Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-01-20
Golden Rose IRON the Monastery OF the
HOLY Cross at Woffenheim.

1olden Rose from the Monastery OF the
Holy Cross at Woffenheim.
The Golden Rose appears to have
originated at very early epoch. Ac-
.ording to the opiEion generally accepted,
{ dates back to the eleventh century, 10
me pontificate of st. Leo IN. Urban V,
about the year 1862, gave the Golden |
Rose to Joanna, Queen OF Naples, while
two centuries earlier Pope Innocent Ill,
in a discourse for the fourth Sunday OF
lent of the year 1893, speaks OF the cere-
monial of the Rose being an ancient GUS |
tom of the Church. Jacques de Nltry, |
Bishop of Frascati, created Cardinal by
Pope Gregory IX., speaks OF the custom
as an ancient one of the Roman Church.
Dom Calmet, citing among other docu.
ments Bull institutipg the custom OF
the Golden Rose, was the first to advance
that St. Leo y. was its author. Suose-
onent authorities have accepted this opin-
ion as we'll based. In 1040 st. Leo IN.
Granted Bull to the Monastery OF the
Holy Cross at Wofenheim in Elsass.
Some authorities doubt If Dom Calmet
ia rieht in thinking that the Golden Rose
was ALWAYS blessed on Laetare Sunday.
They say that the flower was simply
carried by the Pope in his hand while
walking in procession on Palm Sunday,
and quote in support of this opinion a
letter of Comte Falcon danger, to whom
Pope Urban ii presented Golden Rose
at the Council OF Tours. Canon Anniviti.
writing in an Italian ecclesiastical
review, Quotes in contradiction to the
opinion, passage from an unpub-
lished sermon preserved at the Mon
asteries of the Holy Cross in Rome,
of Pope Honorius Ill, preached in the
basilica OF that monastery on Mid-Lent
Sunday, 1215. From this passage the
learned canon concluded that the bless
ing of the Rose was instituted by Pope
of the name OF Gregory, and that this
could be no other than st. Gregory the
Great. But the good canon's deductions
90 back too far, if, as is more likely, the
Rose itself was instituted somewhere in
the eleventh century.
In the following century the Rose
comes prominently to the front. 1t was
then colored with red, and, according
to Mabillon, the Pope sang the Mass on
Laetare Sunday in the basilica of the
Holy Cross IN Gerusalemme, holding the
Rose in his hand during the Gospel,
and while preaching sermon OF
which, as it were, the flower al
forded the text. The rose was presented
before the Mass to the Holy Father in
his room by chamberlain, together with
balm and musk. In many Roman
Ordo, and in Briefs and other documents
of an early date, constant mention is
made of the Rose and of its usage, but
nowhere mention of its being blessed.
The first to mention the ceremony of
blessing the Rose is Agertino Patrizio,
master OF ceremonies to Pope Innocent
VIII, in his work printed at Venice in
1888. 1t may have been Nicholas V
who first blessed the rose. This
Pope was crowned on Laetare Sunday,
and went, riding on milk-white steed
to take possession OF his cathedral at the
Lateran, holding in his hand the precious
Rose. The blessing always now takes
place at the High Mass on MidLeni
Sunday.
The Rose is placed between two lighted
ltapers on table in the sacristy, and il
presented by the youngest cleric of the
Pope's household to the Pope on his
way to the Sistine Chapel. The Holy
Father, il alb and stele, after placing in
cense in a thurible held by the senior
Cardinal-priest present, reads special
prayer for the occasion, places the
scents in the Rose, which he blesses
and incenses. The Rose is then car
ried before the Pope to the altar q
which his Holiness celebrates Mass
where it remains until the Holy Sacrifice
is over, when it is taken away to the
Pontiical treasury, to remain there unit
given away by the Pope, or, if no
previously disposed of, to be brough
} out in the following year to be blessed
afresh. Baldassarl remarks that it be
longs only to the Pope to bless the
Golden Rose. Originally it seems tt
have been the custom to present th'
Golden Rose to the Project OF Rome
after the latter had led the Pope's hors,
by golden bride to the doors of th,
Lateran Basilica, and aided His Holmes
to dismount. The perfect, kneeling, re
| ceived the rose from the hands of tn
Pope himself. But the distribution @
, the gift soon became broadened.
/ Benedict XIV gives long list of tn
, recipients of the favor down to his times
Here are few names Of persons ant
places who have received it. In 1898
was bestowed on the town of Nocera
In 1419 by Pope Martin V on the Re
: public of France. In 1927, when Rom
was sacked, Golden Rose, given b.
the same Pope, was among the man
things carried away in the pillage. Tn
, Emperor Sigismund received the GOV
eted flower in 1885. Two years late
the Rose-one of size and value nc
, inconsidera able-was presented by Euge
, MUS Nv 10 the high altar of Santa Mari
I del Fiore at Florence. The same Pop
J sent it to our fourth King Henry. Nicho
las Y gave it to Casinni ", King of Pc
, land, and to the Doge of Venice. Fred
, erick III, Elector of Brandenburg, re
} ceived the Rose while visiting Rome. Il
, place of Roses, Sixtus Nv blessed goldel
3 branches, one of which he sent to tn
! cathedral OF Savona, his birthplace
: Grenoble, chief town Of Dauphine, ha
roses on its escutcheon in memory of th
, Rose that Pope Innocent VIII sent t
: the Dauphin of France. The same Pop
, sent the flower to James III of Scotland
. The history OF the Golden Rose in tn
Fifteenth century opens with its be
, stowal by Alexander ". on Casa
/ Borgia. Julius III. bestowed it on tn
} Republic of Genoa, and among others o.
Henry VIII. of England, who again re
eeived it from Louis X, and again from
, Clement VII. julius LII. gave it to tn
shrine of Our Lady in the Liberian Bs
silica, and to Queen Mary. Paul ~
sent the Rose to the Duchess of Alva
wife of the great soldier, the famous Alva
Tha Lateran Basilica received il from