saint John’s Church, Pallaskenry, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)

In the calendar of Common Worship of the Church of England, today [17 December] is marked with a simple Latin phrase in bold italics typeface: O Sapientia. In the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, this title appears in the calendar for 16 December, without explanation.

For some readers this simple phrase may seem cryptic. But it is a reminder that today marks the beginning of the O Antiphons, the seven jewels of Advent liturgy, dating back to the fourth century, one for each day from today until Christmas Eve. They are addressed to God, calling for him to come as teacher and deliverer, with a tapestry of scriptural titles and pictures that describe his saving work in Christ.

The seven majestic Messianic titles for Christ are based on the Biblical prophecies, and they help the Church to recall the variety of the ills of humanity before the coming of the Redeemer as each antiphon in turn pleads with mounting impatience for Christ to save his people.

The order of the antiphons climbs climatically through the history of Redemption:

1, In the first, O Sapientia, we take a backward flight into the recesses of eternity to address Wisdom, the Word of God.

2, In the second, O Adonai, we leap from eternity to the time of Moses and the Law of Moses.

3, In the third, O Radix Jesse, we come to the time when God is preparing the family of David.

4, In the fourth, O Clavis David, we are with the psalmist himself.

5, In the fifth, O Oriens, we see that the family of David is elevated so that the peoples may look on a rising star in the east.

6, In the sixth, O Rex Gentium, we know that Christ is the king of all the peoples.

7, With the seventh and last Great O, O Emmanuel, God-with-us, we have arrived at what Bishop Phillips Brooks calls the ‘Little Town of Bethlehem.’

The initial letters of each Messianic title in reverse order – Emmanuel, Rex, Oriens, Clavis, Radix, Adonai, Sapientia – spell out the Latin phrase Ero Cras, ‘Tomorrow, I will come.’

Today’s opening ‘O Antiphon’ declares:

O Sapientia, quae ex ore Altissimi prodiisti,
attingens a fine usque ad finem,
fortiter suaviterque disponens omnia:
veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae.

In Common Worship, this is translated as:

O Wisdom, coming forth from the mouth of the Most High,
reaching from one end to the other mightily,
and sweetly ordering all things:
Come and teach us the way of prudence.

The antiphon draws from a number of Biblical sources, including Isaiah, Wisdom, Ecclesiastes and Sirach.

In England, according to Sarum Use, the Great ‘O Antiphons’ began on 16 December with an eighth antiphon, O Virgo virginum (‘O Virgin of Virgins’), sung on 23 December, and O Sapientia was retained as a curious entry, without explanation, in the December liturgical calendar of The Book of Common Prayer.

How did this come about?

In 1561, a number of saints dropped from the Roman calendar were restored in the calendar of the Elizabethan Book of Common Prayer by way of the Latin Book of Common Prayer which was in use in Cambridge and Oxford college chapels – places where Latin was expected to be ‘a tongue understanded of the people.’ Indeed, the Ordinal expected bishops before the ordination of bishops, priests or deacons, to examine the candidates and to proceed only after finding them ‘learned in the Latine Tongue.’

Along with these restored entries came this one entry that was not the name of a saint or martyr. It continued to be included in the calendar of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer Book, which became the liturgical norm throughout the Anglican Communion.

The Roman Catholic tradition has retained these antiphons as well. However, their course begins on 17 December – which implies that until the publication of Common Worship, the Anglican tradition retained an antiphon no longer used by Rome. And this missing antiphon is the one addressed to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Common Worship Calendar has since adopted the more widely used form.

The Advent carol O come, O come, Emmanuel (Irish Church Hymnal, No 135; New English Hymnal, No 11) is a popular reworking of the seven O Antiphons.

The ‘O Antiphons’ or refrains were sung before and after the canticle Magnificat at Evensong Vespers on the seven days before Christmas Eve (17 to 23 December).

The canticle Magnificat replaces a psalm in the Lectionary provisions for next Sunday (Advent IV, 19 December 2021), and is the second part of the longer version of the Gospel reading [Luke 1: 39-45 (46-55)]. This is the great prayer of the Virgin Mary in Luke 1: 46-55, when she visits her cousin, Saint Elizabeth. In this way, we are reminded that the Saviour we are expecting is to come to us through the Virgin Mary. The ‘O Antiphons’ are sung twice, once before and once after the canticle to show their great solemnity.

As we think of the O Sapientia antiphon and the Virgin Mary and Saint Elizabeth through the canticle Magnificat and in Sunday’s Gospel reading, it is worth concluding this Advent meditation by recalling Saint Elizabeth, the mother of Saint John the Baptist and the wife of Zachariah.

As Saint Elizabeth’s feast day on 5 November does not appear in either the Book of Common Prayer or Common Worship, it is appropriate today to remind ourselves of the story and words of Saint Elizabeth as she anticipates the birth of the Christ Child:

When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spririt and exclaimed out with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy. And blessed is she who believed: for there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord’ (Luke 1: 41-45).

The words of the canticle Magnificat carved on the wooden screen at the west end of the monastic church in Mount Melleray Abbey, Cappoquin, Co Waterford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Matthew 1: 1-17 (NRSVA):

1 An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Aram, 4 and Aram the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of King David.

And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, 7 and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, 8 and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, 9 and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10 and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, 11 and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

12 And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel, and Salathiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13 and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, 14 and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, 15 and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, 16 and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.

17 So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (17 December 2021) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for greater hospitality across borders as the number of refugees from climate change-related disasters increases year on year.

