page_title: Institution Saint-Michel
section_title: Celebrations
hierarchical_section_title: Institution Saint-Michel / History / Celebrations
caption_attribution_description: San Michele Arcangelo libera le anime del purgatorio
context_page_description: Institution Saint Michel: Collège and Lycée is a Catholic secondary school with boarding facilities located in Solesmes, France. Founded in 1924 by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cambrai constituted in 580, it is now also contractually regulated by the Academy of Lille, a ramification of the French Ministry of National Education, Higher Education and Research. As of 2018, it welcomes within centuries-old châteauesque edifices around a thousand students from nearly a hundred municipalities within a radius extending twenty kilometers.
context_section_description: The Russian Orthodox community established in Le Cateau-Cambresis was yearly invited to celebrate a mass of Byzantine Rite which differed with the Roman Rite in that they were two-hour-long services with songs in Russian without organ accompaniment, the consuming oscillating censers were held at the end of imposing chains and communion was under both species, bread and wine.
  From the 1940s to the 1960s, on 24 December, students would be waking up to canticles and hymns through loud-speakers and would be treated to an ameliorated breakfast with brioche and hot chocolate.
  Carols such as Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht! or classics from German musicologist Michael Praetorius' (1571–1621) Syntagma Musicum (1614-1620) and Hymnodia Sionia (1611; Advent: 5. Alvus tumescit virginis & Christmas: 26. A solis ortus cardine; 27. Summo Parenti gloria), would be sang during the Midnight Mass. The Christmas Day was really a holiday. After the Low Mass and the Solemn Mass, students were gifted an improved meal with baptized wine.
caption: Archangel Michael reaching to save souls in purgatory, by Jacopo Vignali, 17th century
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