Medieval voices echo throughout history
A LITURGY WILL BE PERFORMED TO MARK WOMEN’S DAY
A CATHEDRAL is to mark International Women’s Day by the singing of a liturgy which has not been heard in public for almost 600 years.
Newcastle St Nicholas Cathedral’s women’s choir, Schola Cantorum, will be part of the medieval worship service The Liturgy of the Nails on Saturday.
It is a collaboration between the cathedral and Professor Lesley Twomey, Professor in Medieval and Golden Age Hispanic Art and Literature at Northumbria University.
The Liturgy of the Nails is the work of Constanza of Castile (13541394) who was the Abbess of the Royal Dominican Convent in Madrid.
Her “Commemoration of the Nails of the Passion of the Cross of Christ” is an extended meditation based around the ancient services of Vespers and Compline.
The service, which will be sung in its original Latin, will also include a read “Collation” in English – a meditation on the theme of the Nails, The Liturgy of the Nails is the work of a medieval abbess also written by Constanza. There are very few examples of liturgy written by women of this period – and no others from Spain.
The Revd Canon Clare MacLaren, Canon for Music and Liturgy at Newcastle Cathedral, has been working with Prof Twomey to translate the liturgy suitable for use in a service of worship.
This has been made more challenging because the original music no longer exists.
The choir, directed by Kris Thomsett, the cathedral’s assistant director of music, will instead sing to chants which would have been used elsewhere in that period and a hymn tune from a rare manuscript of music written for women’s voices from the Royal Cistercian convent in Burgos, Spain, copied and written by women in about 1300 – the Codex de las Huelgas.
Canon MacLaren said: “The work of translation has given us a real insight into the spirituality of women of the Middle Ages.
“It has been both powerful and moving to hear Constanza’s voice echoing across the centuries and we hope people will join us on March 9 not simply to listen and enjoy this unique experience but to worship too.”
Prof Twomey said: “Constanza de Castilla is a remarkable woman liturgist – also a royal princess.
“Her Liturgy of the Nails is unlike any other liturgy in the period and also provides new insights into the history of how the Passion was celebrated in Spain.”
A study of Constanza’s theology of the Passion forms part of Prof Twomey’s forthcoming book on women and the holy word. She has also published on the aesthetics of beauty in the writings of cloistered women, including Constanza’s.
The Liturgy of the Nails takes place at the cathedral on March 9 at 6.30-7.45 and is free.