Yesterday: Saint Eleftherios

Tomorrow: Saint Flannan of Killaloe

‘The Visitation’ in a stained-glass window in Great Saint Mary’s Church in Saffron Walden (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

The Crosbies of Ardfert and illustrating stories of deceit and complex allegiances

The gate at Ardfert Abbey showing the family crests of the Talbots and the Crosbies … a photograph on p 145 in Chris Keane’s new book (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

During my book-buying visit to Limerick earlier this week, one of the new books I bought is The Crosbies of Cork, Kerry, Laois and Leinster by Michael Christopher Keane, partly because the author has used two of my photographs to illustrate his book, and partly because this is a fascinating story for anyone interested in genealogy, family history and local history.

Chris Keane is from Tarbert, Co Kerry, and is a retired lecturer in University College Cork. He now lives in Farran, Ovens, Co Cork. This is his third book and has the inviting subtitle: ‘Bards, Imposters, Landlords, Politicians, Aeronauts, Newspapers’. It tells the story of a colourful family that achieved both fame and notoriety through the centuries.

The story begins with the MacCrossans, who were the hereditary bards and poets to Laois’s leading sept, the O’Moores of the Rock of Dunamase, and to the O’Connors of Offaly from ancient times. When Laois and Offaly were planted and renamed Queen’s County and King’s County in the 16th century, two young MacCrossan brothers from the Ballyfin and Clonenagh area, between Mountrath and Portlaoise, were fostered by Francis Cosby of Stradbally Hall, who moved to Ireland in 1546, and the neighbouring Bowen family.

The brothers tried to disguise their Gaelic Irish origins, changed their names to Patrick and John Crosbie and claimed to be descended from mid-ranking English gentry, the Crosbies of Great Crosbie, Lancashire. These changes are described by Chris Keane as a ‘deceit’ and he concludes they were ‘imposters within their own community.’ But the changes helped to advance the standing of the brothers in Elizabethan and Jacobean society. Patrick becoming a leading landlord in both Laois and Kerry, while his brother, John Crosbie, becoming the Church of Ireland Bishop of Ardfert (1601-1620).

Surprisingly, most of Bishop John Crosbie’s children were brought up as Roman Catholics. His descendants became major landlords in Co Kerry for the following three centuries. Their principal residence was Ardfert Abbey and the family accumulated an array of titles and peerages, including baronet (1630), Baron Brandon (1758), Viscount Crosbie of Ardfert (1771) and Earl of Glandore (1776).

When John Crosbie (1753-1815), 2nd Earl of Glandore, died in 1818, there as no immediate male heir to inherit his titles and estates. The Brandon title passed to his cousin, the Revd William Crosbie, Rector of Castleisland. When Lord Brandon realised his wife Elizabeth (La Touche) was having an affair with the Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, even before the death of Melbourne’s wife, Lady Caroline Lamb, he first tried to blackmail Melbourne into making him a bishop, and then sued unsuccessfully for ‘criminal conversation.’

The Talbot-Crosbie Memorial Fountain in Ardfert … a photograph on p 186 in Chris Keane’s new book (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Meanwhile, Lord Glandore’s sister, Lady Anne Crosbie, had married John Talbot of Mount Talbot Co Roscommon, and the Ardfert estate passed to their son, the Revd John Talbot-Crosbie, who changed his name to Talbot-Crosbie. He married Jane Lloyd of Beechmount House, Rathkeale, Co Limerick, and they were the ancestors of the Talbot-Crosbie family of Ardfert Abbey.

Patrick Crosbie is best remembered for transplanting substantial numbers of the ‘Seven Septs of Laois’ to his large estate in Co Kerry, with many of these families settling in the Tarbert area, now within the Rathkeale and Kilnaughtin Group of Parishes. Before his death in 1610, he failed in his attempt to grab the estates of the FitzMaurice family of Lixnaw, Co Kerry, and of the FitzGerald family of Glin Castle, Co Limerick.

Sir Pierce Crosbie was both Cupholder and Gentleman of the King’s Bedchamber to two successive monarchs, King James I and King Charles I. He lost his estates and was jailed due to his implacable opposition to the Irish Lord Deputy Wentworth, only to regain them when Wentworth was executed for treason.

He was also closely associated with what is arguably the most notorious sex scandal in British history in which his stepson, the Earl of Castlehaven, was executed for sexual depravity. His remarkable career ended in supporting the Irish Catholic Confederacy in the 1640s.

The Laois Crosbies lost their estates, including Crosbie castle in Ballyfin, when they found themselves on the losing side in the Cromwellian wars. However, this branch of the family later re-established itself at Crosbie Park, near Baltinglass, Co Wicklow and in Co Carlow. A later generation acquired fame in their own different ways. Richard Crosbie of Wicklow, who became popularly known as ‘Mr Balloon,’ achieved fame as Ireland’s first aeronaut with his pioneering hot-air balloon flight in 1785. His brother, Sir Edward Crosbie, the fifth baronet, was executed as a suspected rebel leader in Carlow in the 1798 rebellion, and was denied a Christian burial.

Yet another well-known branch of the extended family includes the Cork Crosbies of the Examiner newspapers. These Crosbies originated with a young journalist Thomas Crosbie who left his home in Co Kerry to build a newspaper dynasty that extended over five generations from the mid-1800s until finally taken over by The Irish Times in 2017.

The stories of the Crosbies provide intriguing insights into the complex allegiances of a prominent Irish family through the centuries to the present time.

● The new book on the Crosbies is available in good local bookshops: Michael Christopher Keane, The Crosbies of Cork, Kerry, Laois and Leinster (2021, viii + 321 pp), ISBN: 9781527297418 €20.