What is new on the website:

• Biography of the St. Leopold and Novena to him <click here>
  Novena starts on Thursday November 7th!  Please join us! 
  A printer friendly copy of the prayer awaits you.
   

• Feasts of the Canons <click here>
  An introduction to the special feasts of the canons regular

What is new at Klosterneuburg:

• November: Praying for the Dead.  The community took its traditional pilgrimage to the Klosterneuburg cemeteries on the afternoon of All Saints.  The pilgrimage of servers and canons left the Stift and processed through the streets of the town up to the cemetery.  Led by the crucifer and thurifer, the canons, dressed in biretta and choir mantle, recited the glorious mysterious of the holy rosary.  The provost presided in cope and miter.
   

  The lower cemetery contains a crypt church (left) in which many of the deceased canons the 19th and early 20th century are interred (on the right).  We prayed in the presence of the assembled faithful for the deceased member of the community before departing for the upper cemetery where a more elaborate prayer service was held for all the dead of the town. At the end of the service we processed back to the Stift, along the way praying the remaining glorious mysteries, in order to visit the second and new crypt of the canons.  This is under the chapel of St. Sebastian.  There we prayed for the deceased members of the community as well.

   

  Lastly we came to the cloister to pray for the repose of the soul of Fr. Ferdinand Backovsky.  Please remember him in your prayers.    On All Souls, in the afternoon trough a drizzling rain, the novices, lead by the assistant novice master, Dom Anton, made another visit to the cemetery crypt and to chapel of St. Sebastian to pray for the dead as well as hear about the canons of the past.    Hearing stories about the past members of the community serves an important purpose.  It creates bond over ages that unites today's community with its predecessors.  Without these stories and other house customs, the community would suffer a kind of amnesia, leaving it bereft of its roots and depending solely on the meager experience of one generation.  If wisdom does indeed come experience, then a 900 year old house should have plenty to teach. Finally, through out the All Souls, the paschal candle that stands at the foot o the crucifix in the Juniorat burned in silent vigil as a votive offering for the dead.

  
   

• The Requium Mass for Reverend Dom Ferdinand Backovsky is Tuesday, November 5th, 2002 at 3:00 p.m..  The community commends the soul of Dom Ferdinand to the mercy of God through the Holy Sacrifice o the Mass.
   

  Thereafter the community leads his remains to the chapel of St. Sebastian where the crypt is located.  The honored remains of Dr. Ferdinand with the symbols of his priesthood (chasuble and stole, mozzetta and biretta, chalice and paten, Roman Missal and crucifix), adorning the catafalque. Please scroll down for life and ministry of Fr. Ferdinand.

• Octave of All Saints: In the old liturgical cycle All Saints’ had an octave.  An octave is a eight day celebration of a solemnity.  We still celebrate the octave of Easter.  The symbolic value of the octave is related to Creation and the New Creation in Christ.  When God made the world, he made it in six days, resting on the seventh.  When Jesus rises from the dead is on the first day of the week, the first day of creation, which is now also the first day of the new creation, hence, the 8^th day.

  During the octave of All Saints and continuing today we celebrate a number of special feasts:

• November 6th the chapter Mass is offered for all the deceased members of our confederation.  The special Mass is always celebrated during the octave of All Saints by all the confederation communities.

• November 7th we remember three canons who lived just prior to the Gregorian reforms in the 11th century: Israel, Walter and Theobold of the abbey of Dorat, in the diocese of Limoges, France.  St. Israel was a regular canon and teacher of both St. Walter, later abbot of St. Peter's in L'Esterps and St. Theobold, the sacristan and custodian of the abbey church at Dorat.

• November 8th at the close of the old octave we celebrate as a feast All Augustinian Canons saints. 

•  Dedication of the Basilica of Holy Redeemer and St. John on the Lateran Hill: On November 9th we celebrate the 4th century dedication of the Lateran Basilica, which Constantine had erected.  Since it is the first Christian church of Rome, it is called the mother church of Christendom.  It is this basilica and not St. Peter's which is the cathedral of the bishops of Rome.

This day is also important for the canons, since the Lateran canons take their name from this basilica.  This congregation is perhaps the most venerable of them all. A reform congregation springing from the tiny Priory of Fregionaia in Italy in the first years of the 15th century, the canons were called to live the common life in the papal cathedral itself, the Lateran Basilica in Rome. After weathering several expulsions brought about by the jealousy of the secular clergy, they were eventually given the church of St. Peter in Chains, where they continue to live today, and were allowed to retain the title of the Lateran.

• Annual Men's Pilgrim: Every year, on the Sunday preceding the feast of St. Leopold (Nov. 15), pilgrims from all over lower Austria come to Stift Klosterneuburg to venerate the relics of the patron of Austria.  Today the pilgrimage is mostly done by bus with a short symbolic walk from the train station up the hill to the Stift.  The canons, wearing birettas and choir mantles, greet the pilgrims, usually numbering in the thousands, and celebrate with them a prayer service, aspergies and benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.
   

• Next Week:
   

• Feast of St. Martin: November 11th.  It is traditional in Austria to have goose on the feast of St. Martin of Tours.  This is related to the story about St. Martin.  He did not want to become a bishop, so he hid in a barn.  When those who wanted him to become bishop sought him, they could not find him until they heard the honking of geese.  The geese has betrayed St. Martin's hiding place. 
   

• Feast of St. Leopold: November 15th.