In celebration of the 500th year of our Holy Father’s birth, the Apostolic Penitentiary, His Eminence Cardinal Piacenza, has granted a plenary indulgence in all churches of the Congregation of the Oratory for St Philip’s Day this year (25th-26th May).

The indulgence may be gained by all the faithful under the usual conditions of sacramental confession, Holy Communion and prayer for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff. To gain the indulgence, a pilgrimage to our church must be made, or one should take part in a service or devotion in honour of St Philip Neri, concluding by saying the Our Father and Creed and invoking the Blessed Virgin and St Philip.

The indulgence may be applied to the faithful departed.

To celebrate the 500th anniversary of the birth of our Holy Father St Philip, Fr Jerome has written a new book. It contains a brief and accessible biography of St Philip, and a description of the works and purpose of the Oratory. It would serve as an excellent introduction to St Philip for those who have only recently discovered the Oratory, and a refresher for those who have already read one of the longer biographies!

It is available to buy from Lulu and in the Porter’s Lodge.

Our other books can be seen in the Publications section of the website.

This morning Br Oliver gave the second in our series of talks on “Friends of the Saints of Joy” – on the first companions of St Philip in the Oratory: men such as Cesare Baronius, Francesco Maria Tarugi, Flaminio Ricci and Pietro Consolini. He quoted Father Visitor as saying that he wanted Cardinal Baronius to be canonized because, though St Philip is a great saint, Baronius must be a greater one for living with him!

Next week at 11 o’ clock on Saturday (16th) Fr Nicholas will speak about “Holy friends of St Philip: his contemporary saints” – people such as St Ignatius, St Charles Borromeo and St Camillus de Lellis.

You may like to read an article in ‘Oremus’, the magazine of Westminster Cathedral, by an eleven-year-old pupil of St Vincent de Paul School about St Philip.

The magazine may be read for free here, and the article is on page 27.

Twenty-five couples came to our parish Marriage Preparation Day last Saturday, which was an enjoyable and convivial occasion.

After an introduction from Fr Daniel, Rupert and Gwen Sheppard gave their excellent presentation on how to stay happily married over several decades. Mass was celebrated before lunch, there was a talk from Life Fertility Care, and Siobhan and Stephen Barrie spoke about their experience of five years of marriage – helped by their baby son Theo. Finally, we watched Lord Sacks’ speech given at the Humanum conference at the Vatican last year.

“And so it has been ever since, that when a man and woman turn to one another in a bond of faithfulness, God robes them in garments of light, and we come as close as we will ever get to God Himself, bringing new life into being, turning the prose of biology into the poetry of the human spirit, redeeming the darkness of the world by the radiance of love.”

A useful evening was had at the University Chaplaincy last Friday when five of the candidates for Oxford West and Abingdon came to answer questions from their Catholic prospective constituents.

From left to right (geographically not politically!):

Nicola Blackwood, Conservative,
Larry Sander, Green,
Layla Moran, Liberal Democrat
Sally Copley, Labour,
Helen Salisbury, National Health Action.

(There are also two other candidates for this constituency: Mike Foster of the Socialist Party of Great Britain, and Alan Harris of UKIP. Both had also been invited.)

Fr Daniel will chair a similar session for Oxford East this Thursday (30th) at 7.30pm.

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Andrew Knowles as the new Director of Music, from December 2015, when Edward de Rivera will step down after twenty-five years of faithful service in this post.

From Andrew Knowles who has been appointed as the new Director of Music at the Oxford Oratory with effect from December 2015.:

“I was educated at Chetham’s School of Music and Lady Margaret Hall where I held the organ scholarhip and read for a degree in Music. It was in 1994, on my first Sunday in Oxford as an undergraduate, that I went to Mass at the Oxford Oratory and afterwards knocked on the sacristy door to ask for instruction in the faith from Fr Dominic. It was just before Corpus Christi in 1995 that I was received into the church at St Philip’s altar, taking Philip as my confirmation name. Some time before coming up to Oxford I had read Blessed John Henry Newman’s Apologia Pro Vita Sua and this, alongside going to Mass, reading the doctrinal notes in a missal and pursuing my interest in sacred music had resulted in an inner conversion which easily flourished at the Oxford Oratory.

I have had a broad musical career which has involved being the organist of the Cavaillé–Coll organ at St Michael’s Abbey, Farnborough as well as teaching at Worksop College and The School of St Helen & St Katharine in Abingdon. Having worked under the formative choral direction of Michael Brewer at school, I went on to train excellent choirs at these two schools. In September 2006 I was appointed Organist of the Oxford Oratory and since then have played for the High Mass and Vespers on Sundays and Holy Days.

