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"First communicants. Hokypoky penny a lump." (U5.361)
According to the Oxford English Dictionary 'hokey pokey' comes from 'hocus pocus,' the traditional magician's incantation. 'Hocus pocus' in turn may be a deformation of the Latin 'Hoc est Corpus meum' (= This is my Body, said by the Catholic priest during the mass), in a mocking anti-Catholic parody of transubstantiation. Transubstantiation is the change of the substance of bread and wine into that of the body and blood of Christ that occurs in the Eucharist. 'Hokey pokey' was also a 19c. slang term for ice cream (more specifically that sold by street vendors), that possibly cost a penny per scoop. |
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"Thing is if you really believe in it. Lourdes cure, waters of oblivion" (U5.364) |
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"and the Knock apparition," (U5.365)
Knock (Irish An Cnoc = the Hill) is a village in Co. Mayo. It was the site, on August 21st 1879, of an apparition of the Virgin Mary, together with St Joseph and St John the Evangelist. Hence Knock became one of Europe's major Roman Catholic Marian shrines, alongside Lourdes and Fatima. Nowadays 1.5M people visit Knock annually (including Pope John Paul II in 1979, the centenary of the apparition). |
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On the evening of August 21st 1879, 15 people (5-75 year old, the first being Mary McLoughlin, housekeeper to Archdeacon Kavanagh), witnessed an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM), St Joseph, and St John the Evangelist at the south gable end of the Church of St John the Baptist in Knock. The BVM was described as life-size, standing about 2 feet above the ground. She wore a white cloak, a crown, and over the crown a rose. St Joseph stood on her right. He also wore white robes, his head bent in respect toward the BVM, and appeared somewhat aged. St John stood to the left of the BVM. He wore a long robe and a mitre, was partly turned away from the others, and appeared to be preaching. He held open a large book in his left hand, and his right hand was raised. Behind the figures, to the left of St John, was an altar with a lamb with a cross (Agnus Dei). Angels hovered around the altar the whole time. The witnesses stood in the pouring rain for some 2 hours reciting the Rosary. An ecclesiastical Commission of Inquiry was established by the Archbishop of Tuam, Most Rev. Dr. John MacHale. The Commission's verdict deemed the testimony of all the witnesses trustworthy and satisfactory. This card (1881), issued by St Joseph's Union in NY, was sold as a fundraiser for its 'Homeless Child' project. |
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"Blind faith. Safe in the arms of kingdom come. Lulls all pain." (U5.367) |
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"Letters on his back: I.N.R.I.? No: I.H.S. Molly told me one time I asked her. I have sinned: or no: I have suffered, it is." (U5.372)
From the CE 1910: "IHS is a monogram of the name of Jesus Christ, from its Greek spelling. IHS is sometimes wrongly understood as 'Jesus Hominum Salvator' = Jesus the Saviour of Men. St Ignatius of Loyola adopted the monogram in his seal as general of the Society of Jesus (1541), and thus it became the emblem of his institute." IHS is usually associated with the Catholic communion, and more specifically with the Jesuit order. |
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"And the other one? Iron nails ran in." (U5.373)
I.N.R.I. is a Latin acronym for 'Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum' = Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews. It is the title that Pontius Pilate had written over the head of Jesus Christ on the cross (John 19:19). INRI commonly appears in depictions of the crucifixion. |
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"Meet one Sunday after the rosary. Do not deny my request. Turn up with a veil and black bag. Dusk and the light behind her. She might be here with a ribbon round her neck and do the other thing all the same on the sly. Their character." (U5.375) |
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"The priest was rinsing out the chalice: then he tossed off the dregs smartly. Wine. Makes it more aristocratic than for example if he drank what they are used to Guinness's porter or some temperance beverage Wheatley's Dublin hop bitters or Cantrell and Cochrane's ginger ale (aromatic). Doesn't give them any of it: shew wine: only the other. Cold comfort. Pious fraud but quite right: otherwise they'd have one old booser worse than another coming along, cadging for a drink." (U5.386) |
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"Queer the whole atmosphere of the. Quite right. Perfectly right that is.
Mr Bloom looked back towards the choir. Not going to be any music. Pity. Who has the organ here I wonder? Old Glynn he knew how to make that instrument talk, the vibrato: fifty pounds a year they say he had in Gardiner street. Molly was in fine voice that day," (U5.392) |
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"the Stabat Mater of Rossini." (U5.397)
Stabat Mater is a 13c. Roman Catholic hymn attributed to Pope Innocent III (d. 1216), St. Bonaventure, or more likely Jacopone da Todi (1230-1306). Its title is an abbreviation of the first line, Stabat Mater Dolorosa (= The sorrowful mother was standing). The hymn, considered one of the seven greatest Latin hymns of all time, meditates on the emotions of Mary during the crucifixion. It has been set to music indeed by Rossini, and many others including Haydn, Dvorak, Vivaldi, Pergolese, Poulenc, Verdi, and recently Arvo Pärt. A companion hymn, Stabat Mater Speciosa, meditates on the emotions of Mary at the birth of Jesus. |
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"Father Bernard Vaughan's sermon first. Christ or Pilate? Christ, but don't keep us all night over it." (U5.398)
Father Vaughan was an English Jesuit (1847-1922) and a popular preacher. He is described by his contemporary Father Leonard Feeney, S.J. as "magnanimous, broad-gestured, handsome, kindly-eyed." His congregation was mostly London's high society (including King Edward VII), but he also liked to stand at street corners and preach to common people. His preaching took him to Dublin and as far as Boston, Canada, and Tokyo. |
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"Some of that old sacred music is splendid. Mercadante: seven last words. Mozart's twelfth mass: the Gloria in that. Those old popes were keen on music, on art and statues and pictures of all kinds. Palestrina for example too." (U5.403) |
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"They had a gay old time while it lasted. Healthy too chanting, regular hours, then brew liqueurs. Benedictine." (U5.406)
Bénédictine is a liqueur initially concocted in the 16c. by Dom Bernardo Vincelli, a Venetian monk, at the abbaye of Fécamp (Normandy, France). The elixir uses 27 plants & spices from all over the world (lemon, cardamom, nutmeg, saffron, coriander, aloe, cinnamon, mace, hyssop, vanilla, arnica, sandalwood &c). |
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Savored at the court of King Francois 1er, Benedictine was manufactured by Benedictine monks only until the end of the 18c. The recipe was lost during the French Revolution (1789), then found again in an old manuscript (1863). Since then, the liquor is produced by a commercial company in Fécamp. This PC shows the labeling room, with nuns (supervisors?) among the workers. |