Constantinian order celebrates feast at Tyburn

A sung Mass was celebrated on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross of Jesus for the British and Irish Delegation of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St George at Tyburn Convent, London, on Wednesday, September 14, writes Peter Jennings.

Abbot Cuthbert Johnson OSB, chaplain to the community at Tyburn Convent, celebrated and preached at the Mass attended by more than 30 knights, dames and postulants of the order. Among the guests were Alexander Nixon, Maria Rosa Picart de Francis, Massimo Carello, Jenny Sinclair, John Kennedy, Joseph Gaggero, Jordan Lancaster, Princess Marie-Therese von Hohenberg and Albert Roux.

The nuns of the Tyburn community attended the Mass and added to the splendour of the occasion with their singing.

This correspondent read the first reading. Lord Alton of Liverpool, the vice-delegate, read the Psalm, and Anthony Bailey, delegate for Great Britain and Ireland, the bidding prayers, which included prayers for the order and deceased members.

During his homily Abbot Cuthbert said: “If Christians have today lost their fervour and zeal and even their sense of direction, it is because they are not following and embracing the way of the Cross. For the word of the Cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

He added: “The Cross reminds us constantly that the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ is completely the opposite of worldly values.”

After Mass Abbot Cuthbert and members of the order went down to the crypt chapel dedicated to the English martyrs.

Mother Lioba, the custodian of the martyrs’ shrine, explained that 105 Catholics were martyred on the site between 1535 and 1681. Among the many priests, laymen and women saints were St Edmund Campion, St Margaret Ward and St Anne Line.