In 2012 I founded the Camerata of Curiosities – an ensemble which aims to perform seventeenth–century Italian music and other treasures in a fresh and clear way to a broad scope of audiences. In 2013 I founded a very successful private music teaching practice called the Abingdon Piano School, which teaches piano, organ, harpsichord, voice and theory. I am the Associate Conductor of the Abingdon and District Musical Society and undertake freelance musical work as a choral director, organist, harpsichordist and composer.

In December 2015 Edward de Rivera will be retiring as Director of Music of the Oxford Oratory, a position which he has held for a remarkable 25 years. Having worked with him closely, I know of the hard work which goes into the preparation of music for Mass, Vespers and Musical Oratories – I have great cause to thank him for what I have learned from his encyclopædic musical and liturgical knowledge. He has been a faithful leader and a companionable friend during this time.

I am absolutely delighted to have been appointed as Edward’s successor and to continue and build upon his good work, so that St Philip’s vision for fine church music, Blessed John Henry Newman’s allied concepts of beauty and holiness together with my personal vocation for uplifting, prayerful and well–ordered music will continue to lift the hearts and minds of the faithful to an ever deeper knowledge and love of God.”

Andrew Knowles MA FRCO
Abingdon, April 2015

MASS IN B MINOR BY J. S. BACH
“An astonishing encounter between the cross and spiritual ecstasy.”
Sunday, 31st May 2015 at the Oxford Oratory – performed by the Camerata of Curiosities.

Tickets from
Tickets Oxford 

The Camerata of Curiosities consists of eight star singers and a Baroque Orchestra. This event is part of the celebrations to mark the 500th anniversary of the birth of Saint Philip Neri, the founder of the Oratory. This evening offers music both to savour and remember.

Sopranos: Helen Ashby & Kate Ashby,
Counter-tenor: Jonathan Darbourne,
Alto: Jennifer Attia,
Tenors: Simon Irwin & Paul Bentley-Angell,
Basses: Thomas Flint & Henry Hawkesworth,
Leader: Daniel Edgar,
Director: Andrew Knowles.

Seats are church pews, so feel free to bring a cushion.
There will be an interval, during which drinks will be served (included in the price of the ticket)

Running Time: 3 hours

This year sees the five-hundredth anniversary of the birth of our Holy Father St Philip Neri, and this great event will be marked in a number of ways.

There will be a series of talks on Saturday mornings entitled “Friends of the Saint of Joy”, as follows:

2nd May: Popes and the Oratory

9th May: The first Fathers of the Roman Oratory

16th May: Holy friends of St Philip: his contemporary saints

23rd May: The early Fathers of the English Oratories

30th May: Blessed John Henry Newman the Musician

6th June: St Philip’s Oratory worldwide today

13th June: The Oratory and Architecture (Virgilio Spada, Antonio Gaudi and others)

Each talk will begin at 11am in the Parish Centre, and tea and coffee will be served beforehand.

The novena in preparation for St Philip’s Day will begin on Sunday 17th May (6pm at weekends and 6.30pm on weekdays) with special prayers and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament each day, to help us to prepare spiritually for the feast.

On Monday 25th May there will be Solemn First Vespers, Benediction and veneration of the Relic of St Philip at 6.30pm.

Then on Tuesday 26th May, the Solemnity of St Philip, there will be a Solemn Pontifical Mass at 6pm, celebrated by His Eminence Cardinal Burke.

The use of art, music and the good things of this world was a way in which St Philip drew souls to God. On Trinity Sunday, 30th May, there will be a concert given at 8pm in our church of Bach’s Mass in B Minor.

In July there will be celebrations in Florence, where St Philip was born on 22nd July 1515 and baptized on the same day in the famous baptistery. Fr Daniel will happily meet up with any other parishioners who are pilgrims there!

In the summer a new children’s life of St Philip will be brought out by St Paul’s Publishing. It is written by Fr Daniel and illustrated by Susan Bateman:

September will see the twenty-fifth anniversary of the arrival of the Oratorians in Oxford in 1990. Bishop Robert Byrne will celebrate a Pontifical Mass at 11am on Sunday 27th September, followed by a party in the Parish Centre. Here is a picture of Cardinal Stickler celebrating Mass here following the establishment of the Oxford Oratory, on 8th September 1993:

Seated at the throne at the side of the sanctuary is Archbishop Maurice Couve de Murville, who first invited the Fathers of the Birmingham Oratory to make a foundation in Oxford.

Finally, in October, the reliquary bust of St Philip, specially commissioned for this year, will be visiting Oxford, as part of its world-wide tour. Here is the bust, recently visiting the Oratory of Gostyn, in Poland:

And with the Fathers of the Tarnow Oratory:

Holy Father Saint Philip – pray for us!